Stop being so paranoid

[malraux]

The problem with random encounters and paranoid groups is that random encounters help to make groups even more paranoid.

 

[mmadsen]

It may also not be paranoia so much as making a "strictly good" decision. I mean, if you don't search for traps, you might get nailed by one. If you do, then either you find a trap, or don't, and if you don't you're just as badly off as you were before.

Exactly. In the game, there is no downside to checking for traps -- or checking every square inch of a room for secret doors, etc. -- unless the DM constantly forces some urgency, which may or may not make sense.

In real life, of course, people don't even look both ways before crossing the street consistently, or wash their hands in the bathroom, etc.

Security experts recognize that real people simply can't stay vigilant for long periods of time. Real people hate tedium. Real people have limited willpower.

 

[Set]

One thing I've noticed is that many DMs 'telegraph' what is important to the story.

They'll never describe what you eat or drink, unless it's poisoned. Every other meal you'll have in your life will be described as 'you eat.' They'll never describe a door, unless it's trapped. The non-trapped doors will be described briefly, at best. They'll never mention any real detail about an NPC, unless he's the one that's going to betray you or has some important plot information that you have to wheedle out of him, in which case he's suddenly got an accent, a colorful scarf and a mole on his cheek, unlike the other twenty-seven NPCs you encountered in town, all of which are faceless blobs.

As a result, I'm rarely paranoid, since anyone or anything that hasn't been deemed worthy of a description, I'm conditioned to ignore.

On the other hand, like all humans, my brain is a pattern-recognition engine, and I sometimes see patterns when there aren't any. Completely random crap that happens to be identical will trigger my 'A-ha!' reflex and I'll begin trying to figure out the connection between these items, only to discover that the writer of the module had a thing for people with tattoos that look like eagles, and these two NPCs didn't have a damn thing to do with each other, and certainly aren't part of some secret society of people with eagle tattoos...

I am the guy who will sit at the end of the 100 ft. long corridor that ends in a blank wall and say, 'Well, there's gotta be something here! Surely the Dwarves didn't spend *years* tunneling this out only to get bored and leave! What was this, the final practical exam for Tunneling 101? If so, I'm giving it an 'F,' because a tunnel that doesn't go anywhere isn't a tunnel, it's a hole that goes sideways!'

I don't see this as 'paranoia' so much as a pig-headed insistence that things have to make sense, and that encounters or bits of scenery have some logical reason to be there, and, too often, they don't, because they were just randomly thrown in there and the writer themself didn't have any explanation for why this 100 ft. corridor went nowhere.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Most of the time, I rely on the PCs Passive Perception & Insight scores for such things (or, in 3.x, I assumed they were Taking 10 on Search rolls). Other times, I'll just say "there's nothing to find here."

I do have an interesting/funny (to me at least) anecdote though about the single most paranoid player I've ever met. I only gamed with him once.

Me: You wake up.
Him: I open one eye, what do I see?
Me: Uh. Nothing.
Him: I open the other eye, what do I see?
Me: ...still..nothing.
Him: I sit up, does anything happen?
Me: You're kidding right? No.
Him: I put one foot on the floor...
Other Players & Me: NOTHING HAPPENS...get on with it.

Later, he had to describe how he cut crosses on each and every bullet he put in his gun....one at a time...in excrutiating detail for each one. Separately. Y'know, just in case I decided that since he didn't describe it, I couldn't say something like "You didn't say you were etching crosses on your 8th round, your spell doesn't work for this shot." He only got to like the third bullet before I was like "Dude, seriously..OH, look at the time. Gotta run."

 

[GlaziusF]

I agree, that's a great key game decision to make the players decide.

Uh, what did you say?

If people are obsessively searching for traps out of the fear that unknown bad things will happen to their characters, making them choose between two unknown bad things is not going to be a practical solution. They're just going to be afraid of both and either seize up or panic.

 

[Dausuul]

To the poster who was annoyed that his players were sure that there had to be a secret door at the end of a ramp leading to a blank wall? I'm with them, there isn't any good reason for it to be there. This also goes hand in hand with the roll/role playing debate. Here's a situation where roleplaying informs the characters that there has to be something there, vs. rollplaying (or, in this case, metagaming) that tells them that there isn't. So, which do you want? If its roleplaying, make the world consistant. If its metagaming, let them know ahead of time.

Total agreement here. If your players get obsessively convinced that something is there when it isn't, consider that they might have a good reason for that supposition. You might even want to put something there, just so they can find it and feel clever. And if not, start coming up with a good explanation.

 

[ExploderWizard]

In addition, I think I have found a solution to deal with this to a small extent:

Impose a limit of time on reaction.

"You look through the door and see a bunch of guys conducting a ritual. They're chanting. You can tell it's almost finished, and whatever they're going to do, it's going to be bad.

Everyone at the table, you have ten seconds to decide what you're doing."

I had to impose a 'count to ten' situation when one PC wanted to run away, one wanted to stay and fight, and one was wishywashy, in a situation like this, and no one at the table would agree what to do.

Why would the characters have to react within 10 seconds unless they were spotted? If they are undetected what would let them know that they only have 10 seconds to react? If they were spotted then they might have a lot less time to react. Perhaps if at least one character were familiar enough with the ritual to know its about to end and warn everyone it would work.

Of course at that point I would start to worry about how my buddy knows so much about an evil ritual. Has he done one before?

 

[Derren]

To use a real life example, would you expect the soldiers in Iraq to drive carelessly on lonely desert roads or simply kick in the door and charge in when checking suspected terrorist hideouts because checking for IEDs is too paranoid?

The PCs have every reason to be paranoid when exploring a dungeon. After all they are risking their life by intruding into the area, or better say, death trap, inhabited by unspeakable monsters which would kill lesser men with a single glance.

If you want the players not to be so paranoid then don't put them into an environment where they have to fear for their lives whenever they turn around a corner.

 

[Delta]

If people are obsessively searching for traps out of the fear that unknown bad things will happen to their characters, making them choose between two unknown bad things is not going to be a practical solution. They're just going to be afraid of both and either seize up or panic.

That's sort of ridiculous. High-skill (or even moderate-skill, or anyone I've ever played with) players will not "sieze up or panic".

Edit: Also, throw in some ear seekers and rot grubs while you're at it. Make sure the PCs are informed in advance that such things exist.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Really living up to your namesake today, Eh?!

Bite me.

The obligation of the DM to do that… to constantly use, abuse and ultimately kill the PCs is not something unique to 4E or the current columns on WotC. Those were simply handy examples, not unique ones.

From the out set the relationship between the PCs and the DMs is utterly adversarial – it is designed to be a no holds barred, no compromise, winner take all, zero-sum-gain relationship. One wins only in so far as they can expressly make the other party loose. If you believe anything else, then you are an idiot.

Paranoid is just them using survival technique, and if you let them win at all, in any way, on any level, they you are failing in your job.


Read the books, Read the columns. Stay current stay alert.