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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luce" data-source="post: 6138361" data-attributes="member: 29760">Thank you for your replies. I tried to limit my initial examples so there is not just wall of text. Just enough to get us started.  Also, the Art of DM-ing is hard to quantify as there are many specifics particular to the group. In other words things acceptable in one situation/group/system could not be in another. Like should the DM try to prevent TPK or should he let the dice fall where they may? There is but one answer and that is your own <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. One does not have to blindly accept the authors answers, but it is nice to at least have frank discussion. A look behind the curtain if you will, where the game writers explain their motivations for gunning for particular direction. For example, in one of the books in the first post regarding 1e by Gary he states and I will paraphrase: "A party taking reasonable precausions should succeed 95% of the time." That extrapolated means that even the best laid plans fail one time in twenty. He talks about how this will prevent the players becoming complacent as well as inject the notion that the world is real beyond the PCs actions. In other words the world is not fully observable. He tempers this by stating that this only should be done if there is dramatic tension to be have. To draw a parallel, driving to the store for groceries when you are not in a hurry is routine and not worthy of a check. Rushing to the E.R. (located on the same row as the above store) because you need anti venom or 'cause you toddler just swallowed some scent balls would be. The car might choke, there might be a slow traffic due to an accident or road work, blowing up a tire, slipping and falling down the stairs in you hurry. Even though you have done that drive hundreds of times, when things really matter otherwise annoying delays may turn into life threatening complications. I can respect such position, even if I decide that I want to give automatic success to the players for their clever plans. And of course there are many many other sources. Take podcasts for example, some are may have a wider strike zone (like FtB or Gamerstable) while others may be focused on specific game or edition (like Thaco's hammer), but in all there could be found valuable advice.Finally, we are inspired in different ways. For example when I read book and film analysis it gets me in the mindset of creating cool description, but also gets me railroady. Say I had worked on setting a scene where the heroes burst into the villains chaimber. There he is on his throne high above the ground level looking down with disdain. The large room is filed with bloodthirsty minions blocking the way. The hostage the heroes are seeking to rescue is trapped in golden plated cage suspended from the sealing. In other words a set up for a dramatic showdown I may have spend two hours working to make just right- drawing maps, coming with tactics, synchronizing monster synergies. But the players decide to use non-detection and improved invisibility, drop down from an air shaft, cast several delayed blast fireballs set to detonate simultaneously on the villain, teleport the hostage to safety and fly away before anyone was the wiser. I knew they were not doing it with the purpose of make me waste my time and they really remember that secession fondly (since I did not deny them their cool rescue), but for a while it left a bad taste in my mouth.</blockquote>

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