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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HJFudge" data-source="post: 8238702" data-attributes="member: 6997593">I view my role as DM as very much a combination of referee and story advocate. I set the stage on which the players and NPCs together will tell their story, using both dice and decisions.Yes, the dice can kill the players. In fact, if you are preventing the dice from killing the players via fiat you aren't doing your job and are stripping players of part of the fun imho. Not all stories have a happy ending. Not allowing players to die due to dice really robs them of a lot of the fun of the game and tends to lend toward cavalier attitudes. Why care what option you choose if you know none of the options will lead to actual danger? That said, I'll do my best to balance encounters in a way that there are multiple outs if the dice turn bad. But bad luck can make for an interesting tale.The rules are there to allow some measure of non-arbitrariness to how the story progresses. The Players make decisions based on the rules and the NPCs will as well. Antagonist NPCs/Factions will always have a goal, a motivation. They will be striving to meet this goal regardless on whether or not they are opposed by the heroes. The story will progress, for example, if the players decide not to investigate certain goings ons or deal with the mysterious figures that robbed the temple. They are free to choose what they do: They are not free to choose the consequence of their choice.Being the DM means striking a balance between letting the players drive the narrative while at the same time presenting them with challenging, interesting and meaningful options and obstacles. Place them in a larger tapestry and it allows both you and the players to cooperate to tell a grand tale.Without that tapestry, I find I have less fun. Without those obstacles and meaningful choices, my players have less fun.</blockquote>

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