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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6388749" data-attributes="member: 2067">This is mostly a trope-problem. <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools" target="_blank">Tropes are tools</a>, and if the trope the players are expecting isn't the trope the DM is actually using, you can't use them as effective tools. For instance, if you want to communicate the idea that &quot;kobolds are in the valley&quot; by having barking and snarling and howling at night in the valley, and the players are not getting that idea, even though you've told them that kobolds are dog-like in this setting, because their brains still &quot;default&quot; to reptilian kobolds, you're encountering the fact that it's difficult to change assumptions. And then you have to feed the characters explicit information -- tell, not show -- rather than rely on the trope you're using to gain that information. Similarly, if you want to play in a world where Good vs. Evil is bigger than Law vs. Chaos but your players assume that demons and devils hate each other, rather than are allied with each other, you can't use the &quot;evil is united&quot; trope very effectively. It's not the end of the world, but it also isn't necessary, and 5e clearly has tools to deal with this that it chose not to apply here.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6388749, member: 2067"] This is mostly a trope-problem. [URL="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools"]Tropes are tools[/URL], and if the trope the players are expecting isn't the trope the DM is actually using, you can't use them as effective tools. For instance, if you want to communicate the idea that "kobolds are in the valley" by having barking and snarling and howling at night in the valley, and the players are not getting that idea, even though you've [I]told them[/I] that kobolds are dog-like in this setting, because their brains still "default" to reptilian kobolds, you're encountering the fact that it's difficult to change assumptions. And then you have to feed the characters explicit information -- tell, not show -- rather than rely on the trope you're using to gain that information. Similarly, if you want to play in a world where Good vs. Evil is bigger than Law vs. Chaos but your players assume that demons and devils hate each other, rather than are allied with each other, you can't use the "evil is united" trope very effectively. It's not the end of the world, but it also isn't necessary, and 5e clearly has tools to deal with this that it chose not to apply here. [/QUOTE]

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