Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8592583" data-attributes="member: 42582">That &quot;presumption&quot; is just a preference. Other players have other preferences.Here are some examples from my 4e play:In these examples, I introduce a roper into an encounter as a response to a player's action declaration, because it seemed like fun (and was); I introduced an underground river as part of the consequence-narration for a skill challenge; and I introduced a helpful NPC in response to a successful prayer by a PC.None of that was neutral GMing. It was all about responding to the unfolding dynamics of play, with an eye towards maintaining pressure on the players and honouring both their successes and their failures.Of course it's not the only way to approach GMing. It's not what Gygax had in mind when he wrote KotB or ToH. But I happen to think it's the best way to approach 4e D&amp;D, in the sense that it gets the most out of what the game has to offer (there is fuller discussion in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/pemertonian-scene-framing-a-good-approach-to-d-d-4e.333786/" target="_blank">this old thread</a>). I suspect that something like it might be feasible in 5e, although the asymmetric player-side resource suites and the lack of a skill challenge mechanic might complicate it a little bit.(EDITed to correct reference to 5e in the last sentence.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8592583, member: 42582"] That "presumption" is just a preference. Other players have other preferences. Here are some examples from my 4e play: In these examples, I introduce a roper into an encounter as a response to a player's action declaration, because it seemed like fun (and was); I introduced an underground river as part of the consequence-narration for a skill challenge; and I introduced a helpful NPC in response to a successful prayer by a PC. None of that was neutral GMing. It was all about responding to the unfolding dynamics of play, with an eye towards maintaining pressure on the players and honouring both their successes and their failures. Of course it's not the only way to approach GMing. It's not what Gygax had in mind when he wrote KotB or ToH. But I happen to think it's the best way to approach 4e D&D, in the sense that it gets the most out of what the game has to offer (there is fuller discussion in [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/pemertonian-scene-framing-a-good-approach-to-d-d-4e.333786/']this old thread[/URL]). I suspect that something like it might be feasible in 5e, although the asymmetric player-side resource suites and the lack of a skill challenge mechanic might complicate it a little bit. (EDITed to correct reference to 5e in the last sentence.) [/QUOTE]

Verification