The stupid expectations of some DMs...

[sword-dancer]

I think you're missing my point.

To reiterate, if the DM doesn't settle on a campaign style and keeps flip-flopping between encounters in which he expects PCs to act heroically or conservatively in order to "solve" them, and, like JLXC suggests, doesn't bother to drop any in-game hints regarding what is the expected solution (assuming one exists), he shouldn't be surprised if the players react to the situation in a way he doesn't like, or didn't intend, and has no right to complain for sending mixed messages.
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I think i had not made my point clear,(It s a bit early in Germany) so i meant the following, the circumstances and the motivations of the -pCs maybe very diffrerent, making the encounter different, so for the PCs in encounter one not fighting may be reasonable, but inencounter two fighting maybe reasonable or not, depending on character personality or such.
So it isn`t necessary inconsistent.

 

[rounser]

I think i had not made my point clear,(It s a bit early in Germany) so i meant the following, the circumstances and the motivations of the -pCs maybe very diffrerent, making the encounter different, so for the PCs in encounter one not fighting may be reasonable, but inencounter two fighting maybe reasonable or not, depending on character personality or such.
So it isn`t necessary inconsistent.

I think I know what you're saying, but it's all viewed through the filter which is the DM's mind. One DM might see buying the villagers some time as suicidal stupidity, and may blame the players for forcing total party kill and the end of the campaign. The next may find the PCs retreating, and blame them and punish them for not acting heroically and sacrificing their lives for the villagers. It's a subjective call, so if the DM is expecting something from the players, he or she should probably either hint at it in-game in some way, or set a campaign precedent and put up flags when that's deviated from.

My point is that the problem is compounded when the same DM expects a retreat one day, and a heroic battle-to-the-death the next, in comparable situations, doesn't bother to hint at his expectations this time around in any way, and then blames the PCs when they fail to meet his expectations.

 

[sword-dancer]

It s definitely too early in Germany!

 

[Rackhir]

To get the thread back on it's GM bashing point.

I'd like to recount the tale many years ago of my chaotic neutral character got flame striked by his true neutral god for "violating" his alignment when he hamstrung a prisoner to prevent futher escapes (we'd had another prisoner excape the previous night). Apparently I had failed to have my character live up to the GM's conception of how I should be running my character.

Don't you just love that sort of thing?