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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 9163331" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>I wasn't going to respond to this because you don't seem particularly interested in having a dialogue given your post is in the form of a meme, but I wanted to say I'm a bit surprised at this response for a couple reasons. First, the OP doesn't sound to me like an instance of OSR-style play, so a discussion of OSR seems a little off topic. Second, my understanding of OSR is that while it isn’t concerned with balance and fairness, it does value testing the players' skill with reference to their engagement with the fiction. If something is not included in and can't be worked out by the players from the fiction as presented, e.g. they have no way of knowing about the healing potion in the orc’s sack until it’s too late to do anything about it, then they can't bring their skill to bear on that aspect of the fiction. Its introduction can only serve to change the parameters of the challenge which can have the effect of invalidating the test of skill the encounter was meant to represent because it negates the players' progress in wounding the orc. Although I don't think the players as described evince OSR sensibilities, I think their objection stems from a feeling of the DM pulling the rug out from under them and that the introduction of the healing potion served no other purpose in the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 9163331, member: 6787503"] I wasn't going to respond to this because you don't seem particularly interested in having a dialogue given your post is in the form of a meme, but I wanted to say I'm a bit surprised at this response for a couple reasons. First, the OP doesn't sound to me like an instance of OSR-style play, so a discussion of OSR seems a little off topic. Second, my understanding of OSR is that while it isn’t concerned with balance and fairness, it does value testing the players' skill with reference to their engagement with the fiction. If something is not included in and can't be worked out by the players from the fiction as presented, e.g. they have no way of knowing about the healing potion in the orc’s sack until it’s too late to do anything about it, then they can't bring their skill to bear on that aspect of the fiction. Its introduction can only serve to change the parameters of the challenge which can have the effect of invalidating the test of skill the encounter was meant to represent because it negates the players' progress in wounding the orc. Although I don't think the players as described evince OSR sensibilities, I think their objection stems from a feeling of the DM pulling the rug out from under them and that the introduction of the healing potion served no other purpose in the game. [/QUOTE]

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