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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7042454" data-attributes="member: 4937">20. No amount of preparation, however complete, will account for what the PC's actually choose to do.21. The amount of interest that the players take in an NPC, is inversely proportional to the amount of time you've actually spent developing the NPC.&nbsp; Players will ignore NPCs involved in the plot in preference to trying to dig out the life history of a random background NPC that wasn't named at the beginning of the session.22. Players will invariably ask to perform a task that involves the DM utilizing advanced math, physics or engineering skills before he can even ad hoc a response.&nbsp; The more important the answer is to the story, the more likely the DM actually gets the answer wrong.23. Players will invariably ask to perform a completely reasonable task - the sort of thing a pair of 1st graders could attempt to coordinate - that will be for whatever reason impossible under the rules as written.&nbsp; The more you simplify the rules to avoid this, the more likely this is to occur.24. 80% of the deaths happen to 20% of the players.&nbsp; The rest happen because those PCs are dead or otherwise not available at a critical juncture.25. 90% of the deaths occur because the players split the party.&nbsp; They will however never learn not to do this.26. Major PC deaths invariably occur in minor encounters that should have been easy.&nbsp; Major encounters with difficult foes or in difficult situations are invariably walk-overs.27. The Pippin Principle: If the party is stuck, it's because the player whose plans are consistently stupid has the right answer and he's being ignored.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7042454, member: 4937"] 20. No amount of preparation, however complete, will account for what the PC's actually choose to do. 21. The amount of interest that the players take in an NPC, is inversely proportional to the amount of time you've actually spent developing the NPC. Players will ignore NPCs involved in the plot in preference to trying to dig out the life history of a random background NPC that wasn't named at the beginning of the session. 22. Players will invariably ask to perform a task that involves the DM utilizing advanced math, physics or engineering skills before he can even ad hoc a response. The more important the answer is to the story, the more likely the DM actually gets the answer wrong. 23. Players will invariably ask to perform a completely reasonable task - the sort of thing a pair of 1st graders could attempt to coordinate - that will be for whatever reason impossible under the rules as written. The more you simplify the rules to avoid this, the more likely this is to occur. 24. 80% of the deaths happen to 20% of the players. The rest happen because those PCs are dead or otherwise not available at a critical juncture. 25. 90% of the deaths occur because the players split the party. They will however never learn not to do this. 26. Major PC deaths invariably occur in minor encounters that should have been easy. Major encounters with difficult foes or in difficult situations are invariably walk-overs. 27. The Pippin Principle: If the party is stuck, it's because the player whose plans are consistently stupid has the right answer and he's being ignored. [/QUOTE]

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