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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 1365947" data-attributes="member: 5171">This is something my friends and I have been grappling with for awhile.In the big bad "Since beginning of 3E" Campaign, I tended to overestimate party power and make monsters that were too powerful -- and then pull my punches in the fight.  They felt annoyed, justifiably.  So in our next campaign, I told them that I was creating an organic world (to use someone else's term), a world where the monsters were going to be at whatever level they were at, and I would not pull punches.The party promptly wandered into a 6th-level situation at 2nd level and got TPKd.So now we're doing some cinematic one-shots while we try to figure out what to do next.  Instead of a series, we're doing a movie.And I think that the idea of "what is the game to you" is a great one.  If I watch a series, I know that the main characters are going to live in almost all situations -- and even people who die can come back somehow (thanks, Joss).  If I watch a movie, I know that anybody could die at any time.  And if I play a game, I know that I have the power to win and the opportunity to lose.  I like all three forms of entertainment.  However, if I die in NeverWinter Nights because of a trap, I don't reload the game and then walk right into the trap again because "My character wouldn't know about it."  I go into Search mode. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Heck, even if I don't die, but if I hear from somebody that there's a trap by this one entrance, I don't walk into it on purpose.  I search.On the other hand, if my character doesn't know something in a D&D game, I don't use my knowledge to save him.So what does that say about me?  I think it says that I get more into my character in a D&D game than I do in a computer game, enough to make deliberately detrimental roleplaying decisions.  As a reward for doing that, I want to know that I won't die every time I make one of those decisions, because if I do die every time I make one of those decisions, then the only "freedom" I have in the game is the "freedom" to make a cowardly, utterly non-heroic character who saves his skin at all costs and never does anything even remotely risky (like go explore dungeons) -- unless I want to die over and over again.(Example: Current game I'm playing. I started with a Monk3/Paladin2, which is not any kind of minmax with 25 point buy.  He was fun.  He was a great character.  He died because the DM was running a module that did not support "fun, not terribly powerful" characters.  I am now running a dwarven Clr2/Ftr4 with a +14 grapple check and armored spikes that do 1d6+6 damage.  He will run away without hesitation and he pretty much just tackles spellcasters, which is safe but not terribly heroic.)Capricious DM stuff is hard.  It's a continuum, and it's a matter of trust.  In our one-shot games, I roll out in the open.  In our long-running campaigns in the future, I'm more liable to a) house-rule things into more cinematic modes (ie, a bodak's gaze does 1 point of Con damage per round for 30 rounds (Fort15 resists each round, or until Remove Curse, Heal, Negative Energy Protection, or some similar spell is cast upon the victim), b) Make enemies that are weaker to begin with, a lot weaker, and use my vaunted flavor-text to make them seem more powerful.</blockquote>

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