Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 9866143" data-attributes="member: 7031982">Wait...what?  There's some deep misunderstanding of what I'm saying here.  The DM doesn't have to literally act intimidating.  He can just say, in a very soft voice, "The orc chieftain growls threateningly at you, and all eight of his guards tremble in fear.  Jim, your pet wolf also cowers and whimpers."If the players are not intimidated by that, it is because the GM has taught them that his encounters are always winnable.What does "successful" mean, though?  Does success describe how good of a show he puts on, regardless of how people respond to it?  or does success mean how it is received.  If the latter, I can't possibly see how that is determined by a single roll.  There's a very popular politician who I should probably not name, and when he speaks approximately half the country thinks it is divinely inspired wisdom, and the other half thinks it is unintelligible garbage.  And it's pretty much the same halves every time, so it's not a function of that politician's skill roll.They were right.  It was just a show, and they knew it.I don't understand what is gained by forcing players to pretend to be intimidated by an adversary they believe doesn't pose a threat, when the GM...who has "infinite dragons", as the saying goes...can easily create a situation where the players will genuinely worry about their characters' safety* and act accordingly.  How is failing to design intimidating encounters and then requiring that players act intimidated not forcing a story upon the players?*Caveat: if the players know that the GM always designs encounters that can be won, then it is going to be pretty hard to actually intimidate them.  They might think, "Ok, he's describing a scary dragon but he always balances encounters, so clearly this dragon isn't really a threat..."   So then we've got a situation where the players assume they can win every confrontation, so the solution is to roll dice and expect them to pretend to be intimidated, but it is entirely a problem of the GM's making.</blockquote>

Verification