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<blockquote data-quote="moritheil" data-source="post: 4113579" data-attributes="member: 30610">This is commonly asserted, but I do have to mention that in over a decade of actual DMing experience I have yet to have more than two &quot;arms race&quot; problems (both of which were nipped in the bud.)&nbsp; A slight improvement over the PCs will stoke their competitiveness.&nbsp; A completely crushing defeat will underscore the fact that it is not in anybody's interests, from a metagame point of view, to force you to play hardball.&nbsp; If you hand one out early on, or make sure people know you can, then you can focus on the story and RP without being bothered by such concerns.Campaigns work best when the DM is much more competent than the players and everyone acknowledges it.&nbsp; That's not to say they can't work otherwise, just that escalation is a nonissue if the players have no doubt from the start that causing that kind of trouble will only lead to their ruin.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="moritheil, post: 4113579, member: 30610"] This is commonly asserted, but I do have to mention that in over a decade of actual DMing experience I have yet to have more than two "arms race" problems (both of which were nipped in the bud.) A slight improvement over the PCs will stoke their competitiveness. A completely crushing defeat will underscore the fact that it is not in anybody's interests, from a metagame point of view, to force you to play hardball. If you hand one out early on, or make sure people know you can, then you can focus on the story and RP without being bothered by such concerns. Campaigns work best when the DM is much more competent than the players and everyone acknowledges it. That's not to say they can't work otherwise, just that escalation is a nonissue if the players have no doubt from the start that causing that kind of trouble will only lead to their ruin. [/QUOTE]

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