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<blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 5711552" data-attributes="member: 25619">I don't like this approach to DMing.&nbsp; I think of it as &quot;moving the goalposts&quot;.&nbsp;In your case, if the players think Random Harmless NPC #23 is the BBEG, maybe he IS the evil guy after all.&nbsp; So the difficulty of the campaign is set to &quot;easy&quot;.The way other people do it (worse, I think) is if the players figure out the BBEG's secret identity correctly, change the background so it was really Random Harmless NPC #23 all along, just to string out the story/so the players can't &quot;win&quot; too earlier.&nbsp; Setting the difficulty to &quot;rat b@[MENTION=9321]star[/MENTION]d DM/unwinnable&quot;.I prefer to run and player in a setting where if Random Harmless NPC #23 is harmless, no amount of player paranoia will change who he is.&nbsp; Call it &quot;sometimes a cigar is just a cigar&quot; DMing.&nbsp; In other words, if they figure it all out, great.&nbsp; If not, that's fine too -- eventually, things will fall into place and there will be an &quot;aha&quot; moment where they get what's really happening.&nbsp;I agree with your advice here.&nbsp; You need to have lots of trustworthy NPC's in a campaign to breakdown player paranoia, if you want a world that isn't just &quot;kill everything in sight, it might be a threat!&quot;More good advice.&nbsp; Show, don't tell.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="haakon1, post: 5711552, member: 25619"] I don't like this approach to DMing. I think of it as "moving the goalposts". In your case, if the players think Random Harmless NPC #23 is the BBEG, maybe he IS the evil guy after all. So the difficulty of the campaign is set to "easy". The way other people do it (worse, I think) is if the players figure out the BBEG's secret identity correctly, change the background so it was really Random Harmless NPC #23 all along, just to string out the story/so the players can't "win" too earlier. Setting the difficulty to "rat b@[MENTION=9321]star[/MENTION]d DM/unwinnable". I prefer to run and player in a setting where if Random Harmless NPC #23 is harmless, no amount of player paranoia will change who he is. Call it "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" DMing. In other words, if they figure it all out, great. If not, that's fine too -- eventually, things will fall into place and there will be an "aha" moment where they get what's really happening. I agree with your advice here. You need to have lots of trustworthy NPC's in a campaign to breakdown player paranoia, if you want a world that isn't just "kill everything in sight, it might be a threat!" More good advice. Show, don't tell. [/QUOTE]

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