"I want to present you all today with an important GMing Law: You can play a game of "chicken" with your players if that's what they want, but you can't lose it..."As a Player I have to say that I find the experience of having to fight smart and hard, and to struggle to have a shred of a chance of survival on occasion, far more rewarding than knowing that the party could take anything they came across.
Besides, if you put Godzilla in your sandbox, and the party of 1st level characters decide to go hunt down and kill Godzilla, then those poor, dead, dumb bastards got exactly what they had coming to them.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one!
ReplyDeleteYup. I've had players who assume because they see it they can kill it, which is foolish.
ReplyDeleteIf you see vampires scampering across rooftops get inside. if a dragon is flying high overhead, don't draw it's attention. Spot a band of hobgoblins with a fire giant, let them pass and follow them to attack in their camp if you must fight them.
I've thrown some player off guard by having a pair of ogres guarding the front door of a villains stronghold. Several of the players whined the adventure wasn't level appropriate, I pointed out they chose to hunt down the villain and one bright player pointed out...there could be another way in that doesn't' require us fighting ogres and kicking in the front door.
One of the most important lessons that I'm trying to get across in my Training Dungeon for Junior Grognard is 'if in doubt, run like xxxx'. I try to reinforce that lesson by not pressing the pursuit too hard.
ReplyDeleteSadly, he forgot that lesson the other week when confronted by eight ghouls in a passageway.