Okay, the title is not quite part of a quote from Genghis Khan (maybe) by way of Arnold's Conan (but not REH's Conan). Or something. Yes, I'm being educational today.
Anyway, reading through the 1st Edition DMG last year was an eye-opening experience, in several ways. But one of the more interesting points came in Gygax's advice for running the game, in which he insisted it was not the DM's job to keep track of PC abilities, and so if the player didn't ask to use their powers then he should assume that they don't.
(His example was actually a particularly odd one - he said that Elves shouldn't get their racial ability to spot secret doors just by walking past them unless the player specifically asks. But, how is the player supposed to know to ask for secret doors? Is he supposed to be constantly asking, and thus constantly slowing the game down?)
I'm not really sure I agree with Gygax's thesis on this one. Since the DM is the player's only conduit for information, I'm inclined to think he should err on the side of too much information rather than too little. And so, I don't think DM's should require players to ask if they can make Perception checks. And, indeed, if the PC has some sort of extra senses, especially always-on senses, then the DM should be forthright about what they detect without being asked.
However, I am inclined to think that the DM is not responsible for helping players play the game, especially once those players have been playing for a while. It's not the DM's job to suggest a course of action, or point out useful spells, or anything of the sort.
To that end, partly due to Gygax's quote and partly because everyone in my current game has been playing for at least a year now, I've subtly started reducing the amount of 'help' I give. And so, I no longer advise players if their chosen course of action will lead to an Attack of Opportunity, nor do I remind them of the option to "Cast Defensively" (for example). If they want to do these things, then they get to proceed; if they don't think to say so, then they get the AoO automatically.
Which has the rather nice side effect of speeding the game up.
The other thing that I've been doing increasingly is "taking the gloves off". More and more, the opponents of the PCs won't simply split their attacks up amongst the PCs, concenrating on taking down the tough-as-nails Fighter (well, Artificer) while the Wizard (and Psion) get free range to blast them with spells. Instead, they will be aiming to kill the PCs, as quickly and as efficiently as possible. So, perhaps they will try to draw out the tank and pin him down, so that the rest of their band can go after the casters. Or they'll focus all their attacks on one PC to kill that one, and then move on to the next. Basically, the goal (for the monsters) is the death of the PCs.
The danger of this, of course, is that the game may become far too tough. We'll see how it plays out. Thus far, though, it seems to be working well, and is making for a rather more satisfying campaign.
(And if you're one of my players reading this - consider this your fair warning! :) )
I really enjoyed doing this. Great fun! However, I varied it depending on what enemies they were facing.
ReplyDeleteA group of drow would, as you suggest, be clinical in disabling and killing the PCs (probably starting with spellcasters first), where a hill giant would generally focus on whoever was causing him the most damage, and a group of kobolds would swarm the party, attacking pretty equally.
It worked pretty well, actually, because the players did spot that enemies were behaving as their intelligence would merit.
I did, however, have to pull my punches once or twice.