Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ragoftag 12-19-06, 10:20 AM	For 31 years in the GM chair, I have made it a practice to try and keep the players on their collective toes (time off when I can't). One aspect has always been alteration of monsters (no colorcoded dragons, etc) and items. A recent tif in a associated game has been tossed my way: The GM 'changed' the DMG's visual description of a serious magic item and 2 of his his players are very upset. He has always run 'Book', and they feel betrayed by his 'duplicity' (someone obviously bought a thesaurus). I just got named Solomon and am trying to be the 'wise' old fart they think I am...so I cheat. I ask the board! Oldest player in that game is late teens and all of them started in 3.5, so they are very green. My ruling was going to be: He's GM, it doesn't change the game, change is good, grow up! This may be a tad harsh, though. Ideas?
Radijs 12-19-06, 10:33 AM	Salomon used a sword to solve his problems didn't he? Threaten to cut them both into pieces if they don't play nicely. Seriously though, sounds like you've made the right decision.
Calilove 12-19-06, 10:51 AM	Absolutely the DM's discretion. The problem with these punk kids growin up on 3.X is they expect everything to be all clean and nice and rules based and logical, with magic wal-marts on every corner, and a nice clean knowledge check for every mystery. Take them back to the old school when anything could happen in a dungeon. Sure it looks like a closet, but search the shelves and BAM! DEAD! This is a world of magic and mystery, they should be confused sometimes! That being said, your friend should be aware that this will change player expectations of the world's consistency and effect behavior going forward. I expect he made the change because he felt they were metagaming and wanted more mystery in his magic, a great decision and one he should stick by.
David_Roben2 12-19-06, 11:23 AM	Sure it looks like a closet, but search the shelves and BAM! DEAD!Boy if I had a gold piece for every time this happened to one of my characters. :) Seriously though, it has happened to me...A LOT. I agree. The game loses something when everyone knows what everything is/means/will do. No...let me rephrase. The game doesn't nesessarily lose something but it definitely changes. It becomes a game of logic and a kind of competition between players and the DM (or worse, between players and other players) over who can find the most obscure rules or treasure or monster. This can be fine for certain groups. I like the logic behind it, and it makes it a problem solving game where you know there is a definite answer. But, it also promotes book-hoarding to help in finding that one thing that the rest don't know. This is good for 2 groups. Less creative people and WotC. Something as simple as changing discriptions can add an extra level to the game. Now, you have to use the rest of your brain, because memory alone won't cut it. I can see how a person would become frustrated with it though. It's suddenly possible (in the mind's eye anyway) that the puzzle doesn't have a solution.
Millennium 12-19-06, 11:29 AM	It's the DM's decision, but frankly he brought this on himself. Expecting things to look like the books describe is technically metagaming, but it's one of the hardest kinds of metagaming to avoid, especially when the DM has consistently followed that pattern in the past. I'm not saying the players were right to call him "deceptive," but their reaction was predictable and preventable. He should have started going off-book with more minor issues first, as a way of giving the players a heads-up that this DM isn't strictly by-the-book on appearances anymore.
Nytmare 12-19-06, 01:46 PM	Since when is using player knowledge in place of character knowledge some kind of inalienable right?