speaking not as a GM (for once) but as an obstinate player (why is he a GM normally? No one knows...) this is often handled better by a session zero discussion about expectations. looking back, a lot of the fighting I did with GMs could have been handled better if I had simply accepted "this is the handwaving we are doing to get your characters into the adventure"
I don't think there is any call for special player sessions. I think the new revision gives players nothing to object to: they are free to make as many attempts to flee and waste as many spells as they want on it. Every time, they'll make a seemingly tiny amount of progress - just enough to get bored quickly.
Moreover, D&D is at heart a resource management game. It is baked into the rules: no player is going to want his PC to waste a spell at the very beginning of an exploration, and certainly not two! It is the same reason why players so rarely declared a spell before the initiative roll (in B/X) prior to an encounter, opting to await for both initiative and to find out if combat was going to be involved or not.
Sure, you can have a belligerent player spend all his PCs spells trying to escape the rift, but there's no metadiscussion necessary: the PCs relative uselessness and vulnerability for the rest of the adventure is correction enough!
If it isn't clear, I think the revision is significantly more streamlined (and evocative) within the original rules. It is an elegant resource drain, rather than a railroad.
speaking not as a GM (for once) but as an obstinate player (why is he a GM normally? No one knows...) this is often handled better by a session zero discussion about expectations. looking back, a lot of the fighting I did with GMs could have been handled better if I had simply accepted "this is the handwaving we are doing to get your characters into the adventure"
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is any call for special player sessions. I think the new revision gives players nothing to object to: they are free to make as many attempts to flee and waste as many spells as they want on it. Every time, they'll make a seemingly tiny amount of progress - just enough to get bored quickly.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, D&D is at heart a resource management game. It is baked into the rules: no player is going to want his PC to waste a spell at the very beginning of an exploration, and certainly not two! It is the same reason why players so rarely declared a spell before the initiative roll (in B/X) prior to an encounter, opting to await for both initiative and to find out if combat was going to be involved or not.
Sure, you can have a belligerent player spend all his PCs spells trying to escape the rift, but there's no metadiscussion necessary: the PCs relative uselessness and vulnerability for the rest of the adventure is correction enough!
If it isn't clear, I think the revision is significantly more streamlined (and evocative) within the original rules. It is an elegant resource drain, rather than a railroad.