The Spot Light

[Supplement Four]

The characters are walking single file down a trail. As GM, you know that there are six Picts hiding in ambush not too far in front of the characters.

None of the players ask for a Spot check because they're on a long hike between villages.

How do you guys handle this?

Do you roll the Spot check behind the screen, keeping the results secret, playing out the encounter?

And, if you all-of-a-sudden start rolling behind the screen, that alone makes the players aware that something is up (unless you periodically do this for no reason to keep them on their toes).



Or, let's turn this scenario a bit: Let's say, as the PCs leave the last village, that one of the players says, "My character is going to stay about 10 yards away from whomever is behind me, out in front. He'll constantly be monitoring the landscape, always looking for danger."

Now, the player says that when the PCs leave the village, but it's two game days before the ambush might occur on the trail. You speed things along, getting the PCs camped and fed, and then you have the Pict ambush encounter a couple of game nights later.

How do you handle this? If the lead character fails his Spot throw, you definitely don't want to tip off the players that an ambush is about to happen.

So, how do you handle this type of thing?

 

[VincentDarlage]

I tell the players to make a Spot check. Just because the Players aren't thinking about looking around doesn't mean the Characters are not doing that. Spot can be kind of an accidental thing - they see a movement out of the corner of their eye, something just seems wrong... these are things the Characters would be aware of, but not the players.

If they fail the Spot check, the characters have no idea what is about to happen. It doesn't matter if the Players are aware they are about to get it.

 

[Kev]

If they fail the Spot check, the characters have no idea what is about to happen. It doesn't matter if the Players are aware they are about to get it.

And that works fine unless you have a player in your group who can't or won't keep character knowledge separate from player knowledge. :evil:

Or make them roll about 6 times over the fist two days, not telling them its for spot or listen, leave them ignorant of what you do (you can tell them things like "you see herd of deer in distance," or wolves or nothing, keep them cautious), then the 7th roll is the actual ambush, they might be surprised there is an encounter (that is Players, not their Characters), but should react to the threat with ease

I like this idea. Takes a little more time and a few extra dice rolls but leaves the players expectant yet not knowing what to expect. Could serve to build a little tension...especially if, on one or two occasions, you don't really specify what they see or hear.

GM: "You hear the snap of a thin branch breaking just beyond the trees on your left."
P1: "I'll stop, look...maybe move a little closer in that direction, though not leaving the trail."
GM: "You see nothing and hear nothing else."
P1: "All right, guys, let's keep moving then. It was nothing...."
P2: "You sure about that?"
:twisted:

 

[VincentDarlage]

If they fail the Spot check, the characters have no idea what is about to happen. It doesn't matter if the Players are aware they are about to get it.

And that works fine unless you have a player in your group who can't or won't keep character knowledge separate from player knowledge. :evil:

I've never had a player who couldn't (or wouldn't) do that. I've been playing RPGs since 1981. Gamers are a pretty intelligent lot, at least the ones I know.

 

[Kev]

I've never had a player who couldn't (or wouldn't) do that. I've been playing RPGs since 1981. Gamers are a pretty intelligent lot, at least the ones I know.

We are indeed and he is as well which is why it's super-frustrating for the guys in my group that we can't break him of this habit. :evil:

Unnecessary sidenote: I started playing in '81 as well.

Anyone else have other ideas for GMs on how to not tip your hand before an encounter?

 

[Supplement Four]

Yeah, I don't like the idea of the player knowing if he passed his Spot or not. I guess I don't have to tell him what DC he's rolling against.

The idea of a list of pre-rolled Spot checks is a tactic I've used before. The player still gets to roll his Spot, but the player has no idea when it will be used.

I may go that route, though I was hoping for a less bookkeeping oriented method.

 

[Supplement Four]

Unnecessary sidenote: I started playing in '81 as well.

Hey! I started in '81 too! Whaddaya know!

And, since then, I've played with all sorts of players, both good and bad. Some would use the information they knew as a player but not as a character, and some wouldn't. People are people, and there are all types.




Major Unnecessary Sidenote: Ah...1981...man, what memories!

The person who taught me to play AD&D back in 1981, ran me through the Caves of Chaos as my first adventure. I was a sophomore in high school. So was he. It was a one-on-one game. After school, we'd meet in his back yard and play on the picnic table, using the books to keep the wind from taking our papers away. On weekends, we had marathon sessions.

I was addicted from day one. I had never experienced anything like that first day. It was amazing. We played for over two weeks straight, going through the Caves. I'd go back to town and start posting signs advertising for a new mage or a new thief to join the party. Those 1st level dudes sure didn't last long. My DM didn't give me max hit points at first level or anything like that. What I rolled was what I got. About the third time I went back to town, it started getting harder and harder to have these NPCs sign on with me.

We still laugh about that to this day. The guy who taught me to play is playing in my current Conan campaign. "Hey! I'm looking for a thief to join up with me and clear out the caves! You game?" "Shit no! Everybody who's left with you hasn't come back!"

I played the entire party. It wasn't until later that I played in a game where I ran one character with other players playing their own characters. That took me to another "level" in the game.

But, man, those days were fun. I'd draw my character on notebook paper in class. His name was Exavier. He wore a closed face helm, because it looked intimidating--and I couldn't draw faces that well. He used a bastard sword and a light crossbow. Carried a shield. Wore plate, of course.

Those were the days.

I got so attached to my first character that I was truly pissed when the Ogre rolled a 20 on me and the DM chopped off my left leg at mid-thigh.

Man, that irritated me. It was almost like it had happened in real life.

Exavier should have died, but I tied up the stump with a rope. And, the rest of the party dragged my lame ass back to Threshold.

And that, my friends, is where I learned about regeneration.

Those were the days!

 

[Kev]

S4 and Nialldubh, you guys have great memories...and I mean that in both senses.

I consider myself a mental titan that I can remember the names of the guys I started playing with all those years ago. :? Haven't seen any of 'em in a good quarter century. They'd been playing for a while before I was invited to join. No idea what the first module I went through was nor what kind of character I had (fighter, most likely).

I do remember that one of the teachers at my junior high actually started a D&D club that we were all part of for a year or so. That was kinda cool at the time.

Good times, indeed.

On topic: Yeah, I kinda like the idea of pre-rolled skill checks too. It's not the perfect solution to my aforementioned situation, perhaps. But, then again, I don't think there is one....

I think I'll try Niall's way first and if, that doesn't pan out, go with the pre-rolls. When I get my Conan game up and running, that is.

And, Vincent, I'm with Niall: I envy you your group. From what little I've gleaned of them, they sound like a good bunch to game with. Mine can be a fractious, ornery lot when the mood strikes 'em. :evil:

 

[Spectator]

I started with ADnD in april of 87.
Homebrew games for broke 14 year olds (my fellow 8th graders) is what we did.
I just got back into ADnD, oh the simplicity of it. No more 5' step debates that last hours.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Neat stories. My uncle got me into AD&D in '81 (he also got me into Conan in 1983 by giving me a copy of Conan the Adventurer and Conan the Usurper). My uncle thought anything below level 20 wasn't fun, so for the first game, he rolled me up a 20th level wizard (his character was 35th level or so, IIRC). We fought Demogorgon and I got the Eye of Vecna. It was a kick-ass first adventure for an 11 year old kid (me).

After that my parents bought me the books and I realized my uncle wasn't really playing the game "right." LOL.

 

[Kev]

It was a kick-ass first adventure for an 11 year old kid (me).

I daresay! :shock:

After that my parents bought me the books and I realized my uncle wasn't really playing the game "right." LOL.

And so it began.... I guess we have your uncle to thank for starting you down this road then, yeah?

Myself, I was introduced to Conan in '82 when Milius' film came out...first R-rated film I had to sneak into (I was 13 at the time and my parents knew I was going, just didn't have the time to take me). Aside from the movie novelizations, though, I didn't actually get around to Conan in print (the REH/LSdC collections) 'til maybe five years later.

Been an REH fan ever since.... 8)

 

[Spectator]

Yeah I saw the Conan movies as a kid in 82 and the sequel in 85. I absolutely loved it!
My parents bought me the Marvel Conan the Barbarian #167 (I think, I still have it!) some time in 1984 I guess.
I finally got a hold on the books when we moved to Los Angeles. I was 13 going on 14 in 1987 and the house we moved into did not have the cable hook-up yet, so my dad gave my $5 and told me to get on my bike and go to the bookstore to buy a Conan novel (I was clueless that the novels predated the comics or books!) I bought the ACE editions of Conan #1 and Conan the Cimmerian #2. I think I read about 100 pages the first evening which was tremendous for a non-reader like I was at the age. I was absolutely hooked.

I remember getting nightmares after I read "Castle of Terror," still one of my most favorite Creepy story. I saw that Conan even was scared shitless and ran like the wind against the apparition thing!

I then met some fellow 8th graders who were ADnD players. I was totally fascinated by the mechanics and the fact that we could actually play Conan type games.

I remember saving my $1/week allowance for 12 weeks to buy a player's handbook, and then doing odd-jobs to save up for the DM's guide and Monster manual. With those three books your mind could take you into new worlds of wonder!

Funny thing is that back then, you had to be careful about being a DnD player since the satanic ritual thing was talked about on Geraldo, Donahue, and Sally Jessy Raphael all the time. Not to mention there was the infamous McMartin Pre-School trial going on in Los Angeles at the time, where there were allegations of satanic ritual and roleplaying.

I then picked up Warhammer in 1988 and fell in love with the proto-renaissance europe theme.

Wow what neat memories, thanks guys for letting me babble.

 

[rabindranath72]

Great stories, everyone!
I was introduced to RPGs by computer games, namely Ultima IV on the Atari ST. More or less at the same time I discovered the Conan stories (though I had seen the Conan film before) and one year later my first table-top RPG: Mentzer's edited Dungeons & Dragons, Red Box. Brilliant game, the solo adventure was a perfect introduction; later I got my friends to play the Mistamere Castle dungeon. Tons of TPKs at the start My friend started adding roman numerals to his cleric PCs!! (I think he arrived to Zoltar Aragon III) :lol: Then we got B2, Keep on the Borderlands and we played it for months. Then came the Expert set with the Isle of Dread. Then the Companion set; my friends' characters went to 18th level or so, my sister's Elf was rank E, and a kickass to boot. Fun, fun times.

Only later (1989) I bought AD&D2e, which became our D&D of choice (we were attracted by the separation of race from class), though at the start I only bought the DMG since I thought it was sufficient to run the game (I am the DM, so I only need it!) :lol:

We played 2e well into the 3e era (of which we played only a few games). I had my last 2e campaign in 2003-4, then I moved to the UK and I essentially stopped gaming since I lost my gaming group. With the exception of some Basic D&D one-shots, my intense RPG days are practically over I have some games online, but it's just not the same.