Adequate Warning

[DRD1812]

This is a problem that I think of as “The Forest of Doom.” You’ve probably heard of it. Rumors of that fell wood abound in all the inns and ale houses of the kingdom.

“To set foot within the Forest of Doom is death!”

“That’s a cursed place, and no mistake! Those who venture beneath its boughs are never seen again.”

“I’ve head that even that shadow of the trees can kill. Beware, adventurer. Beware the Forest of Doom!”

Meanwhile my players are sitting there like, "Holy s+#+ you guys! I bet there’s all kinds of treasure in there!" That’s because all those fun, fluffy rumors are typical quest text. NPCs are expected to play up the dangers of local dungeons, making players feel like a big damn heroes when they stride boldly forth. But if the Forest of Doom is in fact a straight-up death trap, and if it’s a DC 25 save to avoid insta-death every round you’re in there, then we’ve got a set of competing expectations at play.

Ideally, players show proper caution. The respond appropriately to the dire warnings. They note the dead woodland creatures that ring the edges of the Forest of Doom, and realize from context clues that, “Oh. This isn’t a proper dungeon. It’s a setting element meant to show us that the ancient Hex War left an indelible scar on the land. Let’s maybe not go in there.”

You want to keep flavor on the one hand, but you also want to convey expectations on the other. So here's my question for the board: If you’re a GM, have you even been surprised when your players ignored all your dire warnings and did the “obviously stupid thing?” And in retrospect, was there any way to warn them more clearly?

(Comic for illustrative purposes.)

[Sysryke]

I don't have an immediate example of the party doing the obviously dumb thing, but instead something I feel better matches the cartoon you linked.

In our current story arc, the GM went out of her way to emphasize how dangerous and monster infested the seas were between where we started and the island we needed to get to. The entire first third of her story has revolve around us getting hired on as guards to a flying vessel, and avoiding the water at all costs.

When we arrived near the coast of the island, of course the docks had been destroyed, and the ship had taken damage from storms and encounters along the way. So, naturally, it was necessary for us to have to leave the ship and guide it in to moor amongst some small islets off the shore.

Fast forward, these "small" landmasses were actually gargantuan or colossal hippo type beasts. We later discovered that this was meant to have been a simple combat encounter. However, from all the effort we'd made to avoid all the sea monsters, we were conditioned to fear anything coming out of those waters. We all scrambled and bailed for shore, and basically just waited for the behemoths to move on.

Point is, not sure where the balance is, but sometimes the warnings are too effective.

[DeathlessOne]

DRD1812 wrote:

So here's my question for the board: If you’re a GM, have you even been surprised when your players ignored all your dire warnings and did the “obviously stupid thing?” And in retrospect, was there any way to warn them more clearly?

I haven't really come across that issue in a fairly long time, though I do remember how I initially handled things back then. My secret? There are always survivors and the characters generally have close ties or know of these people because they are part of the background of the adventure. The impact of surviving the 'place that shall be respected' marks them and, through them, impacts those around the survivor.

If the higher level ex-adventurer gives you some fairly dire warning with a half-vacant look to their eyes and barely concealed trauma marring their features when they recount the tale, it tends to give the "caution: danger here" a bit more weight.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Research is a way of life for my players. Gather Info is one of the 3 important out-of-combat actions they obsess about. It is no wonder then that before the PCs ever set off for a "forest of doom" type area they know everything available to know about it before hand.

I also have one player in 2 of my games who always plays an arcane caster and spends every one of his Skill ranks on Knowledges. By level 6 his PCs are routinely hitting high 20's for knowledge checks, so along with gathering info during the research phase he's using these checks to recall other bits of info on adventure sites and such.

Thing is, for as much as they research my players always forget to take ALL of the precautions they set out to take. For example they knew well in advance they'd be going up against a Black Dragon who is known not only for it's acid but for it's DEVASTATING natural attacks (they knew it had high Str and Power Attack).

Getting close to it's swamp lair, the PCs all buff themselves with Resist Energy (Acid) and the one barbarian also gets Prot from Energy (Acid), but otherwise they go sprinting in for the fight. They'd forgotten to put a Deflection bonus on the barbarian, give anyone except the druid a Swim speed and so on.

The battle went exactly as you'd expect. The dragon hung out in the water, using SLAs and natural reach to full attack foes while retaining partial cover or cover from the swamp water around it. The PCs were mostly melee types so there were a lot of readied actions and they took A LOT of damage. Eventually they ground out a victory but only after the Brawler/Bloodrager got a Breath of Life spell, the barbarian went unconscious/dying for a round and the Investigator/Wizard ran out of spells.