It's actually "do what is fun for everyone" that is right. If everyone likes GM vs player, that is the correct thing to do.
Until you hear the masses come and complain about it later. I've seen them come in waves over my decades (yeah, its plural now) of gaming. It also muddies the community pool where many of us draw new players, and we have to spend effort and a great deal of time deconstructing what expectations have already been built up.
I cannot tell you the number of times I'd told a player that they have no need to inflate their attack and damage rolls that high, or to spend all their feats and wealth on maximizing their AC, saves, and combat potential. Its hard for most of them to understand that I am not an adversary to their characters. I actively WANT them to succeed and am just here to make it a challenge in order for their actions and choices to have some sort of meaning. There is a real risk of failure, even if it is still heavily weighted in their favor. The most interesting thing is, nearly every time I am able to convince the player that that kind of arms race is not necessary, I can almost visibly see them relax MORE into the game.
Sure, play the game how you would like. Just try not to think the system operates in a vacuum. Everything we do bleeds over into other areas, and other tables.
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The secret to GM'ing combats well is to have an ability to lose gracefully. It's not always easy, especially when you had an opponent which you thought would be a real challenge for the party and they manage to take him out like a chump. And that happens more than you would think.
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And if so, how far? Just a thought that popped into my head while looking into something totally unrelated and I wanted to gather a bit of data.
I tend to play in low magic / lower level campaigns personally. As such I can't remember a time when I played a character higher than level 13, and more commonly not past level 10 or 11.
The question seems to assume that campaigns don't start at ten or higher. I've had more games I run start above ten than don't make it to ten. The game is at its best from about levels 12 to 17, maybe even higher, so why always play through the awfulness that is low level?
That's a very subjective view thoughh. My experience with my various groups is that the very low levels (1-3) are OK if you have the right GM, the mid levels (4-14-ish) ae where the fun is, and the "awfulness" is high level play, which is more about bookkeeping than roleplaying. So we tend to end campaigns around level 15.
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I guess i just got so used to killer DM's i build my character with the expectation that my DM is actively trying to kill me.
I haven't had the misfortune to have had one of those yet, but in my first few years of AD&D playing I was introduced to one (fortunately never met in person) via a primitive precursor of social media (yes, such things existed even in the late 1970s). That killer DM (a particularly vicious and capricious yet surprisingly popular DM who took joy in tearing up character sheets, and making the players start over with a new 1st level character(*)) was a university professor. I was going to say what they were a professor of, but first, anybody care to take a guess?
(*)I didn't think to ask about the highest level characters got to in that campaign, but for some reason the vicinity of level 8 or so sticks in my head.
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Based on personal trauma, I would guess physics. But a twisted psychology or literature professor would also seem to fit here.{. . .}
I guess i just got so used to killer DM's i build my character with the expectation that my DM is actively trying to kill me.I haven't had the misfortune to have had one of those yet, but in my first few years of AD&D playing I was introduced to one (fortunately never met in person) via a primitive precursor of social media (yes, such things existed even in the late 1970s). That killer DM (a particularly vicious and capricious yet surprisingly popular DM who took joy in tearing up character sheets, and making the players start over with a new 1st level character(*)) was a university professor. I was going to say what they were a professor of, but first, anybody care to take a guess?
(*)I didn't think to ask about the highest level characters got to in that campaign, but for some reason the vicinity of level 8 or so sticks in my head.
Social sciences?
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Based on personal trauma, I would guess physics. But a twisted psychology or literature professor would also seem to fit here.{. . .}
I guess i just got so used to killer DM's i build my character with the expectation that my DM is actively trying to kill me.I haven't had the misfortune to have had one of those yet, but in my first few years of AD&D playing I was introduced to one (fortunately never met in person) via a primitive precursor of social media (yes, such things existed even in the late 1970s). That killer DM (a particularly vicious and capricious yet surprisingly popular DM who took joy in tearing up character sheets, and making the players start over with a new 1st level character(*)) was a university professor. I was going to say what they were a professor of, but first, anybody care to take a guess?
(*)I didn't think to ask about the highest level characters got to in that campaign, but for some reason the vicinity of level 8 or so sticks in my head.
I myself used to be a professor of mathematics, and I can still send fear down people's spines with a math lecture. Bwahaha.
But while I was a math professor with toddler children in the house and getting accustomed to a new job in a new city, I lacked the time and contacts to play or run a D&D game (this was back during the D&D 2nd Edition days).
I did not start gamemastering until long after I switched to government work and those children were teenagers. By that time, I had decades of working with customers and youngsters to provide for their needs rather than adhering to a stupid agenda. Nowadays I write custom feats for my players to customize their characters as they want, because our current campaign is Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and that system is not yet as polished as Pathfinder 1st Edition.
Based on personal trauma, I would guess physics. But a twisted psychology or literature professor would also seem to fit here.{. . .}
I guess i just got so used to killer DM's i build my character with the expectation that my DM is actively trying to kill me.I haven't had the misfortune to have had one of those yet, but in my first few years of AD&D playing I was introduced to one (fortunately never met in person) via a primitive precursor of social media (yes, such things existed even in the late 1970s). That killer DM (a particularly vicious and capricious yet surprisingly popular DM who took joy in tearing up character sheets, and making the players start over with a new 1st level character(*)) was a university professor. I was going to say what they were a professor of, but first, anybody care to take a guess?
(*)I didn't think to ask about the highest level characters got to in that campaign, but for some reason the vicinity of level 8 or so sticks in my head.
I myself used to be a professor of mathematics, and I can still send fear down people's spines with a math lecture. Bwahaha.
{. . .}
Psychology professor is the correct answer to the profession of the character sheet vorpalizer I was describing above.
Let's see, Reign of Winter, Rise of the Runelords, Skull and Shackles, that's three so far. Strange Aeons is likely to make it, but not for awhile.
For some reason I misread that last one as "Stooge Aeons", and now that's something I want to see . . . .