a suggestion ... to players.

[lokasenna]

I've seen this happen three times now, and I have to say, people really need to stop blaming dms for their death.
I've never had a dm spawn stuff on me without some kind of emote or warning that something out of the ordinary is going on. For that matter, the -one- time I got curbstomped by a dm spawn, they didn't force me to re spawn.
On a somewhat related matter. If you get your poop packed by a spawn, and a dm is kind enough to make the mobs pull back so that the stabilized party member can make the save, Don't blame the dm for the wipe when you charge your stupid ass back into the fight before your party even gets a chance to buff. That's a dick move both to the dm and the party you get killed. If you are facing stuff that is ruthlessly destroying you.. that's a good sign that it's time to back off.

[vojdan]

Dont know bout other servers much but.. for this server I know enough that the dms here never do anything without a reason or do stuff just out of their pleasure and with that bring discomfort on the players. That's NEVER gonna happen here. Ofc I cant promise that but from my experience I can say for sure that if you keep yourself to the rules you'll pass here more the "well" .
So play safe and play smart and for god sake dont just dont rush like a barbarian to every group of monsters you see... well ofc unless you are a Barbarian ( as class )

[Hellwalker]

May 15, 2012 7:37:24 GMT -5 vojdan said:

So play safe and play smart and for god sake dont just dont rush like a barbarian to every group of monsters you see... well ofc unless you are a Barbarian ( as class )

Damn straight!

[DM Arsescratcher]

Good points, thanks for raising them.

With the random spawn system it is pretty hard to tell if a DM has spawned monsters. Even if those monsters "talk" to the players, that's no sign that a DM has spawned them.

Quite often I will watch a party and make a pre-spawned monster throw in some custom insults, verbally spar with the players, or kick/urinate on the player's beaten corpse. This is just adding flavour, if I didn't spawn the mob that just killed you, I likely won't be giving you any free raises.

Much as I like to help players out, helping too much removes the threat and some players can feel that if a DM is around they have a safety net. This isn't the case, you may get some help with moving monsters away from a downed team member, but if you screw up due to your own fault then it's unlikely we'll intercede to save you from the respawn button.

As a side note, I usually only spawn in harsh monsters if I see PCs in a dungeon-type area which offers them a high reward to danger ratio and witness PCs not taking the area seriously (for example the other day I saw some PCs in a party looting whilst the other PCs were fighting the monsters). If you're looting whilst you should be fighting, expect something nasty to be dropped on you.

[DM Leverage]

Much like Arse, I as well will add dialogue to existing spawns to make them more 'interactive' without adding any challenge. If these kill you due to your own lack of foresight, I won't feel obligated to help you.

I am not in the habit of spawning monsters that are inanely difficult, or out of place. If you are in an undead dungeon, I might add a few undead here or there. If you are passing a cave of monsters, I might spawn a few of them to simulate them being drawn out of their lair. I will typically test your capabilities with smaller spawns first before moving onto more challenging creatures as time goes on.

If a group is moving in a b-line from spawn to spawn with no rp I will never give them extra enemies on principle.

Generally though ; my encounters are largely non combat oriented.


It can be very easy to blame dms when things go wrong; however, I have noticed that most of the time, there is no dm around/is somewhere else/is afk and has nothing to do with the disaster.

Contrary to popular belief, dms are not the enemy, dms are not here to 'win' against pcs, dms are not here to antagonize or terrorize. DM's are here to help bring the server to life and make things more enjoyable. Unfortunately some will never believe that, and to them DM's are little more than scapegoats for personal difficulties.

[kalbaern]

Contrary to popular belief, dms are not the enemy, dms are not here to 'win' against pcs, dms are not here to antagonize or terrorize. DM's are here to help bring the server to life and make things more enjoyable. Unfortunately some will never believe that, and to them DM's are little more than scapegoats for personal difficulties.

Unfortunately, many DMs elsewhere are abusive and vindictive. This taints a player's perceptions as they have often encountered this on more than one PW, sometimes several.

So it can be a natural reaction to assume the worse simply based on one's general NWN PW experiences en masse. If experience's are mainly favorable, well, then ... players treated well wouldn't likely have gravitated here now would they? A few would just based on various themes, features, word of mouth, but by and large, most new players on any PW are "refugees" from elsewhere. by and large, these same players will be suspicious of DMs in general. Trust me. I'm often "one of them".

Aside from here, my own DM interactions have varied elsewhere, but by and large my own view of DMs in a generic and stereotypical sense is less than favorable.

I'll also admit that between our better than average AI scripts *pats self on back* and the more recent "random encounter systems", I've even thought a time or two (OK, several times) that a DM was messing with me. Later when I look through the logs .. I find out its half tru. I messed with myself through my "evil" scripts is all. I like this too. It can keep even me on my own toes.

[lokasenna]

it DOES get a frustrating when you have a pack of 4 direwolves and a partrol of goblins attack you and chase you right into the kobolds on the next map on the way to loudwater >.>

I'm a huge fan of "Run away" but when mobs chase you 2 screens or more it doesn't always seem effective.

[nura]

Oh hey had a few surprises like that, and like ok cant be sheer chance, but hey turns out it was lol