I tell them what they need to know about the campaign; it's a sandbox, or a mission-based game where everyone works for X, or whatever I deem necessary. But generally speaking I'm a show-don't-tell kind of guy.

Quote from: Chainsaw;957280Pretty much I start with...

Not bad, Chains, but you and me and everyone else still stand in the Shadow of the Master.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;957303Not bad, Chains, but you and me and everyone else still stand in the Shadow of the Master.

That really made my day

Quote from: Baeraad;957270Come to think of it, a related question might be: what do you not tell your players of your GMing style ahead of time (possibly because you don't even think of it as part of your GMing style), that they invariably figure out on their own?

"Things are generally as they appear. I appreciate it's hard grokking a campaign world through the limited bandwidth of me talking, so I try to keep everything as straightforward and comprehensible as possible. This is so that you have the chance to understand what's going on and act on that knowledge. Eg if you're going to get doublecrossed, it's probably by that treacherous dwarf slaver you just released when he promised to take you out in the wilderness to the lair of his old buddies... No, I am not actually going to tell you when you are about to be doublecrossed, unless you take some minimal action such as requesting an Insight check. I would like you to be paying enough attention you can work it out for yourself."

That's what I don't tell them.

Quote from: Baeraad;957270Come to think of it, a related question might be: what do you not tell your players of your GMing style ahead of time (possibly because you don't even think of it as part of your GMing style), that they invariably figure out on their own?

Two things come to mind.

The first didn't really surprise me at all.  It was a mid-session comment that "nDervish has a random table for everything."  (Maybe not quite everything, but I do try.)

The other was a total surprise.  A new player joined, someone mostly experienced with D&D3/PF, and promptly grabbed his dice, told me what he rolled, and asked what he saw.  Before I could answer, one of my veteran players turned to him and said, "Don't roll for Perception unless nDervish tells you to, otherwise he'll make up something for you to see, and it probably won't be good."  (I don't consciously do that, and I don't like the idea that I do that, but... yeah... I do hate to see a good Perception roll get wasted on a simple "you don't see anything"...)

Quote from: Black Vulmea;957303Not bad, Chains, but you and me and everyone else still stand in the Shadow of the Master.

That was glorious. Especially:

QuoteI can just see him now, holding up the book with his Cheetos-stained hands, spitting out the last syllable of "no thuch thpellth available to thhamanth" so that little flecks of saliva and popcorn land on my blazer as he engages in some twisted power-play for status as alpha geek. If that's what was going on, I'm not surprised that the DM got so pissed off he engaged in some massive screwage. The DM doesn't design games so you can slap your dick on the table trying to contradict him.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;957303Not bad, Chains, but you and me and everyone else still stand in the Shadow of the Master.

Haha! Great read. Thanks for sharing.

Like I mentioned earlier, I try to play by the rules as written because I think that helps in establishing a coherent world, and therefore aiding in immersion... but I'm with the GM on this one. When I say that the game world runs according to the rules as written, that carries the unspoken rider "to the extent that I know and understand them." Pointing out rules to me that I have missed in particular cases is fine, but if my planned scenario hinges on an assumption that's contradicted in some obscure paragraph in the middle of a disjointed, poorly indexed mass of text that I hadn't noticed because my eyes had glazed over by the time I got to that point? Oh, you'd better believe that I'm overruling that one!

Quote from: AsenRG;957080What would you say if they asked you to describe your style?

If I could, I'd probably point them to one of my actual play blogs.