06-16-2015, 07:42 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Southern NH, USA
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GM Secrecy and Metagaming
One of the big things I noticed upon switching from DnD to GURPS about 7 years ago was the lack of any sort of monster compendium. An interesting byproduct of this is that my players, all of which own the DnD monster manual, no longer knew what sort of being they were facing. They went from a world where they knew the powers, stats, ac, and damage of every monster (or least the general idea from seeing its entry) to having no clue as to what they were facing.
This is mostly fine. The mystery is pretty great and keeps them on their toes. However, the players no longer knowing the monster forces all the math onto the GM. "I hit for 14 impaling, armor divisor 2, 4 burning follow up." The GM, if he didn't reveal the monsters DR, is now stuck mathing that out, nullifying the autocalculation feature of many GURPS aids and sheets (such as the GURPS Calculator, have you checked it out? It's insanely amazing.) What's your policy on keeping the statistics of monsters secret? What are the pros and cons in your opinion? |
06-16-2015, 07:46 AM | #2 |
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Ellicott City, MD
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
Only keep stats secret for boss-type monsters. Anything that can be encountered on a fairly regular basis in the wild should be well known, and the stats can be read in the Beginner's Guide to Adventuring.
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06-16-2015, 08:21 AM | #3 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
I don't use many "monsters", as most of the opposition is people, whose armour and equipment varies wildly. I can usually keep track of the damage calculations in my head without any particular difficulty. I will tell the players if they don't seem to be hurting an opponent.
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06-16-2015, 08:46 AM | #4 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
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I do like to give the characters a chance to figure out exactly what they're up against. After the first few shots I'll give a skill range, let them know if they guy is particularly skilled, and so on. Equipment DOES have published stats. I do like to do this dependent on per and IQ based rolls though.
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06-16-2015, 08:50 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
I have to say I always took that for granted as part of the GM's job. It isn't as if the calculations were hard; I've never felt that they slowed things up much.
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06-16-2015, 09:03 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Southern NH, USA
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
It's not too bad, but it does slow down play when using powers as you get a lot of AOE with follow up on 5 guys type stuff and they all have varying DR.
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06-16-2015, 09:10 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New York City
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
I find that in my group they have pretty much figured out the stats by the end of the first fight. After that, I let them know so they can help with calculations ect...
However, when a 'new' monster comes up they have to figure it out for themselves again. Also, if it's a variant on something they have encountered before, I make sure they know. |
06-16-2015, 09:16 AM | #8 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
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I think I'm vaguely aware of a few cases where GURPS expects you to divide two-digit figures by a non-integer figure (granted, 1.5 is the least bad non-integer figure there is to divide by, after 0.5 and 0.33 and 0.25, but still...), which strikes me as quite error-prone in addition to being mental-labour-intensive, but if that started being relevant for me, I'd just use a spreadsheet to create a lookup table for the results. Or if (and that's quite likely to be the case) it's the same 3 or 4 usual suspects that keep rearing their complexicated heads, then I'd just use a pocket calculator the first few times and then be able to remember the results after that. |
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06-16-2015, 09:18 AM | #9 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
"Monsters" can be "people" too. Both in GURPS (including in GURPS DF), and in recent editions of D&D. It doesn't matter if the players can look up the stats of a basic Ogre in the D&D 3.0 or 3.5 Monster Manual, because this Ogre isn't a basic Ogre, it's an Ogre with 7 levels of Barbarian and 3 levels of Druid on top of that, and so many of its abilities are enhanced far beyond that of a basic Ogre.
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06-16-2015, 09:21 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: GM Secrecy and Metagaming
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