GM Secrecy and Metagaming

[D10]

Im im agreement with the policy of revealing relatively mundane information, specially after a blow or two has been exchanged.

Im all for a quicker pace in combat, and due to the sheer volume of NPCs in some battles, I feel like im doing everyone a favor if I reveal some information that would otherwise be secret, such as the enemy mage skill level at a certain spell that he is spamming, specially if hes using it at the very edge of his range.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

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.

I do things much the same way, usually saying "ping" or "ouch" depending on whether the hit's penetrated armour (and of course if there's major wounding involved that's generally visible). If a fight's lasting a long time I'll reveal after a few hits what DR the target has, and the players can take on the calculations.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by JMD

"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

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.

[JMD]

Originally Posted by whswhs

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.

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.

[Tinman]

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.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by JMD

…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.)

I know what you mean. I recently had to GM a single werewolf. It had Unliving, a Vulnerabilty to silver, and Regeneration. It's GURPS, so I could easily have used common sense when determining the actual injury caused by my player's various attacks. But, I'm more than a bit of a simulationist GM, and I know my way around a spreadsheet, so I made a spreadsheet that tracked everything.

Originally Posted by JMD

What's your policy on keeping the statistics of monsters secret? What are the pros and cons in your opinion?

I like to make my combat rolls in the open. I enjoy the look of abject hopelessness on my player's faces when I roll for a monster's attack, throw a 15, and say "that hits". :)

Also, I think allowing them to see the rolls and their consequences allows them to develop a realistic assessment of their foe's abilities over the course of the encounter, much as they would in "real life".

[ArchonShiva]

I've long reached the point in GURPS where I can imagine a creature and spontaneously ballpark what rolls should make it succeed at what action, closely enough for table play. That's ridiculously faster than adding seven barbarian levels, and more versatile.

That said, I'll inform my players after a few rolls that "They have just 7 ST", and "it's Block is, like, 15!", as they should start to guess. I'll also give rolls to know or guess these things, as appropriate - I'm especially generous about revealing resistances and hinting at vulnerabilities, because using an unusual for of attack is pretty much always way more fun than killing everything with raw damage.

[evileeyore]

I'm not one to 'hide' much. But I also don't go out of my way to ell them, or even reveal everything if they ask.

If they ask specific questions their characters should know the answers to (ie stats for common foes) I'll give it to them. If it's something they could know based on specialized skills (stats for uncommon or rare foes) they get a roll. If it's something they couldn't know, they get a "Nope" (which is damned rare).

As for plots and such, they generally know the early overarching plot line going in, for example in my currently running Kingmaker campaign:

They knew their mission would be to survey an area for future settlement and clear trade routes going through it. They also knew they'd have to deal with the bandits in the area and negotiate with indigenous residents (how so ever they chose). They also know that as they finish this mission they'll encounter some serious mission creep in the "And now you're to build a city, and then a 'kingdom', and stuff".

They don't know all the other stuff going on in the background or the final chapters. And they know me well enough to know that even if they went and read the Pathfinder Adventure Path I'm stealing the plot line from, they still wouldn't get those answers, because they've changed.

They also know that there are things that will happen or mysteries uncovered or plots or such that will never get answered. Mostly because I never bothered to have an answer, just an occurrence, a side plot, or a one-shot event to spice things up or have fun, and think some mysteries are best when unsolved.

As time goes on I'll give hints and clues ingame to show them where the plots are going, or if it looks like they aren't noticing, flat out tell them. This way we stay 'on the same page', I'm not expecting them to go one way when they decide to the other, and they aren't expecting one type of campaign that goes a different direction.

[weby]

My policy is that enemy DR is secret unless you know the enemy type, but you start to get a feel of the DR after a while in the fight.

When encountering monsters the player can roll against appropriate hidden lore to know things about the monster, then they get 1 random piece of information for success and one more for each 3 success by. Those include things like DR,HP,Attributes,Defenses,attacks and so on. I have a table for it.

Also when they hit they get feedback on resistance and defenses and so on.
Thing like "It feels that the enemy armor stopped most of your damage/almost all of the damage/about half your damage/a small part of the damage". and whatever. The same thing with things like defense "The enemy dodges your attack with ease" "The enemy just barely gets his weapon in time to parry position" and so on.

Normally it does not take many hits to get a feel for the damage or many defenses to get the feel for the defense level and so on.

But, yes in the end I do the math, I do not find that it really takes any more time than keeping tally of the hitpoints as I use a spreadsheet for the tracking anyway.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by weby

But, yes in the end I do the math, I do not find that it really takes any more time than keeping tally of the hitpoints as I use a spreadsheet for the tracking anyway.

I've always just used a pad of graph paper, and noted the number of points of injury, the location, and the functionality of each combatant. I do now have a tablet with spreadsheet functionality, but I've never really become familiar with spreadsheets to the point of using them for simple record keeping.