My Life As A Gamer: Devaluing Intelligence Is Also A Mistake

Another thing I find is a problem with gamers whose norms regarding RPGs come from videogames or later RPG iterations that drifted--even disavowed--the wargaming roots: the failure to appreciate the value of intelligence.

No, I don't mean the raw processing power of one's brainmeats. I mean tradecraft. I mean espionage.

"That's not fun. I had no idea that (X) would do (Y)!"

Every time you hear that complaint, chances are good that it's borne of a player disdaining the need to gather intelligence and maintain surveilance on a target. It's one thing to go into an unknown area and explore. It's another to blunder about without a care for who or what you encounter.

There is no clearer example of this than vampire hunting. Due to the risks involved, not going out of your way to gather intelligence on the vampire and keeping it under surveilance before moving against it is a sure way to end up getting level-drained to death and raised as an undead thrall under the vampire's control.

Yet we've all seen or heard stories of stupid players that did just that, assuming that they could just brute-force their way through it all so long as the Cleric wasn't out of the fight.

My fellow gamers, guess who's on top of the vampire's Kill Order.

You don't see this care for intelligence in Fake D&D and its derivatives. Relying on narrative logic, operational information is spoonfed to players when it is not invented on the spot Because Plot, so players come to expect that they don't need to do any legwork or devote any resources to figuring out what or who the problem is or how to deal with it. They expect that they can show up cold and stupid and bulldoze their way to victory, and--as a class--they get mad when that is not the case.

This is another tantrum that needs to be slapped down, not catered to.

Make the players do legwork. Don't save them from the consequences of their fuckups; let Bob get eaten if he goes that monster without knowing anything about it. You're not there to entertain them; you're there to run the game with the utter indifference of Crom, doing naught but ajudicating gameplay. Players are responsible for their own entertainment.

Players that get this will adjust. They will start asking relevant questions. They will start taking relevant actions. They will learn that vampires are to be dealt with during the day and avoided after dark, preferably by holing up someplace proofed against them. They will learn that the Cleric is the primary target and organize their operations accordingly. They will bring the gear needed to put down the vampire and keep him down until destroyed.

Goofus ends up an undead NPC that gets Turned or Destroyed by Gallant because Goofus didn't do his legwork. Gallant went and got a Paladin to back him up, equipped their henchmen with protective talismans, and had a Magic-User on tap to help with both access to and egress from the vampire's lair. Macho Mandalf recently posted about this sort of thing, so see his report for this in action.

Regress Harder, and remember that Real D&D is a wargame at its core- and therefore so are all real RPGs. Appreciate, respect, and value intelligence and tradecraft- or end up on the wrong end of a go at the Assassination Table because some enemy caught your guy with his pants down (i.e. Helpless). Those that #winatRPGs are those that master the acumen of waging war, and winning before you fight--intelligence--is the supreme way of war.