Obvious Go!

Even though I've spent most of my RPG sessions as a GM, I've also set on the other side of the screen for a few times, and one of the most memorable things I've learned is: Players don't think about obvious stuff.

I'll tell an anecdote. Our party was resting in an inn, when we were woken up at night by a strange noise coming from the attic. First things first, we get the innkeeper, which turned out to be inconsequential, which is why I forgot what happened with him. The entrance to the attic was through a trap door in the ceiling, but the ceiling was a bit too high for us. So we spend about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get through the trap door (by having others lift someone else, poking it with a sword, getting a grappling hook etc), until I finally got the idea of getting a chair from one of the rooms to stand on.

Looking back at this scene, I then asked myself "Isn't that the very first thing you'd do if you can't reach the ceiling?" Is playing RPGs so removed from reality that people can't think in terms of it? That they have to go for the weird ideas first? Remember, our entire party didn't figure this out for 10 minutes.

So maybe we're just all really weird, but should I be GM again, I'll just remember that sometimes, you just have to word things in a very simple, easy-to-follow way, so that players don't poke their eyes out while opening a door.

Qi