The Order of Might and killing something with a Good Idea (specifically trolls)

[DrLame]

I read a thread last night about goals, and this thread made me think of something Thor said in it. Thought it might help, because as soon as you started describing the situation you have with the troll it made me think of how an area should feel organic, and not like you have a level with minions in your way to reach the boss with everything being a required encounter. A living place isn’t like that, it has some sort of ecosystem with the players barely brushing against some parts, and getting submerged in others with tangible effects rippling out from their actions.

@Thor

I can unpack a little: I pay attention to beliefs and instincts (especially for characters that last more than one session), but I actively discourage players from telling me their goals.

I view my job as fairly representing the play location (generally the dungeon), the inhabitants and their reactions to the characters’ actions. They shift naturalistically in response to the characters’ actions, but not in response to the players’ actions. For example, if I’ve put giant frogs in the moat near the entrance to the dungeon and the players cleverly avoid that entrance, skirt the moat and enter the dungeon another way, I won’t move the giant frogs to another location to force the encounter. The players earned their success. On the other hand, if the characters wind up making a lot of noise and warn the monsters of their approach, I’ll have the monsters react – moving to more defensible locations and concentrating their numbers.

In the same way, I don’t want to tempt myself to ramp up the opposition just because a player found a clever way to approach her goal and bypassed the trap or monsters that I thought they would struggle with.

Anyway, sorry this isn’t exactly %100 on topic but I thought this might help for your design ideas. It sounds to me like you’re already on the right path with clever players being able to defeat the troll, but unsure of the footing because so many games tend to ‘force the encounter’ that anything else feels unnatural.