Page 743 - Buy the Numbers

A DM prides themselves on knowing how to predict and manipulate their players, but even for a group that’s really in-tune with each other, that’s not always the case.

Sometimes, as a DM, you just don’t know if your players will be hooked on your idea until you throw it out there. Sometimes they like it and you can relax a little, and sometimes they don’t and you have to be ready to skip ahead like you intended it.

And then, of course, sometimes the players get hooked on some minor detail that was never bait to begin with, but that’s already a well-documented phenomenon.

DM: So Twilight, you’ve borrowed a device that lets you measure a pegasus’s wingpower.
Twilight Sparkle: Ooh, really? How’s it work?
DM: It’s… actually just an anemometer. Not exactly cutting edge, but not the most commonly known scientific device in the world, either.
Twilight Sparkle: That’s still pretty cool! I wonder how “new” this is, considering this world’s non-magical tech level.
Rainbow Dash: Okay, but bring it back to breaking a national record and getting the ticket.
DM: Measure all the pegasi’s wingpower, add it together, and if that’s higher than 910, you’ve got a record-breaker. They’ve been training all week, so it’s time to measure them and see how they’ve improved, one-by-one!
(beat)
DM: …Aaaand I just realized that would be really boring to roleplay, so let me just… print out that… Excel… spreadsheet…