Dare to DM

The trick is that they never “don’t see anything”.  I mean, unless they somehow get into a situation where they’re having complete sensory deprivation, they experience something.

What I do is explain to everyone what each character percieves in order of ascending checks.  That way, I can paint the fullest picture possible without revealing whether they’ve percieved everything or not.

For example, let’s say Druegar got a 12, Bleepin got a 15, Jace got a 24 and Ritzu rolled a 1.  I might narrate thusly:

“As you guys walk through the crowded marketplace, you are assualted with the sights and smells of Stonewall at midday.  Ritzu, the smell of smoked meat from a nearby stall makes your stomache rumble, driving you almost completely to distraction.  Druegar and Bleepin, you two notice that several of the local shops seem to have been closed for the day; there is visible damage to the storefronts, yet not much of a guard presence in this area.  Jace, you catch a glimpse of movement reflected in one of the broken windows.  It seems that someone is watching you from the inside.”

Maybe Jace saw everything that was relevant to see in the this scene… or maybe if he’d only gotten a 25, he’d have noticed a young scamp following them on the rooftops.  How is he to know?

As much as possible, I try to apply the internal logic of the creatures to the situation.  I decide what their tactical priorities are going to be at the beginning of each encounter.  The way I see it, part of the challenge of combat is discovering the tactics your enemy is using and finding a way to counter them.

For example, if the creature is a hungry monster who wants to eat someone, they’re going to go after whoever looks the most vulnerable.

If the creature is an enraged beast, it’s probably going to go for the biggest or flashiest opponent on the field.

If the PCs are fighting a goup of intelligent and experienced combatants, they’re going to attack in whatever fashion gives them the best tactical advantages (utilizing flanks, terrain features, etc).

Enemies who are familiar with the dangers of magic might target the spellcasters first.

Some creatures will go after whoever has damaged them the most, or even whoever is the closest.

Some opponents have a specific beef with one of the PCs, so of course they’re going to target that specific person!

I was reading one story where the apocalypse was impossibly-rising oceans. Like, water is appearing from *waves hand* the Earth's crust or something, and literally all dry surface land on Earth is going to become underwater in X years. Part of the story was about a giant research project to invent FTL to send a few hundred humans to a nearby star which might have a habitable planet. You know what they were hoping to find? A planet with liquid water. Their plan was to descend from their starship and restart civilization using just the tools they brought with them, on a world with no life and no breathable air and the wrong gravity and the wrong temperate and the wrong sunlight and the wrong day-night cycle, just because it had liquid water. You know where else has liquid water? The flooded Earth you just abandoned. Instead of researching starship technology, you could have spent that time loading up all the same civilization-restarter tools into boats.