"The players want to win in spite of me. The more convinced they are that their success has been stolen from within the machinations of my game, the sweeter their success will be. Therefore, I must play the villain. My machinations must be complex, demanding insight and innovation. Yes, of course, I help the players; but I do this cleverly, in ways the players do not suspect . . . covering up my intercessions with play-acting, confusion, and a little luck on the die when it happens to not go 'my way.'"(How to Run, pg 31)
Here Alexis clearly explains what I meant when I discussed the need to be a cooperative DM.
Yes, you can 'win' D&D; It's not when you reach 20th level or 36th level or attain immortality, it's when you as player achieve a goal. The players succeed when they accomplish something they set out to do, not when they complete 'the plot' a DM has devised. And this success is only meaningful if the players feel they have earned that success. Therefore, the DM must cooperate with the players to allow them to seek out their own goals within the game and also to make the accomplishment of those goals mean something. The DM has earned that success as much as the players; It's something they've accomplished together.
If you don’t favor the players; if you let the dice fall when you throw them; then their wins will be sweet. They are still beating fate - even if you are saying “yes” more than you anticipate.
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