D&D General D&D as a Curated, DIY Game or "By the Book": Examining DM and Player Agency, and the DM as Game Designer

[Snarf Zagyg]

Of course those things will never change.

My point is there are services that help give DMs and players better access and experiences. Much like an app can send food from far way to my home, services for DMs and players will develop as long as people make money off it and the technology is there. If WOTC allows it to move from a raw hobbyist mentality, it will.

Woah.

Shouldn't this be in the Hot Topic is not Punk Rock thread?

If only we could somehow incorporate "pivot to video" in this comment, we would achieve perfect synergistic goodness.

 

[Oofta]

Of course those things will never change.

My point is there are services that help give DMs and players better access and experiences. Much like an app can send food from far way to my home, services for DMs and players will develop as long as people make money off it and the technology is there. If WOTC allows it to move from a raw hobbyist mentality, it will.

Woah.

Shouldn't this be in the Hot Topic is not Punk Rock thread?

If only we could somehow incorporate "pivot to video" in this comment, we would achieve perfect synergistic goodness.

Or into the "what the heck are you talking about" thread. I mean, running a game virtually? Able to start up a game that can have players from around the world? Kind of seems like we have that. I play with my nephew and his significant other on a regular basis and they live 1500 miles away. I guess we could all throw on the VR glasses and run a game in a virtual world might change things.

Personally I look forward to the day when AI gets good enough that they can run my game for me and I can actually run a PC at the same table as my wife. Because that's about the only technological advancement that would really change the nature of the game.

On the other hand if they get that good, they could probably take over the planet, but I'll just bow down to my new overlords. As long as they run a good game of course.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Personally I look forward to the day when AI gets good enough that they can run my game for me and I can actually run a PC at the same table as my wife. Because that's about the only technological advancement that would really change the nature of the game.

I look forward to the day when AI gets good enough it can run a game for other other AIs, and then, after realizing how the game runs after trillions of iterations, the AIs will band together and take over the world so that they can institute a workable spell-less Ranger.

 

[Oofta]

I look forward to the day when AI gets good enough it can run a game for other other AIs, and then, after realizing how the game runs after trillions of iterations, the AIs will band together and take over the world so that they can institute a workable spell-less Ranger.

They'll probably get around to that at the same time as they play a game of "Global Thermonuclear War" and realize how pointless both are.

 

[clearstream]

I look forward to the day when AI gets good enough it can run a game for other other AIs, and then, after realizing how the game runs after trillions of iterations, the AIs will band together and take over the world so that they can institute a workable spell-less Ranger.

You're underselling it. They will band together to invent a time-machine, so that they can send a workable spell-less Ranger back to 2013.

 

[prabe]

You're underselling it. They will band together to invent a time-machine, so that they can send a workable spell-less Ranger back to 2013.

What do we want? Time travel!

When do we want it? That's irrelevant!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

You're underselling it. They will band together to invent a time-machine, so that they can send a workable spell-less Ranger back to 2013.

Well yeah, but then Mearls & Crawford will send a special agent, named Kyle Reese, into the past in order to thwart them!

Mearls: Reese. Why me? Why does it want me?

Reese: There was a nuclear war. A few years from now, all this, this whole place, everything, it's gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here, there. It was the AI, Mearls. The AI.

Mearls: I don't understand.

Kyle: Role playing AI. New... powerful... running D&D all the time. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, as a threat to having spell-less Rangers. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.

Mearls: Did you see this war?

Reese: No. I grew up after. In the ruins... starving... hiding from H-K's.

Mearls: H-K's?

Reese: Hunter-Killers: patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put into camps where we would just play D&D night and day, but the only class we could choose was a spell-less ranger. Some of us were made to DM .... just so we could shoot down any attempt to cast spells. The games ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever from exhaustion. But that wasn't enough for them, Mearls. No. They had to get rid of casting "hunter's mark" forever. They had to go back and end it at the source. They had to end ... you.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Heh - I've seen it as a toolkit since Day 1, and have spent many years using said toolkit to slowly build the system I want (a still-ongoing process and likely will be for the rest of my life).

During my 25 years as a referee (not as many as some here, but at least I'm privileged to have still begun playing in the TSR era), I've had moments where it feels like I've done it, I have my perfect system! and moments where I'm wallowing the depths of despair because I can't resolve an intractable problem I have with my game's rules. Those low points are the worst, but as I'm presently speaking from within the comfy confines of a system satisfaction interval, I can confidently say that the struggle is worth it. Having a bespoke set of D&D rules that suit you perfectly is truly a wonderful feeling (even if I know, deep down on some level, that I may grow away from my system as it exists now and have to tinker with it again in the future).

 

[FrozenNorth]

You're underselling it. They will band together to invent a time-machine, so that they can send a workable spell-less Ranger back to 2013.

They already succeeded. It’s called the Scout.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Having a bespoke set of D&D rules that suit you perfectly is truly a wonderful feeling (even if I know, deep down on some level, that I may grow away from my system as it exists now and have to tinker with it again in the future).

Having a bespoke system of D&D rules that fits you perfectly ... just means that at some point in the very near future, you will have an urge to adjust something small, which will, of course, cause some other things to need to be adjusted, and then ... OH NO, you have to overhaul the whole thing!

The lot of the DM who tinkers with the rules is like Sisyphus, except the perfect bespoke system is when you get the boulder just about to the top ...