D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[pemerton]

The solution to the issue of mediocre referees isn’t to bury everything under new systems.

It’s to teach, coach, and train referees to improve their craft.

So does this mean that those of us who are not playing Gygaxian/Pulsipherian D&D are doing it wrong?

 

[pemerton]

Making new game systems and new rules is, in effect, legislating at the game level. It's not hyperbole, just trying to use a provocative term to emphasize my point.

The second sentence seems self-contradictory.

And the first is just wrong. The phrase "legislating at the game level" makes no sense. Rules for RPGs aren't laws.

 

[Bedrockgames]

NVM

 

[pemerton]

I still think forcing mechanical constraints on the GM's actions is unpleasant, and not a method I would support.

I don't think anyone supports forcing things on others in the context of voluntary leisure activities. To the extent that I don't really see why you feel the need to say this.

 

[mamba]

Ask around the thieves guild to figure out when McBribe is on duty.

could work, but is not really the same thing, ie you did not learn about this particular guard unless he happens to be McBribe

 

[pemerton]

I don't enjoy the kinds of constraints on the GMs role these game present and their players support, and I really don't like the idea that those constraints were put into place to protect players from bad actions, intended or otherwise, on the part of GMs.

Yet, as far as I know, you resolve combat in your RPGs under the constraint of mechanical systems, rather than just GM adjudication of free narration.

 

[pemerton]

I don't impose my play stye on GMs.

Who does?

 

[mamba]

So now you seem to be agreeing with me. So I don't know why you are posting as if you disagree!

I am disagreeing that the DM deciding this has to mean that we get a series of unpredictable, unforeseeable, chaotic results because the DM acts on their whim with no consistency, logic, or rationale. I am not playing with a crazy person, so I am not that concerned with putting them in a straight jacket ahead of the game

 

[Micah Sweet]

As I've said before, if I had to trust the judgment of my GMs unlimitedly, I'd never play at all. I don't trust anyone's judgement that much, including my own.

I trust my GMs enough not to feel I need the rules to make sure they're pointed in the "right" direction.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Who does?

That statement was part of a much larger paragraph