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This. I believe I am paraphrasing from Brian Dunning of Skeptoid, but it's really just Occam's Razor at work: "The simplest explanation is probably the correct one, and my explanation has one word: MONEY."

For some of us it is, though ^^; That part really is a matter of group style - since I invest lots of time, effort and emotion into a character, I'm not interested in a game where they're likely to die to a bit of bad luck. In the same way that I don't appreciate a meaningless death in a book or...

Most assuredly, I have not. The truly bad GM I have dealt with didn't think she had a problem, even after each game eventually ended in three-to-four-hour discussion of why things weren't working out (I understand she is now running with a smaller group including her husband, which is probably a...

Gosh, that's not what I remember ^^; There were threads all over the newsgroups about how horrible the new rules were. My local gaming club was awash with controversy. Halfling paladins? "Feats"? "Skills"? NEVER! Hell, I remember defending it against the 2e/AD&D diehards exactly the way I...

I haven't been too strict about it, but my players don't usually abuse this sort of thing. There are lots of plot-based reasons that might be appropriate to keep them moving, depending on their goals: Somebody/thing is chasing them. Either it pursues them further into the dungeon so they can't...

Regarding the OP, I don't think any of the examples there are too dark. Even the ones that you say are too dark. If I was going to give you advice, it would mostly be along the lines of "don't resort to girls/children whenever you need a victim", because I get really tired of that - I feel like...

Yup. Hence my policy. There is a corridor, there is a bathroom, there is an outside if necessary. GO. Nobody will miss you for the next twelve seconds, I promise. Honestly, the ACT is not something to be embarrassed about, but making the rest of us sit around in it is >3>; And by the way, I've...

Sure, but it's every bit as incorrect to say that none of these examples are legitimate. Chances are that plenty of us are providing one example of a broader behaviour pattern. My friend the novelist didn't just have that problem over the course of the entire campaign (eventually it ended...

Without meaning to insult you, I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole. However, I am not your target audience; I am very much a roleplayer, but to me, the mechanics I use to craft my character are integral to expressing their background/personality/style. I wouldn't enjoy a premade character...

Novelists. The only GM I've had who I just couldn't stick with was of the "I really want to write this as a novel" type, with a side order of "please fawn over all my broken-baby-bird-female-NPCs". She wasn't a bad writer at all, but the gaming table is just NOT the place for your magnum opus...

I probably would have a lot of trouble gaming with somebody I couldn't properly communicate with. Verbal communication is just too important to the way my group plays... grammar nazi or not (and I am), I just can't see it working out.

* Hold it in. NO EXCUSES. If I can do it you can do it. * The host is not responsible if you expose your toes to the ferrets.

My XP button is on cooldown, so instead: THIS. Sometimes a GM is just wrong. The alignment rules are not without ambiguity, but they are not so muddy that we can't easily identify "you must constantly break every rule or become lawful" as being wrong. ...And as far as Batman is concerned...

Thanks, that's quite satisfying XD I was leaning to "ray-ge-sia" myself, but that was my second guess.

Sure. I'm not about to disagree with that. However, it's evident that they are still useful in spite of those facts, because we use them almost ubiquitously. (Collectively, of course, personal standards obviously vary wildly.)

Well, why would you call yourself a "christian" or a "democrat" or a "skeptic" rather than just acting in that fashion? Labels are fundamentally useful to humans. In D&D as in life, as long as you remember that the content defines the label - and not the other way about - labels have quite a...

Baccano! A series where the subject of who deserves to be the "main" character is such a debatable topic that the narrator/framing device characters actually discuss it briefly in the opening. A more recent work by the same author, Durarara!, seems to have a distinct main character in the first...

Unfortunately it's really a matter of opinion. Of course, those who think random slipshod dungeons are better have the wrong opinion, but it's illegal to imprison them for it. In all seriousness? My group really appreciate a structural design that makes sense. Why is that grate there? Where is...

Additional Late-Breaking Speculation Please forgive my thread necromancy... *waggles hands* Woogy woogy woogy! I've started on "localising" Shelter this week, and now I'm curious about this too. They way it read to me, I thought that the beacon was what made teleportation safe for the Aurites...

I like alignments - I find them to be a useful shorthand to describe a character's actions over time. I felt that the 4e alignment system maligned one of my favourite NPC alignments, however - I always enjoyed lawful neutral characters, and I don't think any of the 4e alignments represents it in...