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The Compendium does the same thing, though it is behind a paywall. That said, the argument that a DDI subscription is something every D&D DM ought to have (and probably every player, too) is a pretty strong one.

This is a really, really unreasonable opinion.

Lanefan essentially demanded that the core rulebook be used as-is because it's official. Errata (and rule updates, for that matter) is a net good. It improves the game. Use it, or don't. But stop griping about it. Incorporating errata is not the nightmare that a lot of people are trying to make...

The "pure evil" bit is a pretty clear indication that there's a sort of reactionary mentality at work here. I don't think you're going to make much headway against it, regardless of the strength of your argument.

As I mentioned earlier, I feel an online tool might be the best place for random encounter tables (and, indeed, other random elements as well) to reside. Imagine being able to select a set of criteria that describe the environment you're going for (as well as the level range, if you'd prefer)...

First, we're talking encounters, not overarching story. I know that one can often have an impact on the other, and that encounters can sometimes have strong story elements themselves. But if you're trying to tell me that resorting to what is essentially D&D Encounter Mad Libs for your story is...

If you feel I've ignored what you've said, please point out what I've ignored. I don't recall purposefully skipping over posts, and it's possible that some have gotten lost in the seven pages of this thread. That was a response to people who were saying things like, "I want to be surprised by...

The DM's responsibility is to control the extent of the game world that extends beyond the players' sphere of influence. This is done because a DM being in charge of a game world tends to make for a more enjoyable experience - in tabletop roleplaying gameplay - than having no DM. Now, you don't...

Why is it important that we collectively decide what D&D is about, or what D&D feels like? Such discussions seem like little more than a futile attempt to come up with accepted excuses for trashing something you don't like without actually having to grapple with the burden of describing exactly...

Do you understand that having a single outcome of a single event set in stone - for instance, the death of the big bad evil guy at the end of the campaign - is different from having every outcome of every single event set in stone? Do you understand that there is room for the players to have a...

Oh, leave that crap at the door. We're here to discuss the upcoming edition of D&D, and that includes advocating for things we do and don't want to see in it. So sure, your way may be equally as "valid" (whatever the hell that means) as mine, but that doesn't mean that I want your way to be...

That's sort of an odd statement. If you're not controlling the game world, who is? The players certainly aren't; traditionally, their sphere of control doesn't extend much further than their respective PCs, and whatever they are capable. So the rest falls to you, though it sounds like you want...

Actually, I'm implying that a DM who would rather be surprised by his dice ("Oh my god, a 93! What a surprise!") than give his players the best game experience he can is a poor DM. I think that there are good DMs, average DMs, and poor DMs, and every sort of DM in between. And I think certain...

Are they reacting that way because they don't like the idea of pre-designed encounters, or because they like the encounters that happen to be random more? It strikes me that this is probably a case of players rebelling against the idea that what happens to them is predetermined. It's always...

Unless you're rolling random encounters in full view of the players, there is no requirement that they be aware that the encounter was random. The players are blind to what goes on behind the screen. Ideally, there will be no way for them to tell whether an encounter was random or pre-designed -...

If the DM is more interested than being surprised by his own dice than by delivering a well-crafted scenario for his players and letting them do the surprising, then you're right. The situation I outlined probably isn't ideal for him.

Me, and nearly every decent DM I've ever met. Sure you do. You derive fun from the players having fun. No, they don't. D&D is not a traditional game, and lacks some of the elements associated with traditional games. No. There is no set win condition for the game of D&D. As long as you...

Oh, cool! So crits happen less frequently in 4e.

A good encounter generator will be based on things like, "What will make for an enjoyable play experience?" In all seriousness, if you created a random encounter generator that accurately mimicked a believable environment, one of two things would be true: a) it would be too dull and tedious to...

Because DMs are not playing a game, in the traditional sense. DMs do not have a game theory win condition. They do not have a game theory lose condition. Their role is to facilitate the enjoyment of the game - and, I would suggest, they are primarily there to facilitate the players' enjoyment...