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Funny how they moan when I boot them, though!

Players who want to fight the GM for authority... bye bye.

My son has a Bear Totem Barbarian who took an Epic Boon for Psychic Resistance. So, yeah. :D

Indeed yes. Two of the GMs in my group run 5e, they're not interested in learning new systems. If I want to play with them - and I do - it's going to be 5e. One of them is a writer and reckons she needs to stick with 5e for financial reasons. The other is a bit lazy. :D

Personally, I GM'd D&D for 40 years and I might do so again, so while I no longer run D&D as of 2 weeks ago when my Stonehell 5e campaign concluded, I still have a keen interest in whether WoTC is looking to right the ship, or dig the hole deeper. I'm also interested in what sort of play culture...

I don't recall 4e ever saying anything like that. FWIW I'm strongly in favour of GM advice not to screw over the PCs arbitrarily, don't fridge the girlfriend, avoid bait & switch, etc. But I doubt they'll actually offer any mature advice. Making it a stop-the-bad-GM subsystem feels like a...

I'd assume upper case Champion & Knight referred to the stat blocks in Volo's and the Monster Manual. Guess I think like you. :)

I'm so fed up with WoTC I'm not even GMing 5e any more - I'm still playing in a couple 5e-2014 campaigns, one of which is the kind of "cosy roleplay" style WoTC is going for these days. And yet I still feel entitled to complain. :D

This reminds me of how the European Court of Justice interprets optional clauses in Directives... "It's an optional rule, but if you use it, you have to use it EXACTLY as we say so!" :D

Yes, and it gets said all the time! No one ever thinks about the bad players... :(

Yeah. Whether a PC stronghold gets attacked IMC depends on stuff like local threats, how well defended it is, what allies & vassals the PC or PCs have made... The Temple of Yig in my Stonehell campaign never got attacked because even the Three Eyed King could see that was impractical. The owner...

There's no curing bad players. But we don't have to cater to them. :D

Hmm. Reminds me of the player group who ragequit the campaign when an orc horde threatened their stronghold. Yeah, no.

Re games that rely on progression falling apart, hm, that makes sense for Adventure Path play. I'm running a new Shadowdark sandbox where PCs come in at 1st level and individual progression is the main aim of play. So far it seems ok; if the PCs die then the new group needs to choose easier...

Gygax later made derogatory comments indicating he was pretty hostile to "thespian" play, and very much expected players to have more of a pawn stance to their characters, as you note re White Plume Mountain. This fits with the general Wargame approach of D&D pre the Hickman Revolution.

This reminds me of the player who told me they wanted romance (with the beautiful Elf Paladin NPC) but forbade me from roleplaying it. :D

Yes. I'd add that when you're really immersed in the character, it would feel really painful to switch to an unfeeling pawn stance - "Sure rescuing my true love would be nice, but that +3 Vorpal will really raise my DPS!" or even author stance "Hmm, I as Sir Palador would like to rescue my True...

Linear adventures and campaigns (like most APs) work best when player and PC goals are aligned, and when both can feel good about what they're doing. Greed and altruism both tend to be good motivators, the latter is why we get so many "save the world" plots. Coercion is a bad motivator, eg "Save...

And when that fails you go to the Sleep spells and the Turn Undead.

I've certainly experienced players in a sandbox looking around for the quest rails with a slight air of puzzlement 😂 Conversely scene framing seems very easy for players to grasp, you get the occasional premise-rejector, but basically the kind of improv comedy and drama techniques you see on TV...