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Some players appreciate their characters being challenged, but not themselves being challenged. Its the old wanting to play character substantially different from self idea. In that the challenge in a tactical wargame is always the player being challenged, rather than the units. Indeed...

The idea that DM fiat is good for players because it allows unlikely (but cool) plans to work. The fiction comment comes from that Discworld quote - "Million to one chances pop up nine times out of ten". The heros come up with an impropable, desperate plan and it works, not due to the inherent...

True, but those numbers are generated and manipulated by a person. Plus in some cases it's more appropriate to challenge the entity created and defined by those numbers, depending on how much you want the play to be about the players-as-characters rather than the players-as-themselves. Theres...

Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. How's your mind-reading these days? :) Yes, I'd agree, not every encounter should be winnable through direct conflict - its notable that this is pretty much the DM advice given in every DMG I've read. The gotcha's I prefer though are ones where the...

Absolutely. Thats included in "other information gathering methods". Still though, its a matter of DM style as to whether or not they are useful in obtaining your objective and can be considered good play or not. They may simply confirm what you've already figured out, which can be seen as...

Yeah, thats pretty much my point about reading the DM's mind (or knowing their style, if you prefer). In your game, good play is deciphering the engravings and following the clues, in my game, good play is ignoring the engravings and using other information gathering methods. A player going...

I think this is actually part of what Remathallis was looking for - the enemy monster is out of (easily) beatable range, but not massively so. Part of the challenge is letting people step in a huge mess *but realise they have done so and make corrective action*. If your tunneling monster had...

Its worth noting at this point that this is a guideline thats not presented in any edition of the DMG. -edit To expand on that a little further, there are still strategic considerations even if it were - avoiding a patrol you may be able to destroy might mean that they are less likely to be...

This is all fine, but its the kind of thing that has traditionally lead to accusations of pixel-bitching and overly cautious behaviour. This is particularly not aided by "Gotcha" monsters and traps seemingly deliberately designed to confound information gathering techniques. If you spend the...

Lammasu image chaos dwarf image by BilboBaggins on Photobucket

I'll certainly agree that 90% of emotional response to the game comes from those hazards ;)

See, thats not true either. Our first level fighter will be hitting a level 7 monster on something between an 11 and a 15 depending on role (AC = level + 12-16 vs +8 attack bonus), or pretty much exactly what you'd need to hit those 1e ACs (AC 5-3 vs THAC0 18 = 13-15). Its true that he'd be...

Fair enough. We'll agree to disagree then. I agree, there are different sorts of balance and you need to find the one thats right for you/your group, but relying on the skill and mutual understanding of the players can be hazardous at best, particularly if you are introducing new players...

This just isn't true though. Assuming some basic magic gear. A typical 4e fighter will have 29 hit points at first level and 65 at seventh. His attack bonus will be +8 at first level and +12 or 13 at seventh. A comparable 1e fighter will have on average 8 hit points at first level and 53...

Typo/terminology failure on my part there, blame the flu :). That post is for a game thats balanced at the design stage. If you are balancing at the play stage *and are concerned about play balance* (theres no reason you'd have to be, and if you aren't thats fine) then you have to worry about...

Familiar with Wushu? Does a good impression of flip a coin and you are pretty much free to set and frame as you choose. The point with restricting the mechanics and systems available is that it allows you to better predict what the capabilities of a given group of characters given a small...

Ok, I think I'm understanding where you are coming from here. What seem to be saying is that a desire for balance as part of the rules structure limits the design elements that can be part of that rules design, correct? So balance being important at the design stage means that the game faces...

Playing a good fighter because your assume that this will net you the most benefit in the game -> Metagaming or not? Picking +1 to combat because your diplomat has been involved in lots of fights -> Metagaming or not?

Quite. The point was made in response to RC, that somehow the design assumptions that go into 1e make it free of limitations in a way that say, 4e is limited. You demonstrate quite clearly that this is not the case - both games have limitations for balance which require running the game in...

What if the envision their characters to be skilled fighters?