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The Alexandrian has a post that I agree with, Whither the Dungeon? – The Decline and Fall of D&D Adventures. Excerpt: I’ve talked in the past about how D&D 5th Edition doesn’t teach DMs how to run dungeons. In fact, it doesn’t even teach them how to key a dungeon map (or provide an example of a...

I hope you recognize that the sentence in bold is a non sequitur. This is where it matters substantively, as discussed upthread, that "a crude, low-quality model" should not be conflated with "not a model". The GM is not forced to decide between the four options proposed by you: gamism...

I agree with everything you say except perhaps this paragraph. I don't think Mearls et al. made a conscious choice not to explain how to create or use a map key, for instance[1]. I think they grew up playing D&D and had internalized that knowledge to such a degree that they literally never...

It's certainly not the first time I've heard the argument made, and I tend to agree. Quoting Whither the Dungeon? – The Decline and Fall of D&D Adventures I’ve talked in the past about how D&D 5th Edition doesn’t teach DMs how to run dungeons. In fact, it doesn’t even teach them how to key a...

What you got out of it was very different then from what I intended to say.

If you'd like to start a thread on Heiseneffects in RPGs I'm game, but there's been quite a lot of thread drift already and for now I'm resisting the temptation to get into it.

Redundancy would be appropriate in this case though, and also in some other cases e.g. Create Thrall really ought to explain what "charmed" condition does and doesn't do because it's so absolutely vital to the ability. I'd accept a page reference but in this case redundancy would be a lesser...

Out of curiosity: when you say "traditional game" how do you mean "traditional"? Is that a reference to Six Cultures of Play and the classic/trad/Nordic LARP/storygame/OSR/neo-trad distinction?

Expertise in the problem domain is still very helpful. E.g. hanging out on r/WarCollege listening to military enthusiasts analyze past and current wars from an operational and strategic perspective is affecting the way I will approach GMing war scenarios in the future. I'll be better at...

But that is blorb-style play, which @loverdrive has said sounds interesting and might enable skilled play. She just hasn't ever played that way (yet), where the GMs don't allow themselves to add more goblins/etc. if they feel like it.

I dunno, maybe? I mean, the proximate cause to my post was thinking about a player's reaction during an intro scenario I ran yesterday to teach him the basics of DFRPG combat. He had knocked down a zombie and broken its arm, and managed to just barely hit it in the head (needed 8 or less on 3d6...

I don't think I am doing (A) at all. The characters might have beliefs about trolls. Those beliefs might or might not be accurate. Even if they are accurate, they might or might not be accurate for the right reasons. Just because a character decides to burn a troll with fire doesn't necessarily...

More like I haven't changed my trolls to subvert player knowledge, and am studiously neutral on the question of what the characters know on this subject or have discussed among themselves while the players and myself weren't watching. (If I want the characters to definitely know something I...

(A) I mentioned a couple posts upthread that I don't think players need to have bought into the notion of simulationism per se in order for it to be simulationism--you don't need to explain GDS to them. They do need to be okay with the implications or they'll have a bad time, e.g. expecting the...

I feel compelled to channel Toot-toot from the Dresden Files: Sanya listened in bemusement at first, but then blinked, slid his sword away, and held up both hands. He said something that sounded somber and very formal, and only then did Toot’s ire seem to abate. He said one or two more...

I thought of another thing I like about simulationist GMing: it makes players' genuine emotional reactions to what happens more enjoyable for me to witness. "Holy moly, I can't believe it!" feels really good to hear when I didn't pull any strings to make "it" happen, aside from initial scenario...

If lightning bolts in heavy rain always strike houses I'd get a little bit suspicious that something is at work besides dispassionate extrapolation. I'd get even more suspicious if lightning bolts in heavy rain strike houses only when the players are watching. I realize that that's not an...

For pemerton's sake let me clarify that my, FormerlyHemlock's, stance on the bolded point is the opposite: to the extent that the GM's motivations are solely about faithful extrapolation within-world and not with metagame factors D or G, the game is in S mode. I've honestly never given much...

If you're trying to say "that makes it less simulationist" then yes, in terms of the threefold model, attention to fairness makes the game more gamist. That's not inherently good or bad! Once we are talking about the same thing we can discuss how much of that thing we all enjoy; whether ruthless...

Bolded point is so very true. I lose track of which meta-game concerns we're discussing at (A) but I want to emphasize that the absence of metagame motives (simulationism) isn't inherently virtuous! It's just a metric. 100% absence of metagame concerns isn't necessarily better than 20% absence...