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While it can be a lot of work, it's part of the gig. Where I worked, the narrators didn't get paid to fix things, it was on them to get things right the first time if they didn't want to work for free to fix them. I have no idea what sorts of policies are in place elsewhere.

You're correct. The GM doesn't work for their own ego at all, their own fun. They work to make the game fun for everyone at the table. I'm sure this is your top priority, anyone who's read your posts knows it to be true.

My inclination is that as you move negative on the axis, you aren't making intentionally bad choices--making an intentionally bad character is, after all, arguably a form of optimization; it seems to me you'd just be putting less thought into the mechanics of your choices: picking abilities...

That seems like a perfect way for Strahd to die.

See, "knowing your character" doesn't seem like "optimizing" to me. I mean, maybe "use your character better, tactically" is close, or at least pointing in the direction of a kind of optimizing. Just knowing the rules that apply to your character, though--that just seems like knowing how to play...

That seems like a matter of personality or behavior, and not strictly about optimizing. I mean, it's at least as much a failure to fit with the table as someone wanting strong character-focused narrative/s when the rest of the table is there for a dungeoncrawl. (Which isn't snarking on...

It had its moments. Did a bit of a number on my reading for pleasure (which I've relatively recently gotten back) and utterly ruined me for audiobooks and podcasts. Which is more about "listening to someone talk" being "work" than any aesthetic judgment. Also, because we only got to read in like...

Fictional names/words ... yeah, they might not be able to find a good source. Real-world names and words, though, there are good sources for practically everything if you're willing (or required) to put in the effort. The company I worked for that recorded audiobooks did so under contract from...

I've seen--and done--that sort of thing in Supers play, though point-buy Supers TRPGs are their own various fishkettles. I have a druid character in in a campaign I'm running who's doing much more in the way of control/set-up stuff than direct damage; he's not being any kind of purist about it...

I was presuming this was someone competent--knowing how to play their character, maybe knowing the rules more broadly, just choosing not to optimize as hard as the other people at the table. It does say something about the attitude of a lot of self-professed optimizers, I guess, that you jumped...

Serious question: Have you ever seen a player who was the lone non-optimizer at the table, and how did they react to being asked to optimize more? Another: How far does a player have to go in the way of engaging with the mechanics before you define them as an "optimizer?" Is it in starting...

I think it's worth considering that if everyone else at the table is sitting around -2 on this axis (using your numbers) then someone showing up at +1 or +2 is going to fit in as well as Pun-Pun would at a table that was more centered on this axis. The issue is failure--in some cases refusal--to...

My thinking is that more than one villain, one time, is probably too many. At least, I'd work from that presumption and pay attention to how the players reacted. Whatever problem the recurring villain is causing/presenting if/when they come back should probably not be the same kind of problem as...

Maybe recurring villains aren't a panacea. My own feeling as a player--and as a GM--is that once the PCs have solved a problem, it should probably stay solved; and fighting the same guy again certainly doesn't feel as though anything is staying solved. My approach is to keep important villains...

I've been really happy with the write-ups my wife does from her notes. They're extensive, and as player-side write-ups, they help keep me focused on the interests and goals of the players and their characters.

I should be clear, this is on my fortnightly-ish trips to the local library of my choice. I don't go shopping for books often enough anymore to have an established pattern.

There are people who interact with--get to the fiction of--games through the mechanics. I have been and am still sometimes one. This seems like a different thing from optimizing, which is itself a thing that isn't always a problem (as I said upthread). I mean, I don't think getting to the...

(Again, bouncing off what you said ...) One of the things about (though not exclusive to) most versions of D&D that's kinda optimization-adjacent is the ability to choose how complex a character you want to play. There's a general tendency for more-complex characters to have a higher ceiling...

This is as far as I got in the thread before feeling a need to respond. Anyone who I'm repeating, please accept my apologies. (Also, @Ruin Explorer , I'm not writing this directly at you, just using your post as a bouncing-off point.) It seems to me the problem isn't optimization, as such--as...

I should start making a point to find nonfiction to read, at some point. Of course, by the time I finish browsing the fiction I usually have ten or twelve books to tote around ...