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Thanks for the answer. Of course—nuance is always part of the conversation. I agree. While I didn’t speak specifically about real-life tragedy earlier, this falls under what I consider essential: a referee must practice good leadership. And that always takes precedence over campaign structure...

You say my behavior can’t support a general approach to play, but actual play is the only meaningful testbed we have. What I’m describing isn’t a personal quirk, it’s a structured method built on various techniques and methodologies. It’s reproducible, teachable, and has worked with many groups...

My point was about good communication. That’s a misstatement. My assertion was that game mechanics can serve as a terse and structured form of communication, and that they can be used to communicate how a campaign operates. You are not giving enough information about DW or PbtA to discuss your...

Square that and take the integral and we may yet obtain true number of spirals. ;)

Good communication is never outdated. It’s the foundation upon which everything else is built when it comes to small group interactions. If communication is presented in the form of game rules, then it will be treated like game rules, regardless of intent, whether that’s 100 years ago, 10 years...

You’re seriously downplaying the player’s role in all this and focusing too much on the referee’s. In my Living World sandbox, the referee doesn’t steer play by deciding what’s important in the moment, the players do that through their choices and initiative. The magic hat, or any other object...

If it’s in the middle of a campaign, no, I wouldn’t reveal in-game secrets as a rule. But I also wouldn’t be coy about it. I’d just say, “If I talk about this, it’ll be a spoiler for things I think you’d rather discover in play.” Then we’d have a conversation from there. But honestly, that’s...

Also, in my experience, players who say “that’s what my character would do” often can’t back it up when questioned. By contrast, I’ve said multiple times that players are free to question what’s going on in the campaign, and I’m always prepared to show my work. If a decision comes from the...

“World logic” is a criterion I use to decide how NPCs behave and how I roleplay them. It’s part of how I ensure consistency, not a deflection of responsibility. Another part of World Logic involves the natural and supernatural rules represented by the game mechanics, but I realize that's not...

I think the Lost Mines of Phandelver was outstanding and it slotted nicely into my Majestic Wilderlands when the group wanted to try 5e in 2015. Made zombies terrifying again.

This is a bit of an aside, but I think one major reason D&D has remained dominant is that every edition has featured the dungeon adventure. While D&D can support many types of campaigns, the dungeon crawl has always been central, and for a new referee, that’s almost ideal. Why? Because the...

I took it as a metaphor for whatever "not fun" thing could happen in a campaign. For example, Total Party Kills.

I apologize for the confusion, I muddled the explanation in my earlier reply and made it seem like the magic hat example had been introduced previously. It hadn’t, so sorry for the confusion. Yes, players don’t usually see my tables or notes normally. But the goal isn’t to disclose exact odds...

The flaw in your argument is that it incorrectly attributes the issue to the “loose hand” itself, when the real problem is a breakdown in communication. Yes, mechanics can be an effective and terse way to convey how things work, whether it's what a character can do, the abilities of a monster...

What you're forgetting in your equation is that the players know there’s a 50% chance they’re getting a bag of poo if they attempt something on Valentine's Day. You're describing an event table, and the magic hat in my example works exactly the same way. Both involve a pre-defined set of...

Outside of combat, it is most certainly is. It is not quite as freeform as OD&D, but fairly close. And like I said in the review too bad that Wizards didn't follow their own advice in their followup products. Rating the DMGs (2009)

It’s important to recognize that this is a two-way street. What you’re describing highlights real problems that can originate with a referee, but that’s only half the equation. The other half is: how do we tell when a player is being unreasonable toward the referee? In my leadership training...