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Wrong on one count: Aragorn doesn't want the Witch-King's powers because he's smart, he doesn't want the Witch-King's powers because he's good. To expound on this, Tolkien affirmed this idea:

I like the art direction, but I don't think it fits D&D very well. The clash in imagery between plate-clad warrior trading blows with dragons and demons and floppy bunny ears doesn't work for me.

My views aren't antiquated, they're lived experiences.

Yes, but I do remember fondly the days of 3e's diplomancer and other weird skillmonkey builds.

It lessens the game. Instead of emphasizing characters, roleplay, and interaction, it pushes the game towards character sheets and numerical bonuses. That being said, it's the nature of the beast, and the game mandates it. I expect players to optimize (within reason) because it's written into...

Because D&D is a silly game, and an evil god provides a convenient foil for the heroes to strive against. The best gods are Neutral, which allows flexibility for their worship. St. Cuthbert, for instance, is one of my favorites because he can have Lawful Good servants who uphold justice and...

Colloquially, adversarial GMing is when the GM is a jerk. We can faff about trying to define it like legal scholars, but that broad definition suits me. I know it when I see it. Adversarial GMs are the kinds of fellows who brag about killing PCs, work to foil the PCs, or neener-neener the PCs...

Of course. That's why I tend to be very upfront about check difficulties and the like. I don't provide exact DCs, but I say, "You imagine this is pretty easy" (DC 12ish), or "this might challenge you," (DC 17ish), or "this will be really hard" (DC 22ish). Obviously depends on the individual PC...

I would be thrilled if my players captured a mind flayer to get a special brain power. That's the kind of initiative I like as a GM (saves me the time of coming up with an adventure). I'd give them a psionic blast, alright, and I'd give it to them good and hard.

There is no such thing as an impartial rules arbiter. Rules arbiters can attempt to be impartial (I do), but I'm not going to pretend that I'm unbiased. I have a particular GMing style that is loaded with expectations and preconceptions that color my implementation of the mechanics...

I agree with all of this, and I believe this is the intent behind the conception of player skill. This is also how I treat things in my games. The theory and practice of systems are different. There's the ideal, and then there's the real-world application, and the latter is naturally flawed...

The majority of OSR gamers do not define it in that way, instead emphasizing "cleverness" and preparation. In practice the game becomes about as much as "playing the GM" as playing the game, which is an unfortunate byproduct as to this style of play.

This has nothing to do with mechanics whatsoever.

The term "skilled play" misses the mark because the alleged "player skill" relies almost entirely on the GM's subjective interpretation of the fictional world. Something that is "skillful" in the eyes of one GM might be considered foolhardy by another. As an example, let us say that a player...

This is correct. Good rules can't fix a bad GM, but good rules provide clarity and provide tools to better GMs. A GM who "abuses his authority"--a vague phrase, but I think @Chaosmancer is coming at it from the angle of "disempowering the players," or perhaps more bluntly, "screwing the...

Fixed. Millennial Boomers cannot into technology.

There's a clear difference 'tween the two, and the original post is clearly a case of distrusting the GM to adjudicate fairly. If a player is "system curious," I'm happy to to discuss mechanics (nothing I like more than "talking shop" about RPGs)...outside of the game session. Teaching mechanics...

You can fudge the dice if you want. I do not fudge dice rolls in my game.

I consider fudging to be cheating. Yeah, technically the GM can do whatever, and technically there's the rules blurb endorsing it, but it's so unsavory, so repugnant, so abominable to me that I consider it a system cheat. It's poor form and, in my opinion, a novice GM's tool that should be...

D&D doesn't need more casters. D&D needs more non-casters. I'm talking about guards. I'm talking about scouts. I'm talking about knights. I'm talking about watchmen, assassins, thieves, trappers, archers, barbarians, berserkers, cavaliers, mercenaries, beastmasters, shieldmaidens, outriders...