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That's such a pointless and silly question that I've got to imagine that it wasn't asked in good faith. C'mon. I feel like you're trying really hard to not understand what's being said so you can argue semantics. I mean, as soon as I said something to that effect earlier, you immediately...

Gary said a lot of things. This one in particular is so fraught with blatantly obvious ulterior motives that it's impossible to repeat it with a straight face. That said, I'm sure that he was sincere when he said that he didn't particularly love Tolkien, and didn't mean to emulate Tolkien very...

I said technically no, but I voted yes. I've said that and then quoted it again, and now I'm explaining it yet a third time. I don't know how else to say it. D&D was always based on Gygax's own Medieval historical wargaming hobby. This is, if it wasn't already, immediately obvious before, when...

I voted yes. That said, the data from the poll will be useless, because too many people will skim the poll without reading his explanation of what he means by "steampunk." That said, it's perhaps better or more interesting to talk about the ways in which and reasons why D&D no longer resembles...

Lots of people do think that, but they're wrong, unless their idea of "fruitful conversations" is interminable purity spiraling about semantics. I knew what he meant by "steampunk". The fruitful conversation is to be had by engaging what he meant rather than devolving into pedantry about the...

Technically no, because there is neither steam powered technology, nor the punk theme of dystopian, street level urban rebellion, or anything that's specifically "steampunk." That said, your points are entirely valid, and nitpicking about labels is for losers. I voted yes.

That's a tough question. I play a 5e game, with mixed rules as desired, but not really by my intent; I joined a group after relocating, so I'm playing what they're running. It's hard to imagine what would bring me back to D&D again after all these years, as a preferred game as opposed to just...

And yet variations on equally simple situations are exactly what most of the RPG hobby is based on. If everything is complicated, then that's tedious after a while. Not everything is complicated. Most things aren't. I like complicated scenarios too, but the are more like the spice or maybe the...

Indeed, and given the crowd here specifically, there's no reasonable discussion to be had on the issue. Few people anywhere are conversant in the last twenty years of scientific literature on the subject, nor are they motivated to become so—although they are certainly opinionated on the subject...

Explain to me the complicated and nuanced situation inherent in: the players found a map that tells them where both great treasure and a major villain are located. I think it's pretty much a given that except for the really ornery cusses, they're going to go check that location out.

In this scene, maybe. For now. In behavioral biology it's becoming much more popular. ~80% of our behavior is genetic. As anyone who breeds dogs, cats, horses, etc. already knew before it was repeatedly confirmed for people too. In any case, trends are often assumed to be ongoing into...

Depends on the game. I prefer paper sheets, real dice, and theatre of the mind combat. Zoom or Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, etc. are more than adequate for my "VTT" needs. But if I were playing a more tactical game, then maps and tokens on it would probably be important. But since I prefer...

The existence of exceptions, outliers and many data points that are all over the place does not invalidate the existence of patterns in the data. Not to speak for DEFCON 1, but he doesn't have to be right all of the time about this to still identify it as a useful pattern to talk about.

Insisting that 2 + 2 = 4 is taking away my mathematical agency and is a railroad.

Stop objecting. You're not the correctness police. That's why discussions fail to get off the ground. What do you want to accomplish here? Bully everyone into writing at a technical manual level, or actually have discussions about the content? The first is what you're kind of inadvertently...

There are all kinds of things you can do to influence pacing and tension during a session without having a plot. I routinely use all of them. If I know, as a GM, that there's a vampire near the PCs, for example, then I can drop all kinds of hints, foreshadowing and other things to ratchet up the...

Are you not following what people mean when you say these things, or are you just taking exception to the idea that the words aren't being used "correctly?" My wife will tell me that I sometimes (more in that past) had a tendency to compulsively correct little nitpicky and pedantic details...

Indeed. If my players enjoyed a lot more tactical depth and drawn-out combat, which I don't really care much about, then I'm not likely to adapt to their preferences very well, and I'd be better suited for not running for this group. This isn't always possible, because most people play with...

Other than the sample ones that I listed in the post you were responding to? I agree that this is the only useful (to me) interpretation of a railroad. A railroad doesn't really occur at the product level, it occurs in game. A good GM doesn't railroad his players, and his sessions don't...

Yeah, like I said. Everyone doesn't have to railroad everyone else into accepting their assumptions. Just present them and ignore the people who quibble with them. The only reason this noise is generated is because people don't let it go and refuse to engage with off-topic pedantry. I'm...