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Google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrariness No. In fact, games in the field from which D&D arose -- wargames -- very often have rules based on reason, derived systematically from principles mapping a "simulation" to real-world phenomena (even with quite direct statistical correlations...

A lot of stuff got pretty warped. Looking at the AD&D and later Basic books with some "mental lenses" to filter out the understanding I brought when I actually encountered them, I can see the muddle. I think it would be worse going straight to the Advanced volumes, which many people did.

Uh, yeah. Most players develop some skill, though -- some halfway decent play -- rather than dump 90 characters of 2nd level down the drain while getting all bent out of shape in worry over the cockatrice they never meet. The same strategy and tactics should be as effective versus your...

There is a reason old D&Ders sometimes refer to "the Hickman Revolution".

Followers are associated with attainment of "name" level. Recruitment of henchmen, employment of mercenaries and experts, construction of a castle, and the vast majority of human (or near-human) undertakings, are possible regardless of level. Yes, "Dungeoneering" skill is obviously there for...

Old D&D is not about "running a story" of any sort. Events occur, and afterwards we may tell of them in the form of a romantic comedy, or a cautionary parable, or whatever form of narration we may choose. What is actually going on, though, is a game. Basketball is clear enough, I think, for all...

Monsters include elves and men, and "men are the worst monsters"! The standard chance of an encounter on the 2nd-3rd levels being with a basilisk or medusa is nil. The chance of a cockatrice is 0.35%. The chance of 2-5 characters (and men-at-arms or henchmen to bring the party up to 9) is...

No, what is said is that if you don't want a game of high adventure, then you are unlikely to find D&D to your taste. The actual responses of people seem to bear out this prediction!

Those possibilities -- worlds enough, and time -- are supposed to be wide open, to the extent that they remain wide open! It is more the people who want to narrow them who are getting into difficulties. Other particulars are as adequately laid out in D&D as in most games. It is just that other...

So far from having ended, it seems only the more pervasive in WotC's scenarios from what I have seen at firsthand and from from what I have read. Certainly by the time of the first sets boxed and sold in 1974, the text explicitly treated more than the dungeons. We are meant to play. Forget...

I think it is not at at all a reflection of an inability I have no reason to suppose and plenty of reasons not to suppose. I think it is rather a reflection of the same practical practices in design that to this day produce game after game that happens to be about something. (Taken literally...

That is obvious hyperbole, but it reflects a fundamental fact: Different games are ... (wait for it) ... different! The parts fit together as a whole, and the design of the whole that informed design of the parts can be very basically and comprehensively different from one superficially similar...

I have raised no objection to that practice, in which I have engaged in myriad ways since 1976. Believe it or not, it was people "customizing D&D to their taste" who produced Rolemaster -- and Palladium, and Arduin, and many other games called by their own proper names. By however many...

What is a "normal" wandering monster table? For example? Your opinion as to what "doesn't belong" someplace is your opinion in any case, to which you are entitled. However, it is hard to know just what that opinion actually is without the answers to these questions of usage and fact.

That chance is specific to 3e, and within 3e to particular effects. Doing something to ameliorate that percentage is always an option for players. One can use strategy and tactics! For instance, if an effect has a range of 30 feet, then a small vanguard ahead of the main body might survive and...

In a WW2 game, most people with an interest in WW2 games assume the existence, for instance, or high explosives. In a D&D game, most people with an interest are already D&Ders and know very well indeed about "SoD monsters". They usually are "SoD monsters" with sleep spells! Neither have new...

Players, it's your responsibility to entertain the DM -- if the DM is Kzach. I gather that in Mr. Gygax's games, if play was boring him, then he would entertain himself possibly at the characters' expense. As for me, I tend as ref to be contented wherever the players are finding their fun.

Players, it's your "responsibility" to play.

The one-way nature of the communication is a problem. I can coordinate with other referees in a dialog that takes into account what everyone has done. A corporate line just goes its merry way regardless of what actually happens in my campaign or yours.

I agree that a unifying moment in time, a common reference point, is a more convenient basis. I seem to recall that Swords and Glory -- a new game -- was officially set a bit in "the future" of what had been presented in Empire of the Petal Throne. Maybe it gave the official story of what...