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There's always going to be a spectrum from sandiest of sandboxes to the extremist of railroads, let's say a scale of 1-10. Most published mods seem to be in the 7-8 range because to me even a very linear game still is more of a highway with certain stops planned than a railroad. To qualify as...

So for the people that prefer the dynamics of play, the principles and expectations of D&D we're just supposed to throw it all out because it's not the game for you?

With computers, there's the idea of a null value for variables. A nullable integer variable may be null and have no value, or be assigned a number. When you set that null integer to a number, even 0, you've changed the value of the variable. So? I don't use illusionism and if I suspect the...

Good grief. If the character is fighting an orc, we resolve whether the attack is successful by rolling dice. In the runes case it's been made quite clear that the player decided the definition, it had nothing to do with the player. Why is that an issue? Accept the reality of the rules.

I've had many, many DMs over the decades. If it did happen I would walk away from the table and find the organizer to explain what they had said because that's not what DM authority in D&D means. That's never happened so why should I worry about it? Might as well ask if it bothered me that...

Ah, the old canard about the slippery slope of GM authority leading inevitably to the dark pit of railroading. I guess railroading GMs exist, millions of people play RPGs after all, but to me it's always been pretty much the gamer version of Satanic panic. Lots of smoke, no fire. The bad GMs...

I'm not a fan of "stances" or really any of the other analytical terms. I say I run a sandbox campaign, but it would likely depend on whom you ask becauseit'snota randomhex crawl. So many of these terms are wishy washy enough to be almost meaningless. So I'm not the one to ask about the...

They're talking game theory lingo that everyone is just supposed to know. Anyway from What is Stance Theory? Part1 Actor Stance: The person playing a character determines the character's decisions and actions using only knowledge and perceptions that the character would have. This stance does...

It's been a long time since I read the 3e rules for climbing and they kind of represent why I don't think they really buy much. When I DMed my homebrew campaign? I decided on a DC and then had to double check the chart to see how I had to describe it. If I just said "This is a DC n" someone...

He's stated that typical D&D game is always a railroad. If I were to use the word zerbit to describe some posters and was told that unbeknownst to me "zerbit" was a derogatory word I would stop using that word. It's common courtesy. In any case he can't respond so we should drop it.

The word railroad is a very loaded pejorative and pemerton seems to redefine it to mean any game where the players can only make major changes to the fiction through their character. Then they expect everyone to understand what he means and that he doesn't really mean a controlling DM where...

Guidance just gives you a +1d4 to a skill check. If making the decision to go right or left is influenced by a perception or some knowledge check you have a slightly better chance of success. If it's just a toss of the coin it doesn't come into play.

Are you really incapable of understanding that we simply have different preferences on how the game works?

If I have lit torches in an abandoned ruin, they're typically continual flame. But even creatures with darkvision probably want to see color now and then while also not being at disadvantage on perception checks. The also want to avoid being attacked by enemies that can hide in dim light. But...

The world is created in the imaginations of the people at the table. Before the runes were encountered they literally had no meaning because you as GM had not assigned anything. After the player stated what they hoped the runes would be, the runes went from undefined to defined. The state of...

Several paragraphs down from the text I originally quoted if I remember correctly. But as I said, I don't see that it makes any real difference because it's just stating what was explained in the DMG in a different way.

From wikipedia "In tabletop role-playing games, metagaming can refer to aspects of play that occur outside of a given game's fictional universe." Frequently used for metagame knowledge such as knowing that in D&D you need to use fire to stop a trolls regeneration, it can also refer to players...

I said that sometimes there is no explanation, and none are needed. I linked to an article specifically talking about perception. That we aren't wired to notice every detail all the time. Another example If you But yes, I accept that when my character attempts an task that the character...