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It works like the real world. The player experiences the world through his senses and makes choices based on those stimuli. He can modify the world in modest ways. He can turn left or turn right on the road. He can't imagine a third road though that doesn't exist. When I enter a...

I'm not your slave. I am not running a game that is a lousy experience for me. I'm working up a campaign and proposing it to people and those people opt in or opt out. See we both operate in the same way to suss out who we want to DM with which is the way it should be. I will likely be...

Really? Because a human being having to stand on one foot is not anything to do with the campaign setting. If this is all you have it kind of makes my point. A game with rules is a limitation. It's better than no rules at all. Even an average game is better than no rules. You keep wanting...

I agree with most of these. In the real world there are few human abilities that are resource limited. In a fantasy world with magic they are all magical or plot coupons generally. There are though ways to bring in infrequent powers by martials but there needs to be something in game that...

One thing I've noticed is that the people who aren't bothered by it generally can't even grasp what is being talked about. They make oddball inapplicable responses like they fit what was being said. If I could figure out a way to get them to really understand what is being explained, I might...

Maybe I as DM do not anticipate every possible question that is reasonable. I do tell them sometimes as in my Diplomacy example. And yes if I think anyone with diplomacy could possibly get it wrong I will wrong. In this case, I think it was an automatic success. I said that example wasn't a...

But 40 years ago you were a unicorn. Now you are at least some reasonable sized segment of the gaming population. And I should caveat my assertions with "In my playstyle". Point noted. I do assert that my style of game depends on DM authority. If those points are not a real resource known to...

What they are calling meta, I have called plot coupon or dissociative mechanics. It is a real thing for some of us at least. We want the abilities of the characters to be known to the characters and activated by player using the characters will and not just the players will. For example, if I...

For me, historically, I never played that alignment was prescriptive except for people with divine ties like clerics and paladins. Choosing those classes meant you were choosing to play that way in my games. Most alignment based spells and magic items, I did use but typically the spells...

What I've found using established settings though is players often know the material better than the DM, and then you have problems. The players are constantly saying "that wouldn't happen in Star Trek" or whatever. That is a negative for me. It's why I don't even play Greyhawk or Forgotten...

For me it is suspension of disbelief for the purposes of enjoyment. For example when Superman, who we agree has all sorts of pre-accepted powers, flies around the world and makes time reverse, that ruined it for me. Why? Because if our world spun in the opposite direction time would not...

I'd say there is no such thing as a good or bad limitation unless the game becomes completely unplayable as a result. The limitations are just the boundaries of the setting. Whether those boundaries are good or bad would be subjective not objective and depend on the group. I'm not nearly as...

One point here. If you want to play in the same kinds of games you DM, that is a good sign. That is true of me. That also means you will probably have some players ultimately.

My 30 years of anecdotal experience support it. I don't think a campaign would last two weeks with my players if I just gave them whatever they wanted. Being gamists they want everything now. But DMing gamists requires you make them work for it and that is what good games are made out of...

This might not be the perfect example but I think Paul's point is a good one. I don't hand you a 30 volume history when you take the history skill. I am not a master thief even though my character can pick a lot of locks. Asking, "How hard does that lock look?" is a valid player-DM...

It's a very popular way of playing and historically it's been the way D&D started. I agree though that there are many ways to play but I really enjoy both playing and DMing those style of games. Everyone is free to play the game the way they like. I think though attacks against my style of...

Anyone will tell you that it is the limitations that make creativity work. A novelists who decides to write a western for example will limit themselves certain accepted things. The same for detective stories and romances. All that is being asked by default is that the players operate within...

It only implies a need to communicate more carefully as a DM's creation is not known the world over. It is still, hopefully, a carefully crafted setting that has a look and feel. It is something, again hopefully, the DM has spent time developing and giving a lot of elements to create a feeling...

I'm agreeing with your original post. Just adding my two cents. The players playing the characters are part of the setting. I want them to impact the world. I am traditional so they are in a world that is moving around them as well. I don't think that has anything necessarily to do with a...

By your definition, there is accountability as the players can abandon the DM's game. In games I play, there are no rules that bind a DM as rule 0 overrides all other rules. I think you might have misread what I was replying to and thus my response. I said that if a DM has a tight session 0...