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To add: back in TOS, don't forget Klingons had the proverb "a running man can slit a thousand throats in a single night," because back then they were sneaky, devious soviets. Nowadays, that running man is WITHOUT HONOR!!1! (And back in 1e, half-orcs had no level limits as an assassin...

Late to the discussion, so I dunno if this has been brought up yet. One of the problems here is that the difference between the half-giant and the halfling is that the -2 stat penalty boils down to the half-giant gets a +1 bonus to Strength rolls and the halfling gets a -1 bonus. And logically...

Perhaps its because the GM is both supposed to be either neutral towards or a fan of the players (depending on system and preferences) and running NPCs who want to kill the PCs. It's hard to find a balance there.

You really gotta stop assuming that because a couple of people say "do not add setting details" that they speak for everyone. Some GMs are fine with adding details. Some refuse to do it at all. Some are OK with adding details in some places and not in others. You will never get every GM to...

I guess there are just so many ways to spend it, at least in encounter situations, that they didn't think it should happen that often.

But strangely, you don't like having rules telling you how to GM. There you want guidelines--meaning you have to make up the GM role on the spot.

I guess they didn't have another good place to put that tidbit. Honestly, all the GM sections there could be spelled out more, with actual guidelines that are useful for the more socially-awkward GMs and players and make for good reminders and tips for the less unsure ones.

That is also true. And, of course, there are non-cheaty ways to get around these issues as well. Like running away. Weak enemies could flee into a area they know well enough to avoid the hazards but the PCs might have problems should they choose to follow. A too-powerful BBEG could leave if...

I'd say technically yes, but otherwise you may have a very bland or far too difficult fight, and neither of those are really good for the game. Even in a game that relies on strict mathematical formulas for determining adversary strength, there's no way to ever be truly accurate since it can't...

"Hidden Die Rolls. Hiding your die rolls keeps them mysterious and allows you to alter results if you want to. For example, you could ignore a Critical Hit to save a character's life. Don't alter die rolls too often, though, and never let the players know when you fudge a die roll." It's in the...

I agree here. In the D&D game I'm in, a couple of weeks ago, another player and I managed to pull off a life-and-day-saving one-two punch that would have been impossible if we hadn't rolled initiative the way we did. Admittedly, the rarity of the setup made this event incredibly cool, but it...

Imagine you're in an adventure and there's a monster between you and your goal. The GM expects you to kill the monster, but instead you decide to negotiate with it or even befriend it. In a linear adventure, the GM will be OK with that. In a railroad, the GM will do their darndest to make you...

Not really, because a railroad only happens if you try to step off the path and aren't allowed. If you can go and do something different, but choose not to, it's not a railroad. Your Star Trek example is probably an example of a railroad (at the least, it certainly sounds like the GM had a scene...

Except for the ones who do because the players have no one else to GM for them, who don't realize that no D&D is better than bad D&D, or have no idea that the GM is bad. The Geek Social Fallacies are a thing for a reason.

The issue got fixed because we had a player who had no problems being loud and angry at the GM for not letting him play his character the way he was supposed to be played. The rest of us? More "table polite." I like to think that if his player hadn't been there, we would have stopped the GM at...

Except for all the people it helps.

As I said elsewhere, to accept that the runes mean what the player wants them to mean also means that the player has decided on the nature of the runes' creators and how these runes would even exist in the first place. If these are neatly carved, official-looking runes that mark the exit, then...

Nah, we stopped within the first session. It was disappointing because I really liked my character idea and background and I've never had an opportunity to recycle it. That text certainly can't. It doesn't give guidelines as to how to do it. You'll also notice that that particular quote is in...

I've had a railroading GM--he changed backstory and ignored extremely important character traits to tell his story, and got extremely angry whenever players tried to do their own thing or pointed out those extremely important traits. They do exist. The thing is, you get railroads where the GM...

<shrug> Take a look at some of the example experiences. Several of those are pretty double-edged. Even "Assassin of the Sapphire Syndicate" has some pretty strong negative connotations, since you're, you know, an assassin. I don't think it's a waste of time to read the Fate rules; I think it can...