Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2594255" data-attributes="member: 26473">This is why I would love to see more emphasis on teaching GMs how to run games, rather than substituting book after book of new rules.Which is the very best reason to add layers of difficulty to a challenge, or modify a monster's abilities, and so on.As to the causes of these unexpected variances...Again, teaching GMs is so important.Which is the GM's province to decide, and should not necessarily be immediately transparent to the players in many cases.Once again, the social contract.I'm not so sure that those two concepts are so easy to split: the GM's authority to make calls and the GM's ability are both framed differently in the minds of those who believe the RAW, rather than the GM, is the final arbiter. A &quot;good GM&quot; is a 'strict constructionist' in the eyes of the rules lawyers, who would to varying degrees limit the GM's authority to make calls that vary from the RAW: &quot;That's a DC 25 Climb check! It says so in the rules! I can take 10 to make that!&quot;Yep.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Shaman, post: 2594255, member: 26473"] This is why I would love to see more emphasis on teaching GMs how to run games, rather than substituting book after book of new rules.Which is the very best reason to add layers of difficulty to a challenge, or modify a monster's abilities, and so on. As to the causes of these unexpected variances...Again, teaching GMs is so important.Which is the GM's province to decide, and should not necessarily be immediately transparent to the players in many cases.Once again, the social contract.I'm not so sure that those two concepts are so easy to split: the GM's authority to make calls and the GM's ability are both framed differently in the minds of those who believe the RAW, rather than the GM, is the final arbiter. A "good GM" is a 'strict constructionist' in the eyes of the rules lawyers, who would to varying degrees limit the GM's authority to make calls that vary from the RAW: "That's a DC 25 Climb check! It says so in the rules! I can take 10 to make that!"Yep. [/QUOTE]

Verification