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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Essenti" data-source="post: 5873924" data-attributes="member: 100205">This post, I feel, is diving right into the murky waters that have gradually hidden the sense of wonder in D&D. It's not just ignorance that produces a sense of wonder. It is the ability to break free of the railings that the structured game mechanics are providing. Don't get me wrong, the mechanics themselves are not to blame. But the rigidity with which we treat these mechanics, in my opinion, is exactly what has slowly rendered invisible our sense of wonder.It is still there, ready to be uncovered. It just takes more work and requires additional instruction in the DMG or some such to bring it back to the surface.  D&D is essentially a game of improvisation with weirdly shaped dice thrown in to add uncertainty. As the mechanics get more and more robust--improvisation and the game itself becomes reliant on those weirdly shaped dice for this feeling of uncertainty.I propose that it is uncertainty--rather than ignorance--which is the most influential sources of wonder! Anything that can basically break from the mechanics and take the story into a new direction is very likely to bring about that sense of wonder we are all looking for.When a magic-user uses a charm person spell on a companion to counter the siren's song. Or when the warrior heroically steps in front of the dragon's breath blast, shield forward, diverting the blast around his companions. When the DM says "YES, and..." allowing a player to essentially break the game for the sake of the game, we are freed from the treadmill of powers, abilities, feats, skills, and so on.These mechanics are great for describing the mundane things our characters can do, but the truly magnificent things come about when we are allowed to try to do things the game can't and shouldn't dictate to us. Those are moments of wonder. Embrace the fact that we are playing a game of make-believe, and the sense of wonder will return!<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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