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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 5166927" data-attributes="member: 177">These are not in any way mutually exclusive.&nbsp; Cannot one have a conscious, deliberate decision to avoid a particular natural outcome?And, by the way, thinking about it, &quot;overruling the dice&quot; seems to me to require it be post-roll.&nbsp; Like in a court of law - the judge cannot overrule an objection until after the lawyer voices an objection.&nbsp; Similarly, the GM cannot overrule the dice if the dice have not said what should happen.&nbsp; Overruling implies a prior ruling to be overcome.I want to ask explicitly - are you trying to find meaning in the fact that he didn't use the specific term &quot;fudge&quot; or didn't specifically note the example of changing a to-hit roll?&nbsp; If not, ignore the rest of this post.If you are, I'd like to point out that, as a tool of analysis, looking at what is not said is highly error prone, when compared to looking at what is said.For example - he never uses the term &quot;fudge&quot;.&nbsp; So what?&nbsp; While Gary first coined many gaming terms, he didn't coin all of them.&nbsp; Language use drifts a bit over time, and new words get adopted.&nbsp; We have had decades to adopt jargon Gary didn't use.&nbsp; His failure to say &quot;fudge&quot; (or any particular piece of modern gaming jargon) does not speak directly to whether he intended us to do what we today call fudging.&nbsp; Another - he did list some example of what he meant.&nbsp; Would you expect that list of examples to be exhaustive?&nbsp; Given that he said, &quot;at any time,&quot; I would expect the examples to be merely demonstrative.&nbsp; &quot;At any time&quot; is so clearly all-inclusive that to also expect a specific list of all possible cases would be superfluous.&nbsp; Otherwise, what we are considering him to have said was, &quot;overrule the dice at any time, and by 'any time' I mean 'only this specific list of times'&quot;.&nbsp; That when he said &quot;any&quot; he didn't really mean any, he meant some.If you want a slippery slope, my friend, this kind of analysis is it.&nbsp; &quot;He said X, but what he really meant was Y...&quot; is a good way to have the text mean anything you personally want it to mean, and the original author be damned.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 5166927, member: 177"] These are not in any way mutually exclusive. Cannot one have a conscious, deliberate decision to avoid a particular natural outcome? And, by the way, thinking about it, "overruling the dice" seems to me to [i]require[/i] it be post-roll. Like in a court of law - the judge cannot overrule an objection until after the lawyer voices an objection. Similarly, the GM cannot overrule the dice if the dice have not said what should happen. Overruling implies a prior ruling to be overcome. I want to ask explicitly - are you trying to find meaning in the fact that he didn't use the specific term "fudge" or didn't specifically note the example of changing a to-hit roll? If not, ignore the rest of this post. If you are, I'd like to point out that, as a tool of analysis, looking at what is not said is highly error prone, when compared to looking at what is said. For example - he never uses the term "fudge". So what? While Gary first coined many gaming terms, he didn't coin [i]all of them[/i]. Language use drifts a bit over time, and new words get adopted. We have had decades to adopt jargon Gary didn't use. His failure to say "fudge" (or any particular piece of modern gaming jargon) does not speak directly to whether he intended us to do what we today call fudging. Another - he did list some example of what he meant. Would you expect that list of examples to be exhaustive? Given that he said, "at any time," I would expect the examples to be merely demonstrative. "At any time" is so clearly all-inclusive that to also expect a specific list of all possible cases would be superfluous. Otherwise, what we are considering him to have said was, "overrule the dice at any time, and by 'any time' I mean 'only this specific list of times'". That when he said "any" he didn't really mean any, he meant some. If you want a slippery slope, my friend, this kind of analysis is it. "He said X, but what he [i]really meant[/i] was Y..." is a good way to have the text mean anything you personally want it to mean, and the original author be damned. [/QUOTE]

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