Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Attacking defenseless NPCs
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7627170" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>I have two answers for that. Both are true, pick which one resonates with you:</p><p></p><p>1) We don't.</p><p></p><p>2) For *exactly* the reasons I am talking about - mismatches in expectations and desires and the limits of human communications.</p><p></p><p>For example, if you look carefully, what I wrote just previous to this, I said *NOTHING* about the GM being unreasonable or incompetent. Now, your next statement after mine is this. I *could* say, "Well, robus is being unreasonable, or not paying attention, or willfully missing the point...," or attach any number of unfortunate attributes to you. And perhaps half the collected readers might well agree with me. </p><p></p><p>But I don't say that. Because you saying that doesn't require either of us to be bad actors. We can both be reasonable, and have basically good intentions. But we are also....</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Human.</em> We should assume the GM (and the players) are all <em>human</em>. And even competent humans have their foibles. Our game processes should at least consider those foibles. Failing to do that means we only really consider the "happy path" of game play. It is great when the happy path works - the happy path *must* work for the game to work. But only considering the happy path probably also means that anyone who does not stay on that happy path is going to do the metaphorical equivalent of stepping barefoot on a Lego brick in the dark, and that can ruin an experience. </p><p></p><p>And we don't require bad actors, or gross incompetence, to wander off the happy path. We only need people to be human.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 7627170, member: 177"] I have two answers for that. Both are true, pick which one resonates with you: 1) We don't. 2) For *exactly* the reasons I am talking about - mismatches in expectations and desires and the limits of human communications. For example, if you look carefully, what I wrote just previous to this, I said *NOTHING* about the GM being unreasonable or incompetent. Now, your next statement after mine is this. I *could* say, "Well, robus is being unreasonable, or not paying attention, or willfully missing the point...," or attach any number of unfortunate attributes to you. And perhaps half the collected readers might well agree with me. But I don't say that. Because you saying that doesn't require either of us to be bad actors. We can both be reasonable, and have basically good intentions. But we are also.... [I]Human.[/I] We should assume the GM (and the players) are all [I]human[/I]. And even competent humans have their foibles. Our game processes should at least consider those foibles. Failing to do that means we only really consider the "happy path" of game play. It is great when the happy path works - the happy path *must* work for the game to work. But only considering the happy path probably also means that anyone who does not stay on that happy path is going to do the metaphorical equivalent of stepping barefoot on a Lego brick in the dark, and that can ruin an experience. And we don't require bad actors, or gross incompetence, to wander off the happy path. We only need people to be human. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Attacking defenseless NPCs
Top