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<blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8337158" data-attributes="member: 59082">I've always liked the idea that &quot;play&quot; can be defined as &quot;something you do for its own sake.&quot; Meaning, we play--first and foremost--for play's sake, for enjoyment. Play is fun.Games are a structured form of play, thus the point of D&amp;D--as a tabletop roleplaying game--is to have fun. What that means varies with each person, each group. Meaning, the &quot;uber best practice&quot; is to play in such a way that facilitates fun and enjoyment for those you are playing with.Now apply this to all sorts of other &quot;best practices,&quot; and you have a solid general approach: anything that serves the enjoyment (fun) of those at the game table.This includes such seemingly obvious best practices like &quot;don't be a jerk.&quot; That differs by individual, as everyone has their own sensibilities, tolerances--what they consider &quot;jerkish&quot; behavior. So &quot;don't be a jerk&quot; could be understood as &quot;don't do things that significantly diminish the fun of those you play with.&quot; Within reason, of course (thus the &quot;significantly&quot;). In this regard, I think a &quot;best practice&quot; could be: get to know the people you game with, who they are, what they like and don't like, and treat them kindly. But what that means, well, varies. But it isn't that complex.Now of course RPGs have been around for almost five decades, so there is a whole body of ideas around it that have developed. It is good to get a sense of what the generally agreed upon best practices are, which is also why every single RPG has a section in the beginning that has basic guidelines about how to play, beyond just the rules, and why there are such things as the Dungeon Master's Guide. But as with anything in D&amp;D--or in art, music, writing, sports, etc--these are a template that can be improvised off of. Every artist finds their own approach, which veers from traditions to varying degrees.And more to the point, every practice or theory or idea of What The Best Way To Play Is, come down to the context of your actual group, comprised of real individuals. Without context and a sense of the individuals involved, all such best practices run the risk of becoming dogma and/or divorced from the reality of the people involved.(this is a variation from my &quot;<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/why-defend-railroading.681253/post-8337139" target="_blank">Rule of Fun</a>&quot; post in the railroading thread)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercurius, post: 8337158, member: 59082"] I've always liked the idea that "play" can be defined as "something you do for its own sake." Meaning, we play--first and foremost--for play's sake, for enjoyment. Play is fun. Games are a structured form of play, thus the point of D&D--as a tabletop roleplaying game--is to have fun. What that means varies with each person, each group. Meaning, the "uber best practice" is to play in such a way that facilitates fun and enjoyment for those you are playing with. Now apply this to all sorts of other "best practices," and you have a solid general approach: anything that serves the enjoyment (fun) of those at the game table. This includes such seemingly obvious best practices like "don't be a jerk." That differs by individual, as everyone has their own sensibilities, tolerances--what they consider "jerkish" behavior. So "don't be a jerk" could be understood as "don't do things that significantly diminish the fun of those you play with." Within reason, of course (thus the "significantly"). In this regard, I think a "best practice" could be: get to know the people you game with, who they are, what they like and don't like, and treat them kindly. But what that means, well, varies. But it isn't that complex. Now of course RPGs have been around for almost five decades, so there is a whole body of ideas around it that have developed. It is good to get a sense of what the generally agreed upon best practices are, which is also why every single RPG has a section in the beginning that has basic guidelines about how to play, beyond just the rules, and why there are such things as the [I]Dungeon Master's Guide. [/I]But as with anything in D&D--or in art, music, writing, sports, etc--these are a template that can be improvised off of. Every artist finds their own approach, which veers from traditions to varying degrees. And more to the point, every practice or theory or idea of What The Best Way To Play Is, come down to the context of your actual group, comprised of real individuals. Without context and a sense of the individuals involved, all such best practices run the risk of becoming dogma and/or divorced from the reality of the people involved. (this is a variation from my "[URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/why-defend-railroading.681253/post-8337139']Rule of Fun[/URL]" post in the railroading thread) [/QUOTE]

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