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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8340508" data-attributes="member: 42582">It's not controversial, to my knowledge, to talk about best responses in chess to various openings.The rulebook that came with my backgammon set several decades ago has a section describing the best opening moves for various starting dice rolls. Of course as one becomes more familiar with the play of the game one sometimes departs from those suggestions, and the labelling of them as &quot;best opening moves&quot; has not caused any confusion to me or my friends and family members who have read the same rulebook.We talk about the best ways to kick a football, the best ways to make a tackle (obviously there are multiple such ways, depending on context and precise goal), the best way to smother an opposing player's kick, etc. I'm not very sporty but I think that similar things are talked about in relation to other sports and athletic pursuits.My experience with theatre, and performance more generally, is extremely modest but my understanding is that it's fairly common to talk about ways to improve one's acting, and how best to engage in improv, etc.The goal of all these things, of course - at least for non-professionals - is to have fun, but the &quot;best practice&quot; advice doesn't confine itself to make sure you're enjoying yourself. In fact the advice tends to take it for granted that participants enjoy the activity (why else would they be participating?) and then advises on how to do it well. Gygax, in a similar vein, concludes his PHB (before the Appendices) with a section of best-practice tips for players called &quot;Successful Adventures&quot; that ends with the sentence &quot;If you believe that ADVANCED DUNGEONS &amp; DRAGONS is a game worth playing, you will certainly find it doubly so if you play well.&quot;I find it hard to belief that 5e D&amp;D is so different from all these other leisure pursuits that we can't talk sensibly about best practice ideas.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8340508, member: 42582"] It's not controversial, to my knowledge, to talk about best responses in chess to various openings. The rulebook that came with my backgammon set several decades ago has a section describing the best opening moves for various starting dice rolls. Of course as one becomes more familiar with the play of the game one sometimes departs from those suggestions, and the labelling of them as "best opening moves" has not caused any confusion to me or my friends and family members who have read the same rulebook. We talk about the best ways to kick a football, the best ways to make a tackle (obviously there are multiple such ways, depending on context and precise goal), the best way to smother an opposing player's kick, etc. I'm not very sporty but I think that similar things are talked about in relation to other sports and athletic pursuits. My experience with theatre, and performance more generally, is extremely modest but my understanding is that it's fairly common to talk about ways to improve one's acting, and how best to engage in improv, etc. The goal of all these things, of course - at least for non-professionals - is to have fun, but the "best practice" advice doesn't confine itself to [I]make sure you're enjoying yourself[/I]. In fact the advice tends to take it for granted that participants enjoy the activity (why else would they be participating?) and then advises on how to do it well. Gygax, in a similar vein, concludes his PHB (before the Appendices) with a section of best-practice tips for players called "Successful Adventures" that ends with the sentence "If you believe that [B]ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS[/B] is a game worth playing, you will certainly find it doubly so if you play well." I find it hard to belief that 5e D&D is so different from all these other leisure pursuits that we can't talk sensibly about best practice ideas. [/QUOTE]

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