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<blockquote data-quote="Terramotus" data-source="post: 4515738" data-attributes="member: 7220">I think it would be difficult to disagree more with the Original Poster.&nbsp; When all you do is challenge the player, it ceases to become a role-playing game, and just becomes a game.&nbsp; Like Magic: The Gathering.&nbsp; Or Clue.Obvious you can't (nor should you want to) elminate completely the player element.&nbsp; That's what brings life to these imagined characters.&nbsp; If nothing else, the character chosen is a reflection of the player.&nbsp; It's much like a First Person Shooter that has a jiggle effect on the crosshairs to reflect your character moving, or to reflect natural hand shaking.&nbsp; The character is the interface through which you play the game, and player skill is filtered through it.But someone who is looking for the old-school &quot;gotcha&quot; gameplay, of dungeons, traps, obstacles, and cursed items placed in the world for no rational reason other than to cause trouble for the players will be extremely disappointed in my game, or any of the games around here that I know of, for that matter.&nbsp; We don't go in for checking every inch of a dungeon for hidden doors, and tapping every inch of ground with a 10 foot pole to search for traps.If I want to play a scholar, I shouldn't have to personally BE a scholar to play one in a D&amp;D game.&nbsp; Similarly, if I'm running a game set in the real life middle ages, I wouldn't allow a well-read player of a Mongol horseman to engage in philosophical discussions about Aristotle just because HE happened to know it.&nbsp; Do people who agree with what the guy from Grognardia wrote REALLY want a game where they try to haul some wood back to town and the DM hands them a piece of rope and a dowel and says, &quot;Tie me a timber hitch or it doesn't happen?&quot;To bring that even closer...&nbsp; I will sometimes tell my PLAYERS about some of the backstory of the world their characters are running in, or some tidbits about character motivations if it won't spoil future adventures, particularly if it's something they missed finding out about in an adventure.&nbsp; This helps them get a better sense of their characters' struggles in the world.&nbsp; However, this info is off-limits in-game.I'd even go so far as to say someone who wanted to be challenged more as a player than a character would not be invited back to my game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Terramotus, post: 4515738, member: 7220"] I think it would be difficult to disagree more with the Original Poster. When all you do is challenge the player, it ceases to become a role-playing game, and just becomes a game. Like Magic: The Gathering. Or Clue. Obvious you can't (nor should you want to) elminate completely the player element. That's what brings life to these imagined characters. If nothing else, the character chosen is a reflection of the player. It's much like a First Person Shooter that has a jiggle effect on the crosshairs to reflect your character moving, or to reflect natural hand shaking. The character is the interface through which you play the game, and player skill is filtered through it. But someone who is looking for the old-school "gotcha" gameplay, of dungeons, traps, obstacles, and cursed items placed in the world for no rational reason other than to cause trouble for the players will be extremely disappointed in my game, or any of the games around here that I know of, for that matter. We don't go in for checking every inch of a dungeon for hidden doors, and tapping every inch of ground with a 10 foot pole to search for traps. If I want to play a scholar, I shouldn't have to personally BE a scholar to play one in a D&D game. Similarly, if I'm running a game set in the real life middle ages, I wouldn't allow a well-read player of a Mongol horseman to engage in philosophical discussions about Aristotle just because HE happened to know it. Do people who agree with what the guy from Grognardia wrote REALLY want a game where they try to haul some wood back to town and the DM hands them a piece of rope and a dowel and says, "Tie me a timber hitch or it doesn't happen?" To bring that even closer... I will sometimes tell my PLAYERS about some of the backstory of the world their characters are running in, or some tidbits about character motivations if it won't spoil future adventures, particularly if it's something they missed finding out about in an adventure. This helps them get a better sense of their characters' struggles in the world. However, this info is off-limits in-game. I'd even go so far as to say someone who wanted to be challenged more as a player than a character would not be invited back to my game. [/QUOTE]

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