Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
I'm not ignoring any differences. (. . .)
I'm not conflating them. (. . .)
It's not a strawman. (. . . )
The thing you are fighting against is that you have started off on the wrong foot by reading some portion of the rule and rather than assume it is meant to be in line with other rules, assumed it is an exception to the rules. Others have explained these exceptions you point out can just as easily be interpreted in a way that sticks within the rest of the rules but you insist otherwise and then build on faulty interpretation as a basis for further misinterpretation.
Given that I am the first poster in this thread to have raised the possibility of boxes in the alley, I believe I am an authority on what my point was.
A - "Touchdown!"
B - "We're bowling, so we call that a strike. A touchdown is a football term."
A - "I think I know what a touchdown is, I'm the one who brought it up."
B - "Well, if you mislabel it as a touchdown, it could lead to further errors."
A - "Well, I am calling it a touchdown. And I am taking my seven points."
B - "A strike gets you ten immediate points and whatever points you get from the next two rolls added to this frame."
A - "But a touchdown is worth seven. You have to acknowledge that is true."
B - "It's bowling. There is no touchdown."
A - "But I yelled 'Touchdown' a little while ago. So, now I get seven points. I don't understand why you keep arguing that a touchdown isn't seven points."
B - "You're missing the point."
A - "I think I know what my point is, I'm the one who first brought up touchdowns."
B - "Yes, but touchdowns aren't part of bowling."
A - "I don't see why they can't be. Nothing in the rules say you shouldn't score a touchdown. I'm going to mark down the seven points in Roman numerals."
B - "In bowling you get ten points for the strike and points in this frame for the next two rolls. In football, you get seven points for a touchdown."
A - "Why bring up the difference between bowling and football? It does nothing to further the discussion of whether to use Roman numerals or not."
Nothing in any of the GMing advice I have ever read, including Moldvay's and Gygax's, suggests that the GM should ignore the player's desires in giving an answer.
Your leap and assumption is that the way to quench desires is your way only rather than something akin to what the rest of the rules suggest or what anyone else might do.
B - "Why do we have to keep waiting for you each frame?"
A - "Between turns, I take food to the homeless in the alley. Nothing in the rules of bowling say I should let children starve."
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