Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="DMZ2112" data-source="post: 8959916" data-attributes="member: 78752">The decision not to abide by the result of a hidden die roll is a terrible responsibility, one that requires the explicit trust of everyone at the table and should still only be used at the uttermost end of need.&nbsp; But when that end is reached, that decision should absolutely be made.&nbsp; The fairness of dice and the reliabilty of rulebooks are illusions, no more real than any of the campaign's fiction.It's the dungeon master's job to ensure everyone at the table is treated fairly and has fun, and we do this ceaselessly without any aid from dice or text.&nbsp; So why are we so quick to abdicate that responsibility as soon as a cheaply-manufactured lump of plastic is hurled against the tabletop or a sentence written years ago and hundreds of miles away suggests that we should?No.&nbsp; We run our games, and we do so because our players trust our judgment.&nbsp; If that judgment includes devotion to what passes for random number generation and the word of game designers that have never met your players or laid eyes upon your table, then so be it, but be not misled that it is the way the game is intended to be played, or even how it used to be in the &quot;old school.&quot;&nbsp; It is a stylistic choice, nothing more.Gary Gygax, from the 1st Edition AD&amp;D Dungeon Masters Guide:</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DMZ2112, post: 8959916, member: 78752"] The decision not to abide by the result of a hidden die roll is a terrible responsibility, one that requires the explicit trust of everyone at the table and should still only be used at the uttermost end of need. But when that end is reached, that decision should absolutely be made. The fairness of dice and the reliabilty of rulebooks are illusions, no more real than any of the campaign's fiction. It's the [I]dungeon master's[/I] job to ensure everyone at the table is treated fairly and has fun, and we do this ceaselessly without any aid from dice or text. So why are we so quick to abdicate that responsibility as soon as a cheaply-manufactured lump of plastic is hurled against the tabletop or a sentence written years ago and hundreds of miles away suggests that we should? No. We run our games, and we do so because our players trust our judgment. If that judgment includes devotion to what passes for random number generation and the word of game designers that have never met your players or laid eyes upon your table, then so be it, but be not misled that it is the way the game is intended to be played, or even how it used to be in the "old school." It is a stylistic choice, nothing more. Gary Gygax, from the 1st Edition AD&D [I]Dungeon Masters Guide[/I]: [/QUOTE]

Verification