D&D General DM Authority

[Charlaquin]

My references and inspirations are mostly from novels and short stories--and infrequently from actual Fantasy. It's plausible that @Don Durito meant something similar.

I was trying to make a joke, sorry if it was unclear.

 

[Campbell]

Even in the context of challenge oriented play the idea that the GM should be motivated by killing PCs does not seem right to me. When I run such games I play the challenges with integrity, but I am not pulling for the other players to lose. I'm hoping they pull it off.

 

[generic]

I was trying to make a joke, sorry if it was unclear.

I just pretend anime doesn't exist, for my sanity.

 

[generic]

But aren't all elves devil worshipers?

Yes.

 

[Charlaquin]

"Could easily be," is a hypothetical.

If you are going to assert that the PHB is actively hurting the hobby, you kind of have to have some evidence the hobby is, you know, hurting, don't you? Otherwise, the assertion is entirely speculative.

And, as I said, the hobby seems to be doing phenomenally, so evidence of any real harm is going to be hard to come by. Anecdotes from a couple of people that the book was not helpful aren't going to cut it with an Amazon sales rank of #81 in all of books nearly six an a half years after publication.

I’m not saying the hobby isn’t doing well. I’m saying I think it could be doing better, if the PHB was a better resource for new players.

I personally don't think the book is a great teacher itself. However, I recognize the possibility that this is fine, because it could easily be that folks learning from the book is a rare occurrence. Online actual play, tutorials, and people bringing their friends in may be taking the teaching role, so that the book simply doesn't have to do that job.

I don’t disagree with any of this.

If so, writing the book to teach may actually hurt the game, by reducing its utility at what it is actually doing - acting as the game reference, which it seems to do well enough.

Maybe. I rather doubt it would. But as you say, this is all speculation. It’s also completely orthogonal to the topic at hand, which is why I didn’t go into detail about my thoughts on the matter.

 

[prabe]

I was trying to make a joke, sorry if it was unclear.

No worries. I think I got the joke but I don't entirely know what I thought I was trying to add.

 

[Charlaquin]

That's an elf.

An elf bard, to be specific.

 

[Charlaquin]

Even in the context of challenge oriented play the idea that the GM should be motivated by killing PCs does not seem right to me. When I run such games I play the challenges with integrity, but I am not pulling for the other players to lose. I'm hoping they pull it off.

The DM’s job is not to defeat the players, but through adversity to make their characters heroes.

 

[Umbran]

Maybe. I rather doubt it would.

Oh, it almost certainly would. A single text can only serve a limited number of purposes well. Expand on one purpose, and other purposes will suffer considerably.

 

[Charlaquin]

Oh, it almost certainly would. A single text can only serve a limited number of purposes well. Expand on one purpose, and other purposes will suffer considerably.

Ok. I disagree, but I don’t see any point arguing about it here.