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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5611259" data-attributes="member: 21169">Yes, sometimes. Depends on the game.Pre-4e D&D for example enforces, or at least pushes strongly toward, one particular playstyle. The game needs to be played over campaign length, starting at level 1 and stopping at around level 10 or else wizards, and some other casters, are OP. Adventures need to consist of many encounters over a single day, or else casters are OP. Slow, cautious play - ten foot poles, buying the stock of a pet shop to set off all the traps, 15MD - will always be the most successful unless time is a resource, 1e-style, and unless there is pressure from other players who aren't in The Party, OD&D-style.Without all this in place, pre-4e D&D tends to break down. So, in my view, the rules of this game do enforce, or at least strongly encourage, the one true way to play. Whether they should do so is another question. Perhaps they should allow for multiple playstyles more than is the case. Perhaps they should encourage a single, different, playstyle.For example, in an article in Dragon #29 (cover dated September 1979), Rewarding Heroism in D&D, Doug Green laments the fact that PCs tend to act far more cautiously in D&D than the protagonists in the fiction on which it is based. He suggests making two changes to the rules to support his preferred playstyle - a sort of hero point mechanic and an xp bonus for heroic self-sacrifice. Doug absolutely does want rules that enforce the one true way to play. It's just that his true way isn't the same as the RAW's true way.</blockquote>

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