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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kermit4karate" data-source="post: 9767421" data-attributes="member: 7053643">OK, that might be how a modern adult with the benefit of hindsight views Gygax, but I don't think the 15-year-olds I was playing 1e with were that profound. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😂" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f602.png" title="Face with tears of joy    :joy:" data-shortname=":joy:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /> We definitely were not peeling back layers of the onion that is Gary. I wish, but we were just picking and choosing from among his many contradictory gems to find the ones we would base our worldview of the game on.Gems like..."It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules which is important. Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule books upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players."And..."Cooperate with the Dungeon Master and respect his decisions… Be prepared to accept his decision as final."Or..."THE REFEREE IS THE FINAL ARBITER OF ALL AFFAIRS OF HIS OR HER CAMPAIGN."I do believe that Gygax said enough things along the same lines with regard to his hopes for how people would play it (freely; rulings over rules) and the spirit of the game for people to discern his true feelings on it. Obviously, that in no way implies that anyone today needs to view D&D the way Gygax did, but I think there's more than enough corroborative material for historians (like us) to understand how Gary really felt about it.</blockquote>

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