Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 7751790" data-attributes="member: 23751">It was not just a means to adjudicate actions that the rules didn't cover.  Gygax begins by saying that that there are boundaries, but goes on to say this..."Naturally, everything possible cannot be included in the whole of this work. As a participant in the game, I would not care to have anyone telling me exactly what must go into a campaign and how it must be handled; if so, why not play some game like chess? As the author I also realize that there are limits to my creativity and imagination. Others will think of things I didn't, and devise things beyond my capability. As an active Dungeon Master I kept a careful watch for things which would tend to complicate matters without improving them, systems devised seemingly to make the game drag for players, rules which lessened the fantastic and unexpected in favor of the mundane and ordinary."He is specifically talking about changing the rules in the bolded areas.  How you handle something is the rules.  Keeping a watch out for thing(rules) which complicate matters, rules which drag things down, etc., is not referring to adjudicating something the rules don't cover.  It's specifically talking about the rules themselves and what they do cover.  Rule 0 in 1e allowed the DM to do what he wanted with the rules.  It just cautioned very strongly against doing too much, lest you lose your players by making it a game they don't want to play in.Yes, yes it does.  It's right on page 4 of the DMG.  It says these little gems."You are the master of the game--the rules, the setting, the action, and ultimately the fun.  This is a great deal of power and you must use it wisely."You cannot be the master of the rules if you are a slave to them.  That allows you to alter the rules.  However, because I know you will argue this, I will show you a clearer quote that is also from page 4.  In the Purpose of Sidebars section it says this."To give you an idea of some of the ways you can alter the D&D rules for your own campaign..."That very explicitly is saying that you can alter the D&D rules.  Rule 0.</blockquote>

Verification