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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7754326" data-attributes="member: 42582">But presumably if a player decides that his/her PC really likes fire spells, and so always memorises fireball ahead of lightning bolt even when expecting to be in some tight places, you wouldn't regard that as bad play?Whereas Gygax, on those pages of his PHB, does describe that as bad play.I think a notion of "character vs rules" is unhelpful here, because rules aren't a big deal for Gygax. His system doesn't have many of them, and the emphasis is on (i) players making effective plans, including equipment and spell load outs, and (ii) players playing the fiction well, so that (iii) they are able to beat the dungeon and recover the treasure. Eg knowing how to use a 10' pole and a flying thief on a rope to beat the Tomb of Horrors isn't about mastering rules; it's about building up a certain repertoire of ways for engaging with the GM's fiction and having one's character survive that.I have highighted your sentence that I would say is true of the Greenwood approach, and distinguishes it from Gygax's AD&D books.And I think it does preclude using Gygax's approaches. Unless all the characters your players play are incredibly one-dimensional, then your players will have reason to ignore Gygax's advice about how to play "well" because they will instead want to make the sorts of decisions they feel fit with their conceptions of their characters.The point of the above paragraph is not to criticise you. Nor is to criticise Gygax. It's to make the point that there are different approaches to RPGing, and those differences aren't always minor and nor are they always confined to boutique groups or contexts. They're extensive and widespread. And it hinders rather than helps communication to try and homogenise things as if there are no interesting or important differences in the ways people approach this hobby.</blockquote>

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