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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6176160" data-attributes="member: 17106">All probably true. Clearly, if I wanted to do journalism or research on this hobby instead of anonymous message board posting, I would need more information than I have. But I'm still relatively well-informed for a hobbyist.Maintain if you like. There are plenty of other examples where from the outlook a reasonable player might have differing expectations for different D&D characters, and I don't think that's a bad thing. A halfling fighter, for example, should not be on par with a half-orc fighter. A cleric of the god of home and hearth should not be quite as good at adventuring as a cleric of the god of war. Even without mechanics, the basic archetypes presented are not equally focused on and adept at combat and other adventuring-related tasks.True, and this example had circumstances that created abnormal challenges for the witch, allowing the party to surprise him and precluding his normal escape method. The same circumstances limited the players too, but not to the same extent. Then again, most battles have some kind of context.True. The education and/or certification is only part of the picture. But it is a part.Editing and even playtesting are not the same as academic peer review. Then again, many professionally written manuscripts don't go through that process, so this is getting further and further on a tangent.And this is all fine. What I'm doing here is trying to set a bar for being an expert at something. I think that bar should be pretty high. I don't think a degree gets you over that bar, but it can help. I don't think a list of credits gets you over that bar, but it can help.The point is that I do not know of any game designer-even the ones whose work I respect or who have relatively high name recognition and achievements-who has reached the level of expertise where their opinions are so trenchant that they are better than that of an individual DM for his group.To give an analogy, even the best doctors and scientists in the world can't compose a diet and publish it en masse that would be better for me than what I can do for myself. They don't know my likes and dislikes, allergies, my budget, availability of food in my area, my own particular health status, etc. Most of them would be smart enough not to try, and instead publish some general guidelines.Which is exactly what D&D authors do, publish general guidelines. The term "rule" is simply a misnomer as applied to roleplaying.True, but learning and modifying a game book is time-consuming as well.A DM is only part referee, but he isn't really a player either. The role is unique to this hobby.</blockquote>

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