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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Professor Phobos" data-source="post: 4035040" data-attributes="member: 18883">But you still get that. With your car analogy, the rules are for driving and repairing and customizing the car- but the DM decides on the highway, rest stops, motels and drive through fast food joints. But...a DM's filter is why you have the DM in the first place? To have the ability for the game world to respond to PC action in complex and nonlinear ways. A GM is there so if you kill Lord British, the kingdom descends into anarchy, or his son tries to take power, or there's civil war. It's the DM's job to adjudicate how the PC's affect the world beyond the immediate effect of rules mechanics. It's one thing to say I can't stop the PCs from, say, killing a monster they're able to kill. That's entirely correct- I can't stop them there. But I decide what killing that monster means for the game world, don't I? What I was referring to there is that I let the PCs decide on some of that "meaning and consequence" stuff themselves, since I am lazy.Exactly. The PC's don't know they can't break their necks. Yes, exactly. "Ten years later, I returned home and paid my loyal cohort Cedric a call. I found him passed out in the street, nearly drowned in mud...it seems the years had treated Cedric poorly. Infection had taken an eye, his wife had died the previous winter, and he had taken to drink...for a man who once took the heart of Gorak the Despoiler, it was a truly sad and pathetic end. I resolved to help him as a true friend should..."Okay, so in this example:PCs: "We attack the guards!"DM: "They're just the town guard, you guys won't have any trouble. No need for combat, let's get on with the game..."PCs: "Okay, we beat 'em soundly and let them live, in that case."DM: "Sure, whatever. Okay, you've made it to the temple. How do you want to play this?PCs: "We go straight in."DM: "Evil McEvilDude sees you enter and charges- roll initiative!"You'd feel impotent? Seriously? Are you suggesting it is more fun to play out a full combat (which takes time) even though the outcome is a foregone conclusion, than to go directly a combat where the outcome is not a foregone conclusion? This comment, and others you've made...my god man, your game must be boring as hell.In my view this is the same question as "Can I use the hobgoblin as a shield?" He's not asking me for permission, he's asking about what the rules allow. This is a simple case of vague wording, but you're reading waaaaay to much into it.Honestly, all this stuff about "I don't want to ask the GM for anything" and "It makes me feel impotent!" is just...paranoia.I believe I have made all the points I want to make. You seem persistent in your desire to treat them...uncharitably, and misread them in the worst possible light. I suspect this is unconscious on your part, since there seems to be an extreme degree of distrust on your part for the GM.Again, I can only conclude you wouldn't be welcome, nor would you want to be, at my table.</blockquote>

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