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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4035383" data-attributes="member: 32164">Ah. I think you misunderstood what my distinctions mean in the context of actual play.In play, when resolving situations, Group A types still follow the rules of the game. Because that's precisely what they're for. What they don't hold to be true is that each and every plot element in a particular adventure must be explainable by the rules of the game.Let's say that Azoun IV was a mighty adventurer in his youth and slew a mighty dragon in single combat. Therefor, we can presume that, even though he's an NPC, he's got the stats of a 16th-level fighter, or a 17th-level warlord, or whatever is appropriate. However, for the purposes of our story, he's now an elderly 60 (but still a 16th-level "hero"), and the DM wants to write an adventure dealing with a succession crisis in Cormyr. The Group A position is that the DM shouldn't have to work around the game rules to engineer an unexpected death for this once-mighty NPC. Because, since he's an NPC, he doesn't get the "plot protection" that the game rules exist to provide.Make sense?So when the PCs are involved, Group A uses the rules to resolve those interactions, in order to offer a consistent game experience. Similarly, no NPC who's interacting with the PCs is going to have anything happen to him that won't happen to a PC as long as he's "plot-relevant." However, that restriction no longer applies when said NPC  is either "offstage" or when he becomes "plot irrelevant."As another example, I'd never cut off a PC's arm, or put out his eye. But if a PC scores a critical hit on a goblin that puts him out of the fight, I, as DM, reserve the right to rule that the blow chopped off said goblin's arm or leg, put out his eye, or whatever other grisly injury I see fit.That's because once the goblin is out of the fight, he's no longer "plot relevant." But the PCs are always "plot relevant," because they're PCs.That applies even moreso when I, as a DM, decide that a given NPC has a limp, one eye, a nasty scar, or a peg-leg. By the rules, there's no way he can have any injuries that severe, but it's cool atmosphere, so I bend the rules.When it comes to a decision like that for a PC, it's entirely in the player's hands. If Bob wants his PC to have a nasty scar from a streetfight as a child, or if he wants to decide that he gets one following a particularly nasty fight in-game, that's up to him.Does that clear up my position?</blockquote>

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