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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9610859" data-attributes="member: 6785785">That there are differences doesn’t mean there aren’t also similarities. I mean, in your response, you point out how board games and sports are similar. Someone could claim that’s a false equivalence. The truth is that they are all games. And games have rules and processes that make them function. Those rules and processes shape the experience of play… they help shape what’s considered fair or unfair. They simply do… it’s obvious. What’s happening is that there are two types of unfair being discussed. There’s the unfair where something is clearly in violation of the rules. Let’s say like stacking bonuses that aren’t meant to stack, or altering/lying about a die roll. Unfair… no doubt about it.Then there’s the unfair of the type you’re hinting at. Where it’s not a violation of the rules, but seems like a violation of some kind of social expectation. Something like a GM setting a DC higher than they should, or bringing in an adversary who is way beyond the capability of the PCs, and similar. This is the kind of unfair that can be incredibly hard to agree on. Sure, most folks would agree on extreme examples, and there will be times where folks generally agree. But the way it works… in this case the Alarm spell… it invites problems. I mean… every DM can come up with an enemy that can bypass the alarm spell. It’s trivially easy to do so and then to simply cite (or make up) reasons that their decisions “make sense” and then justifying it all as “fun”. The Alarm spell is rife with points where this can happen. Now, that may be fine with you (or anyone else). You may prefer to rely that much on the GM “getting it right” and the effect it has on player agency. But that doesn’t change what it is.</blockquote>

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