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"Hot" take: Aesthetically-pleasing rules are highly overvalued
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8112115" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>The main job of the players is to advocate for their characters. Naturally, a part of that advocacy sometimes involves pushing against the rules and-or trying things the game might not be set up to handle; whereupon it becomes the job of the DM to push back if required, either by enforcing rules already in place or making rulings that are - one hopes - consistent with what's already been established in play.</p><p></p><p>In fact, backed up by the rules most (nearly all?) of the time, it's exactly your job to tell them what they can or can't do; because as the DM part of your role is that of referee-arbiter-rules_enforcer. Even something as simple as "at your level you only get one melee attack per round" holds no weight whatsoever unless and until you-as-DM approve and-or enforce it.</p><p></p><p>What you can't do is tell them what they can or can't <strong>try</strong>. Big difference; and it's my assertion that telling them what they can or can't try is much more a thing in 3e-4e-5e design than in 0e-1e-2e.</p><p></p><p>My point in part is that this codification is a bug rather than a feature, as it gives the player (and thus the character) meta-game information that would otherwise be unknown in the fiction; which could lead to the player (and character) making different decisions than would otherwise be made.</p><p></p><p>It also goes far further into meta-game play than anything I'd ever want to be part of.</p><p></p><p>Maybe the PC is going all-out just for the hell of it - a rash moment has come over her. There doesn't need to be an explanation, the other participants have no 'right' to one (they have the right to ask, of course, but no right to get or expect an answer) and there might not even be a win-lose conflict present in that situation for all she knows. She just does what she does, pays the cost, and hopes for the best - and maybe she just threw away her life savings for nothing. ::<em>shrug</em>:: So be it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8112115, member: 29398"] The main job of the players is to advocate for their characters. Naturally, a part of that advocacy sometimes involves pushing against the rules and-or trying things the game might not be set up to handle; whereupon it becomes the job of the DM to push back if required, either by enforcing rules already in place or making rulings that are - one hopes - consistent with what's already been established in play. In fact, backed up by the rules most (nearly all?) of the time, it's exactly your job to tell them what they can or can't do; because as the DM part of your role is that of referee-arbiter-rules_enforcer. Even something as simple as "at your level you only get one melee attack per round" holds no weight whatsoever unless and until you-as-DM approve and-or enforce it. What you can't do is tell them what they can or can't [B]try[/B]. Big difference; and it's my assertion that telling them what they can or can't try is much more a thing in 3e-4e-5e design than in 0e-1e-2e. My point in part is that this codification is a bug rather than a feature, as it gives the player (and thus the character) meta-game information that would otherwise be unknown in the fiction; which could lead to the player (and character) making different decisions than would otherwise be made. It also goes far further into meta-game play than anything I'd ever want to be part of. Maybe the PC is going all-out just for the hell of it - a rash moment has come over her. There doesn't need to be an explanation, the other participants have no 'right' to one (they have the right to ask, of course, but no right to get or expect an answer) and there might not even be a win-lose conflict present in that situation for all she knows. She just does what she does, pays the cost, and hopes for the best - and maybe she just threw away her life savings for nothing. ::[I]shrug[/I]:: So be it. [/QUOTE]
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