Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 7288404">I find it hard to say that any player of a hard-mechanics system (like D&D) can be considered "excellent" if they do not have a strong grasp of at least the fundamental rules, and by that I set a minimum of: the rules required to play their character, which of course varies from character to character, but puts the burden on the player to understand what they bring to the table.  IME, it is hard not only for the individual player, but also for the group and the DM, to remain engaged when we are constantly having to stop and inform them that they must do X before Y, or that's the wrong die to use, or any other number of rules corrections.  The inverse only makes things worse: if we are to consider a person an "excellent player" but exclude any level of system mastery from the equation, the rest of the table is forced to play on their terms, which frankly is unacceptable.  No game should be forced to alter the way everyone plays because one person is unwilling, unable or uninterested in learning the rules.For games with soft-mechanics (role-play heavy systems) I certainly agree that an engaged player is much more valuable than a rules-knowledgeable one, since the game is designed to be more flexible about what the player wants to do, rather than what the system allows the player to do.Good ideas, creative solutions, engagement in the game frankly don't cut it when that same person is holding up the show over which die to roll for their longsword or which stat bonus they add to melee damage.  That might make for a person you're willing to teach and help them improve, but I'd never consider them an excellent player in a hard-mechanics system until they've raised their degree of game knowledge.Again IME: it's much easier to be a good role-player when you're also a good roll-player.  When those roll-motions become learned they become fluid and they slide into the background allowing for much more focus on the role-play.</blockquote>

Verification