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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9002841" data-attributes="member: 42582">What is the basis for this empirical claim about probabilities?In general, it's not true: I give you Bulgaria and the DRC as illustrations (at least where formal rules are concerned).Is there any evidence that it is true of RPGs where Rule Zero is an express rule?Who has done the test for your claim about Rule Zero? Or Rule N? No one that I'm aware of. And to be perfectly blunt I see far more controversy expressed over GM decision-making among D&D players than in other RPGs. I know some will say that this is because more D&D is played; but I think that the character of that controversy also reveals that it is, in fact, the typical role of the GM in resolution in D&D (which bears some connection to typical understandings of "rule zero") that produces it.Because the GM is taken to have so much responsibility for how things turn out in typical D&D play, and is often afforded so much latitude, GM decisions become subject to criticism and dissent in a way that I simply do not see in RPGs that do not use the D&D-esque authority structure.As an example, just look at the current "Anticlimactic boss fight" thread, which shapes the whole issue as one of GMing skill and decision-making. Or the current "Curse of Strahd with scared PC" thread, which likewise shapes things the whole way.Conversely, my experience is that when the players are called upon to direct play, and given some formal or informal tools to do so, GM decision-making comes under less pressure and is less likely to generate controversy at the table.I don't know how neurological states are relevant. There is nothing being discussed in this thread that couldn't have been analysed by Aristotle, who knew nothing of neurological states.I also don't know what you mean by "what's at issue"? I thought the topic of discussion was rules, and rules are not mental states.EDIT: From a later post:This is an empirical claim in both the general case, and the particular case of RPGing. I don't know of any evidence for its truth in the RPGing context, which is what we're discussing here.</blockquote>

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