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Message: <blockquote data-quote="molonel" data-source="post: 3349989" data-attributes="member: 10412">I regularly read Monte Cook's columns, and I have interacted personally with him, Sean K. Reynolds and many others that nobody would know because I meet them at cons, or in pick-up games. My decisions come as the result of deep thought, imaginative storytelling, immersive roleplaying, and most importantly - more importantly than any big names I can toss out (and there are plenty more I could say, but why bother?) - my players continue to enrich my game, and my experience, and my life, and my imagination. You may comfort yourself with the warm, snuggly blanket of how awesome you are, but I have no need of that security blanket. I love my game, and I have an awesome time, and when you denigrate it, I might knock of a few posts instead of talking about politics on my normal forum, but ultimately, I am the best judge of my own rules and my own game. I do not play by fiat. I make decisions, and run a kick-ass game.You are wrong in every respect when you describe me, and the fact that you have to run me down says more about you than it does about me.I'm going to keep hitting that point, so get used to it.I have reasons for everything I do. I also have a sense of humor, which is a trait noticeably lacking in your posts.Have you read Monte Cook's Beyond Countless Doorways? Evidently not, since you're too busy bragging about hanging out with him all the time.Part of good game design is challenging players. It involves exposing them to new environments where they have to think creatively. You describe a D&D game where people research dungeons, teleport there and then run back to the city.(Nevermind that this is almost impossible prior to 9th level.)Both before and after 9th level, I put ADVENTURES all over my world. All over the multiverse, in fact. D&D is not a series of dungeon crawls for me. A party might be sent into the mountains to enter a portal that opens into the Chapel of Agony for a single day every year. Or they might be sent into the far reaches of the desert, where nobody ever travels, accompanied only by a single crazy ranger who says he's been there.After 9th level, if they have teleport - which not everyone does - then that is useful device for traversing long distances. It is certainly easier to use than traversing on horseback, and I'm grateful of that both as a player and as a DM.But 9th level is also where plane-hopping spells open up whole new aspects of the game.Teleport does not across planes. And foreknowledge is required. You can't scry a place. Only a being.Again, you speak about my game as if you have played in it. You haven't. By default, everything you say about my game that disagrees with me is wrong. There is one expert here on my game, and how it runs. That person is me. You assume, without evidence, that simply because I disagree with you, I run an inferior game.And, considering I'm presently running two games where resurrection is not an option, and said so in my last post, even when I tell you what to think, you can't listen.I've never said all of my worlds were designed similarly. In fact, I said exactly the opposite in my last post. So either you just want to argue, or you can't listen, or both. The reason I spread things throughout my world is because I want a realistic, immersive, deep setting with all kinds of terrain and adventures. My players think that rocks. That is the reason. It is a more interesting, more rich, more deep, more vivid world that way. Randomized city size charts may be useful for some folks, but they are not necessary, and I don't need them.Being fun is enough. But every decision I make in my games is well thought out, creative and intelligent. You think this is impossible, since I disagree with you, but you are wrong.Then your fuzzy language should reflect that. And no, I've said it's neither easy nor painless. Your habit of trying to make it sound like I agree with you is cute. For a 6th grader.I said that being fun is reason enough. I never said that was my only reason for it.I love a rich gaming world. I also like it when people share their creativity, instead of bragging about it. Show me how creative you are. Telling is easy, and cheap.You're a namedropper. That's different from being an expert.And I have demonstrated, time and again, that resurrections have imaginative precadent and fulfill a necessary game mechanic function. "Weird dungeon placement" is funny, because I haven't found anything in the DMG that requires me to do what you describe.You do realize that there are places in the real world more than 50 miles from a major city, right? I guess I made the assumption that everyone knows that. Perhaps you don't.I pull no punches at all. And my players are among the most creative, most intelligent and most interesting I've had in a long time. It just gets better and better.I will not denigrate your players, either. Some lines, I don't cross.I absolutely WILL do what I want in my games. So will you. And you're wrong about my world. Again. Shock!I sometimes deliver decisions because I am the DM. So do you. I do not railroad, in fact. Nor do I substitute Rule 0 for clear thinking and imagination.Nice dodge, but completely untrue. You have insulted and belittled me several times in this conversation. You aren't very good at hiding it, either, and your bad Yoda-speak does nothing to add layers of complexity or concealment to your rather flaccid muscle-flexing.Nope.I play with dozens of new players on a regular basis, thanks. I make decisions on what will make the most fun for my games, and based upon my own imaginative vision. Some like it, some don't. I've never had a player leave my table, and many have described me as the best DM they've ever had. I've had dozens of short stories written about characters and campaign events in my games, and a waiting list to get in.I'm glad that you are a good DM.But I rock the house, and none of this posturing impresses me.I'm using the word with precision and absolute correctness. Heroic luck, fate points and action points are fudging. Just like Resurrection. They accomplish the same end in roleplaying: keeping characters alive for the purpose of story continuity.That would be me. I run a very different game that I did four years ago. My style constantly evolves based upon new material.That's nice. I'm someone with experience, awards and paychecks as well. I don't need your advice about world design.The fact that your only reply to my observation is a rather lame attempt to cop my line shows me that I found purchase. I'm a DM. Some of what I do is homebrew, so is from professional designers, some is from creative folks like the ones I find here.You may be very creative, but you have nothing to teach because you're too busy talking about yourself, rather than the game.And actually, there are thousands of people like me on the internet. Enworld is a gathering place for them. I'd hardly call them a dime a dozen, but given your continued condescension I'm not surprised to see you spit on them in such a fashion.Arrogant? No, I simply don't cave because some anonymous guy on the internet says I should.I know you're not the only person who enjoys flushing out worlds where things make sense. I do, too. I simply reach different conclusions from you.I couldn't give a rip that you're "the great iron dm." Right now, you're just a guy with too much time on his hands, and nothing better to do than describe yourself in post after post. Get a girlfriend, man. Seriously.If this is all you've got to offer, I've got maybe one or two posts left in me for this discussion, so I'm announcing my intent to depart for greener and more interesting pastures, shortly.Is there anything else you need to say?</blockquote>

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