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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4174919" data-attributes="member: 2067">If I've said it once, I've said it twice:"Make Stuff Up" sucks as a rule.Specifically, I don't need $90 worth of rulebooks to tell me that I can just make stuff up as I go along. There are much easier, simpler, more flexible ways to resolve these conflicts than 900 pages of rules. I don't want WotC to say "Do whatever you want!" because oh thank you so much for your permission, no.What I need, what I'm paying for, what I want, are rules.Specifically so I don't have to make stuff up. I'm a busy man, I'm not playing D&D to write a collaborative narrative, I'm playing it because it is a game of plot resolution. If it doesn't give me a plot to resolve, if it doesn't give me a way to resolve it, it's not giving me what I want to play.Let's take your example, for, er, example:As a player, this would frustrate me, because it boils down to "Guess What the DM Wants You To Do!" I'm not allowed to come up with a way to break the king out of the succubus's charm -- the DM comes up with a way, and makes me jump through his hoops. No thanks. I want to use my abilities to direct the resolution of this little plot in a meaningful, unique way. Part of how I do that is by having codified rules for doing it -- if the succubus's charm ends when she dies, and I can know that, or learn that (and there are codified rules for how I would learn that), I can play the game to resolve the task based on my own character's abilities, rather than the DM's hoops.As a DM, this would frustrate me, because I don't really want to come up with hoops to make the players jump through. I want D&D to give me those hoops pre-made, and all I have to do is set 'em up and knock 'em down. I want the succubus's abilities to tell me how they can be thwarted, so that I can give these pre-packaged to the PC's, and spend my energies worrying about what other encounters make things interesting and what cool new scenes I want to set up, and how to next describe the taste of the fine elven wine that they've been using that is actually poisoned, or whatever. Tell me what you want me to do with the succubus. In this game of plot resolution, is the succubus a "find the McGuffin" plot? Is it a "kill the Boss Monster" plot? Is it a "uncover the lies" plot? Is it a "remain hidden until help finds you" plot? Is it a "Surprise! You've been tricked!" plot? Design it to provide me with that kind of interesting mini-story, tell me, concretely, how it accomplishes this mini-story, and give me a Rule Zero that says "If you'd rather make stuff up, go for it. Here's what it's designed to do, just so you know."I've got more entertaining things to do with my time than play 20 Quest(ion)s with the DM or ponder the mysteries of some devil-hooker's super-secret kryptonite.</blockquote>

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