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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4175385" data-attributes="member: 1054">If you want a game where the DM has not even a baseline rule for things and everything works as he wants it to work for a given plot and doesn't need to work the same way before or after, play a diceless game.If you want a game where part of the fun/challenge of DMing is working within the rules -- if you feel, as I do, that the greatest obstacle to creativity is the *lack* of boundaries -- then play D&D/GURPS/Hero/BESM/Other 'traditional' games.To expand on what I've said:"Succubus can control people", with nothing more, gives me nothing to work with. No ideas, no plots, no gimmicks, no hooks. It's *boring*."Succubi can control one person absolutely, provided they speak to that person alone for at least five minutes a day"...now, THERE'S a plot hook. By giving a baseline, and knowing that baseline is the 'standard' for the world, I can do a lot with it. I can use it as written. I can decide that this particular succubi has used a ritual so that she only needs to talk with her slave one day a week, and so when the PCs cunningly plot to keep her away from the king and the king still doesn't get better, they decide she's not a succubus ater all. I can create weaker or stronger succubi. I can create a succubi who can control Cha bonus thralls. Perhaps most importantly, if I want to use someone else's content, I can be sure they're working from the same assumptions, and if they change them, they call them out clearly and explain why they were changed and what benefit is gained.But a raw statement of general ability gives me nothing. Nada. Bupkis. I might as well just make my own monster from scratch. It turns all "control people" monsters into the same things. Succubi control people. Mind flayers control people. Aboleths control people. Vampire Lords control people. What allows you to create different plots from these creatures is differences in how they do it -- how many people? How long? How is the control maintained? How total is the control? If each one is distinct, each one breeds different stories. And, yes, I can make all of it up myself -- but then what am I spending 75 bucks for? Pretty pictures?</blockquote>

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