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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 8411612" data-attributes="member: 42040">And that's my wheel-house about what I love about the game, the back-and-forth about how players and DMs build a world together (including how the mechanics work). I understand that this is a difference in style, and I'm passing no value judgement.The rules often dictate the plot. Want to have the stench of a sewer be over-powering to the senses of a character, better check to see if someone has a feat to say that they treat saves against smells as one step better. Want to have the party go against an evil illusionist, better keep in mind that illusion saves are easier to make than other saves. Want to have the party jump across crumbling sections of a wall, better know the difference between the Leap action and the High Jump action. Rules can definitely get in my way of depicting epic scenes. Intimate knowledge of a textbook-sized rules compendium full of special cases and exception-based design take up more headspace for me. For me, I'd rather make a reasonable judgement on a case-by-case basis - and if someone says "wait, didn't this happen last session and Dave's character got to make the same check with a DC 15" - then by all means, I'll change that to a DC 15 if they remember it. In my opinion, it takes so much more time out of the game and breaks immersion much more to stop and look up that rule for 30 seconds (or more in most cases). If they kill a villain too easily, I find it almost universal that most players get suspicious instantly. "Was he the real villain? Was he a lackey? Did we kill an illusionary duplicate? Did he escape and trick us?" The anti-climax becomes a stepping stone to a greater climax, setting up a more amazing story down the road. But the death of a beloved character during a rote encounter? A TPK midway through the dungeon? That's infinitely worse than an anti-climax. In my experience, more campaigns have ended due to character death than any other factor.</blockquote>

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