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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TiwazTyrsfist" data-source="post: 6293774" data-attributes="member: 70582">I have played a lot of RPGs with people whom I don't consider close friends, or even really acquaintances.  With friends or a regular gaming group, I don't generally have this problem because we can all fairly readily agree on whether or not a specific section of rules is bogging down the game, or something we want to focus more on.However, when I game with people who aren't close friends, or who I don't even particularly know, such as but not limited to, People in the dorm at college, People at a Convention of any sort, People at open game night who are not my usual gaming group, I frequently (about 30% of the time) run into the following problem.A person holds up a book, "This is an officially licensed/published supplement and it says XXXXX therefore it's the rules and you must let me do XXXXX and/or you must do XXXXX within the confines of this game/adventure".  This results in one of three scenarios.  1> the GM goes "Fine, whatever" and we go along with this persons demand even though it derails the game.  2> The GM argues with the person, endlessly, until the person gives up or leaves, this however taints the game and ruins a lot of the fun.  3> the GM argues with the person until the GM gives up and leaves, and there is then no game.Thus, having rules which are Fiddly (you MUST track your food carried, and material spell components, and remember to tell the GM that you stopped to eat lunch and drink water) or which are potentially game breaking (I am a lizard man, this class lets me alter the stats of reptiles with no limit, I make myself size gargantuan and grant myself strength 47, Pun-pun ahoy!) clearly labeled as OPTIONAL allows a GM trying to run a game for people he doesn't know well to head off these rules lawyer esque arguments.Yes, there ARE rules for the Italian military requiring more water rations because they need to cook their pasta as well as having drinking water, but water tracking is an OPTIONAL rule set, and we aren't using it, because I don't feel the need to track minutia down to that level.And so on.So, I also agree that rules for deprivation are a good thing, but would really like them to have a heading as OPTIONAL RULES so that they can easily be disregarded when they don't need to be used without argument.I mean, food and water tracking and deprivation rules are good and thematic to a game when you're travelling through a desert or wasteland, or adrift on the ocean or a salt sea, but when you're walking through woodlands with clear streams and lots of available game, I don't like to bother with tracking how many rations the characters bought, or keeping track of if they stopped to eat.</blockquote>

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