D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[JiffyPopTart]

Well, the "house" in house rule is the DM's house. Players are welcome to ask or suggest that a particular house rule be added or removed, but the decision must be the DM's alone IMO. When a DM, even out of a desire to appease and ensure that everyone feels heard, allows the ship to be pushed and pulled too much by the players, the ship runs aground and sinks. It may not feel democratic to ever silence debate, may leave a bad taste in one's mouth, but it's necessary. We can try to imagine it otherwise, try to manifest something better and more evolved, but we're only fooling ourselves when we do.

I could not disagree more with this take. I want to run the game that fits exactly what my players want to play. I want my adventures to feature what they want to explore. I want the story to come from their desires.

I could care less during character creation of players mix and match pretty much anything to fit their character concept. Want your druid to have magic missile, why not? Want your fighter to have the stealth skill, go for it!

I literally control the entire rest of the world..and can temper it to match shape to the puzzle pieces the layers have given me to interact with.

I LOVE my narrative style of campaign...and my players l9ve to show up every week digging more and more into the cooperative storytelling project we are embarked upon as a team.

I'm not in charge of anything. I'm not a voice of authority. I have a vote and it's one of many at the table.

From this comes a story remembered so much deeper and more intimately than back in the day if mapping dungeons, counting arrows, and clearing rats from basements.

That's why I'm on this thread....I've been playing a LONG time but I don't really have any rose colored glasses for "old school". It's hard for me to understand the mindset of those who still find joy at that +1 sword after 40 years of finding them.

 

[Hussar]

Because it doesn't work. Same reason movie productions, theater plays, businesses, classrooms, militaries and militias, and governments always have a clear leader.

You do you, though.

It's interesting you pick those examples. In every example, the leader has a specific task (or set of tasks) that need to be completed that have very little to do with the enjoyment of those under that leader. A movie or theater production director doesn't care if the actors are having fun. Militaries are pretty renowned for not really caring about the feelings of those under command. So on and so forth. And, while a classroom at the elementary level may have a clear leader, by secondary and certainly higher learning, that goes very much by the wayside.

If your model of a game table is a military or a government or a business, I really have to question why. None of those organizations give the slightest care about the feelings of the people doing the job. And all the people in those organizations are producing things for other people. None of those are creative endeavors.