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

[Faolyn]

Agree to disagree.

You disagree that some people here think that there are rules that are designed to control GMs, or you disagree with that those games even exist?

 

[Faolyn]

That's the second time you've referenced someone using power word castrate. I'm starting to wonder what circles you run in....

I... explained it. It's an actual spell from a 2e-era fanbrew netbook. I even provided the link to the netbook. I also explained it's not a spell I would ever convert to 5e.

 

[Faolyn]

And I think this is sort of the thing with D&D. By not having any strong guidelines for the GM the range of how it can be reasonably played is extremely wide. I have also played and run D&D for 30 years, with quite a few different groups. Even in early 2000s I was keenly aware of the distinction between Roll play and Role play, and happily identified as having a preference for the later. As such I likely have naturally avoided the former (even if never having had to consciously take a stance).

Whereas I always took "roll play" to mean people who only ever did what was on their sheet and never tried to actually play as their character, just as a bag of meaningless stats. My table, when playing D&D, gets very deep into character, and most of our interactions with the world are social, but there's also a lot of dice rolling.

But yeah, this is why guidelines are a good thing. Even if, in something like D&D, there are multiple ways to play the game. There can be multiple sets of guidelines.

 

[Remathilis]

One of the most Under Appreciated books in D&D history is the Dungeon Master's Guide II for 3.5. The first chapter, written mostly by Robin D. Laws is an absolutely amazing treatise on table management and adventure design that makes Gary himself look like a rank amateur. Allow me to share one of my favorite sections from that book: A sidebar entitled "TOP 10 WAYS TO RUIN YOUR GAME":

10. Confuse your players with constant additions to your house rules list. Whenever possible, change rules in the middle of an encounter.
9. Use your game to achieve the power over others that eludes you in real life. Make each session a test of your players’ appetite for punishment.
8. Run games while suffering from extreme sleep deprivation. Compensate by overdosing on caffeine. To increase the chances of a mid-game brain crash, start the game without having eaten properly.
7. Encourage players with dominant personalities to hog the spotlight. Wallflowers deserve to be trampled.
6. When the players become frustrated, allow their frustration to feed yours. Openly display your irritation with them.
5. When your players get up the nerve to directly suggest ideas to make the game more fun for them, reject their input. How dare they question your magnificence?
4. Browbeat shy players into participating more fully.
3. In a naked bid for attention, demand that the players participate in detailed after-session dissections of your gaming style, even though they seem relatively happy with the game as is.
2. Engineer ways for your real-world disputes with friends to manifest themselves within the game environment. Create scenes and encounters that are thinly veiled reenactments of your players’ painful personal experiences.
1. DM in a style geared exclusively to your own personal tastes, as if you were running a one-on-one game for yourself. Create an intellectual ideology explaining why your way is the only way to play. Scream its finer points at your players as they head out the door to find a new DM.

You want a list of what being a Bad DM entails? THAT is my list. Those 10 things are hallmarks of a bad DM. The more of them you exhibit, the worse you are.

 

[Remathilis]

Whereas I always took "roll play" to mean people who only ever did what was on their sheet and never tried to actually play as their character, just as a bag of meaningless stats. My table, when playing D&D, gets very deep into character, and most of our interactions with the world are social, but there's also a lot of dice rolling.

But yeah, this is why guidelines are a good thing. Even if, in something like D&D, there are multiple ways to play the game. There can be multiple sets of guidelines.

The "roll-play" vs "role-play" debate to me is just an older version of the "challenge the player/challenge the character" or "strategic play" arguments. I specifically recall roll vs role was used often regarding social encounters (rolling diplomacy vs actually speaking in character" but there was also an element of "rolling to find secret doors" or "rolling to find traps" vs descriptive interaction with objects to discover them ("I push every book on the shelf. Does the bookcase move?") I also recall "roll-play" was used as a derogatory term and tended to lumped with min-maxers and munchkins in the "bad player" boat.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Incorrect.

Some ENWorld members think that things like GM Agendas and Principles are rules that are designed to control GM behavior. This belief is incorrect.

Your opinion is that that belief is incorrect. Why present rules on GM agendas and principles as rules if your intent is not to control behavior? Apparently there are a fair number if people who, for whatever reason, have a negative opinion about traditional GM/player power distribution. I can see a game written to respond to that belief, I just don't agree with it personally.

 

[kermit4karate]

I... explained it. It's an actual spell from a 2e-era fanbrew netbook. I even provided the link to the netbook. I also explained it's not a spell I would ever convert to 5e.

I was just playin'. I assumed you had a sense of humor based on your repeated use of a spell called power word castrate to prove a point.

My mistake.