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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8840118" data-attributes="member: 86653">I disagree. A good referee will do whatever the truth of the fiction dictates. Note I do not mean story or plot when I say fiction. By fiction I mean the established events, characters, locations, etc that exist in the game world. The existence of the ogre in the road at that particular moment is established by the fiction, i.e. the referee knows that ogre was walking across that road at that time...or, to make life easier, that's what the random encounter table coughed up.That assumes there is an objectively correct way to run the rules. There isn't. It's all interpretation.Exactly. And that's a problem. They have a limited list of rules-provided options for their characters to do as if RPGs were a boardgame or video game. RPGs are neither. RPGs have a thing commonly referred to as tactical infinity. The characters can try literally anything the player can think of. They're not limited to that artificial menu in their head or in the rules.I've been playing and running RPGs just as long as you have, and I agree with your statement here, except for the word rules. Replace the word rules with something like setting, genre, etc and we're in complete agreement. The rules are guidelines that point to the setting, genre, etc...they're not the setting, genre, etc. As said, the map isn't the territory. The rules are the map. The setting is the territory.The world is chaos. For people who want their RPGs to more accurately mirror how the world works, chaos in this sense is good.Importantly, RPGs are not boardgames. The characters in RPGs are not limited in the same way as pieces on a chess board.You're assuming I mean story and plot when I say fiction. That's not the case. I agree that player agency is king. Whatever story RPGs happen to have should be emergent from play, not enforced by the referee. I happen to see the rules as artificially limiting player agency. Characters can try anything. They're not limited to what the rules cover.</blockquote>

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