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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pedantic" data-source="post: 8849552" data-attributes="member: 6690965">I would say that's a bit of a simplification, for several reasons. Firstly, if you don't have an existing rule for something, you have to move your GM from the role of "referee" to "designer" on the fly, which can be pretty difficult. Most people can't actually calculate the probabilities they've just decided on when they set a given DC, much less when they set three of them in row. A designer has the luxury of not actually playing the game in the moment they're creating rules for it, and can run annoying regressions or repeated tests to tune a mechanic to achieve a particular outcome. A GM can actively be more empowered to model a situation as they want to by using a clear and well-designed ruleset vs. having to figure out how to do so on the fly by designing the rules themselves. We wouldn't have stories about accidental TPKs or overtuned homebrew magic items if that weren't the case.Secondly, you can draw a line between the GM's role as the creator of a fictional world and as the resolution mechanism for that setting. It's not a popular viewpoint, but I would prefer my role as the GM involve exactly no mechanical design work, and a lot more work populating NPCs and setting elements. "Power" can be restricted to just laying out a fictional world, and not determining the rules of engagement with that world. I can decide there's a castle, it's made of stone, figure out the guard rotations, and then not have to make any decisions about what happens when my players start trying to tunnel through the walls if the system has sufficient rules for perception and object destruction.The joy of discovery in such a system is mutual, because I don't actually know what the mechanics will output after I and the players have finished feeding them actions, and the players get to interact meaningfully with challenge, because they can know how those rules of engagement work and evaluate a better or worse set of actions to achieve their goals. However, it is a prerequisite to get those particular flavors of fun that the rules be thorough and defined preemptively, or I'm back to designer in the moment.</blockquote>

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