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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D+1" data-source="post: 2184042" data-attributes="member: 13654">Well reading this thread has prompted me to add one more line to my <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/manifesto.htm" target="_blank">D&D Manifesto</a> about not just using/abusing the rules (already well-covered I thought) but actually KNOWING the rules.  The purpose of my manifesto is the dictionary definition of manifesto - a public statement of intentions, motives, or views.  For D&D purposes it puts everyone on the same page - assuming they bother to read it.I have in the past had problems with players in this regard.  Only two that I recall, but some others were notably reticent to learn rules beyond the simplest, smallest section possible and made themselves annoyances because of it.  Players who utterly and inexcusably failed to learn BASIC rules.  I mean INSANELY SIMPLE rules like what dice to roll for a to-hit combat roll, not to mention the BASIC bonuses and penalties that applied like for strength, dexterity, and magical weapons.If you can't be bothered to learn that the d20 is for rolling to see if you successfully attack in melee you are a hopeless drag on the game for everyone.  That includes being a drag for YOURSELF because of the way everyone else then has to deal with you.  And I believe that is actually why they did it.  By forcing myself as DM and other players to deal with them on such a level of sheer willfull ignorance they may have drawn our anger - but they certainly had themselves as the constant center of attention for a significant portion of gameplay for as long as I was willing to tolerate it.Nobody should need to pass a written game-knowledge test to play.  Nobody needs to play as if the rules are sacrosanct - in fact, I heartily discourage that.  But then neither is anyone being put upon to LEARN; to achieve a basic, functional knowledge of the game as a whole.  You don't have to learn it all, and you don't have to learn it all at once - but unless you have an actual diminished mental capacity or disability you have no excuse for not learning enough of the game to play any Core Rules race or class functionally.  Not PROFICIENTLY, nor each as well as any other... just functionally.Yes, it's possible to let players simply blunder along with no knowledge of the game but that is a matter of the DM CHOOSING to make basic game-rules decsions for the players.  Examples have been given such as a player wanting his character to charge and attack with scimitars but not knowing that there are restrictions on how much of his characters intended activity can be accomplished or that there are undesireable consequences that ought to be considered and accepted.  If a DM then chooses to IGNORE those rules that's one thing.  It's quite another thing for a DM to let the player continue to be IGNORANT of those rules and make all his rules-related decisions FOR him.  Even that I might be able to accept since as I mentioned it's possible that a DM simply considers the bulk of the rules utterly unimportant.  [I disagree but don't discount the possibility.]  But when other players are at an entirely different level of rules-awareness you're being as rude as the offending player to LET him play that way.  To let one player be an ignoramus while other players are reasonably expecting a higher, basic competency with rules knowledge to facilitate the flow of the game for everyone is, IMO, bad DMing.</blockquote>

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