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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 6306705" data-attributes="member: 18">We're not really talking about rule zero, though, we're talking about the fact that some DMs behave in a dictatorial manner whilst using the precise excuses you have been using. I'm not saying you do, at all. I'm saying those are the exact same approaches, which is why people are very skeptical of them.I disagree. You've explicitly said that the quotes essentially "prove" that you are right in a factual sense, when in fact that's merely your opinion. By the way, I notice you used the word "judgmental" to describe fiat a number of times earlier - this doesn't make any sense, based on judgmental's meaning, but do you mean "subjective"? If so I think it's certainly true that whether something is fiat is subjective. That doesn't mean, however, that it isn't a real issue. Whether something is sexist, for example, is frequently subjective, but sexism is still a very real problem - the same could be said for a multiplicity of issues.DMs deciding that they "run the show" in a bossy sense is a real problem, that real people experience, that is not exaggerated or fictionalized (contrary to your implications). They tend to use the excuses you have brought forth. You suggest you need the DM to be a "moral center" and "authoritative". I don't find this to be the case with reasonable adult players - indeed, if the DM is doling out the morals, something has gone wrong, I'd suggest. The DM just needs to present a reasonable world where actions have logical consequences - the rest will work itself out, unless you have players who have... problems (or are teenagers). The "fuel for the fire of moral panic" stuff is particularly ridiculous - if your players are that horrifying when un-managed, they're the problem, not you being insufficiently bossy - indeed that's just paint over black mold.I should also point out that if the DM himself has messed-up morals, strict DM authority can make things worse - specific, real example: we had a DM who insisted that Orcs were inherently evil from birth and had contrived a situation where we found a bunch of Orc babies. We didn't want to kill them - that would be sick, but he threw a fit, stripped the Paladin of his Paladinhood, maybe all the other L characters N (apparently anyone "Lawful" kills Orc babies!), and then proceeded to bring in a GMPC to harangue us about it (and who killed the Orc babies anyway after having paralyzed us with a DM-fiat spell that didn't exist, and even if it had existed, my PC would have been immune to, as he was explicitly immune to all paralysis!). Again, this is not "fictionalized" - this is an actual thing that happened (said DM is now a professor at Cambridge, hilariously).</blockquote>

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