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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 8706905" data-attributes="member: 53980"><p>I strive for neutrality, but recognize that it is largely impossible, and not even absolutely desirable. Even the advice for neutral-facing styles (like sandboxes) tends to have advice that is essentially favoring the players over the world. </p><p></p><p>For example, allowing threats to be telegraphed. It's done in the spirit of fairness, but it's not exactly neutral. If the DM were truly striving for some platonic ideal of neutrality, then certainly there should be some "insurmountable" threats that are undetectable until it is too late. That's realistic, no?</p><p></p><p>However, that kind of thing tends to fall under the auspices of the killer DM, rather than the neutral DM, because it's fundamentally unfair. There's not exactly a challenge or skill involved in such a case, because the reality is that if the DM wants to kill you with an undetectable and unsurvivable scenario, the game gives them the power to do so.</p><p></p><p>I think that there's a degree of fairness to the neutral DM that is often glossed over. Because, fundamentally, if you're a referee between the entire world (or even multiverse) and the party, the world has what is essentially an unfair advantage. It's like a football game where there's half a dozen players on one team and 3 billion players on the other. And each team can field however many players they want. Obviously, in such an instance, a fair and impartial referee might see cause to step in and impose a few limits on the latter team.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 8706905, member: 53980"] I strive for neutrality, but recognize that it is largely impossible, and not even absolutely desirable. Even the advice for neutral-facing styles (like sandboxes) tends to have advice that is essentially favoring the players over the world. For example, allowing threats to be telegraphed. It's done in the spirit of fairness, but it's not exactly neutral. If the DM were truly striving for some platonic ideal of neutrality, then certainly there should be some "insurmountable" threats that are undetectable until it is too late. That's realistic, no? However, that kind of thing tends to fall under the auspices of the killer DM, rather than the neutral DM, because it's fundamentally unfair. There's not exactly a challenge or skill involved in such a case, because the reality is that if the DM wants to kill you with an undetectable and unsurvivable scenario, the game gives them the power to do so. I think that there's a degree of fairness to the neutral DM that is often glossed over. Because, fundamentally, if you're a referee between the entire world (or even multiverse) and the party, the world has what is essentially an unfair advantage. It's like a football game where there's half a dozen players on one team and 3 billion players on the other. And each team can field however many players they want. Obviously, in such an instance, a fair and impartial referee might see cause to step in and impose a few limits on the latter team. [/QUOTE]
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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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