Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9489845" data-attributes="member: 7040941">Obviously this is a very DND-coded topic, and what I've observed is that that game's design tends to necessitate house rules, and in turn, ends up putting people in this bizarre, prescriptive attitute about what you can and cannot do, and what counts as a viable way to do something.In 5e at least, Improvise Action is a thing, and through that mechanic you're inviting the DM to yes,and you. But, for most people if you point this out, it just devolves into thought termination cliches to the tune of mother may I. Most DND fans don't typically get improv nor how its literally not a bad thing if the DM adds some qualifiers to what you want to do, but that isn't necessarily their fault, because of the tendency of DMs to not actually be yes,and'ing the idea. All of this is rooted in the same core issues: DND is causing blocking, constantly, as so many of its rules fight against the core improv game at its center, and in turn, because DND does not recognize its an improv game (just as every other RPG is and doesn't) and so its design is all too often incompatible, and because it never teaches how to properly play that kind of game to begin with. People on either side of the DM Screen are causing blocking just as much as the game is as a result. Back when I still bothered with DND at all, I usually got bullied out of topics for bringing up Improvise Action, but I think the fact that I never had these kinds of problems with 5e kind of speaks to what I'm getting at. My playgroup at the time was basically all theater kids and we intuitively got improv (and also just didn't take the game that seriously, so we weren't ever that fussed over stepping away from how the game was written), so we had a lot of already ingrained ways to avoid or otherwise smooth over any blocking thst still occurred. But this is also why I think, for people who end up looking at Dungeon Crawl Classics, why the Mighty Deed seems like such a revelation. There's very little difference between it and Improvise Action in terms of what you can use it to do, other than the fact that DCC spends the time to tell you its something you can do and that you aren't going to be arbitrarily denied. Some GMs might interpret that as limiting their own power, but really all its doing is saying you have to Yes,And them, just without saying it. I know a lot of people are still weird about this interpretation in general because of the icky associations with improv stereotypes, but one should keep an open mind I think. So much of these weird idiosyncratic issues in the hobby become crystal clear when you can trace them all back to the same fundamental problem.</blockquote>

Verification