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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5397179" data-attributes="member: 22779">Again, you are assuming that I think the power relationship is a negative one.  "Oppress people"?  Why?  You're right, Alex Trebek in no way oppresses the players.  But, then again, they're playing a game where this is no player freedom whatsoever.  All answers must be in a specific form and there is only one answer to a given question.  But, let's not forget, Alex Trebek still has all the power in that relationship.  If the players choose not to follow the rules, he can disallow their answers.  The judges (which Trebek is not one of) can disallow answers that are imprecise, and it's up to the judges to define "imprecise".You cannot get around the idea that there is a power relationship at the table.  It's always there.  It has to be there really.  Someone has to set the scenario, someone has to adjudicate the scenario and someone has to set up the next scenario.  That someone is holding most of the cards.And, again, that's NOT a bad thing.But, just pulling another line out here:Hang on a second here.  The presence of the cult member is entirely improvised.  It wasn't there until the player asked about it (given the original example).  By placing the cult member there, you've, to use your language, changed the code, not based on any in game action, but on a meta-game level because the player gave you a cool idea.How is that not improvisation?But, taking it a step further, unless you have scripted out every NPC speach and refuse to vary from that, you must improvise NPC reactions all the time.  That improvisation is based on a number of factors, but, it's still improvised on the spot.I think you are trying to reduce the DM down to some sort of Internet Bot that simply reacts in a predictable way every time.  Again, to each his own, but, I certainly wouldn't want to play in a game where the DM never improvises.</blockquote>

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