NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 7975739" data-attributes="member: 6803643">It's not a morality lesson. I'm not saying this is how every and all D&D games go or should go.I'm saying that D&D has the potential to be a lot more involved of a collaborative storytelling experience. Characters' actions can have consequences because there's humans actively modifying the story and narrative in response to those actions, rather than the limited set of possibilities being coded in from the start, as in a video game.That limited response matrix has given rise to a culture of consequence-free games, where players can carry out fantasies of being expert assassins or master thieves without the risk of punishment for their crimes. That's OKAY, and there's abundant evidence that video games like FPSs make people no less removed from real-world morality. I may despise those games, but if that's someone's fantasy, that's fine. This is a safe space, and D&D absolutely must be also.That said, D&D has the capacity to explore consequences in a way those games do not. It's not an angle that EVERY table should explore, but it's a potent roleplaying tool for deep and involved shared storytelling. Obviously the Players should be on the same page with the DM for what sort of game they're playing, and DMs should not be punishing players for playing a game the DMs don't want to play (clearly, the DM and the players are incompatible). But assuming mutual buy-in, D&D has a real cathartic, exploratory power to work through real-world issues in a hypothetical or fictional context; it's one of the most advanced tools of game theory out there.I understand your concerns about Player agency. 5e has given a lot of the narrative agency back to the DMs. I personally think that roleplaying requires consent from all parties. The rules, while carrying an established baseline, are guidelines for play. It can go in very personal directions very quickly, and that can hurt a lot of feelings.</blockquote>

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