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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 7679518" data-attributes="member: 2067">Keep in mind our hypothetical DM has a problem with that resolution. So already, I'm not describing anyone who is fine with that sort of play, but people who take issue with that solution. In general, a game where "you can do anything" that requires some human arbiter is a bad fit for someone who wants to achieve a significant mechanical victory because of its unbound solution space. Simply speaking, being able to do anything isn't a good test of your skill at doing a particular thing. Taking out a bridge below a golem with a player that wants that challenge is like playing a game of chess where one player plops down an action figure in a square and calls it a "super-knight" - there's suddenly very different goals in play.I recognize that our hypothetical DM who is upset that their challenge has been easily thwarted doesn't value the humor (or else they wouldn't be taking issue) and instead values the mechanical challenge. This is a recipe for being disgruntled with D&D, in general, because D&D has plenty of ways for clever thinking to circumvent mechanical challenges when you play it out of the box (though individual groups can certainly opt into more constraints that make that mechanical challenge more worthwhile - they agree that targeting the bridge isn't going to serve those goals, so they don't do that). D&D is OK with super-knights. You aren't going to get a straight game of chess without playing a very particular version of the game. Again, we're talking about a hypothetical player who is upset because the table laughed at what was supposed to be a tense scene. A player who doesn't do that isn't this hypothetical player that Decker & Noonan are discussing as the reason they weren't funny in 2005. Then it isn't actually what I'm discussing. Well let me then state for the record that if you don't play like me, I can't and won't stop you from playing D&D. In fact: if you don't play like me, I love the fact that you're playing D&D. But if you're you're not happy when your table bursts out into laughter, lets examine what you hope to get out of this game in more detail. There's clearly a problem there, and I'm inclined to the perspective that it's not the people who are laughing and having fun who are the problem. It could be that playing the game more like how I play it will help you to have more fun when everyone's laughing about a joke and not get upset about it.</blockquote>

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