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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5249483" data-attributes="member: 386">RPGs are fun because players get to make decisions that have consequences.That is the principle from which I am proceeding.  Disagree?  The rest of the post will make no sense.  (And there are ways of playing RPGs where there are no consequences to player choice.)The question is, then: Was AS screwed because he was unable to make any choices?It's not so simple a question.  Frustration is a big part of fun - if you can't lose, who cares if you win?  Frustration is a real-world penalty; that gives "winning" a real-world value.Was AS able to pick and choose the fight or not?  Did he know that he was heading into an encounter that could end up with him being "stunlocked" for an hour?  That's an important question.Why is AS playing the game?  Does he want to be a hero, like the advice in the DMG and all the text in the PHB suggests?  Or did he want to engage in a duel of wits with the DM?  Or something else?Who knows?  Only AS, and he hasn't revealed this.AS brings up some very interesting points about how to run the game.  Depending on the metagame goals for play (that is, what the players want to do, why they are at the table in the first place), you're going to get different answers.AS should start by telling us why he and his group are playing D&D 4E.  Only once we know why they are playing the game can we say if it was a bad move by his DM or not.  If AS has no opportunity to make choices except in combat, it's lame.  He was stripped of the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the game.  However, if the game is about other things - exploring the setting, getting into character, exploring the personal issues of the PCs, or anything else - it's not that big a deal.In the end there's no one answer for all groups.  You have to look at why each person is playing and deal with that.</blockquote>

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