Yuku free message boards

I'm confused by your post.

For instance, I killed two of 5 RPGA members in my first run of "Eye of the Bog." Perhaps the "classic" period came after that?

You think I'm damning the RPGA, but I wouldn't be so foolish as to damn something on my resume.

And I don't really understand what you mean when you say that my "DM style is defiantly outside the norms of the RPGA."

All my other players had fun, and out of several sessions, this guy was the only whiner. Note, I didn't say the entire party! He was an example of the kinds of folks under discussion. Some of the players from those sessions entered my open sessions later.

I think you're taking the critical component of this discussion and applying it more broadly than it was being applied.

On the other end of the spectrum, you seem to agree well.

I stated " But let's also admit that all gaming groups have always had whiners."

You end with, "Crybabies had existed since the start of D&D. I had to deal with them when I started in 1979 up until today. The thing is I don't tolerate it at my table then and I don't tolerate it today."

You say, "I told people flat out that I would make people pay the stupid tax (PC Death)"

I clearly announce my expectation is that the players have a great adventure and then I explain how my judging technique works while their eyes glaze over and they finally insist that it's the same way either they or their judge at home pretty much does it. (occasionally you get an "I wish, we've got a blah blah blah). Every time I do this I get a feeling of sadness that I'm not unique in my judging philosophy.

"in combat I roll in the open, letting the dice fall where they may."

I NEVER roll in the open. I roll so they never know what I'm rolling for or why the dice constantly drop. That way they don't ever think the noise should be causing them to be more perceptive or prepatory, because something's going on or about to happen. I would NEVER let down my screen. I am not OZ. No one needs to fear that man behind the curtain. I have no reason to cheat on my dice rolls, since I could just as easily convene the world to kill them no matter how well the dice rolled. I've always been confused by this odd idea that somehow persists in the minds of the players - that there is some other than illusory content to the game, whereby the judge must follow it. My goodness, it's a magical world. It could be anything. It could even fluster and fuck the rules in any book. And, that's the only reason I laugh at all this codicication in 3E. It launches at you as a product, supposedly of imagination, but in doing so it seeks to grab you in its maw and make you conform to its rule. That's rather odd, considering its rules are rooted in pure fantasy!

On a side note to the issue of cheating on dice. 3E still has a list of principle creators that never understood this fact. We'd catch him cheating on his dice all the time. One of my fellow players would peek behind his screen just to tell us when it happened! Sure, that was cheating too, in a way, but he was playing the thief in the party, and so it seemed OK.

And another point on dice rolling. I would never roll in the wide open because the dice do kill all too easily. There would be less adventure. Now, my players, especially Koonzie, never think I'm fudging. I'm super good at it. You just cannot tell, because I keep the tension on and you don't know when you're hanging or not - (see the panopticon for the panoptic effect, created by J.S. Mill's mentor, Jeremy Bentham, prison reformer and father of Utilitarianism, which is applicable herein). As well, what holds all of this together is the story of it all. That means there must be cause and effect in all things. Therefore, if I need to fudge, then the cause materializes. I don't just manipulate dice rolls. There is a world substance that blocks the die from landing in such and such a way. I know it. The world produces it anytime I'm thinking I may need to fudge here, for the dice are too cruel. I instead discover that the world is suggesting, "not yet!" and when I look at the situation in that world, I can then clearly see how it is speaking to me to see this or that thing. Perhaps a small thing I missed about the way a power's use applies in this situation - a discovery surreptitious to the player, or the God that was to reward his ardent followers shakes the scabbard of the artifact's container loose at just that time. It comes to all be an act of divining, and only the best of judges know how to do it well and how well to get away with it...

Except, I keep discovering that all the judges out there pretty much fit my definition of only the best judges who get away with it.... Damn it.

Nonetheless, players do die. And they die as well as in one situation as another. What determines this is the mere alignment of the stars. The confluence of things I cannot control as a judge. Where the story ends for the longest of nights I still, somehow, do not control. It just happens. Perhaps my dice roll out from behind the screen by accident. Perhaps the player commits the noble act of dashing into the fray. Perhaps the fireball's explosion cannot be gotten around by anyone once the player announces he ends the time stop right there, without looking behind him to see he's in the blast zone. One needn't have a calculator to measure that.