Trill wrote:Or in other words:
In your view bad GMs would say "Well, the rules clearly state that trying to evade notice means a Vehicle Test with Threshold 5. Oh, you didn't make it? Well, make the test again to avoid crashing. Failed again? Well, take 4 physical damage"
In my view bad GMs would say "Hmm, you're trying to tail those guys? Roll. A 27? Nope, not enough. They notice you."
It seems like the only major difference between those two cases is that in the former case, the GM makes sure that you fail by pulling an absurdly high number out of the rulebook while in the latter case the absurdly high number is pulled out of the GM's ass. That may seem like no difference at all, but I know that if I had a fuckery-prone GM, I'd much rather see him holding a copy of FATE: Space Adventures than a copy of Grimtooth's Traps. The former, at the very least, is unlikely to give the GM any new ideas:
Also I'm trying to figure out what metal that cup is supposed to be made of that is both extremely valuable, and also magnetic, and also more valuable than a giant extremely powerful magnet.
I suppose it could be a random very magical object, but then when the PCs outsmart this very easy trap they get even more valuable stuff.
Unrestricted Diplomat 5314 wrote:Accept this truth, as the wisdom of the Crafted: when the oppressors and abusers have won, when the boot of the callous has already trampled you flat, you should always, always take your swing."
Grek wrote:The point of Grimtooth's Traps isn't to be creative. It's to have PCs fall into wood chippers by DM fiat and then laugh at them.
If only there were some rules to stop that DM fiat.
Unrestricted Diplomat 5314 wrote:Accept this truth, as the wisdom of the Crafted: when the oppressors and abusers have won, when the boot of the callous has already trampled you flat, you should always, always take your swing."
I've played with a few DMs who'd kill players with traps like that, but none who'd be disappointed if you managed to recognize the trap and avoid death.
If you wear carrying ferrous based metal objects, would they fly over and attach themselves to wear the magnet is, thus warning that something weird is going on?
Omegonthesane wrote:Even when they have a literal monopoly, bad GMs have to compete with "staying home and wanking instead of playing D&D". And once they demonstrate that they aren't actually willing to provide a good game, why give them another chance?
Because many people are so starved for games that they forget the first rule of TTRPGs: Having no game is better than being in a bad game.
Of course, in a perfect world these GMs would get no players and the bad players would get no games, so that Good GMs get Good players and Bad GMs get Bad players.
But we're not in a perfect world.
Mord, on Cosmic Horror wrote:Today if I say to the man on the street, "Did you know that the world you live in is a fragile veneer of normality over an uncaring universe, that we could all die at any moment at the whim of beings unknown to us for reasons having nothing to do with ourselves, and that as far as the rest of the universe is concerned, nothing anyone ever did with their life has ever mattered?" his response, if any, will be "Yes, of course; now if you'll excuse me, I need to retweet Sonic the Hedgehog." What do you even do with that?
JigokuBosatsu wrote:"In Hell, The Revolution Will Not Be Affordable"
Bad DMs are bad for a reason. Some can be corrected by good, crunchy rules, and others cannot.
For example, the Ass-pull DM is entirely fixable by solid rules. He ass-pulls high DCs because he doesn't understand that the game is supposed to be fun, or emergent, or player-directed. He was told to make it all up, so he sets high DCs for things he doesn't like or understand, and low ones for things he does. A good ruleset where he is not setting DCs or being asked to write rules on the fly makes him a better DM because it clearly sets guidelines for good play for him to emulate.
A Railroader DM, or a Sadist DM, or an Emotional Baby DM is not fixable by rules. They are going to play the game they want regardless of the rules, so you might as well play FATE because learning a crunchy ruleset is a waste of your time.
Some DMs are not entirely correctable, but any improvement is an improvement. For example, a Drama Nerd DM might try to tell you that the king is not impressed with your speech about the dignity of the peasants, but he will grudgingly let you succeed with minimum success when you show him that the rules say that succeeding the DC by ten is a really good roll and that the book says the king should agree with and help the winner of the check.
The point here is that good rules matter. Any attempt to say that they don't is just weird fatalism by people who can't write or understand good rules.
Trill wrote:Having no game is better than being in a bad game.
I'm glad that line finally caught on.
K wrote:The point here is that good rules matter. Any attempt to say that they don't is just weird fatalism by people who can't write or understand good rules.
Alas, that's rather the reality we live in. Reality is dictated by consensus, and the current consensus dictates that rules are bad and watching a youtube scripted show makes you a dnd player.
That's why my latest shitty game is only 10 pages long.
Last edited by Dogbert on Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
