What happens when you think everything is a level-appropriate encounter

[Koo Rehtorb]

I trust that you will understand that I'm more interested in the opinions of people who have actually played my games, just as I have more interest in the opinions of movie critics you have seen a movie than those who have not.

As I believe I indicated in that very post.

OK. Well, evidently in your subjective opinion as a fallible human being you have declared that the game I run and that my players enjoy and clamor for is made up of **** rules.

"Made up of" seems like something of an exaggeration. The existence of a few bad rules doesn't immediately destroy any and all quality in it. It won't make a good game terrible. It's not a binary state. I'm sure you all have a perfectly lovely time.

I think we've both carefully explained our positions, and everybody reading has had every opportunity to evaluate our positions. Thank you for an interesting discussion. I think neither of us has anything new to say on the subject.

Certainly. Enjoy your gaming.

Don't be silly, the PC's only win because the GM let's them. It's called level appropriate encounters. If the GM would just throw something random in the PC's path then they would die really, really quickly. There is no illegitimate living and even though you save a PC through GM Fiat it doesn't dirty the game or make it cheaper. Roleplaying doesn't even have to be about winning and the price for losing doesn't have to be death.

The Rules aren't all and everything, you can run a very fast and lose games with minimal of rules and just make things up as you go along. If you want to run and advesarial game with extra attention to rules then you can do so but it is not the only way to play the game.

And obviously I disagree strenuously.

I dislike the "level appropriate encounter" style of gameplay that modern D&D is shifting towards, but even with it it's not like PCs don't have a chance of success and failure based on their tactics and dice luck. If you're throwing level appropriate encounters at groups then the groups more proficient at playing the game will succeed far more frequently than the ones that are less proficient. And getting better at playing the game and beating those level appropriate encounters fairly is far more satisfying than the DM changing the rules to give you victory instead.