DMG pg 263 "No matter what a rule's source, a rule serves you, not the other way around."
Check out my DM credo: I am the arbiter and executioner: The Rules serve me.
Thanks, DMG. I love you too.
(Now, I didn't need this to be all official. I believe the rules serve me anyway. But as it IS all official, I'm just highlighting this for a handy reference in future debates and also to say thanks to whomever included this bit.)
In a capitalist system, reward is based on merit. So naturally, the fact that I have something before you do means I'm better than you. I understand why you'd be upset. My only advice is to be more like me. Grow out your hair, turn up the metal, and make the rules your *****.
DaveDash wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
DaveDash wrote:
DMG Loves me too
Screen shots of every page or we don't believe it 
joeburgos wrote:
joeburgos wrote:
Thank you Orethalion, I am a happy DM today
But to stay on topic, yes, I completely agree with Bawylie, this book does put control in the hands of the DM again.
Zardnaar wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Very glad to have this DM vibe confirmed in the DMG.
Can we get the full text of that paragraph...?
Ramius613 wrote:
bawylie wrote:
The goals of play are to have a good time and create an exciting story. If during the session the rules as written get in the way of those goals, they should not be brought into play. The DM narrates the results of the adventurers' actions and part of that is deciding whether or not the result of what the players described they wanted to do is uncertain enough to warrant bringing the rules into play to resolve it.
Anything not in service of the goals of play should be cut right out.
The rules are there to support the player and the DM at the same time. There is no hate involved. Just the rules. I will wait to purchase the DMG until there are more reviews to indicate if it is worth buying.
Uchawi wrote:
Noon wrote:
Emerikol wrote:
DaveDash wrote:
Emerikol wrote:
Noon wrote:
There is nothing wrong with house ruling or having the rules serve the DM.
However that is something that must be agreed upon first.
People in this forum are quick to jump on the player fun bandwagon, until it disagrees with their play style, and then the player should be "discouraged".
If you're my DM and you start changing rules willy nilly to suit YOUR story you've just lost yourself a player. The rules are there not as a tool the DM uses to advance the story, but to provide a level of consistency so that this game isn't just imagination.
I am saddened by the number of people that seem to have had some bad DM somewhere along the line abuse the intent of the game such that now any mention of the rules serving the DM appears somehow separate from the fact that the DM's goal is a game experience that everyone at the table enjoys.
The rules serve the DM in achieving the goal of an enjoyable game - the only place that ever breaks down is when the DM doesn't work toward that goal, so do try to stop acting like it is the book telling the DM that the rules serve him that is at fault and place any harsh feelings you might have where they belong: with whatever DM sat down at the table with you and abused you and the authority the group gave them in good faith.
DaveDash wrote:
Noon wrote:
bawylie wrote:
A friend shared this quote with me from page 4:
"Your goal isn't to slaughter the adventurers, but to create a campaign world that revolves around their actions & decisions, and to keep your players coming back for more."
I thought that was an interesting way of putting it (emphasis mine).
iserith wrote:
bawylie wrote:
3e grapple rules, or how I went insane.
DaveDash wrote:
Is John (sorry if I misremembered the name and for being too lazy to go back and check) and his character named "I don't care" not going to look back on the gameplay some months from now and fondly say "Remember that time my character in that one game did that cool thing?" to someone else that participated in the game?
Is Dave's group not going to reminisce about how they had a great time playing a particular character or campaign sometime down the road?
That's what Iserith is getting at here - you don't have to have the story in mind, you don't have to prioritize the story, you don't even have to address that a story is involved in what you are doing, but all the same when the campaign is over and done, it is a story.
I hope that it is a story that the players involved will be telling, re-telling, remembering, and even mining for inspiration for years to follow it in all the new campaigns they play - I know that nothing involved in the process of gaming gives me more enjoyment than seeing my friends smiling about the exploits one of their characters got up to in a campaign I DMed for, whether that is the very session it happened, the following week, or a decade afterward. I wish that same joyful experience on all who would take up the mantle of Dungeon Master (and I don't care if it is playing D&D with characters named I Don't Care and pure 3rd-person perspective game-oriented play or the absolute height of table theatre filled with heartwrenching dramatic plots, or anything in between).
bawylie wrote:
Gnarl wrote: