They : Them :: Gayer : Gamer

They : Them :: Gayer : Gamer

Generator

infighting

Partially related to the recent exchange about milestone leveling but. Something that kinda drives me up the wall is how whenever someone criticizes any mechanic from 5e one of the first comments they're inevitably bound to get is someone telling them that they probably only dislike that mechanic because "your DM probably just sucked". And then their description of the behavior of a DM who doesn't suck involves either ignoring the mechanic entirely in favor of rule of cool, or completely redesigning the mechanic from the ground up so that it works completely differently from how it's presented in the book.

Like first of all Idk where they get this urge to automatically assume that anyone who complains about a mechanic is probably a newb player traumatized by having a bad GM and not a GM themselves. It feels weirdly condescending.

Second and most importantly. Of course you aren't bound by RAW, you can hourserule and ignore rules till your heart's content, it's your table the world is your oyster do whatever you want forever etc. If a mechanic doesn't suit your table change it. But like. If using a game mechanic in the way presented in said game's rulebook automatically makes someone suck as a GM then it's the game design that it's bad!!! If the rules are written in such a way that running the game rules-as-written makes you someone who is considered bad at running it then the rules are bad!!! Following the rules of the game you paid for the way they are presented to you being seen as a mistake that sucky GMs make and not the default way to run a game is a clear indication that there's something seriously wrong with those rules!!!