Is It Even Still a Game?

"Rule of Cool."

"Just have fun, that's the most important thing!"

"I use milestone levelling and [I cheat my players because] they seem to have fun doing it."

Are these people, in fact, interested in playing a game? Or are they more interested in a collaborative improv session (if they're lucky). If they're unlucky enough to be a player in one of these campaigns, they're at the mercy of a hopefully uncapricious DM, but certainly at the mercy of trying to impress them so they'll be allowed to level up.

I'm sure this won't be my last rant on this subject.

The rules don't make sense. Nothing makes sense. The "world" bends over backwards to keep the players safe and entertained.

I try to say that I'm ok with people playing the way they want to, and that there's really no wrong way to enjoy yourself on a Saturday afternoon with 4 friends. But the "advice" I've been reading from these proclaimed RPG geniuses is quickly convincing me that there is, in fact, a wrong way to play. At least, as long as these actors continue to insist that they are playing RPGs, and not just performing for each other.

"Hey! My game has struggle and the risk of death! I just like a little fantastical element now and then!" Risk of death? If the DM of a game ever even feels the need to ask the question "What can I do to not kill this character?" then there is no risk of death. If the rules can be ignored on a whim just because someone got attached to a Mary Sue character for whom they wrote 50 pages of crafted backstory, then you aren't playing a game. That's not necessarily wrong - you're perfectly free do to whatever you like. It's just not a game. Yes, yes, cue r/gatekeeping. Alexis makes the point that these characters are fundamentally dead.

And I have fallen into these traps now and again. This is one of the reasons I stopped using a DM screen. I fudged rolls, lied about motivations, made stuff up on the spot just to please players. I forgot that the players don't exist as my pawns. Rolling in the open put their fates in the hands of the dice, which are (probably) impartial.

One of the worst things I read in game stories is the player proposing some inane rule-break, defying not only real-game physics but the specific established physics of the game, ignoring all previously established methods of the DM and sociological attitudes of the setting's population and ecology, and the DM says "You know what? Sure, go ahead!" As we all know, D&D is explicitly designed for character advancement and achievement by impressing the DM with your clever antics. After all, the DM exists to entertain you (makes me sick to type that).

The party lines appear to be hardening between the grognards and those who insist on calling their group improv a "game", even going so far as to use the name D&D, despite it having very little resemblance to any kind of conflict-based game. The culprits here are entrenched in the powers that be. Thankfully, some still exist who remember that mechanics are essential to gaming.

Imagine if, in our hyper-game saturated culture, we played literally any other game this way? If, in the NFL Super Bowl, upon which millions of dollars hang, the ref awarded a technically illegal touchdown "because it was cool?" (OK, maybe a bad example, since no one can agree on the rules for a catch). If, in the DoTA international championships, a kill was reversed because it wasn't fun for that character to die at that moment? If, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Messi was allowed to pick up the ball and throw it into the goal, and we all just were ok with that because, hey, he worked hard to get where he is and what do rules matter anyway?

If we wouldn't accept such rule-breaking in any other game, why would it be acceptable in D&D?