In moderation, of course
In moderation, of course
18 comments
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ITT: a lot of DMs who don't realize you can be consistent and adhere to rules and also have a splash or two of cool dm thrown in.
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For fuckin' real. Evidently 'In moderation, of course' isn't an 'of course' after all.
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As the title says, moderation is key. If the game is just "whatever is the most convincing right now" then I'm going to be annoyed that I sat down to play D&D/fate/gurps/whatever, and we're mostly playing improv. It's important to set expectations in or before session 0.
If I was looking to join a game, and the GM was like "We're all about the rule of cool", I'd probably ask for some examples. If it's like "we let the [D&D 5e] wizard cast as many spell as he wants" then I'm not joining, because that's going to fuck up the game balance. On the other hand if it's like "we don't really care about carry weight unless it's extreme", that's fine.
Stuff in the middle, like "one time we let them use create water in the bad guy's lungs to drown him!" can go either way, but I'm usually not a fan. Mostly if I ask myself "if this works, why doesn't the whole setting revolve around it?" and don't have a good answer, I won't enjoy it. Like, if everyone could do lethal damage with a cantrip, or if the "peasant railgun" worked like the joke, or "we let the real life chemical engineer make napalm and mustard gas as a 1st level rogue for massive damage", then that probably isn't for me.
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The rule of cool: I don't give a crap about internal consistency
Okay just this once, sure why not: I can't be bothered to actually know the rules and I am sure that players will never ever reference this one instance when they ask for something impossible next time.
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In my eyes, the Rule of Cool is best used as the opposite of the Air Bud Clause. (For those who don't know; the "Air Bud Clause" refers to a rule in basketball that basically says "it's not allowed just because there's no rule against it".) TTRPGs are imperfect systems, and you are going to run into a scenario that isn't covered in the rules. Rule of Cool is best used here, rather than to bypass rules that do exist.
But also; some systems can be really crunchy, and a lot of the time it can be more fun for everyone involved if you just say "you know what, that's cool, let's do it" than to pause for five minutes to leaf through some rulebook (because seriously; you can't always know the entire rulebook by heart) trying to determine if and why they can't.
Of course, doing this too much is dangerous. Hence "in moderation".
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This is a reasonable take.
Yep, there are instances where rules lawyering way too hard can be detrimental in a situation where the rules... just fundamentally do not well handle a rather niche situation.
And likewise there are situations where disregarding the rules too often, in too many scenarios... well it can just destroy the entire point of playing a 'game', feels unfair, you might as well just be doing a collaborative creative writing session at that point.
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If you find yourself frequently running into the first situation, perhaps come up with some modified homebrew rules, made clear to all players before hand, or switch over to a different game, a different ruleset that is better tuned to your players/playstyle.
If you find yourself frequently in the second situation, find a new DM/GM, or stop being a DM/GM, and just be a creative writer... or just make your own entirely new ruleset/game.
If either of these situations only occur rarely, you're probably doing a good job of being a DM with the given ruleset and given players.
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If you put internal consistency above fun then what's the point?
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Because some people enjoy playing a game with fair and consistent rules, and find playing calvinball to be frustrating bullshit that is very often obviously biased towards certain kinds of actions, decisions, player builds, even just outright biased toward specific players.
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Just because it would be cool doesn't imply that it would be fun (for everyone involved)?
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Yeah, no.
Giving players carte blanche to warp the world whenever the GM feels like it is lame. If it's part of the system, great. If not, you're playing favourites.
I'd prefer using the system to involve players in the narrative. Stuff I've done:
- When creating ambushes, the players draw the battlemap.
- In Cyberpunk RED, a Rockerboy can use their influence to convince followers to do stuff. I ask my Rockerboy to describe their followers.
- I ask my players to create locations and NPCs that aren't part of my planned sessions (or integral to the current arc).
- I use player backstories and interactions with NPCs to create or add story arcs.
- I've ported flashbacks from Blades in the Dark into other systems.
Bending the rules when it doesn't change the world is fine. A constant stream of "meh, why not? Fine by me." seems kind of lame.
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Ima be real, seems more like you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. A lot of you GMs do this. You seem to think rule of cool is perpetual and nonstop, that the rules are always ignored for everything. "A constant stream..."
The problem isn't the rule of cool. It's you for thinking this is bigger than it is and then being upset by it. You don't really consider anything outside of whether it's used or not. If it's used, then it must be used nonstop and break every rule constantly. I've never seen any of you come in talking about it being used sparingly for moments that the fun doesn't impact the story or rules. You just invent the most extreme scenario possible and then get angry over that because the rules always matter more to you than anything else, bordering on um actually. You always seem to believe that DMs will never say no and that the rule of cool will always be said yes to. But if that's happening it's because of a bad DM not saying no and bad players for hugely overstepping.
The rule of cool does not mean you always say yes. It just means you say yes when the moment feels appropriate. No fantasy story has people following the rules 100% of the time, whether that be a famous thing like Lord of the Rings or your own personal DnD game. You can create rules to bind the world but the tighter you make those binds then the harder it's going to be for joy to work its way through there.
I'd suggest not making the most severe example you can think of the default for things you don't understand.
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Those are reasonable points, but I'd prefer not to be told what I think ("You seem to think rule of cool is perpetual and nonstop"), how I feel ("you ... being upset by it"), or understand ("things you don't understand").
It's possible to have a fun discussion about a hobby we share without being unpleasant, so I'm going to assume you just want a friendly chat, and respond as if that comment was respectful.
The original meme tied the rule of cool to being a good GM. I don't think that's sensible. There are lots of ways for everyone at the table to have fun contributing to the story - one of them is the rule of cool.
But there are many other ways for players to contribute, I enjoy using them as a player and a GM, so I listed some. They can be used in lots of scenarios where the rule of cool isn't applicable, and they contribute to fun.
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