“Rude Tales of Magic” Shows that D&D is Best When the Rules Take a Backseat

Fortunate Horse

Role-playing games in general are forced to strike an interesting balance in order to work properly. They allow a group of friends to create a story where they can be anyone they want to be. Characters can do incredible things and have amazing adventures. There is virtually no limit to the kinds of stories one can tell in a role-playing game, and there are infinite characters out there waiting to be rolled up and played. Once a character exists, there are so many ways that they could develop. No character played by the two different people would turn out the same at the end of their journey.

At the same time, this requires some boundary setting in order to make sense. Characters can’t just punch a hole through a demon overlord at level one. They generally can’t survive having a space station crash down on them. Games that do allow for this kind of thing generally place other limitations on players. We’ve all experienced kids on the playground who always seemed to have a shield at a convenient moment when playing an imaginative game. Role-playing games generally try to avoid this. At it’s best, you can think of this as being kind of like a spout that directs water: it allows the stream to be much stronger than it could otherwise be by limiting where it can go. At it’s worst, its like a dam, stifling the flow of…