God, I

The tail-end of the comment from runjikol included the following: "...What ever dice rolling method a group uses it must be agreed to ..."

Funny how the smallest throwaway phrase can get right under your skin.  My apologies to runjikol - he's started this post and I doubt he intended that phrase as it sounded.

Nevertheless, I find myself wanting to respond with anger that I can barely contain.  So I will write this slowly.  As a DM, it is my world.  It is my campaign.  I design it, I build it, I run it.  I decide what goes into it and what does not.  I decide how the running is played.  No matter who 'agrees' to whatever, the only opinion regarding the way the dice are rolled, or any other mechanic of the game, is mine.

You sit down at my table, to play my game, and you'll obey the rules of the game as I lay them out, or you can take your ass right on down the road.  I'll listen to reasoned argument.  I will rule in the player's favor if the argument is convincing.  But I won't subject myself to any democratic protest except the one where people decide to get out.

The reason why should be obvious.  This is a complex game, demanding that someone assume the role of judge, an individual who has the power to made a de facto ruling that must be accepted by the participants.  These are individuals who have a great emotional investment in what is going on.  They have much to win or lose.  Every die roll carries with it a potential for happiness or depression.  To give the passionate a say over what goes on is inviting chaos.

Yes, the Judge has authority, but the Judge must also be dispassionate.  It is dispassion is what gives me the right to hold over my players the absolute authority over the rules.  I have nothing invested in the playing of the game, only in the existence of the world.  My investment is in the lines of my maps, the variety and personality of my monsters, or the cleverness of my tables.  As long as those tables function, as long as the map is accurate - and as long as I am not dissuaded from my presentation of those things - I am content.

You live or you die, that is your issue.  My world continues unabated.  My life's work is unaffected by the sufferings of your characters.  That is my privilege.  I have done the work.  I have labored upon each feature prior to my describing it to you, the player. 

To me, my world exists with my love.  But you, the player, are free to spit on my world, to laugh at it's ideosyncracies, to scoff at things I find important and to mock my efforts to challenge your preconceptions.  As a Judge, I am allowed no vindictive response whatsoever, nor may I give compensation for your woes, or sympathize with your disappointment, or cater to your whims, or bend to your pleas.  The world is, and you are in it, and what happens there is up to your efforts.  I won't impede you and I won't deliver you.

But I won't let you run my world.  That's my business and none of yours.  The die - as well as the tables, the features and the 'fluff' - are the function of my world, and what's rolled or how it's rolled is subject to no one's whim but my own.  Your privilege and influence rests with what your characters are able to do. 

The best that you as players may do is advocate ... and on most things, I am implacable.

I hope that's clear.