Internet DMs are Rationalists
This isn't the post of tips that I promised at the end of my last post - I still intend to write that up, but thinking about the tips and techniques themselves got me thinking about how we think about games. That is, how the people who homebrew and tinker and obsess and write blog posts about how to run good games think about games. Because I think there's what you might call a "rationalist streak" in the internet ttrpg community. Consider this: This hobby, though surging to headier heights of popularity than ever before attained, is still extremely niche. I'd say the majority of people on the street probably couldn't tell you even the basics of how "D&D" is supposed to work, much less a "(tabletop) roleplaying game" (unless guessing from the title). Yet the sheer amount of material generated that gets devoted to how to play the game well is staggering. Forum traffic and GMing blogs abound that are dedicated to honing your game, figuri...