Quote from: aramis;316992Agreeing upon a set of rules is a social contract, an agreement that enables players a better understanding of what their character can do. Or can't.

And rules are what make it a game, and not just a shared authorship story. It's not the dice, it's the rules that make it a game.

Playing without rules isn't a game. (Tho' it may be fun with the right group.) But it sounds like you had a set of rules, even if you didn't elucidate them on paper.

Definitely we had rules. They were all in my head, more or less. Even when I got my 2E PHB, much of it was over my head. So, we used the equipment chapter, the character classes, and the spells. The actual mechanics though were too difficult for me.

We had a blast, nonetheless.

Quote from: RPGPundit;316998I hate using minis.
RPGPundit

Awesome.

RPGsite is my new home on the internet.

Quote from: Benoist;316924I call it "not D&D", personally.

Read the cover.  

The letters are in big type so even old fucks can read it.

Quote from: aramis;316968Actually, I've found that adding minis or counters really helps T&T, by encouraging breaking melees into several separate melees.

Same here.   The main challenge with GMing T&T is to keep combat from becoming an accounting exercise of numbers being thrown back and forth.

Minis are fun, but unnecessary.   Counters work fine.   I have massive Mage Knight collection and they've been my T&T go-to for exactly this reason.

Quote from: Spinachcat;317126Same here.   The main challenge with GMing T&T is to keep combat from becoming an accounting exercise of numbers being thrown back and forth.

Minis are fun, but unnecessary.   Counters work fine.   I have massive Mage Knight collection and they've been my T&T go-to for exactly this reason.

I have Melee/wizard counters, and I have the disks from T&T 7.5...

But I've run T&T without any visual reps with a group of good players, and had vibrant combats that way, too. It's as much in the stupid player tricks as the visualization of combat.

Quote from: 1989;316961But a lot of people don't feel that way. I think it may be because some DMs use the absence of more codified rules to make the game somehow unenjoyable for players. I'm not sure. I've always trusted the DM. I'm not there to win or lose. If you feel the DM is being too heavy-handed or not playing in good spirit, you can always walk, and start DMing your own game.

Personally, I like the presence of codified rules since that they mean that the DM can be surprised more often, and as a DM I like to be surprised.

Quote from: Spinachcat;317126Read the cover.  

The letters are in big type so even old fucks can read it.

ooh, ooh, i want to play-

Quote from: Warthur;317133Personally, I like the presence of codified rules since that they mean that the DM can be surprised more often, and as a DM I like to be surprised.

Do you have an example of that happening? I have a hard time understanding what you mean there.

This for the win!

Quote from: mhensley;317177ooh, ooh, i want to play-

Quote from: boulet;317178Do you have an example of that happening? I have a hard time understanding what you mean there.

OK, basically if you have a situation where the GM dictates the chances of a particular event occurring, then in the long run the GM's view on how the world works is going to win out. There'll be the occasional blip, the occasional divergence, but otherwise averaged over a large series of rolls things will pan out as the GM expects them to.

This is where having a system comes in handy. Then it isn't just the GM assigning probabilities on an ad hoc basis - the system itself has an input. Even if the GM bends the rules here and there, as GMs do all the time, they're still going to have most dice rolls pan out "by the book", or at least by the set of book-derived rules and house rules that the game is being operated under. Thus, the ability of the GM to consciously or subconsciously mould the game through assignment of probabilities is somewhat alleviated by the presence of the system, increasing the scope for the GM to be surprised at where the campaign goes.