I recommend perusing through Robin's Rules of Good GMing as a serious submission to my not-so-serious argument, and maybe the beginning of the Munchkin RPG player's handbook for a not-so-serious submission.
Anyway, a brief brief summary: There are all different kinds of players with all different kinds of goals. Some players want to live a story, some want to rack up a body count, some want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the rules, some want tactical details, some want to pit their skills/characters against other players/characters. I personally do ALL of these things in varying amounts.
I rarely will PK, of course, but I always keep my eye out for those who would. Most groups are semi-random assemblages of people, why should they trust each other so intimately? There have been plenty of times when I had to PK or otherwise subdue another player, because that other character was doing things that my character would not tolerate, and sometimes a good GM will tell a player that he is now evil and the other players must try to save him without killing him.
Anyway, I feel that if something is allowed by the rules, and it breaks the game, then the rules weren't very good. There ARE certain limits, of course. I rarely backstab, for instance. Sure, it's allowed, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. OTOH, if you fail to take advantage of the fact that a galleon is a lumbering behemoth to avoid getting blasted by all those guns and defeat it, well, that just means you're stupid. There is no honor in dying stupidly, and in real life contests that have lives depending on them, you MUST take advantage of every little rule bending you can, because you can be sure your enemy will have no such restraint. You don't bring a knife to a gun fight, you bring a sniper rifle and camp in a safe place, or you wear battlearmor and carry a bigger gun, or maybe you just call in the ortillery and don't even show up.
Anyway, a brief brief summary: There are all different kinds of players with all different kinds of goals. Some players want to live a story, some want to rack up a body count, some want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the rules, some want tactical details, some want to pit their skills/characters against other players/characters. I personally do ALL of these things in varying amounts.
I rarely will PK, of course, but I always keep my eye out for those who would. Most groups are semi-random assemblages of people, why should they trust each other so intimately? There have been plenty of times when I had to PK or otherwise subdue another player, because that other character was doing things that my character would not tolerate, and sometimes a good GM will tell a player that he is now evil and the other players must try to save him without killing him.
Anyway, I feel that if something is allowed by the rules, and it breaks the game, then the rules weren't very good. There ARE certain limits, of course. I rarely backstab, for instance. Sure, it's allowed, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. OTOH, if you fail to take advantage of the fact that a galleon is a lumbering behemoth to avoid getting blasted by all those guns and defeat it, well, that just means you're stupid. There is no honor in dying stupidly, and in real life contests that have lives depending on them, you MUST take advantage of every little rule bending you can, because you can be sure your enemy will have no such restraint. You don't bring a knife to a gun fight, you bring a sniper rifle and camp in a safe place, or you wear battlearmor and carry a bigger gun, or maybe you just call in the ortillery and don't even show up.
