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We understand the mechanic. It's a nonsense phrase when applied to RPGs, since characters in RPGs already don't have boring lives. They flubbed it when they picked the name for the mechanic. Beyond that flub, the implication when applied in discussions about other games, is that if it isn't...

If it made sense to them that PCs who already didn't have boring lives needed that phrase and technique in order to not have boring lives, there was something wrong with their understanding of language and RPGs. That phrase is nonsense in the context of RPGs where the characters never have...

Sure, but to be fair, he's said more than once that when he says that he's talking about directly connected/related. If I decide I want ice cream, get in my car, drive to the store, go into the store, buy some ice cream, leave the store, drive home, scoop out some ice cream, put the rest of the...

I'm saying that 1) those games are wrong if they attempt to appropriate a term for their exclusive use, and 2) other people are wrong when they say that we can't be faithful to our portrayals of character. The term isn't owned by those games. Faithful has meaning as a word. I can be...

And as I addressed, it's a very bad term. The characters' lives won't be boring whether you do that or not. Why not use a term that's accurate like, "Make the moment interesting" since it's all about what's happening in that moment and has nothing to do with rescuing the characters from a life...

I don't have to alter the setting to do it. If they are heading to a city and I have to prepare some things, I'm not going to prepare stuff that they would find boring. There could be a thousand things going on in Waterdeep, but the ones I'm going to focus on are the ones that 1) I know the...

No, other factors matter. If they are in a hostile city that is in high alert or something, encounters will be more common. They aren't on a scale of minutes, though, which is what searching is. Unless the players search coincidentally coincides with encounter timing, it's not going to be a...

My goal is for everyone at the table to have fun, not be bored. To that end I run the game that best fits the style of everyone at the table. Currently that's a more traditional style game. Not completely traditional. I improvise a great deal, reacting to what the players do in the game.

Game play is a huuuuuuge indicator. Backstory is a huuuuuuuuuge indicator. What the player has told the group about his character is a huuuuuuuuge indicator. Alignment if used is a moooooooderate indicator. After not too many sessions, everyone at the table will have a solid read on...

4e took that from 3e. The only real difference was that in 3e it wasn't stealth, it was hide and move silently vs. spot and listen.

Why on Earth would being faithful to it not be called faithful? How is this not One True Wayism. Someone doesn't have to tell someone else about something before he can have faith in it or be faithful to it.

I have it happen a couple of times when the party was in a dungeon fighting. They were caught between a lock and a hard place and needed to retreat.

I see a distinction between arguing a rule in a rules discussion, and hanging my hat on that rule in my game. People shouldn't assume that I necessarily run my game the way I argue here unless I say so.

The claim comes from a side that is okay with rolls or other mechanics dictating to them how their character acts or thinks about something, even if they know their character well enough to know that would never happen or at least wouldn't happen that way. I couldn't play that way, but they...

No. That is wrong. If I establish through play that my character is a certain way, I can in fact faithfully stick to it or faithfully betray it for reasons of personality/backstory, etc. I need no mechanic or reward system in order to do that. The key is that the character of the character...

Back in the mid 1980s that mass manufacturing worked out in my favor. I got in trouble once and my mother who was notoriously permissive actually got mad enough at me to lock the TV and my videogame system in her bedroom and padlock the door. The first day she was at work during my grounded...

It may surprise you, but I agree with all of that. Home brew just isn't particularly applicable to a rules discussion. Unless you're saying something like, "Yes I know the rules say X, but how I do it is Y, because that makes more sense to me." In a rules discussion if you skip the first...

Passive perception is still a stealth check, it's just not rolled. In both passive and active situations, perception still controls the situation in 5e. I don't have the 5.5e PHB, but I recall not liking the stealth mechanics for the new half-edition. I like about half of the changes, but not...

Rounds were 1 minute back then, so probably it takes longer. I agree. I'd just make it longer and if you want to rush it, you get disadvantage or some other penalty.

I think it's a false agenda. The characters' lives can't be boring if you are playing the game, even if there are boring bits in it. The only real concern with regard to boring is with the players, and I think we all have the agenda of not making the players' lives boring when it comes to...