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I disagree. What we're trying to simulate are observed results in the fiction that are consistent with themselves, and thus give the setting a foundation to build on. As such, we can - if we want - then insert narrated processes on a case by case basis that reasonably led to those results...

The way I see it, any subsequent play that occurred based on the overturned ruling is (or should be) invalidated because it was in effect done in error. Getting it right the first time is not always possible, of course, but it's an ideal to strive for; and IMO the price to pay for getting it...

That's odd - that MO has worked for me for over 40 years now. All it needs is to set up the fiction such that it lets them roll up and bring in replacements for their dead so the party doesn't just whittle down to nothing. :)

The problem with that is by the time that after-game discussion takes place you've already made the bad ruling and moved on. Overturning the bad ruling later means having to retcon everything that happened afterwards. Not overturning it later means you've set a precedent for the rest of the...

Might not need a rules lawyer, though. @EzekielRaiden 's statement that the DM is always right is valid, but only to a point. Where even an I'm-god-and-what-I-say-goes DM can be wrong is when saying something that directly contradicts something he's already said. Trivial example: he narrates...

They can be useful tools, sure; but that shouldn't prevent us from being able to swap out those tools for something better (analogy: tweaking or rewriting a rule that's not getting the job done) should the need arise. Such tweakings should, obviously, be done between campaigns; not always...

Sometimes, in cases like this, deferring to the player who knows stuff can be a good approach. Horses are a common sight in fantasy games, yet as DM I know nothing about them beyond that they have 4 legs, they eat hay, some people ride them, and sometimes they run really fast. And so, when I...

Ideally, the bolded is the case. More and more, however, it is a game amongst some random people online or at a game store, who were complete strangers before the game began and may or may not ever become friends.

I disagree. Gravity, for example. Depending on the size/density of your game world it might not have exactly the same effects as here on Earth - someone who weighs 180 lb here might only weigh 165 lb there, using the same sacle each time - but the underlying physics are Type-I. If you get it...

Kind of like what I do except null-magic (as opposed to and distinct from anti-magic) does affect those things, and being in a null-magic area for any length of time (a few minutes to a few weeks, depending on how magic-based something is) will kill magic-based creatures. We live on a...

And yet without those prereq's the subsequent applications can't exist. Well, no, I don't in fact have to defend anything. The one thing I'll say is that physical things are vastly different than cultural. Culture is in the end entirely our own creation (both in reality and in fiction) and...

By the laws of aerodynamics neither bumblebees nor jumbo jets should be able to get off the ground and yet there they are, flying around like they often do. If one considers a dragon to be, aerodynamically, similar to a living breathing jumbo jet then it all works fine. :)

Where are you getting the bolded from? Neither of my options even hint at that. Your "third path" is my second path, whether done arbitrarily by the DM "I'm ruling this way" or with/after discussion with the table. I suppose the question then becomes one of how often the fiction calls for...

That would come under "trash the rule". To me it's one and the same, as rulings set binding precedents for the rest of that campaign.

So if, on reading or applying an existing rule, you're faced with a hard choice between the following: --- follow the rule even though the resulting in-fiction outcome will be nonsensical --- trash and-or rewrite the rule in order to allow the in-fiction outcome to make sense Which do you...

The way I see it, the former is a fairly direct prerequisite for the latter. In some cases - mostly to do with things like faux-historical cultures, pantheons, etc. - I'm more than happy to let the "faux" piece do most of the work as it serves to more put those faux-cultures on the same footing...

I know that, and have since fairly early grade school. My point is that for the purposes of simulating and narrating in-setting physics as observed by the characters, the bolded fact is - except in the very rarest of in-game situations - so completely irrelevant that I'm not even sure why you...

Ditto, ditto, and ditto re trying for a maritime campaign. Who put this book out? And how did I miss it at the time? :)

"Poor helpless kitten" my arse - that thing's the most dangerous monster in the room, if not the whole dungeon! :)

Which has the (probably intentional - sigh) side effect of giving the PCs free rein to wallow around in all sorts of awful places without fear of getting sick from doing so. Which is fine for a Big Damn Story but doesn't work if as DM you want to present disease as a side-effect environmental...