I was listening to the RPG Circus #4 and two of the segments reminded me of things on my mind as well.
3-D Terrain for use in your RPG Games – I usually prefer No Battlemap, but if a battlemap is used, I prefer to use the Dungeon Tiles by Wizards of the Coast. I like them better than using a whiteboard or laminated sheet of paper. Getting my fingers dirty and wiping the maps is not my thing. The drawback with the tiles is that they are overproduced. I don’t need fancy tiles. I don’t need tables, chairs, skulls, corpses, etc. Finding the right tiles takes far too long, and I don’t fancy preparing my tiles ahead of time. Maybe I should just get myself a sheet or two of 1 in. squared paper, cut the tiles I need, and have the pieces laminated. I wonder where I could do that here in Zürich.
This is what our battlemaps usually looks like:
Notice how we’re using cheap generic wooden tokens for most characters. No painted miniatures for most of us, and no paper miniatures either.
The Pros and Cons of Authorative DM vs decentralized game authority – Yesterday I talked with three of my players and learnt something about myself and them. I was basically trying to argue rules-light, and the first player gave me the same argument another commenter left some months back: “rules-heavy provokes arguments about the rules, rules-light provokes arguments about what would realistically happen in a situation.” [1]
The reason this player liked the rules was security. At first I thought it was a statement of mistrust, ie. security against a DM trying to screw players, but it turned out that the rules are what allow players to make tactical decisions. This rings true. And I am in fact not very tactically minded when I’m playing D&D – I much prefer strategic decisions such as where to pick a fight, when to pick fights, with whom to pick fights, instead of an actual tactical wargame.
The second player didn’t like their character being truly in danger. I replied that being in danger was what made the entire thing an adventure. I want my character to be in danger, and conversely I’m not too attached to it. If the character dies – hopefully with a big bang! – I can laugh and cheer and roll up a new one in no time. Unless I’m playing a game where character generation is a chore such as D&D 3.5 or Rolemaster and unlike Labyrinth Lord or classic D&D editions. That, in turn, is also afforded by my play-style where I do a lot of postparation instead of preparation. Nothing is wasted because I interpret events after the fact.
We also had a big laugh when I told them that my DM nightmare was imagining me as the party wanker, telling every player “oooh, you’re good! you’re awesome! oh yeah, you hit it! you HIT it! aahhhh, you’re so awesome!!” 
So both of these players wanted to be more in control of their characters and I enjoy games were I’m continually surprised. It’ll be interesting to work this out. I’m curious. 
(Also, Canon Puncture Show #74 talks about long background and mentions the issue of control. I love it when Judd Karlman makes an appearance.)
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