I think a lot of the rumpus about whether it’s acceptable to deliberately “break” a GM’s campaign stems from not being clear on what sort of breaking we’re talking about here.
There’s a big difference between “I broke the campaign by correctly guessing the villain’s identity two acts early” and “I broke the campaign by immediately murdering every single named NPC we met on the theory that I was bound to get the right one eventually”.
Likewise, “I broke the campaign by taking a calculated risk that nobody expected to actually pay off“ is not the same as “I broke the campaign by treating it like I was speed-running a video game and hurling a parade of disposable characters into suicidally dangerous situations until one of them finally lucked out“.
Like, there’s thinking outside the box, and then there’s just being a dick.
(via jesterrlavorre)