I was very lucky/fortunate enough to be able to play D&D with the Gygax family on the weekends up in WI during high school.
Gary was letting his sons run the campaign and was just playing himself, but so much of the game's immersion came not from the rules but from how an experienced DM knew when to focus on the rules vs. focus on the story. Players can get in the way of this, but "good" gaming groups generally have a collective sense for when to focus on game play and when to shut up and let the DM develop the story further.
The net result is you actually make substantial progress instead of spending the entire session letting someone who thinks they are clever pick fights with random townsfolk that they want to play out in gory detail and otherwise derail the adventure. Yeah there are ways to deal with people like that, but my point is when you have a group where you don't need to, magic happens.
There are of course times when you want to stress rules because they add to the story. Case in point, I have fond memories of Gary walking me through volumetric calculations to help educate me that "no, the fireball does not only hit the kobolds, you also managed to nuke your entire wounded party."
Gary was letting his sons run the campaign and was just playing himself, but so much of the game's immersion came not from the rules but from how an experienced DM knew when to focus on the rules vs. focus on the story. Players can get in the way of this, but "good" gaming groups generally have a collective sense for when to focus on game play and when to shut up and let the DM develop the story further.
The net result is you actually make substantial progress instead of spending the entire session letting someone who thinks they are clever pick fights with random townsfolk that they want to play out in gory detail and otherwise derail the adventure. Yeah there are ways to deal with people like that, but my point is when you have a group where you don't need to, magic happens.
There are of course times when you want to stress rules because they add to the story. Case in point, I have fond memories of Gary walking me through volumetric calculations to help educate me that "no, the fireball does not only hit the kobolds, you also managed to nuke your entire wounded party."