Uses of Judgment (CSC)

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Many of you have had the chance to play computer games or play-by-mail games which are much like role-playing games. While many of these games are wonderful and provide a great deal of enjoyment for the players, there are some important things which set them apart from true role-playing games like the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game.
Computer games have built-in limitations when it comes to the kinds of activity they will allow. The players must make their choices for actions and reactions from those allowed by the game's rules. Nothing else is allowed. If it hasn't been put into the game by the programmer, it can't be done. Furthermore, the features in a computer software game all have to work together absolutely perfectly, otherwise the game crashes when the computer is unable to resolve a software problem.
Like computer games, the rules for role-playing games are designed to deal only with those situations that the game's designers have previously anticipated. It would be nice to say that this game or any role-playing game has rules that work perfectly for any situation or encounter. However, the vast variety of options in roleplaying games generally means that some obscure combination of rules has been overlooked. When rule conflicts arise the game would also crash and burn (figuratively speaking, of course) if it weren't for a DM who can act as a free thinking "computer" and make rules interpretations in order to get his adventure through a rough spot.