[Varyon]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Does God's omnipotence enable him to make a thousand-sided Platonic solid (a regular chiliahedron)?

Perhaps, but I suspect my head would explode if I ever were to behold it.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Ah, but what if you replace the GURPS rule with a houserule that has exactly the same effect?

That's not a houserule, that's plagiarism.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

If the dragon's hoard is reduced by the thief taking one gold coin at a time, exactly when does the pile stop being a hoard?

This is just a question of what is the minimum number of things in a pile of stuff to be defined as a "hoard." Once the number of coins in the hoard is below this value, it's not a hoard.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Do the PCs have free will, or are they being railroaded?

Neither - they're under control of whimsical entities whom they cannot understand the motives and methods of. Said entities are perhaps overly fond of jokes involving natural - but potentially-embarrassing - bodily functions.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Consider a party that's located in the middle of a room with two treasure chests, one on each side, which are equally valuable. With no rational preference for one chest over the other, the party with free will has no valid reason to make a choice, and so must starve to death when their iron rations run out. (Grimtooth missed this trap.)

This would only apply for a party that is without free will and is running based on a precise program that doesn't have any way of deciding what to do between two equally valid options. If any part of the above is untrue, they'll go to one chest, then the other (or even just split up, with part of the party going to one and part to the other), and return with their loot.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

The DM has told you that the location of the boss mob in the dungeon will be a surprise. You know that the boss cannot be located in the last room of the dungeon, because then you'd expect the boss to be there. Knowing that the boss can't be in the last room, you then know it also cannot be in the next-to-last room along the corridor. Similarly for the next-to-next-to-last room, and so, the party can show that the boss cannot be located in any room of the dungeon. The boss thus disappears in a puff of logic, the party gets xp for the boss, and can then easily collect all the loot in the dungeon. Since this conclusion is logically inevitable, the party need not even leave their room in the tavern; they simply get xp and loot.

Given they've logicked themselves into believing there is no room in which the boss could be, the boss can be in any room, as it will be a surprise ("But we determined it was impossible for him to be here!").

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

The DM does no prepwork, being completely indifferent to the game, but instead relies only on making things up on the spot during the game as the players ask questions and take actions. Luckily, the GM is very good at remembering whatever he invented, so he never contradicts himself, and he's sufficiently inventive as to always have an answer ready for the players when they ask. Is the GM creating the game, or are the players, by their choice of questions?

Both - the GM is creating the game based upon the actions of the players. It's an exercise in cooperative storytelling, even if the players don't realize it.