D&D General What is the worst piece of DM advice people give that you see commonly spread?

[Lanefan]

I'm big into using minis and terrain.

I like the idea of terrain but don't like the idea of going through all the set-up only for the party to move somewhere else 5 real-time minutes later. So, on-table chalkboard it is.

I even encourage players to pick a mini out of my collection they think is cool and then make a character around it.

Nice!

 

[Kariotis]

I don't think I've seen this one mentioned yet:
"[Insert various other advice here], because otherwise it wouldn't be realistic."
Note that that's bad advice even if the original advice happens to be helpful. But the reasoning you employ matters for implementation.
On the other hand, we can cut people using this line some slack. Most of the time I think it's shorthand for "... otherwise it sincerely strains verisimilitude, and that might alienate your players." Which isn't always true either, but is much better advice for sure.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

We've got FTL, gravity control, and practical fusion power. Captain Realism is not steering this Far Trader.

 

[Oofta]

We've got FTL, gravity control, and practical fusion power. Captain Realism is not steering this Far Trader.

But certainly "common sci-fi trope" is.

 

[overgeeked]

Verisimilitude is a far better word than realism. Does the setting hold together reasonably well given what’s true about the setting? That’s verisimilitude. Do the characters behave in a reasonable and consistent manner given the setting they occupy. That’s verisimilitude. More often than not when people say “realism” they really mean verisimilitude.

 

[James Gasik]

I've seen a lot of house rules adopted over the years by DM's not for balance reasons, but because they were supposedly more "realistic". And D&D doesn't generally handle those well, because the things it tends to gloss over aren't really that much fun to begin with.

Take specific injuries. Someone might say "isn't it odd that you can't lose limbs or an eye, or get scarred by D&D combat?". Then they might decide to add rules for such.

This (at least, from what I've seen) generally leads to either a sorry looking batch of characters who, by the time they are level 5, are all missing limbs, eyes, ears, and noses OR (depending on how they arrive at specific injuries) actually giving players ways to circumvent hit points as a means of defeating foes ("I make a called shot to X!").

I'm reminded of my friend who was gushing about the glory of Runequest: "So I made an attack with my axe, and I hit his arm, went through his armor, went through his arm, went through this torso armor, and killed him!"

"I see. And these rules apply to players as well?"

"Huh? Well of course!"

"Think I'll pass. I already play D&D where I can spend more time buying my starting equipment than it takes for my 1st-level character to die. Anything more extreme than that seems masochistic."

 

[Oofta]

Verisimilitude is a far better word than realism. Does the setting hold together reasonably well given what’s true about the setting? That’s verisimilitude. Do the characters behave in a reasonable and consistent manner given the setting they occupy. That’s verisimilitude. More often than not when people say “realism” they really mean verisimilitude.

It's hard to have realism in a game that throws PCs into far more battles than they would likely survive while also having magic and the supernatural or sci-fi tropes. Meanwhile I enjoy watching shows set in the Star Wars universe even if it's completely unrealistic.

Although while I enjoyed it the most recent season

Spoiler: The Mandalorian

How many kaiju dinosaurs can there be in these completely desolate worlds? I get that it's kind of cool to have that giant crocodile thing come out of the water, but then they have the giant dragon thing and a flying crocodile thing and the impossibly large sea ankylosaur that smashes the ice sailboat thing (and how did that work?) and of course godzilla the mythosuarus. What the **** are these creatures eating when they aren't a plot device?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I'm reminded of my friend who was gushing about the glory of Runequest

 

[EzekielRaiden]

View attachment 283244

I've never been a fan of crit-fumble rules for pretty much this exact reason.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I'm surprised no one brought up the Matt Mercer effect yet. Tons of people seek to copy him yet won't account for the things that make his style work.