Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I could use some advice
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Zhure" data-source="post: 74558" data-attributes="member: 308"><p>I wish now I'd checked out this thread earlier.</p><p></p><p>I positively hate control-freak DMs. It's one thing to tell your players the parameters of the campaign world, the house rules and what you expect of their characters.</p><p></p><p>(Example from current campaign: characters have to have a reason to be at the main setting of the campaig and a strong reason to not up and leave. Lots of options presented, choose or design your own.)</p><p></p><p>It's another thing for the DM to dictate every aspect of the character.</p><p></p><p>(Like race, class, alignment, deity, weapons used, feats, skills and name.)</p><p></p><p>In the first case, the DM wants to build a story arc set in a certain area. Another perfectly viable option would be to declare all characters are part of the military, because that's the main thrust of the campaign. In the second case, delineating the characters' name, rank and serial number is just the DM being a control freak. </p><p></p><p>I've seen it happen before from other DMs and there's always a consequence to this sort of maniacal dictatorial micromanagement. Normally it's a rebellion on the part of the players. Since the character isn't truly their character, there's no caring and the character gets played as if they were foolish, suicidal or insane.</p><p></p><p>"No, Timmy! Blort the mage wouldn't magic missile the guard! Instead Blort will throw his dagger." Eventually Timmy just has Blort do random nonsensical things, or throws his dagger at inopportune moments. Timmy eventually leaves, convinced the DM is a powerhungry fool.</p><p></p><p>It's happened to me; I've seen it happen to others. I won't let it happen in my campaigns.</p><p></p><p>If I have requirements for characters, or house rules I want to impart a certain flavor to my world or cast to my story arc, I let the players know in advance and let them generate within those parameters. If they feel too constrained by those rules, I want them to not play so we'll all be happy, or I want them to offer alternatives for discussion.</p><p></p><p>If there's some sort of DM smokescreen or complex plot element I'm going to handle during the campaign, <em>I tell them in advance.</em>.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, generate an NPC fighter at 10th level, human. He'll show up at some point for dramatic reasons" (Actual event from last night's game.) The player has fun creating characters (I wouldn't ask someone who didn't like to create characters), I get a useful NPC for later use, and the players have an unconscious empathy with an NPC later who has a scripted role.</p><p></p><p>My suspicions are the original poster's DM either is running two identical groups and either wants to experiment with some sort of mixture to see the results, wants to minimize his bookkeeping by having two identical groups, or wants to pit two groups against each other. All three sound really fun to DMs... but generally only the control freaks. Those would all be great convention games where you aren't supposed to have huge amounts of empathy for your character, but are awful for home games where both the players and the DM spend hours of their entertainment times in crafting a mutually created world and story.</p><p></p><p>My advice, after this long-winded diatribe. Politely pick up your dice and walk away. It's the odd's-on favorite the rest of the group will follow you in a week or two. Plenty of time to prepare your own campaign. Learn a lesson from the person ruining... erm, I mean running... that game and remember your players are part of the creators of the world, too.</p><p></p><p>Greg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zhure, post: 74558, member: 308"] I wish now I'd checked out this thread earlier. I positively hate control-freak DMs. It's one thing to tell your players the parameters of the campaign world, the house rules and what you expect of their characters. (Example from current campaign: characters have to have a reason to be at the main setting of the campaig and a strong reason to not up and leave. Lots of options presented, choose or design your own.) It's another thing for the DM to dictate every aspect of the character. (Like race, class, alignment, deity, weapons used, feats, skills and name.) In the first case, the DM wants to build a story arc set in a certain area. Another perfectly viable option would be to declare all characters are part of the military, because that's the main thrust of the campaign. In the second case, delineating the characters' name, rank and serial number is just the DM being a control freak. I've seen it happen before from other DMs and there's always a consequence to this sort of maniacal dictatorial micromanagement. Normally it's a rebellion on the part of the players. Since the character isn't truly their character, there's no caring and the character gets played as if they were foolish, suicidal or insane. "No, Timmy! Blort the mage wouldn't magic missile the guard! Instead Blort will throw his dagger." Eventually Timmy just has Blort do random nonsensical things, or throws his dagger at inopportune moments. Timmy eventually leaves, convinced the DM is a powerhungry fool. It's happened to me; I've seen it happen to others. I won't let it happen in my campaigns. If I have requirements for characters, or house rules I want to impart a certain flavor to my world or cast to my story arc, I let the players know in advance and let them generate within those parameters. If they feel too constrained by those rules, I want them to not play so we'll all be happy, or I want them to offer alternatives for discussion. If there's some sort of DM smokescreen or complex plot element I'm going to handle during the campaign, [i]I tell them in advance.[/i]. "Hey, generate an NPC fighter at 10th level, human. He'll show up at some point for dramatic reasons" (Actual event from last night's game.) The player has fun creating characters (I wouldn't ask someone who didn't like to create characters), I get a useful NPC for later use, and the players have an unconscious empathy with an NPC later who has a scripted role. My suspicions are the original poster's DM either is running two identical groups and either wants to experiment with some sort of mixture to see the results, wants to minimize his bookkeeping by having two identical groups, or wants to pit two groups against each other. All three sound really fun to DMs... but generally only the control freaks. Those would all be great convention games where you aren't supposed to have huge amounts of empathy for your character, but are awful for home games where both the players and the DM spend hours of their entertainment times in crafting a mutually created world and story. My advice, after this long-winded diatribe. Politely pick up your dice and walk away. It's the odd's-on favorite the rest of the group will follow you in a week or two. Plenty of time to prepare your own campaign. Learn a lesson from the person ruining... erm, I mean running... that game and remember your players are part of the creators of the world, too. Greg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I could use some advice
Top