Both the pure Bard and the Bard/Sorcerer player routinely tossing out Bardic Inspiration without offering any role playing or explanation of what *their* Bardic Inspiration looks like.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and you should feel bad for implying their is. Are
you a bard? Are
they? In all likelihood the answer is no. So stop forcing them to try to be. If you were an author and a character came up with a plan to end world hunger, would you expect your readers to demand
every detail, or would you expect them to be happy with "a plan for ending world hunger"?
The Rogue player with “Guidance” (magic initiate) giving Guidance on an Arcana check and other checks in which he is untrained without roleplaying what that looks like or how it makes sense.
Right because training is
really relevant to
Divine guidance? It's not even his character doing the guiding, all he does is invoke the gods to guide them.
And I’ve had to police the whole group regarding pile-on skill checks, especially the Bard player. I’ve repeatedly mentioned that if a bunch of people want to make a check then it’s probably a group check - otherwise everyone rolling one after another is just an exercise in throwing dice at a challenge waiting to see who succeeds. I’ve noticed this come up most often with lore/knowledge checks & Perception/Insight checks. Last time I had to shut it down and put my authoritative DM voice on and reiterate the problem.
This one's sorta valid. For lore checks, it makes sense for everyone (or no-one, I personally use passive checks for lore) to roll. For others, that's on you. They should be stating their goal and approach, they can't "Oh I guess I do that too" after the resolution unless nothing's stopping them, and if nothing's stopping them for doing it again without consequence, there shouldn't be a roll.
A lot of advice about “Players don’t decide when to roll, the DM does.” Yep! My issue is not that I don’t practice that; it is that I am getting worn down constantly policing the players on this issue & constantly finding new ways to explain this specific to a scenario as one or more players eagerly reach for their dice. It’s tiring for me because I love to say “yes” to my players & the policing part is my least favorite part of DMing.
“Hold on, Rogue player, why did you just roll a d20? Oh, Stealth? So you’re also trying to sneak up and scout out the enemy encampment? Weren’t you holding the party’s light source? And didn’t you say you wanted to cast guidance which has a verbal component on another PC?”
“Guys, please, why don’t you discuss your approach as a group before breaking off and doing a bunch of things individually? There’s a group skill check I would have called for, had I know your intentions/plan first.”
Every session since I started DMing this group about 11 sessions ago (January), I’ve found myself doing this kind of policing. Some players are more egregious than others, but it’s definitely a group issue. They came from a Pathfinder background. Not sure if this is a system difference thing, but it really feels like I have to keep reminding everyone. Heck, I’m even making the creative effort of weighing how their PC background/race/class/story influence what they know in regards to lore checks. I’d love to find a DM trick that helps them to police themselves better so I can free up more energy/brain space for creative DMing coolness.
Eurgh, I retract the aggressive tone I used above. Now this here is the core issue. My advice would just be to ignore whatever it is they roll, and just ask them for their goal and approach. Ask things like "is anyone going with the Rogue" when they split from the group and then enforce their decisions. Eventually they'll get it.
If you can get past the tone (which the above was totally a test for, honest),
The Angry GM has some good, or at least interesting, advice.
