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

[Professor Murder]

Anything that reinforces a belief that it is hard and discourages people from trying.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

When you ask: how would you do this in D&D?

And they respond: you should play another game

That's not DM advice, that's essentially game design/modification advice, and even if you somehow think it is it's also certainly not "bad DM advice", it's "DM advice you don't like to hear". Some stuff just doesn't map well to D&D's conceits.

 

[DEFCON 1]

When you ask: how would you do this in D&D?

And they respond: you should play another game

See, I would disagree with this premise because usually when I see it given... it's given because the original poster has made quite a number of previous comments about what they are willing or unwilling to do. Their own beliefs and opinions about what they as the DM should be responsible for and what they shouldn't be. So then when they ask "How should I do X?" the people responding pretty much know that the answer for it to be done within D&D would be so convoluted or such an antithesis to what that original DM believes in, that they are actually trying to do that DM a favor by recommending they NOT use D&D as the game system if they actually want X.

You can't ask "How can I remove all the combat from D&D and turn it into a story game" without someone rightly suggesting they shouldn't even try when there are so many other non-combat story games out there that have already been built to do just that. Especially considering you've now made it pretty clear you haven't actually tried to do it yourself at all and are just wanting other people to put their thinking caps on for you. Because if you HAD actually worked at turning D&D into a complete story game... you would have already discovered for yourself that Naw... this ain't gonna work.

 

[Umbran]

What is a piece of DM advice you see commonly spread around the DnD/TTRPG community that you simply think sucks and is bad?

There are so many bits of bad advice, how to choose just one?

Advice that is based in a particular playstyle, but is given as if it were generally appropriate, likely does the receiver a disservice.

Advice that uses absolutes (like "always", "never", etc.) also likely does the receiver a disservice.

 

[Oofta]

My opinion is fact, if you don't agree with my preference you're doing it wrong.

 

[bedir than]

That's not DM advice, that's essentially game design/modification advice, and even if you somehow think it is it's also certainly not "bad DM advice", it's "DM advice you don't like to hear". Some stuff just doesn't map well to D&D's conceits.

I would assume that the DM asking the question knows of other games and doesn't feel like they should be required to abandon their campaign just to solve a small short term issue.

It's extraordinarily poor advice to assume the person asking the question is uninformed of the broader hobby.

 

[cranberry]

Nobody actually says this.

I watched a YouTuber read a few of comments that claimed their DM was not DMing correctly because they didn't run the game like Mercer.

It implies that these people were essentially "advising" their DM to play like him.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I would assume that the DM asking the question knows of other games and doesn't feel like they should be required to abandon their campaign just to solve a small short term issue.

Why would you assume that? That's a bad assumption, because long experience of people asking this kind of question shows it's usually not true. The vast majority of people who ask that kind of question literally aren't familiar with the other RPGs in the genre they're discussing. This isn't novel or arguable - it happens over and over.

Further, it's easily forestalled by the person noting that they're aware of X, Y and Z games or the like. It's a fairly safe assumption that if they don't mention similar games, they don't know about them.

It's extraordinarily poor advice to assume the person asking the question is uninformed of the broader hobby.

That's literally a nonsense sentence. You seem to have the cart before the horse. You could try arguing it was a "poor assumption" to give advice assuming the person was uninformed, but it's not "poor advice". Also, as I've noted, most people who ask that question absolutely are uninformed about the broader hobby, so it's clearly not a bad assumption if the person doesn't mention that they are. Particularly D&D players. This isn't a zing on them, but the reality is, most "TTRPG players":

A) Have only ever played D&D.

B) Are not aware of what other RPGs are out there.

The reality is, though, you're not talking about DM advice, you're using a post about DM advice to grind an axe about an entirely separate issue.

 

[DEFCON 1]

It's extraordinarily poor advice to assume the person asking the question is uninformed of the broader hobby.

Counterpoint: If you (as the person asking the question) already know the broader hobby and know that there already are indeed other games that do what you are asking for better than what is in D&D... at the barest minimum you should be putting that knowledge in your question.

Don't ask "How do I get my players to act in accordance to their wants and needs?" But rather "I know in FATE that a character's Aspects really force a player to play their character in accordance to them by making it mechanically useful that they do... is there a way do you think I could bring some of that into D&D? I know we could just play FATE, but we really want to play D&D."

At least then the people responding know what your frame of reference is. And then yeah, at that point if someone says "Nah, play FATE anyway even if you don't want to!"... you can rightly tell them to bugger off.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I watched a YouTuber read a few of comments that claimed their DM was not DMing correctly because they didn't run the game like Mercer.

It implies that these people were essentially "advising" their DM to play like him.

No.

That's obviously not DM advice. That's just Youtube comments being full of morons, which is a near-constant on virtually any subject.