D&D 5E Bad Wrong Fun

[jmartkdr2]

If you can't deal with the DM's preferences being different from your own, you probably should find a different game.

Personally, I'm kinda a fan of compromise, if possible. No, you can't play a kenku or a tabaxi in my campaigns, because they're not on the campaign world. On the other hand, go ahead and write a backstory that adds stuff to my world; fill in a blank space for me.

This is a fine stance I'd be happy to work with. It's the unwillingness to compromise or give reasons that bothers me.

And yes, I see that pretty often in the wild. Not in games I stay in for long, but it comes up.

 

[jmartkdr2]

On the other hand, restricting player options to pull focus inward on the options available is good DMing. If you're trying to tell a story about the struggle of mankind against the rising threat of the Warforged, gnomes and dwarves and aasimar and lizardfolk and goblins and kenku and tabaxi and dragonborn might muddy the waters and pull focus from the main story. It's not bad DMing; it's focused storytelling.

Absolutely.

Heck, a dm with a thought-out idea for a theme and tone for their game is a huge plus, even if it means the whole party can only play a halfling assassin rogues.

 

[prabe]

If you can't give a reason for why you don't want something in your campaign, then maybe you shouldn't remove it form your campaign.

Except you also said (or I understood you to say) "because I don't like them" isn't a good enough reason. If I'm running a homebrew setting, that doesn't feel particularly different from "I don't have those in my world." I think that I have added about as many things as I've disallowed, but that's a different issue ...

 

[jasper]

And if you can't deal with other people having preferences different from your own, you probably shouldn't be trying to run a collaborative game.

OR you can take yourself out the DMs game. I had plenty of very passionate players who want to play x. Strange they never did try to see my preferences. And would, just like you, be dismissive. So with my 40 years of gaming. When the DM says my way or the highway. I either pay the toll and play. Or get off the next exit.

 

[jmartkdr2]

OR you can take yourself out the DMs game. I had plenty of very passionate players who want to play x. Strange they never did try to see my preferences. And would, just like you, be dismissive. So with my 40 years of gaming. When the DM says my way or the highway. I either pay the toll and play. Or get off the next exit.

That's my typical response when a dm is unwilling to work with players, yes.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Doesn't sound like it's "just because they can". It's because they have preferences.

Exactly. Tolstoy deemed a painting good when nothing added nor subtracted would improve the composition. I would say the same about D&D settings.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

OR you can take yourself out the DMs game. I had plenty of very passionate players who want to play x. Strange they never did try to see my preferences. And would, just like you, be dismissive. So with my 40 years of gaming. When the DM says my way or the highway. I either pay the toll and play. Or get off the next exit.

I believe this is the best method of creating good groups. Find people who want to play together. Compromise only leads to disappointment.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

If you can't deal with the DM's preferences being different from your own, you probably should find a different game.

Personally, I'm kinda a fan of compromise, if possible. No, you can't play a kenku or a tabaxi in my campaigns, because they're not on the campaign world. On the other hand, go ahead and write a backstory that adds stuff to my world; fill in a blank space for me.

If someone tried to do that to my world, I would reach for the fire extinguisher and chase the hooligan from my kitchen.

 

[prabe]

If someone tried to do that to my world, I would reach for the fire extinguisher and chase the hooligan out of my kitchen.

Please note that I actively encourage it when I DM. It's part of what the blank spaces are for, IMO. There aren't a lot of other opportunities for that sort of thing in D&D, so I see no reason not to. It doesn't mean I don't have limits on that, or that I try to do it as a player.

I'm also specifically not saying that a DM who doesn't do it is Doing Things Wrong.

 

[jmartkdr2]

If you can't deal with the DM's preferences being different from your own, you probably should find a different game.

Personally, I'm kinda a fan of compromise, if possible. No, you can't play a kenku or a tabaxi in my campaigns, because they're not on the campaign world. On the other hand, go ahead and write a backstory that adds stuff to my world; fill in a blank space for me.

Working to find common ground is dealing with the differences, IMO. It's the dm (or player) who won't even consider the other person's ideas that bothers me.