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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3439138" data-attributes="member: 18280">I'd be pretty happy to see something like this (a paraphrase, perhaps) in the foreword to the 4.0 PHB:ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is a game that is demanding for players and Dungeon Masters alike, but the rewards in terms of enjoyment are vast.  There is nothing quite like a successful D&D campaign, and its success is based upon the efforts of all participants.  The Dungeon Master is pivotal, of course, but the players are just as important, for they are the primary actors and acresses in the fascinating drama which unfolds before them.  For that reason, their outlook and their conduct will greatly affect the flavor and tempo of the campaign.  Accordingly, they should do their best to further the success of the entire undertaking.  This is often no more than a matter of simple etiquette, and following a few simple guidelines will suffice to make the game experience more fun for everyone concerned, to wit: 1)  Be an organized player; have the necessary information on your character readily at hand and available to the Dungeon Master. 2)  Cooperate with the Dungeon Master and respect his decisions; if you disagree, present your viewpoint with deference to his position as game moderator.  Be prepared to accept his decision as final and remember that not everything in the game will always go your way! 3)  Cooperate with the other players and respect their right to participate.  Encourage new and novice players by making suggestions and allowing them to make decisions on courses of action rather than dictating their responses. 4)  If you are unable to participate in an adventure, give the other players and the DM some concrete guidelines if your character is going to be included in the adventuring group; be prepared to accept the consequences, good or bad, in any case. 5)  Get in the spirit of the game, and use your persona to play with a special personality all its own.  Interact with the other player characters and non-player characters to give the game campaign a unique flavor and "life".  Above all, let yourself go, and enjoy!(And the above was Mr. Mike Carr, TSR Games & Rules Editor, in the 1e PHB, p 2.)Some points that this makes, which are true for all editions are:(1)  If your game sucks, it may well rest on the DM's shoulders, but the players are just as important and bear blame as well.  Likewise, if the game is great, the players bear a large part of the praise (something Mr. Gygax says explicitly on p. 6).(2)  Cooperate with others at the table and be considerate.  It isn't all about you.  Note that this applies to DMs as well as players.(3)  The DM has final authority, and this is a desireable thing.(4)  It is desirable for each campaign to be unique, with a flavor and setting of its own.Of course, this is something I would like to see, and is certainly not something that would be universally welcomed.  YMMV, and all that.  There is, IMHO, a spectrum in which this sort of thing can be stated, going from stating on every single page of every single rulebook and supplement "ASK YOUR DM FOR APPROVAL BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING AS HE OR SHE HAS THE FINAL WORD ON EVERYTHING IN THE GAME" in all-caps, bolded, 30-point font on one end to a more minimalist approach (say, one line in most of the books).  If something can be stated with an emphasis ranging from 1 to 10, saying that 1 is not enough does not imply that you need to hit (or surpass) 10.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />RC</blockquote>

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