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Burning Questions: Why Do DMs Limit Official WOTC Material?
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<blockquote data-quote="Panda-s1" data-source="post: 7762993" data-attributes="member: 59554"><p>Man I get comfort zones, and there are certain genres I wouldn't really want to run in an RPG format. But there are a lot of DMs and a lot more players, and those DMs who only do a specific kind of game should find those players. I made up Bruce who only runs horror games, but he'll probably always have players who are looking to play in a horror game. There's also the case of gamers who only really play with friends. I'm more in the latter, and I've had to compromise the kinds of games I want to run and the kinds of characters I want to play because of it. So too have friends of mine have to do the same. However, if a DM is that unwilling to make any sort of compromise with the rest of their group then I don't see how long they can last as a DM unless they're really the only DM in town.</p><p></p><p>This isn't the scenario that has me saying "coward". I've known DMs who'll railroad, punish clever player decisions, make seemingly arbitrary choice in the middle of their game because things strayed off course; banning things they feel are "overpowered" is only part of it. This isn't concern over something not fitting in their setting, or having party imbalance, this is them concerned with their players being able to one-up them instead of going with the campaign as planned. Also they'll gleefully use whatever supplemental material they can get their hands on if it means making the PCs' lives difficult. These DMs do exist, and while we may not agree with a DM having consensus with players, I'm really not up to cutting DMs like this any slack. To me that's cowardly, especially in a tabletop RPG where player choices should be meaningful I've played "<em>terrible </em>D&D" because it was one of the few games available to me. Eventually I left because I also joined a game where the DM encouraged player ideas and the players were enthusiastic. I realized the DM of the other game was never gonna address what I wanted to do with my character in any meaningful way, nor was he interested in anything other than seeing his campaign to completion. I guess we can agree on no D&D is better than bad D&D.</p><p></p><p>Another aside (and boy do I love asides), I see this frustration of players not doing what the DM wants them to do as a popular meme idea. No not in the terrible I way described, but things like the PCs won't enter the tavern where the mysterious stranger is waiting for them. One of the more popular ones that got me upset was a drawing of the PCs way more interested in an NPC than the plot, and as someone who's struggled with player enthusiasm I was like "f*** you, just make the NPC important to the plot, have that NPC do what they can to lead the players where you want to go, you could lead them into the jaws of a terrasque if you wanted without having to entrap anyone". DMs have all the power. Which is why I find it weird that people will get upset over saying a DM should actually listen to their players, you still basically control everything in this game, use this power wisely.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Panda-s1, post: 7762993, member: 59554"] Man I get comfort zones, and there are certain genres I wouldn't really want to run in an RPG format. But there are a lot of DMs and a lot more players, and those DMs who only do a specific kind of game should find those players. I made up Bruce who only runs horror games, but he'll probably always have players who are looking to play in a horror game. There's also the case of gamers who only really play with friends. I'm more in the latter, and I've had to compromise the kinds of games I want to run and the kinds of characters I want to play because of it. So too have friends of mine have to do the same. However, if a DM is that unwilling to make any sort of compromise with the rest of their group then I don't see how long they can last as a DM unless they're really the only DM in town. This isn't the scenario that has me saying "coward". I've known DMs who'll railroad, punish clever player decisions, make seemingly arbitrary choice in the middle of their game because things strayed off course; banning things they feel are "overpowered" is only part of it. This isn't concern over something not fitting in their setting, or having party imbalance, this is them concerned with their players being able to one-up them instead of going with the campaign as planned. Also they'll gleefully use whatever supplemental material they can get their hands on if it means making the PCs' lives difficult. These DMs do exist, and while we may not agree with a DM having consensus with players, I'm really not up to cutting DMs like this any slack. To me that's cowardly, especially in a tabletop RPG where player choices should be meaningful I've played "[I]terrible [/I]D&D" because it was one of the few games available to me. Eventually I left because I also joined a game where the DM encouraged player ideas and the players were enthusiastic. I realized the DM of the other game was never gonna address what I wanted to do with my character in any meaningful way, nor was he interested in anything other than seeing his campaign to completion. I guess we can agree on no D&D is better than bad D&D. Another aside (and boy do I love asides), I see this frustration of players not doing what the DM wants them to do as a popular meme idea. No not in the terrible I way described, but things like the PCs won't enter the tavern where the mysterious stranger is waiting for them. One of the more popular ones that got me upset was a drawing of the PCs way more interested in an NPC than the plot, and as someone who's struggled with player enthusiasm I was like "f*** you, just make the NPC important to the plot, have that NPC do what they can to lead the players where you want to go, you could lead them into the jaws of a terrasque if you wanted without having to entrap anyone". DMs have all the power. Which is why I find it weird that people will get upset over saying a DM should actually listen to their players, you still basically control everything in this game, use this power wisely. [/QUOTE]
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