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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7421949" data-attributes="member: 2629">I don't think players should be allowed to do anything, but - as a DM - we should encourage them to be creative and heroic.  D&D is an RPG - a role playing game.  Players and the DM come together to tell a great story.  The DM creates the story and the setting, the players provide the protagonists... but it is a group effort.  While the DM is asked to be the final arbiter of the rules, they are primarily there to create the opportunities for the protagonists to be heroes (or villains if that is the story being told).  You are master of the world - a Dungeon Master.  You are not a mere arbiter of someone else's world.There are often times in the game when the heroes want to do something that is not clearly covered in the rules.  Maybe there are multiple ways the rules might cover it, or maybe there are no rules for it.  When that happens, the DM has to make a ruling.  In these situations, if the DM is focusing on being a neutral and dispassionate arbiter of fairness, they will run into situations in which they say "No" to their players where they could have said "Yes" without disrupting the game.  While it will not be a fatal problem should they do so, it does shut the players down - and that is generally not as fun.This goes hand in hand with an idea that comes from Improve Acting - never say "No".  It shuts down the creative flow and isn't as much fun as building upon each other's ideas.  It does the same thing in D&D, although it is inevitably necessary in some situations if players take being off leash too far.Obviously, there will always be judgment calls as a DM, whether you are a permissive DM or a dismissive DM.  You have to draw a line somewhere and that line is always going to be a bit fuzzy... but if you draw the line further in the area of permissiveness, it opens up more opportunities for the players to be creative and to tell a more interesting improvised story with you.To that end, I often let players violate rules.  Not only do I stretch fairness in their favor - I downright cheat in their favor.For example, many damaging spells target creatures.  Unless they deal psychic damage or otherwise require a biological body/mind for obvious reasons, I allow these spells to target objects.  This is clearly against the rules - but the players have more fun with it.  And it doesn't break anything. Also, players sometimes want to use concentration requiring cantrips outside combat while they're concentrating on a long lasting spell like Hex (which sometimes lasts 8 hours). This is clearly against the rules... but it is so much more fun to let them do their minor illusions, move some Earth, etc...  And it doesn't have any real negative impacts on the game at all.</blockquote>

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