D&D General D&D Evolutions You Like and Dislike [+]

[mamba]

Bringing it back to D&D, there are some species I probably would never play (like say, centaurs) but I don't exclude them because that could be someone else's jam. I would never design a game as if I was DMing it just for myself, because I remember what it's like to be a player in such a game. To feel superfluous and that my enjoyment was secondary.

so if one of the players did not like to include slavery or torture, you’d still have it in the setting and campaign because someone else might enjoy that being part of the story?

The player’s enjoyment is not secondary, but neither is the DM’s, and if there is a strong dislike for something then it is not part of the game as far as I am concerned, no matter who dislikes it

 

[TwoSix]

so if one of the players did not like to include slavery or torture, you’d still have it in the setting and campaign because someone else might enjoy that being part of the story?

The player’s enjoyment is not secondary, but neither is the DM’s, and if there is a strong dislike for something then it is not part of the game as far as I am concerned, no matter who dislikes it

X-card subjects like torture and slavery, versus ancestries like tortles and centaurs are wildly differing topics; conflating the two will just make the subject unable to be discussed.

 

[Maxperson]

They immediately drop it of their own accord and never bring it up again.

How can you ask questions, or try to find a way to make things work, if the instant you get even the slightest hint of disgruntlement, you immediately cast aside any interest you had and never even consider it again?

So it's not things that "I'm not into." I'm not into halflings, gnomes, half-orcs, loxodon, playing with Barbies, tortles, 3e-5e tieflings, aarakocra, githzerai, hammering nails through my feet, lizard folk, kenku, and other odd races. I don't give a fig if my players want to play one of those races, play with Barbies, or hammer nails through their feet.

I'm talking about something the DM or player dislikes to the point where it has a negative impact on fun, however minor. At that point the decent thing to do is just play one of the gazillion other fun things in the game. You're just not going to convince me that the intentional infliction of negativity on another person is an okay thing to do.

P.S. I would actually care if one of my players tried to hammer nails through his feet and try to stop him.

 

[Maxperson]

Yep. Forgotten Realms is a map, a bunch of place names, and occasional pieces of lore, assuming you're running it in the early 16th century DR time frame. You want to stick in half-illithid dwarves or a colony of tortles in the Moonsea, that's absolutely trivial.

Sometimes I love my tired brain. Didn't sleep well last night and as soon as I saw the bolded portion, my mind was like, well now I want to have a group of half-illithid halflings approach the party and say, "Well, then. Isn't it about time for 2nd breakfast."

 

[Remathilis]

so if one of the players did not like to include slavery or torture, you’d still have it in the setting and campaign because someone else might enjoy that being part of the story?

Isn't that what lines, veils and X cards are for?

I have a player who just joined who admitted she's squeamish about child and animal abuse. Guess what I'm going to avoid using in my plots? (or just gloss over, you can infer child casualties in a sacked village without describing child corpses). I don't see this as particularly controversial.

 

[Maxperson]

What folks like you and I are asking is, why on earth are GMs creating campaigns designed only to please them, with apparently zero care for anything players might want--indeed, seemingly opposition to what players might want!

And what the rest of us are asking is why on earth are you guys asking that question when no one here has said that they do that.

Maybe it's because you are a very passionate person, but you tend to dial up comments made by people to a 9 or 10 before you respond to them, even when they're only in the 4-6 range, or even less. The majority of disagreements I have had with you and seen others are related to this habit of yours.

Take the whole "breach of friendship" thing of yours. It would take a whole lot more than asking to play something I dislike to rise to being a breach of friendship. Like if one of my friends was having life troubles and decided to release his frustration by punching me in the face. THAT would be a breach of friendship.

 

[Maxperson]

It would, in his own words, make you not a "decent human being" to want something your GM just kind of doesn't care for.

No. Never said that.

 

[Remathilis]

Oh returning to topic. I'm glad D&D has evolved to add safety tools to the game. Too many horror stories of campaigns devolving into "the DMs thinly disguised fetish".

 

[mamba]

X-card subjects like torture and slavery, versus ancestries like tortles and centaurs are wildly differing topics; conflating the two will just make the subject unable to be discussed.

People have preferences and dislikes, I am not going to argue that one dislike is more rational or justified than another and therefore the person has to ‘get over it’. If someone dislikes something, then it is out.

 

[Remathilis]

People have preferences and dislikes, I am not going to argue that one dislike is more rational or justified than another and therefore the person has to ‘get over it’. If someone dislikes something, then it is out.

I dislike humans. Are they banned in your game now?