D&D General DM Authority

[prabe]

You certainly can, and I've had sessions that had little or no combat. But no combat ever? Just seems like there are better options with more support.

Which is not to say that it's wrong, just kind of leaves me scratching my head is all.

I think if it happens, it happens because it's the system the people at the table know and have the rules for, and (I'd imagine) getting the people at the table to settle on another system for the low/no-combat game proved harder than running it in D&D.

 

[FrogReaver]

You certainly can, and I've had sessions that had little or no combat. But no combat ever? Just seems like there are better options with more support.

Which is not to say that it's wrong, just kind of leaves me scratching my head is all.

I get ya. Though, what leaves me scratching my head is that we waste our time on a forum and we get so worried that someone might not be getting the most out of their time because they are playing a game that might not work as well as some other for them. We are pretty irrational people sometimes

 

[Maxperson]

I get ya. Though, what leaves me scratching my head is that we waste our time on a forum and we get so worried that someone might not be getting the most out of their time because they are playing a game that might work as well as some other for them. We are pretty irrational people sometimes

I'm earrational. Anything I hear is rational. Muahahahaha!

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm earrational. Anything I hear is rational. Muahahahaha!

I must ponder the implications of that...

 

[Oofta]

Can you please show me a video of this? I keep trying to picture it in my head, but can't. Not using the D&D ruleset (any edition). A long time ago they made a few solo adventures, which were more like choose your own adventures with dice, but that is the extent of my knowledge. So please, if there is a video out there where people play a D&D game, with D&D rules, using D&D dice and the MM and the PHB and the DMG, and do so without a DM, I want to watch.

I realize you are not saying good/bad, but rather possible/not possible. I would like to see the possible.

Same way for me with a DM never making a final decision. I make little corrections, reminders and rulings on a fairly regular basis in my games. It's almost never anything memorable nor is there a big disagreement most of the time. Occasionally it's a player reminding someone else to make a concentration check or similar but the vast majority of time it's the DM.

It's fine to open a ruling to discussion (personally I do it after the game or during a break to not interrupt game flow) but to do it all the time? On every ruling or disagreement no matter how minor? Kind of like bigfoot. I guess it can happen, I've never seen it in real life and I suspect at least some people are just seeing bears walk on their hind legs interpreting things differently than I would.

 

[Chaosmancer]

To test my "it's magic" hypothesis, were you physically compelled in any way to come and disagree? What about emotionally or psychologically?

Not physically, and I'm not going to bother with enough self-psycho-analyzing to know if it is the other two.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Can you please show me a video of this? I keep trying to picture it in my head, but can't. Not using the D&D ruleset (any edition). A long time ago they made a few solo adventures, which were more like choose your own adventures with dice, but that is the extent of my knowledge. So please, if there is a video out there where people play a D&D game, with D&D rules, using D&D dice and the MM and the PHB and the DMG, and do so without a DM, I want to watch.

I realize you are not saying good/bad, but rather possible/not possible. I would like to see the possible.

Well, no videos. Not a lot of people record themselves playing DnD in the first place. But found some links. Two involve an app people specifically designed to help with the situation, and one is a person's blog post about running the game with no DM, because no one wanted to be a DM.

How to Play D&D or Pathfinder Solo or In A DM-less Group, Nations Software

Despite what you may have heard, it's quite possible to play Pathfinder or D&D alone.

www.nations-software.info

Press Release recent news | page 1 of 282 | Game Developer

www.gamasutra.com

Five Easy Steps to a DM-less 5E

 

[FrogReaver]

Not physically, and I'm not going to bother with enough self-psycho-analyzing to know if it is the other two.

Hmmm. Looks like I need a more cooperative test subject

 

[Thomas Shey]

So we are debating procedure versus rule?

Basically. As I said, there's a different semantic loading to one over the other; among other things, the "DM is leader" procedure can theoretically still be in play while being indistinguishable from a group that more formally makes rules decisions group decisions, just because the DM always does it that way anyway when there's any issue.

(Again, just so as to make sure no one conflates the positions together, I'm not talking here about campaign element participation).

 

[Thomas Shey]

@Thomas Shey - certainly in 1e D&D the idea of the DM being the game's authority was pretty much baked in as a rule. It's become fuzzier since then.

Gygax absolutely had--pronounced--opinions on the matter. But then, he had pronounced opinions on a lot of things that most groups (and even later editions of the game) went "Lol, no," to from day one. He also wasn't consistent (look at various early opinions he had about playing nonhumans).