Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM Authority
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jack Daniel" data-source="post: 8161391" data-attributes="member: 694"><p>I'm no expert on group dynamics. But I think it's not at all uncommon in many different kinds of social situations for a natural "leader" role to emerge, and very often that falls to whoever has the strongest personality/charisma/willpower or the most expertise concerning whatever the group's "project" is. In D&D groups, the DM is all too often both of these.</p><p></p><p>Speaking personally, I typically know far more about the rules than any single player I referee for. (Not that there's a whole lot there to memorize if I'm running OD&D, but at least I do my homework. Whereas playing a character in that system hardly requires that level of effort.) Typically, I find that this is enough to maintain an unlimited supply of (what [USER=38016]@Michael Silverbane[/USER] calls) both "Soft" and "Hard" Authority over the campaign.</p><p></p><p>The exercise of Hard Authority on my part might run into a limit if I were to encounter a player who was adversarial enough in their approach to my campaign that they felt the need to get into a "contest of wills" concerning a ruling I've made or a restriction I have in place. But it's never happened. Likely for the same reason most players don't bother to read the rules: they're just there to play and they tend to go along with whatever to move the game along.</p><p></p><p>So, having never been in the unfortunate position of getting into a childish pissing-contest over an aspect of an elf-game, I can't say whether or not I'd automatically win by virtue of being the DM. And if I <em>did </em>get into such a contest of wills and then win, I couldn't say whether it was <em>because </em>I was the DM and thus "the" authority over that campaign; because I've been a DM for a long time and am therefore in some sense "an" authority over reffing campaigns; or pure, willful cussedness on my part outlasting the hypothetical adversary. There would be no way to tell for certain.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Ultimate" and "final" are synonyms in this case. That's what "ultimate" means: <em>final</em>. That's why second-from-final is called "penultimate" and third-from-final is called "prepenultimate" etc.</p><p></p><p>Now as for <em>absolute </em>authority, that's a different matter. Yes, I think there can be a difference between an Absolute Authority and a referee who worldbuilds the campaign milieu. The mere fact of worldbuilding the setting doesn't actually imply anything about how heavy-handed or collaborative the referee will be when it comes to either selecting/designing/house-ruling game mechanics or applying and adjudicating them in-game.</p><p></p><p>For a DM to be an Absolute Authority over the campaign, they'd have to approach it in a certain very traditional fashion, being both the worldbuilder of the setting and the "keeper" of the rules (in the old sense that the DMG and MM were "for DM's eyes only" and players ought not to peek at either), soliciting no player input regarding either setting lore or game rules.</p><p></p><p>This actually raises a rather interesting question for the more modern and collaborative clique of DMs: do you have every expectation that the players will be reading through the DMG and MM, looking for magic items that they want (maybe even requesting and then expecting to "find" them), learning and memorizing monster stats?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jack Daniel, post: 8161391, member: 694"] I'm no expert on group dynamics. But I think it's not at all uncommon in many different kinds of social situations for a natural "leader" role to emerge, and very often that falls to whoever has the strongest personality/charisma/willpower or the most expertise concerning whatever the group's "project" is. In D&D groups, the DM is all too often both of these. Speaking personally, I typically know far more about the rules than any single player I referee for. (Not that there's a whole lot there to memorize if I'm running OD&D, but at least I do my homework. Whereas playing a character in that system hardly requires that level of effort.) Typically, I find that this is enough to maintain an unlimited supply of (what [USER=38016]@Michael Silverbane[/USER] calls) both "Soft" and "Hard" Authority over the campaign. The exercise of Hard Authority on my part might run into a limit if I were to encounter a player who was adversarial enough in their approach to my campaign that they felt the need to get into a "contest of wills" concerning a ruling I've made or a restriction I have in place. But it's never happened. Likely for the same reason most players don't bother to read the rules: they're just there to play and they tend to go along with whatever to move the game along. So, having never been in the unfortunate position of getting into a childish pissing-contest over an aspect of an elf-game, I can't say whether or not I'd automatically win by virtue of being the DM. And if I [I]did [/I]get into such a contest of wills and then win, I couldn't say whether it was [I]because [/I]I was the DM and thus "the" authority over that campaign; because I've been a DM for a long time and am therefore in some sense "an" authority over reffing campaigns; or pure, willful cussedness on my part outlasting the hypothetical adversary. There would be no way to tell for certain. "Ultimate" and "final" are synonyms in this case. That's what "ultimate" means: [I]final[/I]. That's why second-from-final is called "penultimate" and third-from-final is called "prepenultimate" etc. Now as for [I]absolute [/I]authority, that's a different matter. Yes, I think there can be a difference between an Absolute Authority and a referee who worldbuilds the campaign milieu. The mere fact of worldbuilding the setting doesn't actually imply anything about how heavy-handed or collaborative the referee will be when it comes to either selecting/designing/house-ruling game mechanics or applying and adjudicating them in-game. For a DM to be an Absolute Authority over the campaign, they'd have to approach it in a certain very traditional fashion, being both the worldbuilder of the setting and the "keeper" of the rules (in the old sense that the DMG and MM were "for DM's eyes only" and players ought not to peek at either), soliciting no player input regarding either setting lore or game rules. This actually raises a rather interesting question for the more modern and collaborative clique of DMs: do you have every expectation that the players will be reading through the DMG and MM, looking for magic items that they want (maybe even requesting and then expecting to "find" them), learning and memorizing monster stats? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM Authority
Top