DM overruling a Player's play of his character

[swrushing]

Say the PCs are

Ok, clearly YOU the Gm in these examples see various reasons making the scream/peep either good or bad in the circumstances, so why couldn't the character? "noise discipline" is not just a subconscious thing, but a choice. At some times keeping quiet is very important and on someone's mind, while at others it wont be. So i can definitely see a case to be made for case-by-case decisions as opposed to applying what one did "in circumstance x" to prevent him deciding differently "in circumstance y."

Now, i guess the first question is "do you in the game require characters to wait for their init before speaking or communicating?"

Along similar lines, if the response were not a scream or silent but a snappy, clever zinger, would you still have a problem with it?

if the default in your game is that you cannot say things or alert people out of init order, then i can see the issue, but not otherwise.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Is there ever a situation where a DM could/should overrule a Player's play of his character?

Unfortunately, yes.

Luckily, I'm not finding myself forced to do so.

But I certainly will if need be.

 

[Aaron L]

I had a character once who was charmed by an enemy magic-user. He pointed at my party and said "protect me!" SO I said "Hey guys, this is my friend, why are you attackign him?" and I tried to stand in the way of them and stop them from hurting the wizard who had charmed me. After one round of this the DM just said"ok you have to attack the party" It annoyed me greatly, as my character was good friends with the rest of the party, and wouldnt want to hurt them any more then he wanted to hurt his new "best friend". But the DM decided I was charmed and so I had to attack the party to defend the charmer, rather then use nonviolent means to defend him. If one friend was attackign another, I certainly wouldnt try to kill eaither of them, Id try to reason with them. I see this situation as much teh same, if my characters thinking is magically altered, let me know how, and I will de my best to portray what happens. Dont just dictate to me what my character will do based on what you think he should do. If you are magically dominated it is one thing, but if youre feared or charmed, you can still think.

 

[ZuulMoG]

It's a judgement call, but I'm leaning toward making the player follow the modus operandi that he has establsihed for his PC. Metagaming sucks, and it's something that munchkins do.

Personally, if I was confronted with something this blatant, I'd be tempted to send the PC over the rainbow to the Land of OZ for permanent retirement, and let the player roll up a new PC. Be a valuable object lesson for the other players.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

Metagaming sucks, and it's something that munchkins do.

I know that's a popular opinion around here, but man, it drives me nuts!

Metagaming is something that munchkins do. That doesn't mean that all metagaming is by munchkins. There's a lot of things that munchkins do, but they're only bad because the munchkin's using them as a tool to disrupt the game.

Heck, if you've ever had your character treat a PC differently from an NPC, you've metagamed. That doesn't make it a bad thing.

 

[fusangite]

It's a judgement call, but I'm leaning toward making the player follow the odus operandi that he has establsihed for his PC.

So, when you are scared, do you react identically every time, regardless of the circumstances?

 

[Breakdaddy]

I didnt have time to crawl this whole thread, so if I repeat a point, apologies in advance.
As the (hardass) DM of my group, I *WOULD* allow the pc to choose whether or not he screamed/yelped/cried/wailed on a case-by-case basis. Why? Because even in real life I have been frightened a few times, when I was stationed in the Middle East I had a couple of moments of near-terror but I always had enough prescence of mind to keep my mouth shut or warn my squadmates. Now, before someone says "but this is magic, it works differently", I will give you this snippet from the SRD:
An invisible cone of terror causes each living creature in the area to become panicked unless it succeeds on a Will save. If cornered, a panicked creature begins cowering. If the Will save succeeds, the creature is shaken for 1 round.

Now, that is pretty much the whole entry from the SRD. Nowhere in there does it specify any compulsion other than cowering. IME, this implies control over other personal functions by the player for his PC. Strictly speaking, I can see the other interpretation, though. The PANICKED condition specifically states no other action except fleeing or cowering can be taken while the PC is panicked. I still allow screams or VERY brief warnings.

 

[painandgreed]

Metagaming sucks, and it's something that munchkins do.

I would dispute that. The players don't live in the same world that their characters do. They haven't actualy spent six months travelling with the other party members to get to know them, talk tactics over the camp fire, and discuss local stories and rumors. It's not fair or realistic to expect players to make snap judgements on things they've known for a few hours to minutes real time that their characters have been thinking about for weeks or months game time. Soem metagaming and kibitzing should be allowed to make up for the fact that the players don't know everything their characters know. A character that is trained as a fighter has been trained in the various combat manuevers and tactics whereas the player may not even be that up on the rules. Another player suggesting "now would be a good time to grapple the wizard" perhaps even with some quick figuring of odds seems well in line with what the character would know that the player doesn't. A theif that has grown up in a fantasy world would be much better prepared for the choices given to them than the player.

 

[DaveMage]

The only over-ruling is when you think the player may be acting out of character for a Paladin say. That his actions are directly opposite to his ethos.

I'd say that even then you allow the action - then strip him of his paladin abilities until he atones.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

When I'm a dm or a player I metagame.

I metagame to search for good plausible reasons to speed past tedium, find a reason to result in consensus or make decisions that move towards the next adventure. I do not look for exploitative ambiguities, nor do I fudge results or stretch beyond appropriate power:

I'm a metagamer & a powergamer, not a munchkin.