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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8391522" data-attributes="member: 97077">This does seem like some kind of trust issue to me perhaps combined with an adversarial outlook (as in the game is vs. DM, not that he's hostile to you) as well as some kind of need to get things &quot;exactly right.&quot; While the DM is tasked with mediating between the rules and the players, the DM is not required to follow the rules at all - the rules serve the DM, not the other way around. The players should be made to understand this through open, honest conversation in my view.Transparency and consistency go a long way to building trust and reducing the sense of the game being players vs. DM. Rolling in the open, particularly with a VTT if you're using one (since it can show a lot of detail in mechanics in the chat window), helps with this. As does incorporating some mechanics post-description to explain if you're doing anything out of the norm, if nothing else to preempt the inevitable question or objection from the player.It's also useful to set up an expectation that players should limit talking outside of their turns except as absolutely necessary. In your example, Player 5 is interrupting while you're trying to resolve something happening to Player 1. That is stepping all over someone else's spotlight for no good reason and that is not cool in my view. Player 5 can wait for their turn and have the character take specific action to get the information the player wants to know at that time. It's not appropriate to do that when it's the monster's turn or another player's.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 8391522, member: 97077"] This does seem like some kind of trust issue to me perhaps combined with an adversarial outlook (as in the game is vs. DM, not that he's hostile to you) as well as some kind of need to get things "exactly right." While the DM is tasked with mediating between the rules and the players, the DM is not required to follow the rules at all - the rules serve the DM, not the other way around. The players should be made to understand this through open, honest conversation in my view. Transparency and consistency go a long way to building trust and reducing the sense of the game being players vs. DM. Rolling in the open, particularly with a VTT if you're using one (since it can show a lot of detail in mechanics in the chat window), helps with this. As does incorporating some mechanics post-description to explain if you're doing anything out of the norm, if nothing else to preempt the inevitable question or objection from the player. It's also useful to set up an expectation that players should limit talking outside of their turns except as absolutely necessary. In your example, Player 5 is interrupting while you're trying to resolve something happening to Player 1. That is stepping all over someone else's spotlight for no good reason and that is [I]not cool [/I]in my view. Player 5 can wait for their turn and have the character take specific action to get the information the player wants to know at that time. It's not appropriate to do that when it's the monster's turn or another player's. [/QUOTE]

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