Do your players know the rules?

[frankthedm]

this one guy who refuses to update his material for his wizard to 3.5. He just continues to run him 3.0 in a 3.5 game. ...on Sunday he used the spell Flameburst when a baddie got too close. He said he's casting the spell then grabbed 9d8 for damage. ... Well, it turns out Flameburst is from Complete Arcane and has a limit of 5d8...This is a constant problem.

Sound like he is outright cheating. Is he the DM''s "buddy"?

My players know the rules... not well enough. I often know more than them and sometimes I think they conveniently forget rules that would affect them adversely.

I know most rules pretty well, but since what I know often detrimental to the players, I look it up anyway so they can’t complain.

 

[Sigdel]

I don't know if he is cheating, but he is not the DM's buddy. The rest of the group and I have talked about kicking him out more than once. He just doesnt get the new books but buys the expansion for E-Tools.

 

[EricNoah]

My players all know the rules as well as I do, and it's just fine.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

My players know the rules enough to play the game, make characters, level up and make intelligent combat and social decision, though they dont know everything, which gives me a little bit more freedom from having to justify my actions that arent exactly by the rules. Thats just with DND, if we where playing WOD i wish everyone knew the rules as well as i do, especially the people who try to DM it other than me.

 

[Harmon]

One far better then the others combined.

One on par with me.

And two that get confused as to what dice to roll when rolling for to hit.

Players not taking an interest in learning the rules is annoying, at least know what your character can do.

 

[Corinth]

Of my crew, only two are possessed of sufficient rules mastery. Three others are not, and it's causing problems for them and their PCs. This is a self-correcting problem, so I'm not worried about it.

 

[the Jester]

This should be multiple choice.

One of my players knows the rules better than I. Several others know almost everything, a few know a fair amount and one of them knows very little (she's relatively new to the game, having played a couple of games as a youth, back when it was an earlier edition, and she's completely new to 3e).

 

[Treebore]

My players know them well enough for all of us to be happy.

 

[Li Shenron]

Funny thread actually

My vote is "My players know a little bit about the rules, and that’s all they really need." They really know more than just a little, but I could not say that they know a lot... The game goes fine this way, there is room for me to adjudicate non-straight situations without starting a discussion - which I think may happen if they knew about all the FAQs and similar - so for me it's ok as it is.

 

[Hussar]

Once I managed to show my players that my grasp on the rules was fairly decent and that they didn't need to second guess me all the time, things have gone swimmingly. My guys all DM in their own games, so, everyone tends to have their own take.