Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4007821" data-attributes="member: 467">In a very insightful post, this is the point that I think is most important.  Of the many duties of the DM, fostering a particular playstyle that is most condusive to everyone's fun, including his own, is the greatest duty.  Doing that requires rewarding certain behaviors and punishing others.Exactly what that playstyle is isn't important.  What's important is that DMs need to realize that the ruling they make, the adventures they design, the NPCs they run and all the other elements of play tell the players how to go about engaging the game.  If the PCs win every time they rush pell mell into battle because the DM is a poor tactical player or because he purposefully makes easy combats, the behavior is rewarded.  If merchants and peddlers regularly carry pocketfuls of gems and the best way to get these is after the merchant has bled out, and no constables come running, the behavior is rewarded.  Likewise, if definding the town nets derision from the local lord and apathy from the peasants, the behavior is punished.  If choosing a moral stand for a character means constantly having that morality tested in no-win qualms, that behavior is punished.We often blame the rules or the fluff of the game for the things that people do at the table that we don't like, instead of looking at the table and how it is run to see what kinds of play are being promoted or admonished.</blockquote>

Verification