GM Authority (Edited For Clarity, Post #148)

[kenada]

I voted for the GM, but I think I’d rather abstain now if I can’t vote for “neither”. This is a failed pitch. People have different understandings, so you should pitch other things until everyone shares the same understanding of and enthusiasm for the proposed campaign. Maybe that’s a variant of the current pitch that allows elves, or maybe it’s something else.

Personally, I lean on my players heavily to determine what we’re going to do. They’re the ones that are going to be playing. I have some boundaries as a GM in terms of setting and system, but it’s far easier if they all tell me what they want rather than for me to throw ideas at them until they are happy (or just decide to run something only for it to fizzle out after a few or several sessions).

 

[p_johnston]

So in this case it sounds like i side with the DM but as others have pointed out it depends on context. In this context it seems like the player is insisting that anything in the handbook should be allowed no matter what to which the reply is rule 0.

That being said the only reason I've ever had to kick players was having to many (8). As a DM i will usually try and have a few options for games ill have fun running. If the group doesn't want any of them then its probably time for someone else to try DMing and I'll get a rare chance to play.

If a players working in good faith work with them and the group till everyone is able to have fun. If they're just being a jerk work with the group till everyone is able to have fun even if the group ends up being one smaller.

 

[shawnhcorey]

It's the GM who puts the most work into the setting. If a player does not want to adapt and just wants to argue, they're gone.
Besides, the Children of the Forest are the elves in GoT.

 

[Aldarc]

If I play a game and the players chose, fighters, rogues, rangers and Paladins swapping their spells for a feat at levels 6 and 10 and 14 is it still d&d? I would say it is.

Not to mention the fact that Birthright is Game of a Thrones in D&D so clearly possible.

This seems like moving the goalposts of the debate, as you initially compared the degree of changes to AiME (a non-D&D using the 5e engine) and now are saying that it's simply swapping spells out and using a limited range of pre-existing class.

 

[Jd Smith1]

If you held a pickup game of basketball and one guy showed up and demanded to play baseball, he would be out of line.

Its the same with gaming: you conform to the campaign as intended, or leave.

 

[Aldarc]

If you held a pickup game of basketball and one guy showed up and demanded to play baseball, he would be out of line.

Its the same with gaming: you conform to the campaign as intended, or leave.

I'm not sure if this analogy is really comparable to the initial case. For starters, the GM is making a pitch to the players about what to play rather than a guy who shows up to play a different game than the one everyone else did. Presumably the GM and Players have already agreed what system they are playing with, very likely D&D given the case study. So really it's not about guy showing up to basketball demanding to play baseball, but something more akin to a guy showing up to play basketball and debating which rules of basketball or equipment will be in play.

 

[cmad1977]

If you’re playing a GOT type game you should be playing something else so...

 

[ccs]

So I'm not clear on when this hypothetical debate is occurring.
Is this in the session where ideas of what to play are kicked around? If so, no one to side with. DM has purposed an idea. Clearly not everyone is on board (yet). Negotiations continue until everyone's on the same page.
Is this session one and and NOW someone wants an elf? After having signed on to playing a game where the only choice is Human? Then I side with the DM & other players.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I'm siding with the DM here, but only based on the racial limitation being undeniably fundamental to the specific setting., there being, it seems, general group buy-in to that setting, and it being a setting the DM may not feel complete authority to change. I am not necessarily going to side with the DM who has a complete kitchen sink setting full of outlandish races and refuses to accommodate one more race a player happens to be fixated on because they just don't feel like being accomodating. Not to say I'm necessarily on the player's side there either.

Even with that caveat I would have to say that the effect of allowing full core D&D magic in the pretty damned low magic setting of Westeros is going to alter the setting much more radically than one guy having pointy ears and darkvision, so it seems like a silly line to draw in the sand.

 

[ccs]

If you’re playing a GOT type game you should be playing something else so...

Why? Theres nothing going on in GoT that D&D can't handle