How much do your trust the advice of others?

[delericho]

I'm a firm believe in people playing whatever the want to play. However, we get to play our characters, too. If a character was that great of a burden, we would likely leave that character in a city at some point. If a character is tolerable, then anything goes.

Agreed. I've only seen it once, but I have seen a group ditch a fellow PC. The player in question designed a Bilbo Baggins-type character, only moreso - the character spent almost his entire short career seeking ways to avoid adventure and return to his home.

A few sessions in, the rest of the party decided to take no more, and dropped the character off back home. The player then created a new character that was a much better fit.

(The funny thing is that the player in question wasn't generally a problem player. He just created the wrong character for the campaign and emphasized the wrong traits. As I said, the new character was absolutely fine.)

 

[jasper]

Trust no one with over 30 years of D&D experience!
I trust some of you about as far as I can throw your RPG collection. (ps this throwing is null and void in you live above the tenth floor of a building).

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Trust no one with over 30 years of D&D experience!

It's okay to trust someone's advice if they have 30+ years of D&D experience.

The problem is trusting anyone that thinks telling you how many years of experience they have is of any use outside of the conversation being specifically about how long people have been playing - because not only does it not make their advice more likely to be correct, it doesn't even accurately communicate what they are implying (that they've done this a lot and are good at it as a result).

For example, I've been playing the guitar for 25 years. Without any more information about my guitar playing than that, can anyone evaluate how good I am at it?

 

[Maxperson]

It's okay to trust someone's advice if they have 30+ years of D&D experience.

The problem is trusting anyone that thinks telling you how many years of experience they have is of any use outside of the conversation being specifically about how long people have been playing - because not only does it not make their advice more likely to be correct, it doesn't even accurately communicate what they are implying (that they've done this a lot and are good at it as a result).

For example, I've been playing the guitar for 25 years. Without any more information about my guitar playing than that, can anyone evaluate how good I am at it?

D&D gives you more than that, though. If I tell you that I've been running D&D games for 30 years, that's 30 years where you know other people have played in my game. I don't know if you have people who have been willing to listen to your guitar playing for 25 years. If you have, then I know you have to at least be competent or that wouldn't be true. Assuming you haven't kidnapped and imprisoned your audience anyway.

 

[Sunseeker]

There's a difference between making "poor choices" because you are ignorant and making "poor choices" because they create an interesting end-result.

When I first started, I did the former, a lot. Quite honestly? It isn't fun. I do not look back at those times with fondness. So I learned how to optimize. Now I can make both good and creative characters. I also enjoy the game substantially more because I know what I'm doing. Now I do less DPS because I think it is more interesting that my character had a troubled childhood, represented by the urchin background, even if that isn't the best match to my paladin. Before I did less DPS because I had no idea how to connect the dots.

Our ignorance gives us opportunities to grow. The Game will always be better for having more people who know how to make optimal choices, but choose not to, as opposed to having more people who make poor choices because they don't know any better.

 

[pogre]

I'm running a game for primarily new folks to D&D and I bite my tongue during charop and play. They are having a blast and I do not want to tread on their original thinking or roleplaying.

They have plenty of time to figure out *dpr* in the future!

 

[Lanefan]

For example, I've been playing the guitar for 25 years. Without any more information about my guitar playing than that, can anyone evaluate how good I am at it?

Yes.

You're better than me.

 

[jasper]

Trust no one with over 30 years of D&D experience! ...).

I was told I had to cite my quote.
"Trust no one with over 30 years of D&D experience!" Ringo of the Beatles. It has been falsely misquoted for decades.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

D&D gives you more than that, though. If I tell you that I've been running D&D games for 30 years, that's 30 years where you know other people have played in my game. I don't know if you have people who have been willing to listen to your guitar playing for 25 years. If you have, then I know you have to at least be competent or that wouldn't be true. Assuming you haven't kidnapped and imprisoned your audience anyway.

Some unknown quantity of other people having played in your games at some unknown interval, for some unknown length, and with some unknown opinion about how enjoyable it was seems pretty equal, to me, to some unknown quantity of people having listened to me play my guitar which I have spent some unknown amount of time practicing.

And something I know for a fact is that people will play under a DM that bugs the crap out of them if that DM is their friend and/or the only DM they currently know, so even if "I've played for X years" did give some implied number of people having played with you, it still is zero indication of the quality - though it would hopefully mean the DM is better now than they were prior to all those years.

Yes.

You're better than me.

Unless you don't even play guitar, that's not necessarily true. And if you don't even play guitar, that's the same as someone saying "You are a better DM than me because you have DMed before" - which is irrelevant even if it is true, because it doesn't guarantee that should you start up the activity in question you would have to match me in years of experience to be at least as good as I am. You could potentially pick up playing the guitar this week, and blow whatever my skill level with guitar is out of the water a few months from now - just like someone could potentially pick up DMing today and do it better than most DMs with years of experience by next year.

 

[Lanefan]

Unless you don't even play guitar, that's not necessarily true. And if you don't even play guitar, that's the same as someone saying "You are a better DM than me because you have DMed before" - which is irrelevant even if it is true, because it doesn't guarantee that should you start up the activity in question you would have to match me in years of experience to be at least as good as I am. You could potentially pick up playing the guitar this week, and blow whatever my skill level with guitar is out of the water a few months from now - just like someone could potentially pick up DMing today and do it better than most DMs with years of experience by next year.

I have attempted now and then to play the guitar, and you can take it as a given that you are better than me.