How to Tell a Player, "No"?

PHATsakk43

Last Authlim of the True Lord of Tyranny
So, I moved to a new country for work. Pretty similar to my home country, but still a different country. That's not particularly pertinent, but just setting up context. This move also put the final blow on my long running, albeit already hiatused campaign I'd ran off and on since 2017.

Basically, I'm in a very small, very rural town, but due to the major nuclear power station and that this town is next of a beach it has a fairly metropolitan vibe for a town of 25,000. So, I looked around for a game and couldn't find one. I did find a local board game group, so I reached out and asked if I could see if there was any interest in a D&D game. Not surprisingly, there was good response. A little more enthusiastic than I anticipated honestly.

Anyway, we have a "session -1/2" (basically a little less formal even than a session 0). A Facebook group chat was made for the game group and I agreed to host at my home.

That was two days ago, today someone from the initial message traffic, but who didn't show up for the meetup DM'd me to discuss their PC concept. They were like, "I want to play a dinosaur." They then went on to explain they had never played D&D but just wanted to expand this concept.

I offered to accept an existing saurial-esq race, which was promptly ignored and I was given a discussion about how they are from the video game world and want to be able to relate that experience into D&D (which I really don't understand the connection between video games and PC dinosaurs, so that was a bit weird in and of itself.)

So, anyway, I have nothing against this individual, but I'm not going to be the DM for the game they are looking for and I'm concerned that even if I was that DM, it would be disruptive to the other players. So, how do I say, "no"?
 

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Give them a Barbarian with an Intelligence of 1. They won't know the difference!

In all seriousness, this desire of theirs raises more questions for me. Do they just really like dinosaurs? What kind of play pattern do they expect?

As a dinosaur you can't speak, probably have difficulty manipulating tools, and have no goals beyond survival. At best, they are a pet. At worst, an encounter for the other characters. Unless they specified an intelligent dinosaur, of course.

In which case, I never thought I'd get to use this picture:
2024-12-06_013208.jpeg
 
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Being straightforward, with a little sweetening is generally the way to go.

Something like "Your idea sounds really fun, but I'm not really looking to organise a game with such concepts in it. I'm looking to have a more classic fantasy adventure about [...]".

This is exactly where I would start.

If you're having trouble, another idea might be to give the new player an explicit list of allowed races (and classes, etc.). Even if things are more open ended for others, you can nicely explain that you are intentionally reigning things in a little bit, both because the player is new to D&D ("it might be good to learn to walk before you run") and because they missed session 0.5.
 

This is exactly where I would start.

If you're having trouble, another idea might be to give the new player an explicit list of allowed races (and classes, etc.). Even if things are more open ended for others, you can nicely explain that you are intentionally reigning things in a little bit, both because the player is new to D&D ("it might be good to learn to walk before you run") and because they missed session 0.5.
Agreed... with a caveat...
New players generally should be encouraged to keep it relatively simple for the first character, but offer the chance to swap for a new one later, once you're sure they grasp what makes the game work.

And by relatively simple, I mean no funky concepts... not the "Fighters or theives only until your character survives a full session," that I got stuck with. It took 3 sessions and 5 characters, BTW.
 

That was two days ago, today someone from the initial message traffic, but who didn't show up for the meetup DM'd me to discuss their PC concept. They were like, "I want to play a dinosaur." They then went on to explain they had never played D&D but just wanted to expand this concept.

I offered to accept an existing saurial-esq race, which was promptly ignored and I was given a discussion about how they are from the video game world and want to be able to relate that experience into D&D (which I really don't understand the connection between video games and PC dinosaurs, so that was a bit weird in and of itself.)

So, anyway, I have nothing against this individual, but I'm not going to be the DM for the game they are looking for and I'm concerned that even if I was that DM, it would be disruptive to the other players. So, how do I say, "no"?

"I'm sorry, that concept won't fit into the setting and the kind of game I'm going to run. The sauriel option I mentioned is the closest I can offer. It needs to be an intelligent humanoid who can communicate easily with others, and won't be seen as a dangerous predator or animal by the NPCs you need to interact with. If that's not what you're looking for from a game, I don't think this is for you. But thanks for your interest!"
 
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This is the concept exposition:

My background in video games is kind of a mix of characters and I am wondering if we could figure out a way to bring some of those elements into this D&D campaign.

Jurassic World Alive - hybrid dinosaurs, the hadrosaurs are generally healers with some other helpful boosts such as increasing allies speed (initiative)

Diablo 2 - a bunch of different types of elemental damage. I think I want my character to be a highly trained doctor who always pushes the limits of what is possible and sees that there are elemental damages out there and tries to capture them and imbue his dagger with those. I figure this would mean I would have low damages but it also means I am somewhat immune to the immunities that monsters have and I would almost always be able to do a bit of damage.

Skyrim - smithing to improve the weapon a little bit, enchanting to improve the weapons elemenental damage, and alchemy, he will always be making potions (healing, poisons, elemental, etc)

And this is the pic of the character concept:

IMG_1465.jpeg


Again, this sounds not terrible, in the right context.

I just don’t have the ability to make this work in the campaign we’ve decided to run (5E rules, 1368DR Forgotten Realms setting in Dalelands.)
 

I offered to accept an existing saurial-esq race, which was promptly ignored and I was given a discussion about how they are from the video game world and want to be able to relate that experience into D&D (which I really don't understand the connection between video games and PC dinosaurs, so that was a bit weird in and of itself.)
I think you're being very reasonable here. When a player comes to me with a concept that won't work, my first plan of action is to see if we can tweak the concept so it does fit into the campaign. I'd just tell the player a dinosaur isn't going to work. Other than playing a dinosaur, what kind of experience are they looking for? If they can give you an answer, try helping them make a character that will provide that experience.
 

So, I moved to a new country for work. Pretty similar to my home country, but still a different country. That's not particularly pertinent, but just setting up context. This move also put the final blow on my long running, albeit already hiatused campaign I'd ran off and on since 2017.

Basically, I'm in a very small, very rural town, but due to the major nuclear power station and that this town is next of a beach it has a fairly metropolitan vibe for a town of 25,000. So, I looked around for a game and couldn't find one. I did find a local board game group, so I reached out and asked if I could see if there was any interest in a D&D game. Not surprisingly, there was good response. A little more enthusiastic than I anticipated honestly.

Anyway, we have a "session -1/2" (basically a little less formal even than a session 0). A Facebook group chat was made for the game group and I agreed to host at my home.

That was two days ago, today someone from the initial message traffic, but who didn't show up for the meetup DM'd me to discuss their PC concept. They were like, "I want to play a dinosaur." They then went on to explain they had never played D&D but just wanted to expand this concept.

I offered to accept an existing saurial-esq race, which was promptly ignored and I was given a discussion about how they are from the video game world and want to be able to relate that experience into D&D (which I really don't understand the connection between video games and PC dinosaurs, so that was a bit weird in and of itself.)

So, anyway, I have nothing against this individual, but I'm not going to be the DM for the game they are looking for and I'm concerned that even if I was that DM, it would be disruptive to the other players. So, how do I say, "no"?

“I’m sorry, I actually received a lot more folks than I expected who were interested in the game, and we’re full up. However, if there’s an opening in the future, I’ll send you the information for the meetup. Thanks for the interest!”
 

Say, this first campaign is more just PHB stuff. I do not want to to expand on much until everyone gets the hang of the game.

Or, if this is player number 6, aka the extra in case numbers 1-5 drop out for some reason. Number 6 has not made it to the table yet.
 

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