How to Tell a Player, "No"?

[PHATsakk43]

I'm going to need info on how to do this myself.

Step One: Work in Nuclear Power

Step Two: Be a PM

This is why "I'm going to run a D&D game, who wants to play" isn't the safest announcement. "I'm going to run a King Arthur-style adventure with D&D" will nip those dinosaur-ideas in the bud.

Never had this come up before. I’ve dropped into games as a player with this sort of thing though. Last year in the lower Hudson valley, I played at a local shop with a Stay Puffed marshmallow man and an animated set of walking boots. Everyone else was asking for a “normal” campaign with a narrative and stuff.

I’m the only one with experience, outside of BG3 in the group.

Risky. It's a small town, and the players are already assembled online. There's no way to hide it when Steve drops out, and suddenly your game isn't "full-up" anymore. Plus, "I was talking with Lisa over our lunch break, and she thinks you could easily fit another player into your game! She even gave me your address! So, here comes Godzilla!"

Yeah, this is my biggest concern.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

How to Tell a Player, "No"?

Often, enthusiastically, and gleefully!

Ahem.

In this case, you may just have a problem. Look, I always try to work with a player to make a vision work. But it's a two-way street. A player who demands that they have to play one thing, and only one thing, and that thing isn't allowed by the rules and there isn't any easy way to accommodate that one thing, and then is like, 'Ima do this, becuz videogamez," may not work for the table.

If you've tried to work it out and done your best to make their vision come true, but they insist that they must have exactly what they want and refuse to work with you? Can't cure that.*


*This is why specific examples are always better than generic, "DM R EVIL" and "PLAYERS SUK" arguments. Most people are kind and generous, and the ones that are jerks you shouldn't play with. But this is no different than a player demanding to start at level 20 in a third level campaign, or a player asking for five free feats, or whatever. Work with players, but not every single player demand is a marching order that a DM must accomplish. We depend on the DM to be fair, but we also depend on players to be reasonable.

 

[bloodtide]

Just say "No" if you don't want too.

But would not a Dragonborn cleric or warlock really "fit" his character concept anyway? Heal people and buff them = cleric. Elemental stuff = warlock. His character can 'look' anyway he wants....but it still has the D&d stats of a Dragonborn (a Dinoborn).

Just for a historical FR note: Dino People fit in just fine in the 1368 Dalelands: There are a whole bunch of them, saurial, living in the Lost Dale in the Desertsedge Mountains at the far west edge of the Dalelands.

 

[Mannahnin]

I offered to accept an existing saurial-esq race, which was promptly ignored...

Just for a historical FR note: Dino People fit in just fine in the 1368 Dalelands: There are a whole bunch of them, saurial, living in the Lost Dale in the Desertsedge Mountains at the far west edge of the Dalelands.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Advise your "friend" to take a few minutes utes to learn what D&D is.

On the other hand, can't a Druid just shape-shift into a dinosaur???

 

[MGibster]

This is why "I'm going to run a D&D game, who wants to play" isn't the safest announcement. "I'm going to run a King Arthur-style adventure with D&D" will nip those dinosaur-ideas in the bud.

This is not the fault of the OP. No reasonable person thinks "I'm going to play a literal dinosaur" when they hear someone announce a D&D game. It's so far out there that I couldn't help but ask, "Are you $#%#ing with me right now?"

Of course, you could weave a backstory where his character is an awakened hadrosaur from the Jungles of Chult, uplifted by a Druid driven mad by their experiences in the Tomb of Annihilation, later transformed against their will into a more humanoid form.

That's just it though, there's almost always a way to accommodate a wacky request like this. I like to think I'm flexible as a DM, but I'm not Gumby. I'm getting ready to run my own campaign set in Greyhawk. I sure wouldn't bend over to fit a dinosaur PC, but maybe a lizardman or something like that? That's reasonable.

 

[TiQuinn]

I gotta admit, my response is based around the impression that this person would just be exhausting for me at a game table, and I just wouldn’t want to play with them. Hence my attempt to just move them along their way rather than humor their ask or try to sway them.

 

[PHATsakk43]

Just say "No" if you don't want too.

But would not a Dragonborn cleric or warlock really "fit" his character concept anyway? Heal people and buff them = cleric. Elemental stuff = warlock. His character can 'look' anyway he wants....but it still has the D&d stats of a Dragonborn (a Dinoborn).

Just for a historical FR note: Dino People fit in just fine in the 1368 Dalelands: There are a whole bunch of them, saurial, living in the Lost Dale in the Desertsedge Mountains at the far west edge of the Dalelands.

Yeah, I looked up a Saurial 5E race, and offered it, but the suggestion was ignored, and I got the video game and hadrosaur stuff I posted earlier.

 

[GMMichael]

This is not the fault of the OP. No reasonable person thinks "I'm going to play a literal dinosaur"

Wait. Who said this dinosaur is incapable of using idioms? This changes everything. I say let him in the group.

 

[MGibster]

Wait. Who said this dinosaur is incapable of using idioms? This changes everything. I say let him in the group.

Clever girl! (Dies from dinosauritus)