How to Tell a Player, "No"?

My First advice is I'd recommend you don't read this thread:


I would invite them to sit in on the first session and then decide on what they want to play - after the first game. Just so you can get a feel of them first and so they can see how a game plays. Let them peruse the options in the PHB.

Sidenote: So, there is a video game where you play a dinosaur. It's a survival MMO. maybe that's what they're hoping to get from this...
Well, I read a few pages of that and it’s has made me feel like the Principal Skimmer meme.
 

log in or register to remove this ad


So, how do I say, "no"?
A good tactic is to say "not this time, but let's try next campaign".

If the player has a genuine long-time interest in playing the game, they will put their idea on hold and think of another character. If they choose not to play at all, it means they were interested only in their idea and not playing with others.
 

Sidekick rules from Tasha’s will let you play a dinosaur, I think velociraptor is 1/2 CR.
Not that I’d encourage someone to do that as their first character, but it’s doable within the rules.
That's fair, I tend to forget that option exists since to me those rules are more to pad the number of combatants in a party with NPCs if you're short on players. Agree that would not be the approach I'd take for a new player.
 

So, I finally got a 3 page long, illustrated pdf (I contemplated attaching it, but I think at this point it would be more 'laughing at instead of laughing with' the person, and I'm not really wanting that) write up of the character concept.

It was very detailed and completely not anything like a D&D character. I mean, possible a pathway to some high-level goal or something, but it really seems like this person had zero understanding of what a D&D character is.

My reply:

That's a lot of concepts for a new character.​
I really don't think that is going to work. Do you have access to a 2014 5E Player's Handbook? If not, I can help you with a character build.​
D&D can be very extensible and get into whatever things the players and DM want to, however, this is a mostly newby group so we're sticking to a fairly standard set of rules so that no one ends up feeling left out or overshadowed by other player characters.​
Even if this character race worked in my game world (it really doesn't, but I can always handwave that with "a portal opened, and out you popped" if needed) it would take a lot, and I mean a lot of work to get that character concept into a format that would work and be balanced. More work than I'm really capable of doing without some serious playtesting. If this were a mature (play experience-wise, not necessarily age) group, then I might wing it and see how it goes, however this isn't that group.​
If possible, could you look through the core races and classes and stick to those for this game? Sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted to hear.​

I've also decided to send out a group message to say that for this game, we're sticking with PHB, Sword Coast, & Xanathar's for PC builds just to not show that I'm playing favorites, as I had initially allowed a aasimar and (grudgingly) a golaith. What apparently happened was that most of the group just went on some online D&D character builder and enabled "all options" and went wild. Granted, in the dino case, that wasn't even what happened, as they just wrote some stuff up.
 

So, I finally got a 3 page long, illustrated pdf (I contemplated attaching it, but I think at this point it would be more 'laughing at instead of laughing with' the person, and I'm not really wanting that) write up of the character concept.

It was very detailed and completely not anything like a D&D character. I mean, possible a pathway to some high-level goal or something, but it really seems like this person had zero understanding of what a D&D character is.

My reply:

That's a lot of concepts for a new character.​
I really don't think that is going to work. Do you have access to a 2014 5E Player's Handbook? If not, I can help you with a character build.​
D&D can be very extensible and get into whatever things the players and DM want to, however, this is a mostly newby group so we're sticking to a fairly standard set of rules so that no one ends up feeling left out or overshadowed by other player characters.​
Even if this character race worked in my game world (it really doesn't, but I can always handwave that with "a portal opened, and out you popped" if needed) it would take a lot, and I mean a lot of work to get that character concept into a format that would work and be balanced. More work than I'm really capable of doing without some serious playtesting. If this were a mature (play experience-wise, not necessarily age) group, then I might wing it and see how it goes, however this isn't that group.​
If possible, could you look through the core races and classes and stick to those for this game? Sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted to hear.​


I've also decided to send out a group message to say that for this game, we're sticking with PHB, Sword Coast, & Xanathar's for PC builds just to not show that I'm playing favorites, as I had initially allowed a aasimar and (grudgingly) a golaith. What apparently happened was that most of the group just went on some online D&D character builder and enabled "all options" and went wild. Granted, in the dino case, that wasn't even what happened, as they just wrote some stuff up.

Excellent response, and I admire your willingness to work it out with the player - hope they come around!
 


Remove ads

Top