Punishing Player Creativity?

[Arravis]

While playing Sunless Citadel, we had a creative idea that was showey, goal drive, and "challenged" the rules...
Our party consisted of a Forest Gump style paladin played by me, a cowardly wizard, and Meepo. Anyway... we came across some target dummies and we decided to dress one up in long dark robes, raised his cowl and generally made him look menacing. As we heard the goblins readying a quick attack on our position we raised the cowled dummy and the wizard cast ghost sound on it to make it emit an ominious moan.

As the door crashed open the dummy was hit by two arrows (the DM rolled to see if the dummy fell over, etc) and a small strike band of goblins rushed in (all the nearby ones making spot checks on the dummy... and all failing to see it was a simple dummy in the heat of the battle). A goblin found himself between the disguised dummy and my slow-witted paladin. I asked if the dummy gave me a flanking bonus... anyway, after much looking up of rules... it was decided that it did . (The reason being that flanking is caused by the target having to split up is concentration and defenses between two opponents on opposite sides)

Anyway... it worked out well and everyone still remembers the flanking dummy to this day .

 

[Arnwyn]

How do you be creative with a creative-resistant DM?

There have been some *great* responses here - DMScott said it best, so I'll quote him:

Generally, if creativity is demonstrated by rules manipulation, I as DM am likely to approach it a bit skeptically. If creativity is action or plot based, it's a lot more likely to make the game better for everybody at the table.

I absolutely agree. To some players, being "creative" is simply a way to put a spin on "bending the rules". Obviously, some DMs look unfavorably on that. Do it once too many times, and the DM will begin to squash *anything* that's out of the ordinary (the whole fool me once... sort of thing).

I also found this to be very true as well:

In my expierence as a DM, the biggest thing that gets in the way of DM's working with player creativity is a lack of statement of intent. I had a fairly creative player in my group, but it never worked because I could rarely tell what he was trying to do. Thus, even the best roll in the world wouldn't help him, because I'd give the wrong outcome as an example.

Communication is a big factor when a player wants to do something "creative". Some players can be so uncommunicative and undescriptive that it would be no surprise that nothing works out for them.

Best way to handle that as a DM, IMO is to listen to the player's action, then state what roll they have to make.

I do one better as a DM - I ask the players what roll they think they should make to succeed, along with justification. That helps to determine what they are really thinking they're trying to do, and how reasonable the players may or may not be (if they quote a really low DC, then they were probably just trying to be wieners and pull a fast one).

 

[Arravis]

For me... one of the things I enjoy most about DM'ng is the creativity of players. It makes my day, simply put. I want to be as surprised and thrilled by what's happening in the game as the players are. I don't know if I would have anywhere near as much fun without it.