D&D 5E Respect Mah Authoritah: Thoughts on DM and Player Authority in 5e

[Vaalingrade]

So the DM just shrugs and states that it works that way and you, what? Pack up your stuff and leave the game? Based on this one incident?

Not what I said. I said we were done if they said 'because I'm the DM'. If they say it works that way, fine. there's a reason and if I cast levitate, I get a flying horse.

If they just excuse doing whatever because they're the DM, or starts talking about their authority, or declares they're in charge, or says anything regarding their way in relation to a highway, then we're done. There's a guy in our group that doesn't get to DM for us because his head's too big for it.

 

[Lanefan]

I need to get a crowdsourced project going post-pandemic where I travel to the home games of all the various disagreeing folks in this (and other) thread(s) and sit in for a session or two - and see how their posted opinions and actual play jibe (or not). It could be a documentary series for when ENWorld moves into the streaming media realm - @Morrus call me when the time comes

You'd be welcome here.

 

[Lanefan]

You were just lucky then, because I had plenty of players with those tendencies in both 1E and 2E (and before I realized that just because we both like the same game doesn't mean we should play in the same group).

Thing is, at least in the 1e era it was easier for DMs to tamp those tendencies down in that the game books pretty clearly spelled out that the DM's word was law.

3e pushed a lot of mechanical authority over to the players that previously was DM-side only; and IMO that sparked a slow but steady overall change in player-side attitude which caught the ear of the designers and ultimately set a lot of the course - and not in a good way - for 4e design and, later, 5e design.

 

[el-remmen]

You'd be welcome here.

So I can put you down as a definite supporter for the eventual Kickstarter?

 

[Vaalingrade]

There's mechanical player authority in 5e?

You can't even get feats without playing Mother May I with the DM. To say nothing of the magic items.

 

[Lanefan]

So I can put you down as a definite supporter for the eventual Kickstarter?

Don't start counting chickens yet, bucko.

I'm 0-for-lifetime in supporting any sort of Kickstarter or similar - it's just not something I do. I'm one of those old-schoolers who wants to see the finished product first, and only then decide whether I want to buy it.

 

[overgeeked]

There's mechanical player authority in 5e?

You can't even get feats without playing Mother May I with the DM. To say nothing of the magic items.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[Aldarc]

What positive result do you hope will come from such a statement?

For starters, less gatekeeping OneTrueWay attitudes regarding roleplaying in our hobby. I apologize if I offended the gatekeepers.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Because to me it is. Like the worst.

 

[Mort]

There's mechanical player authority in 5e?

You can't even get feats without playing Mother May I with the DM. To say nothing of the magic items.

It's extremely limited sure. But (as I mentioned earlier) Backgrounds are one example.

Most of them allow the player to exercise authority absent from elsewhere in the system (such as the Noble background requiring the DM to accommodate the player in social situations up to and including audience with a local noble, the Urchin background doubling the speed of PC movement in a city, or the outlander being able to find food period - whether the DM provided for it or not (sure the DM can mess with that by saying no berries etc., but that's a separate issue) all are mechanical representations of player authority.