Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Respect Mah Authoritah: Thoughts on DM and Player Authority in 5e
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 8431337" data-attributes="member: 7023887"><p>Hang on a minute, I think you're being a bit strict about what you define as a "Bad DM" and very loose on what you define as a "Bad Player". A bad DM can be one that doesn't know the rules to the extent that it ruins the fun of the players, one that railroads the players so much that it feels like they can't make any meaningful decisions or be in charge of their characters' agency, or even one that shows up ill-prepared for the game, sucks at improvising, and half-asses the session, making the game less fun than it should be.</p><p></p><p>Those are all examples of bad DMs, and a lot of them aren't malicious or intending to be bad, they just don't have enough experience or are in the wrong position to be a good DM when doing those things.</p><p></p><p>You've never met a DM that didn't know the rules to the extent that it hurt their campaign? Because I've played with several. You've never known a DM that railroaded so much that the players complained about having lost fun because of it? Because even I made that mistake when I started DMing, as have all my players that have started DMing, and basically every DM that I have ever known. You've never met a DM that didn't prepare for the session and left the players disappointed because it seemed like they weren't into the game? Because that's a major sign of DM Burnout, something that practically every DM gets at one point or another, and even if it isn't intentional or permanent, it's still being a bad DM.</p><p></p><p>Yes, I have. My very first DM was really, truly bad. I honestly don't know why I stuck with D&D, because those first few sessions were so frustrating and unfun that I didn't even like playing. My DM railroaded so much that we literally made no decisions for our characters besides who we were going to attack and how, had literally never read the core rules (despite having owned the Core Rulebooks), would not let us look at any of the 3 Core Rulebooks, would change the mechanics of the game between sessions (or even sometimes during the same session), and TPKed the party on purpose because he was getting bored of the campaign and wanted to move on to a different one, without even asking us.</p><p></p><p>That was 5 years ago, and the DM was my younger cousin. I love my cousin and will be forever grateful to him for introducing me to the game, but he was a terrible, awful DM that was frankly infuriating to be a player for.</p><p></p><p>I've had other bad DMs, too. I was a bad DM when I started DMing, because my first DM was an awful DM and also due to the fact that I was inexperienced in both playing the game and DMing for it.</p><p></p><p>So, yes, bad DMs absolutely exist. Truly awful, horrible, absolutely unfun DMs are definitely out there. A lot of them grow out of it, but it obviously cannot happen to all of them, and I've had enough friends tell me of their bad experiences with bad (and even downright abusive) DMs that I can with 100% surety say that your claim that "DMs create, and so it's really hard to be a bad DM!" is absolute BS.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Levistus's_Leviathan, post: 8431337, member: 7023887"] Hang on a minute, I think you're being a bit strict about what you define as a "Bad DM" and very loose on what you define as a "Bad Player". A bad DM can be one that doesn't know the rules to the extent that it ruins the fun of the players, one that railroads the players so much that it feels like they can't make any meaningful decisions or be in charge of their characters' agency, or even one that shows up ill-prepared for the game, sucks at improvising, and half-asses the session, making the game less fun than it should be. Those are all examples of bad DMs, and a lot of them aren't malicious or intending to be bad, they just don't have enough experience or are in the wrong position to be a good DM when doing those things. You've never met a DM that didn't know the rules to the extent that it hurt their campaign? Because I've played with several. You've never known a DM that railroaded so much that the players complained about having lost fun because of it? Because even I made that mistake when I started DMing, as have all my players that have started DMing, and basically every DM that I have ever known. You've never met a DM that didn't prepare for the session and left the players disappointed because it seemed like they weren't into the game? Because that's a major sign of DM Burnout, something that practically every DM gets at one point or another, and even if it isn't intentional or permanent, it's still being a bad DM. Yes, I have. My very first DM was really, truly bad. I honestly don't know why I stuck with D&D, because those first few sessions were so frustrating and unfun that I didn't even like playing. My DM railroaded so much that we literally made no decisions for our characters besides who we were going to attack and how, had literally never read the core rules (despite having owned the Core Rulebooks), would not let us look at any of the 3 Core Rulebooks, would change the mechanics of the game between sessions (or even sometimes during the same session), and TPKed the party on purpose because he was getting bored of the campaign and wanted to move on to a different one, without even asking us. That was 5 years ago, and the DM was my younger cousin. I love my cousin and will be forever grateful to him for introducing me to the game, but he was a terrible, awful DM that was frankly infuriating to be a player for. I've had other bad DMs, too. I was a bad DM when I started DMing, because my first DM was an awful DM and also due to the fact that I was inexperienced in both playing the game and DMing for it. So, yes, bad DMs absolutely exist. Truly awful, horrible, absolutely unfun DMs are definitely out there. A lot of them grow out of it, but it obviously cannot happen to all of them, and I've had enough friends tell me of their bad experiences with bad (and even downright abusive) DMs that I can with 100% surety say that your claim that "DMs create, and so it's really hard to be a bad DM!" is absolute BS. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Respect Mah Authoritah: Thoughts on DM and Player Authority in 5e
Top