Rule "Yes"

[Ander00]

I don't think it is so much people would be used to "no" as much as people are still used to the whole DM vs. Players mentally that has been fostered in the past.

I should probably have said "in our other games", though that may also be part of the reason. "No" pretty much was the default answer you'd get from one DM for a while. He had a tendency to allow the most broken stuff as long as it had the WotC seal, but was still afraid that a "Yes" to the littlest thing in-game could upset the precarious imagined balance.

Another had a clear vision of how the story would unfold, cut-scenes and all, and if you wanted to do something in those, you'd pretty much get the same answer (a style that may work, but 3.5 is a decidedly poor framework for, in my opinion). A problem that was less pronounced when he ran published modules.


cheers

 

[Obryn]

Also, was the rule of yes the one in the 4e book that had the example of the DM being told what to do? Because that was like the worst argument ever for that rule

You mean where the designer was playing with his 8-year old kid?

Yeah, it sucks when kids are encouraged to use their imagination.

-O

 

[Mallus]

The "rules of yes" is nice and all, but sometimes you do have to say "No, you cannot dual wield great crossbows that are two sizes bigger then normal."

The value of the 'rule of yes' is directly proportional to the quality and trustworthiness of your players.

For example, my players rock and I trust them more-or-less implicitly. Once, when the party was mucking around in the Afterlife, one of them wanted to "bottle some of the absence of God, for future study". I said "yes". Wackiness later ensued.

 

[Nebulous]

For example, my players rock and I trust them more-or-less implicitly. Once, when the party was mucking around in the Afterlife, one of them wanted to "bottle some of the absence of God, for future study". I said "yes". Wackiness later ensued.

Saying "Yes" can get you into some very cool situations like that. In general, it allows for interesting roleplaying options above and beyond what the DM would have come up with.

 

[Hussar]

I ran "no" games for a very long time. I was always under the impression that if you started letting players get what they wanted, they'd screw up your games. If we're going to talk about things like Dragon and whatnot, there is a considerable body of advice for DM's that states pretty much exactly that. After all, how can you be an adversarial DM if you say "yes"?

It wasn't until a few years ago, on En World, listening to people talk to about various Indie Games that I realized that relaxing the grip on the reins makes for one heck of a lot more fun at my table.

I think the reason that a lot of players, particularly experienced players, won't ask is because years of DM's like me told them no. It's a bit of a paradigm shift for some of us. Something that I've really tried to incorporate into my current games as well.

 

[radferth]

Sadly, I've been more of a "no" DM. But I believe that to be a result of the players I was DMing. Far too much "Can my character with no points in Jump jump around like a wuxia?", or "Can I kill the BBEG in one hit if I describe it really cool?" I must admit, human that I am, I am much more likely to grant a given request if it comes from a reasonable player than if it comes from one asks for munchkiny power-ups a few times per session.

 

[malraux]

I want to be a rule yes DM, but it hasn't come up much. I think partially its because we are running KotS currently, which is primarily a dungeon crawl plus several of the players have read or dm'ed the game elsewhere. (We're just using it as a training wheel sort of module.) Once we move into stuff that the party is unfamiliar with, I expect to see more of that in the future.

Plus I think I'll make it a point to explicitly call out that I'm in favor of the say yes philosophy.

edit: Actually, I think its more that I'm in favor of the "do something awesome" philosophy of gaming which basically says that if it'll look cool if you can pull it off, then you should give it a try.

 

[Henry]

I actually learned the "Say Yes" rule from Piratecat about six years ago now; heck, he might be where some of the WotC crew initially learned it from.

I've used it in several sessions, but not that often because the players don't use it themselves all the time. I do use a variant of it, the "don't give the DM any ideas" rule. Sometimes I listen to them trying to puzzle out some mystery in my plot, and if what their wild imaginations dream up sounds actually better than what I really had in mind, then *POP* that's what really happened. The players are clever in that they deduced the nasty convoluted plot, and I have a better adventure to throw at them.

 

[El Mahdi]

Saying "Yes" can get you into some very cool situations like that. In general, it allows for interesting roleplaying options above and beyond what the DM would have come up with.

Absolutely. It facilitates that little thing called synergy. That's what groups are for anyways. When synergy happens between players, and players and DM, really cool things happen. I think saying NO as a default answer completely stifles group synergy (although I agree there are times to say no - it should just be the exception, not the norm).

 

[Scribble]

I've used it in several sessions, but not that often because the players don't use it themselves all the time. I do use a variant of it, the "don't give the DM any ideas" rule. Sometimes I listen to them trying to puzzle out some mystery in my plot, and if what their wild imaginations dream up sounds actually better than what I really had in mind, then *POP* that's what really happened. The players are clever in that they deduced the nasty convoluted plot, and I have a better adventure to throw at them.

Heheh oh man, I live by that idea. It's the reason I tend to preffer a campaign style that leans a little more on the improv side... It's just so easy to let the players unwittingly drive the story.

As for the rule of yes... they should change it to the rule of "sure give it a try."

I don't think the rule of yes should imply that every action a player wants to take will automatically work. It just means that you should do your best to never say outright that a player can't even try to make something work.