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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6304602" data-attributes="member: 22779">Which, IME, is not what happens.  The result of this method of play, again, IME, is that the game falls down and explodes in argument over and over again because the DM is incapable of seeing that his "good solution" isn't actually all that good.  But, because he buys into your "the DM must always have the final say" line of thinking, he doesn't bother with compromise.  Why would he?  You're saying flat out that he never has to and that he can rely on a single line from the introduction of a the DMG, while ignoring all the other DMing advice in the book, and force his view of the game on the players.So, we get the situation where the players attempt a skill action that is pulled straight from the skill description in the PHB and are told that it is flat out impossible, not because it violates any rules, or even the intent of the rules (how can it when it's in the example in the books), but because the DM feels that it is impossible.  And the DM sits back and points to the DMG if the players try to argue.The funny thing is, this situation actually happened to me as a DM and I played it exactly as Ahn advocates.  ((warning, gaming story, sorry))  I used to run a 3e Scarred Lands campaign set in the City of Mithril.  In Mithril, there is a very famous sage and in the text of the setting guide it states how it's very hard to see the Sage and even Kings are forced to wait months or even years to get an audience.  The players, in the course of play, discover a serious threat to Mithril, an extra planar plant thingie that is going to kill everyone.  So, they want to know how to send the plants back to their own plane or kill them and decide to see the Sage.  The meet the Sage's secretary and are informed that they will have to wait weeks to see the Sage.  They explain that it's a Fate of the World problem but are rebuffed.The rest of the session devolves into increasingly escalating attempts to get in to see the Sage.  And, because I'm the DM, and I've decided that None Shall Pass, every attempt fails.  The entire session becomes an exercise in frustration and it completely poisons the entire scenario as comments of "railroading" and, "this is <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />" fill the air.  I, as DM, get increasingly exasperated, because, well, why can't they just accept that it's not going to happen?Looking back on it now, I was absolutely wrong.  They were engaging the setting, using the assets that they knew about (there were others they could have tried, but, this was the one they thought had the best chances), to overcome the challenges in the scenario and I put down a giant brick wall and wouldn't let them pass.  It was one of the worst DMing moments I've had in a long time.  No one had any fun and it really did poison that session and probably the next one or two as well.  All because I followed Ahn's DMing advice.  I stuck to my guns.  I preserved the game world's consistency.  Good for me. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />Yeah, never again.  Next time, it will be, "Ok, this is the third time you've tried to get in, tell you what, the secretary tells you to clean off the blue paint from the donkey, and he'll squeeze you in late tonight.  Okay?"-----------See, Ahn, the reason I react so strongly and negatively to your DMing style is because I've been there.  I've done it.  I used to be exactly that.  And it was so poisonous to the group.  I learned to be a better DM by realising what a mistake this approach is.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I learned to be a better DM for the game that I want to play by realise that this approach is not going to achieve what I want out of the game.  It's not about me bashing bad DM's.  It's about me realising that I was a bad DM and this approach was bad advice for what I wanted to achieve.</blockquote>

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