Stop over explaining the rules!

[Bullgrit]

I love Players who have a deep and full grasp of the game rules. I also love new Players who are excited about getting into a new game. But sometimes I hate when the first type helps the second type. For instance:

New Player: I can only do this once a round?

DM: Yes.

[At this point, the game could continue without missing a beat. But...]

Expert Player: Unless you have X feat. Or have Y spell cast on you. Or are in Z situation. And if you have both X and Y, then you can three times a round, not four. But if you are also in Z situation, you can four times, but not six.

[And for bonus annoyance...]

Experienced Player: Oh man, I once had a character with X feat. The mage cast Y spell on me, and then Z situation came up and I . . . [10 minutes of old story that includes explaining house rules "fixing" the X, Y, Z combination].

Now the New Player has far too much information than he needed at the moment, and he's probably confused. I have seen New Players get that deer in the headlights look when the enormity of the rules is given to them in one big chunk.

Expert Players, please avoid bringing up exceptions to rules unless the specific exception is actually in play at the time. Experienced Players, please avoid mention of house rules unless they are relevant to the game being played at the table at that time.

Bullgrit

 

[amerigoV]

I think you over-exampled in your post.

 

[Karak]

It seems odd they would be even asking about a once a round action as they should probably either know it from character creation or have some character sheet cheats..

We don't usually run into it but I have a soft timelimit for out of rules discussions anyway. Nothing really ironclad but basically 20-30 seconds. As the answer to most questions is;

Yes, no, that is a limitation of that action/spell/whatever.
But you are right it can get difficult however expert players are like mini-gm's at times and a good deal of times want to show other players things they are excited about or know about.

 

[S'mon]

It seems odd they would be even asking about a once a round action as they should probably either know it from character creation or have some character sheet cheats..

I know players who have great trouble with the idea that they should roll a twenty sided dice. They always seem to go for the d12, and wonder why they keep missing/failing the check...

 

[Karak]

I know players who have great trouble with the idea that they should roll a twenty sided dice. They always seem to go for the d12, and wonder why they keep missing/failing the check...

Ah I see. I guess I should not have been concrete like that. I mean I could see the occasional question or perhaps if there are a good deal of different dice used but I usually create some kind of cheat sheet for those as well.

I guess I can see that now. With playtesters on AfterEarth we had people trying to find some kind of dice to roll for damage and they had been playing for over a week so its possible.

I guess you do what you can to mitigate the issue and the rest just happens.

 

[Janx]

It seems odd they would be even asking about a once a round action as they should probably either know it from character creation or have some character sheet cheats..

We don't usually run into it but I have a soft timelimit for out of rules discussions anyway. Nothing really ironclad but basically 20-30 seconds. As the answer to most questions is;

Yes, no, that is a limitation of that action/spell/whatever.
But you are right it can get difficult however expert players are like mini-gm's at times and a good deal of times want to show other players things they are excited about or know about.

As you acknowledge to [MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION], you're making some assumptions. That's not a bad thing, but be mindful that not everybody operates as thoroughly as might be advised.

I probably won't bother making a cheat sheet for a player.

I probably won't explain what each feat or skill can do.

A player probably didn't read or remember what the stuff on his sheet means per the rules.

Instead, I expect context-relevant questions by the player during game play. Once combat starts, I'll assume the player wants to attack, and walk him through the basics as he does his first (and only) attack. He MIGHT ask "what's this Flurry of Blows and can I use it now?" to which I'll give a quick explanation of how that's 2 attacks, at a slight penalty versus his normal single attack.

That seems to be enough for most players, as they can guess that some things are relevant based on the situation, the name of the feat/skill/spell, and their understanding of the stereotypes their class represents.

I don't get many questions like "Can I use Flurry of Blows to climb this wall?" as most humans can deduce that the title sounds like an attack to be used against enemies, and isn't applicable in non-combat situations.

the player doesn't have to know the rules, to figure out that "Spider Climb" might be useful in scaling a wall, and to then ask the GM for details about the rules for that spell and casting it in general. I also don't get too many questions on "Can I use Spider Climb to light this here campfire?"

 

[Karak]

Yep each GM would set up a game differently and have different expectations.

 

[DnD_Dad]

A lot of people get excited and want to share experiences. Thats what the community and group is there for. I just don't like the story-teller that makes up situations just to gain respect.