D&D 5E Sudden changes to the party dynamic

[GameOgre]

LOL! OK, bud but in what way is the answer I've been trying to get at. Again, I'm not saying you are wrong but you still haven't said why these examples are so different when, to me at least, they seem similar in that you have a single person deciding unilaterally to effect change that has an impact on all involved. Why is the PC's reason for changing characters more valid than the DM's reason for bringing in a new character?

Because of the Unwritten laws of first picksies! Once you pick a job in the group nobody else is allowed to pick it. EVERYONE knows that.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

LOL! OK, bud but in what way is the answer I've been trying to get at. Again, I'm not saying you are wrong but you still haven't said why these examples are so different when, to me at least, they seem similar in that you have a single person deciding unilaterally to effect change that has an impact on all involved. Why is the PC's reason for changing characters more valid than the DM's reason for bringing in a new character?

One is in game stuff easily worked around, one is real life personal interactions not as easily worked around.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Here's my take, which is correct, because it's mine. Pretty sure that's how it works.

Anyway, I always welcome newcomers to the table. Always, always, always. The game of D&D is too small to be insular. IMO. Even moreso when you're talking about kids.

Now, if the player ends up being disruptive, then eventually they will not be invited back. And, of course, everyone else will now have a reason (really, yet another additional reason) to mock the player who brought that person to the table.

"Hey, remember when you brought that guy, Brad, to the table? And it turned out that he thought Paladins were really cool? HA! You're a Paladin-lover by the transitive property, Brad-friend!"

That said, other people feel differently, and I'm not running their games. But I always think we should all be trying to spread the good name of D&D to as many people as possible.

Except Brad. Man ... the guy never met a Paladin he didn't want to play.

I'm not trying to spread the D&D around at the expense of my fun. As I said running 5e for more than 6 players quickly becomes a slog IME. YMMV and all that.

And what I think would clear things up maybe is this kid is early 20's. I call him a kid but I'm mid 40's. It wasn't a doe eyed 12 year old wanting to experience the wonder of D&D for the first time and tell the stories he dreams of telling!

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The DM also said another player could join the party, without running it by the rest of us first. His character uses Mercer's homebrew gunslinger class, which puts me in a bit of a bind. We now have a dedicated stealth character, and another who can do ridiculous damage at incredibly long ranges, which kind of makes my ranger redundant.

Any suggestions?

"More dakka" is never redundant.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoreDakka

 

[ccs]

What kind of game was this? I mean if its a game of friends and one guy wants to bring in a family member and the group said no too many players I would find another group.

A dad wanting to share the hobby with his stepson getting turned down would set off huge red flags to me. Frankly I DM almost all the time and I would never do that, even if the group was about to burst with too many.

if the group decided that I would just leave and start a new group.

I love D&D but it's just a game, Family comes first.

If he wanted to play with us I'd turn my buddies kid down in heartbeat.
His kids an ass & I have better things to do with my free time than game with him.
He's mid-17 atm, so maybe in about 5 years he'll have grown out of it enough. Maybe not. We'll see.

 

[GameOgre]

yeah, It seemed like he was younger. 12-14 or so What the image in my head. 20? Not so much.

I did think it was funny you said his dad was in the game and his brothers to but they voted to not let him in.

made me laugh. I mean yeah your dad and brothers are playing but dude..we ain't got room for you. Maybe that is when you need to look at some of your habits lol.




*Maybe table flipping on every nat 1 roll isn't as funny to everyone else.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Yeah, right, I'm on to you, Flexor!


View attachment 84279

How did you get little Timmy's picture?

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

In a game I play in we started with the pregenerated characters in Lost Mines at lvl 1 and currently at lvl 9 my wizard is the only original party member left. For a variety of reasons all of the other players now play a new character. A couple have died over the course of our adventures, one player opted to have his character left to repay a debt the party owed for story reasons, and one player simply got bored of his pregen.

Our party is still relatively balanced, but we lost our cleric and now only have one tank instead of two. It has required us to change up our playstyle a bit and to be more cautious of encounters we can't handle since we are overall a bit more fragile. But in return we have better stealth capability and our burst damage is a bit better. So you losing your tank is not the end of the world, but it may require you to just be a bit more careful in your adventures.

 

[pogre]

I have players ask if they can bring new people to the table all the time. If it is an established campaign that is going well I usually say no. There is a sweet spot for the number of players for me and if the group dynamic is going well, I don't want to chance ruining that either. In a newer or less established campaign, I frequently will let folks in if we have room.