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<blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 4856488" data-attributes="member: 12377">Here are some guidelines I follow as DM, based on my own bad experiences as a player.1)&nbsp; &quot;Always let the players play the characters the want to play.&quot;&nbsp; Obviously it's not always possible (someones shows up at the D&amp;D game wanting to play a gunslinger), but it's a simple guideline that covers a lot of different DM mistakes.&nbsp;&nbsp; The bottom line is that a player has control of one thing -- their character -- and if you take that away from them, it usually becomes a lot less fun.2)&nbsp; No railroading.&nbsp; I'm the sort of player who is happy to &quot;play along with the plot&quot; for metagame reasons.&nbsp; But this works both ways -- if the players really want to go off in some other direction, the DM has to respect that.&nbsp; There's 5 of them and only 1 of him.3)&nbsp; Expect players to act like adults.&nbsp; Because they should.&nbsp; And even if they sometimes don't (nobody's perfect), treating them like adults is the respectful thing to do, and is usually the first step in working out any other issues.4)&nbsp; Know the rules.&nbsp; For reasons others have stated -- it's bad enough DMing for players that don't know the rules; if the DM is clueless, it gets very frustrating, very fast.A DM who lacks any of those is almost certainly a no-go for me.&nbsp;-- 77IM</blockquote>

[QUOTE="77IM, post: 4856488, member: 12377"] Here are some guidelines I follow as DM, based on my own bad experiences as a player. [B]1) "Always let the players play the characters the want to play."[/B] Obviously it's not always possible (someones shows up at the D&D game wanting to play a gunslinger), but it's a simple guideline that covers a lot of different DM mistakes. The bottom line is that a player has control of one thing -- their character -- and if you take that away from them, it usually becomes a lot less fun. [B]2) No railroading.[/B] I'm the sort of player who is happy to "play along with the plot" for metagame reasons. But this works both ways -- if the players really want to go off in some other direction, the DM has to respect that. There's 5 of them and only 1 of him. [B]3) Expect players to act like adults.[/B] Because they should. And even if they sometimes don't (nobody's perfect), treating them like adults is the respectful thing to do, and is usually the first step in working out any other issues. [B]4) Know the rules.[/B] For reasons others have stated -- it's bad enough DMing for players that don't know the rules; if the DM is clueless, it gets very frustrating, very fast. A DM who lacks any of those is almost certainly a no-go for me. -- 77IM [/QUOTE]

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