D&D General What is the worst piece of DM advice people give that you see commonly spread?

[Greenstone.Walker]

"Yes, and…"

Always saying "yes and" is terrible advice for a game. RPGs are about choices and consequences. If there are no consequences, the choices become meaningless.

Most of the time, GMs should be using "No, but…"

Player: Can my character climb that wall?
GM: Not right now, but if you had some technical gear you could give it a go. What are you trying to do anyway? Just get to the top? Remember that Aerith the mage has the fly spell, and Bob the cleric has the boots of levitation.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Most of the time, GMs should be using "No, but…"

Found the answer to the thread question.

Most?

Most?

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Found the answer to the thread question.

Most?

Most?

hangs head Guilty as charged m'lud.

 

[Tonguez]

A GMs role is to serve the Players

Um no - Im here to play too

 

[Vaalingrade]

hangs head Guilty as charged m'lud.

I'm sorry, I can't go easy on you.

~hangs a sign that says 'warlock' around you neck~

You must take this and walk through WotC HQ.

 

[guachi]

What I mean is one player gets more XP (or can train more easily, or get a clear meta-game reward) for a session then another, and to explain why, the DM has to tell the other player that he was not playing his character as well, and hence is effectively telling that player how to play his character. The great majority of the time, this is just not a good idea.

This is one reason why I like something Iserith came up with several years ago. His idea for Inspiration was that the players claim Inspiration rather than the DM awarding it. The player could claim Inspiration when a player did something in accordance with his Bond/Ideal/Flaw but only once per session for each trait.

This mean the DM never was the one deciding if the player was playing his PC "correctly"

 

[Oofta]

A GMs role is to serve the Players

As in a cookbook?

 

[Velderan]

Oh! I remember one from my AD&D days.

"Action stated, action done!" Even if in jest, if you suggest or say your player might/could/should do a thing, the DM should instantly take that as if your character does that thing, no matter how inane or ridiculous! D&D is serious business!

 

[Oofta]

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In general, that may be bad advice but I've had a player that was constantly trash talking the NPCs. Then they would always say "I didn't really say that". It got to the point of being disruptive for me to constantly have to ask "Did you really say that?" Eventually I told them if they didn't either raise their hand or stand up or it was said in character.

 

[James Gasik]

In general, that may be bad advice but I've had a player that was constantly trash talking the NPCs. Then they would always say "I didn't really say that". It got to the point of being disruptive for me to constantly have to ask "Did you really say that?" Eventually I told them if they didn't either raise their hand or stand up or it was said in character.

Well if that made him learn his lesson, ok then. I'd have just kicked him for being disruptive, personally. OTOH, when I was a younger and stupider man, back in the late 80's, the DM was trying to run an adventure and I was in a giddy mood. We found ourselves in the slums of a fascist, demihuman-hating country, where we were told to contact the leader of the resistance. The DM describes the place as a rat infested dump, and when the guy appears, it struck me as quite funny to say "I am the Rat King..." with the cheesy 80's TMNT voice.

The rest of the table thought this was uproariously funny, save for the long-suffering DM, who, after exasperatingly trying to actually introduce the guy, basically said "fine, you know what? He's the Rat King."

To this day I don't know the guy's real name, and when asked, the DM refuses to tell me. So yeah, maybe sometimes players need to be put in their place.