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

[Velderan]

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.

It can definitely get to be disruptive. One of the things I try to do is find a good stopping point at the scheduled end of the session. Usually I'm fine with some out of character jokes, but if I'm trying to get through a section of the adventure to get to a stopping point and we're running out of time I'll let the players know I'm trying to move things along and to please stick to what their characters are actually saying to help.

 

[Mort]

"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…"

I find this very confusing.

Players (characters) make choices and have consequences when they do stuff.

In D&D, They can only do stuff if the DM lets them.

The DM Saying yes means the player is allowed to try something, not that they automatically succeed. The player asked to do something the DM says sure try, and then there might be consequences.

If the DM defaults to no, players QUICKLY realize that the real options are the obvious safe ones and they stop bothering to try and do interesting stuff.

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.

So the answer is "get some magic..."?

Why should magic be the answer to EVERY problem?

If the wall is small, a PC should be able to scale it with a basic athletics check. If the wall is large, a rope, grappling hook (which they likely have in their gear) and a basic athletics check. Without gear, the character should STILL be able to do it, it should just require a higher check. Why should something as mundane as a wall require complicated gear or magic?

Note, this, in no way, means ALWAYS say yes, or more importantly, always let the players succeed, far from it. The DM should absolutely not be afraid to say no. But IMO, when the DM tries to say yes, it means more when they say no.

 

[Vaalingrade]

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.

I'm not sure knowing the name of Sadlius the Depressed is worth losing a fun moment the rest of the group no doubt remembers far better than knowing some guy's name.

 

[James Gasik]

I'm not sure knowing the name of Sadlius the Depressed is worth losing a fun moment the rest of the group no doubt remembers far better than knowing some guy's name.

Well older me felt bad about the whole incident, and was hoping to give the NPC back his credibility.

 

[Oofta]

I find this very confusing.

Players (characters) make choices and have consequences when they do stuff.

In D&D, They can only do stuff if the DM lets them.

The DM Saying yes means the player is allowed to try something, not that they automatically succeed. The player asked to do something the DM says sure try, and then there might be consequences.

If the DM defaults to no, players QUICKLY realize that the real options are the obvious safe ones and they stop bothering to try and do interesting stuff.





So the answer is "get some magic..."?

Why should magic be the answer to EVERY problem?

If the wall is small, a PC should be able to scale it with a basic athletics check. If the wall is large, a rope, grappling hook (which they likely have in their gear) and a basic athletics check. Without gear, the character should STILL be able to do it, it should just require a higher check. Why should something as mundane as a wall require complicated gear or magic?

Note, this, in no way, means ALWAYS say yes, or more importantly, always let the players succeed, far from it. The DM should absolutely not be afraid to say no. But IMO, when the DM tries to say yes, it means more when they say no.

If the DM is always saying "no" without going further, that can be an issue. If I say "no" it will likely be "No because [insert whatever I didn't make clear]."

Other times it will be "No, but what are you trying to do" followed by "Here's what we can do." Even if it's just plain no, there will be a reason like they're forgetting some rule.

But this is a separate topic. Maybe the bad advice is "the correct answer is always one that only takes a half dozen words to explain "?

 

[James Gasik]

What is the best answer for one DM is not the best answer for all. Should be obvious, but it's a point that gets missed a lot by people offering advice.

 

[ad_hoc]

"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.

Yes.

I wasn't on board until you mentioned 'no, but' which is a similar concept.

The main thing that is good advice here is to incorporate improv concepts into the game.

 

[ad_hoc]

A GMs role is to serve the Players

Um no - Im here to play too

100%.

I have no patience for players who expect others to be their personal entertainers.

Everyone at the table has the job of entertaining everyone else.

 

[ad_hoc]

I find this very confusing.

Players (characters) make choices and have consequences when they do stuff.

In D&D, They can only do stuff if the DM lets them.

The DM Saying yes means the player is allowed to try something, not that they automatically succeed. The player asked to do something the DM says sure try, and then there might be consequences.

If the DM defaults to no, players QUICKLY realize that the real options are the obvious safe ones and they stop bothering to try and do interesting stuff.





So the answer is "get some magic..."?

Why should magic be the answer to EVERY problem?

If the wall is small, a PC should be able to scale it with a basic athletics check. If the wall is large, a rope, grappling hook (which they likely have in their gear) and a basic athletics check. Without gear, the character should STILL be able to do it, it should just require a higher check. Why should something as mundane as a wall require complicated gear or magic?

Note, this, in no way, means ALWAYS say yes, or more importantly, always let the players succeed, far from it. The DM should absolutely not be afraid to say no. But IMO, when the DM tries to say yes, it means more when they say no.

The idea of 'yes and' from improv is to always accept what other performers say and add onto it.

So with this the DM must say yes to everything.

'no, but, means not actually saying 'no' because the 'but' negates the no. The idea doesn't get thrown out it just transforms into something else so the players contribution still happens.

It might be more clear to call it 'yes, but' seems similar

 

[Lanefan]

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.

I've resorted to this now and then to cut down on table chatter: if you say it, your character says it.

Blowing a few stealth rolls because your characters are busy gabbing about some mysterious cabal called the Vancouver Canucks usually gets the point across pretty quick.