Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What is the worst piece of DM advice people give that you see commonly spread?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9000477" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>Nah. There's some advice that's purely bad, unquestionably bad.</p><p></p><p>Whether there's some advice that is always good/useful is uncertain, but there is definitely advice that is purely negative, and only delusions prevent people from realizing it. It's a lot less common now, in 2023 than it was when the internet was dawning in 1993, of course. Back then, absolutely terrible advice was absolutely rife. It was a constant.</p><p></p><p>For example, I remember reading a screed once in the mid-late '90s about how DMs had to punish characters in-game for decisions the players made in order to show them who is the boss - i.e. if a player pissed you off, kill off their PC. At the time, lots of people claiming to be experienced DMs were agreeing with this! Indeed, you still sometimes see stuff a bit like this alongside "The DM is God" suggestions.</p><p></p><p>There's also the classic prison-logic "kill a PC early on to show you mean business", which is just not good advice on any level.</p><p></p><p>Gary Gygax's terrible book Role-Playing Mastery (which even he later disavowed!) is absolutely full of this sort of stuff and has quite a lot of generally bad advice.</p><p></p><p>The trouble is that's an awful lot of advice - or rather it used to be - just absolutist "this way is the only way" stuff.</p><p></p><p>Personally I think the advice I find most troubling is stuff new DMs will take on board because it sound innocuous - [USER=22260]@TerraDave[/USER] gives a good example here:</p><p></p><p>I think those examples are fairly mild, too. I've seen nonsense like "You get out what you put in, so the more work you put in, the better the game will be!" repeated, particularly by what I'd consider "mildly experienced" DMs - like ones who've been playing 3-10 years but not decades. It's funny because the same people will often advise against spending too much time on writing lore, but will then suggest incredibly high-effort prep methods, or will argue against homebrew adventures, but then suggest taking more time than it takes to write one to modify/tweak/fix a WotC adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 9000477, member: 18"] Nah. There's some advice that's purely bad, unquestionably bad. Whether there's some advice that is always good/useful is uncertain, but there is definitely advice that is purely negative, and only delusions prevent people from realizing it. It's a lot less common now, in 2023 than it was when the internet was dawning in 1993, of course. Back then, absolutely terrible advice was absolutely rife. It was a constant. For example, I remember reading a screed once in the mid-late '90s about how DMs had to punish characters in-game for decisions the players made in order to show them who is the boss - i.e. if a player pissed you off, kill off their PC. At the time, lots of people claiming to be experienced DMs were agreeing with this! Indeed, you still sometimes see stuff a bit like this alongside "The DM is God" suggestions. There's also the classic prison-logic "kill a PC early on to show you mean business", which is just not good advice on any level. Gary Gygax's terrible book Role-Playing Mastery (which even he later disavowed!) is absolutely full of this sort of stuff and has quite a lot of generally bad advice. The trouble is that's an awful lot of advice - or rather it used to be - just absolutist "this way is the only way" stuff. Personally I think the advice I find most troubling is stuff new DMs will take on board because it sound innocuous - [USER=22260]@TerraDave[/USER] gives a good example here: I think those examples are fairly mild, too. I've seen nonsense like "You get out what you put in, so the more work you put in, the better the game will be!" repeated, particularly by what I'd consider "mildly experienced" DMs - like ones who've been playing 3-10 years but not decades. It's funny because the same people will often advise against spending too much time on writing lore, but will then suggest incredibly high-effort prep methods, or will argue against homebrew adventures, but then suggest taking more time than it takes to write one to modify/tweak/fix a WotC adventure. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What is the worst piece of DM advice people give that you see commonly spread?
Top