D&D General Who shouldn't play D&D

[Lanefan]

Then D&D isn't for them??

Them maybe DMing isn't for them, but they can still play.

 

[Arilyn]

Mindy. Mindy should not play Dungeons and Dragons. Mindy gets too stressed out by Dungeons and Dragons because she is so afraid her character will die. It's not fun for her. She likes creating characters but she doesn't want them to die. It is a cruelty to oneself to create something you love, then go put it into dangerous situations where it could die. Mindy, should not play Dungeons and Dragons.

Mindy would be very happy in my daughter's game. She runs no-death games, especially for players who stress over possible character death. Her games aren't easy however, as there can be plenty of unpleasant consequences, just no character death.

D&D can absolutely be for Mindy!

 

[TiQuinn]

The other thing I can think about is that sometimes things will go well, and sometimes that won't be the case. You need to be able to disconnect from the bad experiences which can happen from time to time. They likely will, especially at the start of the game. If you can't accept that sometimes you won't get what you want, I don't think it's the right game for you.

Man, you hit the nail on the head with this one.

I’m kind of afraid my current group that I’m playing with is struggling with this one right now. We were playing a new system and the game (one-shot) just did not go well, mainly because:

A. One of the players likes a particular type of game.
B. The DM really thought he could just jump into the system cold and not give the players a little bit of background into what the game plays like.

I really enjoyed the system even if that particular game ended up in a TPK, but I can already tell the DM has “spoiled” it for our group, especially this one player, who is unlikely to want to try that system again.

 

[Reynard]

Mindy. Mindy should not play Dungeons and Dragons. Mindy gets too stressed out by Dungeons and Dragons because she is so afraid her character will die. It's not fun for her. She likes creating characters but she doesn't want them to die. It is a cruelty to oneself to create something you love, then go put it into dangerous situations where it could die. Mindy, should not play Dungeons and Dragons.

Mindy should GM.

 

[cranberry]

No one should play D&D.

But, everyone should play Pathfinder.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Mindy should GM.

wouldn't that be worse? because then wouldn't a large fraction of all the characters mindy creates now be villians destined to be likely slain by the players, or NPCs they'd be unwilling to have to follow through on attacking with said villians?

 

[MGibster]

D&D is for everyone.

I'm going to borrow a line from 2007's Ratatouillie.

"Anyone can cook." -- Auguste Gusteau

Anyone can be a D&D player regardless of where they come from. But it doesn't follow that D&D is for everyone. If you don't like fantasy, then D&D is probably not a good choice. If you prefer to play in campaigns focused on investigation and solving mysteries, D&D isn't the best choice. You can do it, The Assassin's Knot is 41 years old now, but solving mysteries isn't D&D's strong suit. There are also people who simply don't like D&D and that's okay.

 

[Theory of Games]

Mindy. Mindy should not play Dungeons and Dragons. Mindy gets too stressed out by Dungeons and Dragons because she is so afraid her character will die. It's not fun for her. She likes creating characters but she doesn't want them to die. It is a cruelty to oneself to create something you love, then go put it into dangerous situations where it could die. Mindy, should not play Dungeons and Dragons.

Did you mean "Marcie"?

 

[p_johnston]

I mean taking the question at face value I don't think their are particular skills required to play d&d beyond the basics of reading, writing, math etc. even those it's more a matter of making it harder to play the game without them rather then not being able to.

as for preferences D&D is built as a small group magical fantasy combat simulator. You can make it work as other things but it might be easier to play a TTRPG built for that (say if you wanted to do a gundam themed one for example).

The only real lines I'd draw are probably the same lines I'd draw in everything. I am happy to exclude racists, sexists, homophobic, etc individuals. Can't really control what they do in their own home but I'd feel comfortable saying those people shouldn't play D&D and certainly shouldn't be tolerated in the broader community. But that's less of a D&D thing and more of just a general rule for life.

 

[Theory of Games]

I'll bite: Dice Cheats. They should not be allowed to play.