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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6772222" data-attributes="member: 996">5e puts a lot of responsibility on the DM, that's the flip side of Empowerment, Emresponsibilityment - because, y'know Power, Responsibility, blah, blah, blah...The player has to trust the DM, because he can't do anything to ensure the DM doesn't screw things up.  The DM doesn't have to trust the players or the rules, he can always just rule in whatever way it takes to fix whatever trouble they might cause.  Heavy-handed if taken to that extreme, but always there in the background, like the threat of force in a civilized society that abhors violence, yet is still founded upon it.Swallow your ego, sure - a good DM will be accustomed to that.  Override your better judgement, not so much.  The responsibility for making the game not suck is the DM's, so, yes, he has to second-guess or 'not trust' the players when they do something they think will be good for the game, just as he has to override the rules when they give bad results.  Not because he's necessarily smarter or a better judge of those things than the players or designers, but because it's his role and responsibility to be such a final arbiter.</blockquote>