D&D General worst (real) advice for DMs

[CleverNickName]

Reddit is a breeding ground for terrible advice. Of the ones already mentioned, I'd like to add:
"Combat taking too long? Use a 60-second timer! If the time is up and they haven't called their action, they lose their turn."

 

[Burnside]

Reddit is a breeding ground for terrible advice. Of the ones already mentioned, I'd like to add:
"Combat taking too long? Use a 60-second timer! If the time is up and they haven't called their action, they lose their turn."

I have actually used a timer in combat with large groups and it's effective. 60 seconds is too short. But if you have 7+ players and people are taking 5 minutes on their turn it is an issue.

 

[Asisreo]

Reddit is a breeding ground for terrible advice. Of the ones already mentioned, I'd like to add:
"Combat taking too long? Use a 60-second timer! If the time is up and they haven't called their action, they lose their turn."

It's especially harsh because most players that take long on their turn do it with good intentions for the whole group. Usually, they're considering things like getting rid of a threat that could kill a PC or positioning themselves or their effects so that it doesn't hurt an ally.

 

[prabe]

It's especially harsh because most players that take long on their turn do it with good intentions for the whole group. Usually, they're considering things like getting rid of a threat that could kill a PC or positioning themselves or their effects so that it doesn't hurt an ally.

I think I see why someone might have a strict timer at their table, but I think it's more important that the player whose turn is up is ... present, I think. Sometimes situations and decisions are complex, so people should have time to make them, so long as they're ready to make them when their turn starts.

 

[MichaelSomething]

EDIT: Wait, this doesn't count because it's sarcastic...

 

[Fifth Element]

"You should run [module X] for your first campaign, it's great for teaching beginners!"

Good advice, as long as it's Tomb of Horrors, clearly.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I'll add one bit of advice I've seen mentioned that I think is bad advice. The idea that you can't make a mistake, or that you can't change something once it's established.

Mistakes happen for everyone. There's nothing wrong with that, and certainly nothing wrong with acknowledging it and correcting it. I understand the goal of verisimilitude and so on, but at the same time, everyone is aware that you're playing a game and that everything in the game is made up.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The most upvoted response to any D&D question posted on Reddit.

So this.

I mean, it's not quite true - like, if a thread is active for say 12-24 hours or more, usually a sane answer to a DMing question will percolate to the top, but in the first few hours a thread exists, which may be its entire active lifespan given how busy that reddit is, you very often get an utterly reprehensible and terrible answer being upvoted. Also really bad and just wrong answers to complex rules questions often go to the top initially, and whilst usually voted down in time, as someone comes in and points out that it's just dead wrong, it takes a while.

Similarly, "Sandboxes always work great!"

Honestly, any advice that pushes a playstyle before the group has found its preferred playstyle is a problem. Railroads are fine, for people who like them. Similarly, sandboxes are fine, for those who like them. Put a player who isn't suited for them in either, and it isn't fun.

Spot-on.

As you say, any advice that says a certain playstyle will always work for everyone is bad advice. I'm glad it's a lot less common than it was, say, 20 years ago, where it wasn't so much edition wars as playstyle wars a lot of the time.

I was honestly astonished as a young DM just how much obviously-bad DMing advice came from official products, particularly Dragon magazine in the '80s and '90s, which probably had mostly good advice, but a very significant amount of terrible stuff too. I feel vindicated by modern attitudes which match much better with what I thought was good advice back then.

 

[HammerMan]

I'll add one bit of advice I've seen mentioned that I think is bad advice. The idea that you can't make a mistake, or that you can't change something once it's established.

Mistakes happen for everyone. There's nothing wrong with that, and certainly nothing wrong with acknowledging it and correcting it. I understand the goal of verisimilitude and so on, but at the same time, everyone is aware that you're playing a game and that everything in the game is made up.

omg... the whole 'don't do rewinds' bugs me more then words can't express how much i wish no one ever claimed this.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'll add one bit of advice I've seen mentioned that I think is bad advice. The idea that you can't make a mistake, or that you can't change something once it's established.

Yeah that's a good one. It's a bad approach to think you can't just go "Wait no, that isn't true, I misspoke, here's what's actually true!".

Ironically I was taught this by misreading some adventure in the '90s, one of the players questioned it, and I realized, instead of just sticking with what I'd said, as some has advised, I could just go with what had actually been meant - even though that did mean "changing reality" a little.