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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 4602604" data-attributes="member: 54840">That's a great quote, Rechan,The game belongs to all of you. The players are spending their time at the table just as you are. Granted, as a DM, you spend more time preparing but remember that your ultimate goal is for the players to have fun. That's your responsibility. They are not a captive audience.A DM is sort of a junior game designer. You have to build something people want to play.I was listening to the game designers for the game "Portal" who tested their game with folks. Every so often they would say "what do you think is going on in the story right now". Every time people said "I'm not sure", they REMOVED part of the story. They didn't add more words - they knew the words were being ignored. Instead they stripped the story down.I try to do this in my own game. If people aren't really getting it, I strip the plot down until they do. I don't try to constantly explain it.As far as rules go, if you make house rules, you have to accept their input. You don't have some certification that makes you a better designer than they are. You might have more experience but you have to show them that the rule is good.I email out any house rules for discussion a couple of weeks before I implement it (or not). Feedback and arguments roll back and forth until I make an official ruling. I did this for the ambiguity with Stinking Cloud for example.Most of the time, however, I DO NOT use house rules except for one-shot games designed to be played differently (See my 4e-Lite rules in the Rules section for example).Anyway, its all about maintaining a loose grip and remembering that this is their game too.</blockquote>

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