Which Rule is your “favourite”?! Mine has to be 20!

Kinda reminds me of a guy off some thread saying "I'm a damn good dm, i dont allow martial classes because they dont belong in a magical world"

This is a DM who's been pushed to the edge for too long and has snapped. Each of the rulings that sound harsh are clearly the result of putting up with the inverse over and over again, and he's just not going to put up with it any more.

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

“AM SICK O’ YER SHET!”

Sounds like toxic friends.

The last time I was able to play our DM kept our character sheets at his place so no one forgot them for future sessions... Mine should still be there... As for forgetting your dice... Most DMs are dice goblins or are playing with a dice goblin... I have never been in a group with one...

I just think I got to express my opinion on this one because some of these rules make me think that the *players* originated many of these rules... The weird specific ones, like the smoking one, or the breaking things one. It sounds like these things have happened before with this table or another specifically. idk just me, there's some very fair ones that I actually have gotten to sport (though simmered down A LOT).

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

Yup

This is like a list of escalating red flags

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

Getting 44 rules would be a red flag But the ferocity of how they’re written is the bright red cherry on top!

@zhornlegacy7936

Ай бұрын

Red flags about the player group they've had. Individually just yellow flags, but there's so many that collectively together would have been a nightmare to deal with session after session.

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

Red flags about the players. Imagine playing with people who are so narcissistic, they drive you into doing and writing crazy shit like this DM did.

@d4n737

Ай бұрын

@@robinmohamedally7587 .... Yeah sure, blame the players for "call me tyranical and I'll stomp my foot and leave even if you have a ride"

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

@@d4n737 You are the embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, aren't you? Seriously, read the entire list, and even what the original poster said about it. You will be embarrassed at how ignorant you are being about this, right now.

It feels like he is playing against his players, insted of playing whith them.

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

Absolutely nailed it! Some of these tips feel like they could be legit IF he wasn’t playing to beat his players

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

you feel too much, and have too much trouble using inductive logic. He was clearly and obviously driven to rage-write this list after dealing with narcissistic players for far too long. Now, he's become one of them.

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

@@Dungeon_Bits no, no he did not nail anything.

I'm shy, my first language isn't English, I have trouble acting out all the Charisma based skills... I don't see anyone forcing people to lift heavy objects, fight with swords, shoot a bow or cast an actual fireball in real life to play this game...

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

TRUE! I’m want to see the 45th rule, which is “you must DO all of the physical acts that your character does, or I kill your character”

@zhornlegacy7936

Ай бұрын

To be fair; I think what he meant was to not just say things like "I convince the npc" and roll persuasion or "I trick the guard with a lie" and roll deception. It's about telling the players to 'role play' and not 'roll play'. If you're here for a story based game, feed into the aspect of telling the story. It's like if in combat the wizard player just said "I cast level 3 spell, the enemy takes 23 damage" Also as a DM, if I need to adjudicate the DCs for social checks, or award advantage/disadvantage based on if things make sense or seem unlikely, knowing what the character point/lie was helps there. It doesn't need to be a Shakespearean performance, just give me more to work with than "I roll dice for number".

@insomnolant6043

Ай бұрын

Then practice. Nobody gets better at something without trying and failing. It's a role-playing game; you must roleplay. You can't show up to tennis and say "I might miss the ball so I'm not actually going to play but you have to act like I'm still playing tennis." Get better at role-playing through experience, not avoidance.

@TheAceAdventurer80

Ай бұрын

@@insomnolant6043 do I also need to practice acrobatic, stealth and pickpocketing anytime I want to play a rogue? Or practice actual religious rituals when I want to play a cleric? Not everyone is comfortable with every aspect of roleplaying... Some find it difficult... It's not up to you or anyone but them to decide how much they want to participate...

@zhornlegacy7936

Ай бұрын

@@TheAceAdventurer80 That level of exaggeration is just intentionally missing the point. Roleplay does not need to be 'in character', nor does it need to be portrayed via highly verbose eloquent exchanges, but it does need SOME descriptive input. If a conversational exchange is happening in-game; you want to tell the DM what direction you are trying to navigate with your character. An actual example from the game I DM'd just last night; Players had just rescued a storm giant. During the long rest the warlock wanted to share some information with them about who they were and how they came to rescue them. Warlock "I explain to the giant the leads that led us onto their trail, starting from us finding the large shattered sword... but I want to exclude specific details" DM (me): "Sure thing, tell me what details you are wanting to be left out, and we can assume you give an accurate account of the rest" Warlock "Okay, I want to avoid mention of our dealing with crashing the cloud giant castle, and don't want to tip our hand on the fire giants we're killed" DM (me): "Sure, roll me a deception check for how well your story holds together with those aspects of your adventure glossed over in a way that doesn't tip off your involvement while still knowing the clues you gained from those regions " The player did not need to do an actual performance in linguistics, but were able to detail out what they were doing in a way that allowed us to cooperatively weave together the narrative and set up the check being used an for my side of things work out what type of DC would exist (in this case the warlock rolled a 15, so the giant will have a DC 15 insight check against the party's story should they come across additional details on what happened to the other cloud/fire giants). For the other skill checks; no you don't need to act them out in-person with real-world ability. But you still describe them. This is a narrative game, and your descriptions are part of telling the story. You don't just athletics the door. You don't just stealth in the middle of the room. And you don't just slight of hand at the guard. - "I take my crowbar and try to tear the hinges off the door" - "I scurry over to the boxes and hide behind them" - "I wait till the guard is moving through a crow of people so any jostling can conceal the feeling of movement, and I attempt to cut their coinpurse free from their belt" Paint a picture, feed into the scene, add to the story. Is this more involved that just shouting "Acrobatics! 17"? Yes. As insomnolant6043 says though, practice. Make an actual attempt, push against the mental blocks that make you uncomfortable. If I ran in fear of my anxiety and stage fright, I'd have never stepped into the role of DMing

As far as Skill Check Dog Piling, my DM made a rule that 90% of the time if more then one person wants to help with a skill by making a skill check only a max of 2 people can do it which results in either both players rolling and seeing who gets it or giving one of the person doing the skill avantage on the roll. I personally like it, it makes sense in game and it's balanced and it keeps the game flowing.

@zhornlegacy7936

Ай бұрын

For my table; I tell my players in order to roll again after someone else has already attempted a skill check, they need to change the scenario. Introduce a new element, add a resource into the mix that wasn't previously there, bring in a tool, something to make it different. The previous player's roll holds until the situation is no longer about what that player already attempted. Can still result in a dogpile; but it plays out in a more narrative escalation and experimentation of differing methods.

Having a DM with a chip on his shoulder can be hard sometimes, but the most brutal DM is the one who doesn't understand the rules or thinks the rules are wrong, so they strictly enforce a set of homebrew rules that makes a player class completely unplayable. The first video I saw from a seemingly popular D&D youtuber was a list of his main homebrew rules. In the middle of that list was his rule that martial classes can only make one attack each turn. The second video I saw from him was his list of problems the game needs to fix. In the middle of that list was a gripe about how the fighter is "unplayable." Well, of course, the 5e fighter is unplayable at your table. You took away extra attack and action surge. You ruined the best fighter the game has seen in three or four editions. Another thing I saw was a guy in the comments asking about learning more cantrips on his warlock. His DM ruled that casters can only cast cantrips a number of times each day equal to the number of cantrips they know. I told him to either not play warlocks with that DM, take magic initiate, pact of the tome, and a level of sorcerer, or find a new DM.

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

HAHAAA WHAT?! No second attack?! Limited cantrips?! Sounds hellish. I have indeed played a table where the DM had their own VERY OUT THERE rules for the game… We stopped playing after a while, because it was TERRIBLE!

The way these are phrased though. These arent rules. Rules are objectively written without sharp remarks. These are the DM harping, threatening and taunting players. I would like to know what the story there was...then again...maybe not. Sounds like drama.

i haven't finished the vid but i kinda like rule 10. like when i DM i like to let players build relationships with Npcs to get benefits or disadvantages, like if they take time to find out a guard's favorite food and bring it to him they might wave the entrance queue for the group. same with the party like maybe insulting one of the guards friends or someone important they might charge extra to enter the city. idk that's my take on the rule.

15:26 Australian actually. Victoria nearby Melbourne. 16:22 Bundoora is a suburb not too far from there.

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

THANK YOU! Why I love KZread! A bunch of knowledgable peoples all in one place.

the 44 rules trend is the worst thing that happened to TTRPG and it's mainly why people from the larger community see DnD players as kinda... the mainstream fandom that got corrupted by becoming too popular... By rule 20 usually you get to stuff like "When a player rolls a strength check, they have to get into a boxing match with the DM to succeed". He's so... Harsh... It's like he doesn't actually WANT the players to have fun

also BG3 doesnt..have random encounters, what is he talking about.

Like 10 of these are agreeable, like 4 are so specific it's concerning the rest are utterly insane and this gm needs a new party, some theraphy or never gm again or all 3. I feel bad for the party and the gm...

As a whole, while there are small points which can be considered adjacent to common courtesy whilst playing board games, a lot of this to me came off as immensely rude and unappealing. I’ve played with similar Game Masters, and most of the points provided here look to me extremely subjective on what the GM considers to be correct or incorrect. Say, for example, a player is trying to count on the map how many steps they can move up to engage an enemy, but they realize that the direction they were counting didn’t get them anywhere useful, so the player might try to just count again in another direction. For my games, it’s just waiting for 5 or whatever seconds before a Fighter can do their turn, but for this guy it sounds like he’ll on the spot slap the player’s wrist with a ruler, tell them to skip their turn altogether then instantly make all enemies next turn attack their character, since according to his rules the player would’ve been “cheating”. I don’t think people like him should be running games, as they make the whole experience of playing become a horror story on its own, specially considering he seems to love killing off characters or punishing players for things things like their personal life getting on the way of the game or forgetting some random thing they didn’t know was meant to be important.

I believe exactly zero percent of the "stories" on that sub.

Well, most of them could use better wording and would work perfectly fine.

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

Exactly! Spot on!

I like this post. I agree with basically everything. Strongly worded yes. But not wrong.

You can tell that this guy is reacting to some very specific, repeated bad behavior on the part of his players. That's not to say he reacted correctly, but I do understand.

@Dungeon_Bits

Ай бұрын

Most likely a double douche situation

Tbh most of the list just sounds like this guy needs to learn how to pick better/more considerate players 😅

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

Easy to say. I've played with three groups in the last two years, and 3/4 of them are always inconsiderate or narcissistic in some way, and not worth playing with or running a game for anymore. It's just that most people now are terrible. Unless you're psychic, there's no way of gathering a group of strangers who aren't, for the most part, pieces of shit, to play with. But this DM was playing with his friends. Which is easy to deal with. Don't play with them anymore.

@zhornlegacy7936

Ай бұрын

Many good players can end up with bad habits if the environment is unstructured for too long. And many bad players can play with good etiquette with a firm guiding hand. But yes, I suspect he did start off with a bad group and didn't enforce good standards early.

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

@@zhornlegacy7936 so, they're all infants, and the responsibility is on him to get them under control? They have no minds of their own? You're trying awfully hard to defend shite players' lack of accountability. The onus isn't on the DM, it's on everybody to behave considerately and act like a fucking adult. Narcissism, although often not, SHOULD be outgrown after teenagehood.

@zhornlegacy7936

Ай бұрын

@@robinmohamedally7587 No dude, I was agreeing with you. This DM likely had a bad group of players to start with. I've had to crack down on my share of bad players, and they've needed a constant firm hand to keep in line. It's exhausting. I was meaning to get at with the leading two lines was how table behaviour feeds into itself. If you have a 50/50 group of good and bad players, If you don't hold the bad players in check, the good players will also become bad players.

@robinmohamedally7587

Ай бұрын

@@zhornlegacy7936 my apologies. Yes. I've had to experience that three times in the last two years. One group, there was a guy who never said anything in group chat about whether he would show up or not, and his icon was there at the end of several other peoples' comments that said whether or not they will be there that Saturday, so he definitely read the groupchats. He would either never tell us he's not coming or do so on Saturday morning. When i had enough of this and dumped him, the others, who were decent players, left with him in some sort of cheesy "I am Spartacus" solidarity. Well, 3 did. Two remained. And another group i ran for, there was a guy who was always cheating and claiming that he didn't know, when he had a leatherbound fancy copy of the 3.5e player's handbook sitting next to him every time we played, and he was 62, so he definitely played that edition in the past. After catching him cheating too many times, AND with him mocking the random treasure generating table that a corpse in a desert had a necklace of protection from cold on his person [it's just logical that adventurers with magical items in Faerun would keep almost any magic items they find, in case they ever needed them, it's not like he was born, lived in, and was going to die in that desert, and magical items, nevermind my version of Faerun, in the OFFICIAL version of Faerun, magical items are rare, he's not going to hawk it because it wasn't going to help him on his little desert adventure, or however he got there]. In short, a few insufferable people in a group? You boot them, and the whole group thinks you're being unfair and leaves with them. Or most of them, at least. So, the hobby is not even worth it, at this point. It's impossible to find decent people to play with, anymore.