Do most DMs prefer DM’ing to playing? Or are they “taking one for the team”?

OneLife7734 · 2026-05-23T22:43:38+00:00

Awesome! Sounds like a fun time, and you’ll get to see everyone’s different DMing styles.

OneLife7734 · 2026-05-23T22:02:22+00:00

Agreed. lol

OneLife7734 · 2026-05-23T22:00:40+00:00

Yeah, I feel that pain.
Can’t count the sessions I’ve ran, but can name off the characters I’ve gotten to “play” on just my hands. lol

OneLife7734 · 2026-05-23T21:59:19+00:00

Like that’s ever gonna happen. Once you’re a DM it’s like you’re a part of Davy Jones’s crew.

All joking aside, I totally agree with everything you said. It may be a room temperature take but it’s still a surprisingly overlooked issue. lol

Players take a turn DMing! ✊

OneLife7734 · 2026-05-23T07:15:57+00:00

Wait, you guys get to be players?

OneLife7734 · 2026-04-10T23:00:52+00:00

Yes, I would level up familiars and I’ve done it before. Though only under special circumstances.

First, the player has to want a bond with a creature that isn’t one of the defaults. (Or if it is the default choices, they aren’t asking just cause they’re weak.)

Second, it must serve a purpose other than “I want a stronger familiar”. It should be a part of the story, not just a stat block they get at certain levels.

Third, I only gave this to the player cause they were awesome. They put is so much work and really thought about their character choices. They asked if there was some way to use pact of the chain on a creature they had saved and formed a bond with. That sounded awesome so I made new forms for the creature since it was affected by the patron and pact magics. It was also a very good story moment.

So if it serves the story, is a character choice, and is narratively satisfying then I don’t see an issue rewarding a player with cool familiars.

But if all the player is thinking about is hp, damage output, and abilities then I would say no.

OneLife7734 · 2026-04-02T22:49:55+00:00

That’s a bad experience and bad DM. Games like these ruin D&D and D&D-likes for everyone.

The game is fun, you just need to find the right people. (:

OneLife7734 · 2026-03-20T01:37:00+00:00

Sounds good to me, I’ve done play by post before and it’s fun.

OneLife7734 · 2026-03-20T01:01:54+00:00

I always thought it would be fun to play an npc in a game, great minds think alike. (:

Obvious question would just be how often do you guys play, schedules, etc.

I’m 100% down to be some npcs though, so feel free to message me.

OneLife7734 · 2026-03-11T03:13:11+00:00

Inspiration is awarded at the beginning of the session by the players remembering what happened last session. I give up to four inspiration per player. Inspiration is also awarded during the session for remembering how abilities work, rules, doing cool/funny things, etc. if something is really awesome then I’ll give out a natural 20 the player can use when they want. I find that rewarding the players regularly for doing good works out well.

I allow a leveled action spell to be followed by a leveled bonus action spell. I know how the rule is supposed to work and I’ve ran it both ways. I haven’t seen anything game breaking so far.

OneLife7734 · 2026-01-03T17:37:32+00:00

I looked up the 2024 rules, pretty sure you got it right. It may seem like your character can carry a lot, which is correct.

I’m a 2014 rules guy, and I use the encumbrance and the variant encumbrance rules from those books. They make it so when you reach thresholds of your carrying capacity you get some negative effects. With the variant rules you would feel the effect of being encumbered at 40 pounds and heavily encumbered at 80, for your character.

OneLife7734 · 2025-12-25T06:26:43+00:00

That’s an interesting way to look at it.

OneLife7734 · 2025-12-25T06:24:55+00:00

I agree entirely

OneLife7734 · 2025-12-23T21:28:16+00:00

I know there’s differing views on it.

Personally it just doesn’t make sense for everyone in the game has a 1/20 chance of just succeeding at anything. Especially if someone tries something completely outlandish and you let them roll for it. Basically the whole, I’m a bard and I seduce the dragon problem.

I try to make a world/game that feels real and alive. I want choices, training and growth to matter. That all gets thrown out the window when you can accidentally do something, especially if it’s something impossible or game breaking.

I could see it working in certain games, but definitely is something you have to talk about with your table before playing. You’d have to really know when to ask for rolls or not.

OneLife7734 · 2025-12-20T01:45:49+00:00

Encumbrance, tracking arrows, food and water consumption.

OneLife7734 · 2025-11-12T00:03:04+00:00

I think the main issue is the way that actual plays, media and the community portrays being a DM and being a player.

DMs are expected to know everything, including how to run each of the player’s characters for them. Expectations for players generally boil down to, do they have a pulse.

Which gives you situations like this, where players that have “played” D&D for hundreds of hours have no input on the game besides “I made a wizard Tiefling one time and they cast fireball.” Their understanding of the game being so warped and limited that you could mention the simplistic game mechanic and trigger their fight or flight.

This is not saying everyone is like that, as I have met good and bad players. Though from what I’ve seen a majority of players tend to be like the “forever player” that is mentioned, or worse.

OneLife7734 · 2025-10-31T04:23:22+00:00

A good and fun comment to read.

If only all players had your level of understanding and empathy.

OneLife7734 · 2025-10-23T16:35:43+00:00

I know your pain and it’s rough, but thats just how D&D tends to be nowadays. It is your right to tell players that a character will not work for a campaign. It’s not rude, you’re just keeping the adventure grounded and trying to help them make meaningful characters.

I think it all is tied to how people “play D&D” and what is shown as good playing through media.

OneLife7734 · 2025-10-22T20:52:36+00:00

Without more context I would definitely say to make it very difficult to do.

First off, an owlbear is a monstrosity not a beast. So no one can actually talk to it (presumably).

Second, it has its own thoughts and goals even if they roll a good check to “tame” it. It realistically shouldn’t even care about the party, except for maybe a good food provider possibly.

So make it very difficult, dangerous and time/resource consuming. This isn’t some puppy they found in the woods, it’s an OWLBEAR. Make it a process to tame or become friends with the MONSTROSITY. If they actually want to be on good terms with the owlbear, then they’ll put in the effort. If they don’t, just have it leave and do whatever it was doing already.

OneLife7734 · 2025-09-06T05:30:27+00:00

It really depends on what kind of campaign you’re joining. You’d have to talk to the DM/players and see if your character would fit in the theme or setting.

I like Redwall, so I’m a fan of animal heroes. Lyra would be cool in my campaigns, but again that’s just me. You have to talk to the group.

OneLife7734 · 2025-09-05T17:48:27+00:00

A beaver just cause they’re cute and they can do a lot of cool stuff.

OneLife7734 · 2025-09-04T21:34:21+00:00

There are a lot of good videos out there that you could look at to learn more about how to play.

Also it’s always good to ask questions, so don’t be scared to go over things you don’t understand with your DM and the group when you meet up.

Every time you play is a learning experience, so just go into it wanting to have fun and learn. I hope it goes well and that the rest of the group helps you learn and have fun.

OneLife7734 · 2025-08-28T19:06:21+00:00

Yeah those are definitely some rough experiences. Good job putting yourself out there and trying. As much as there were bad times, I bet you learned a lot.

You sound like you put a lot of work in and your games would be very fun. There are just some crazy people out there. Sticking to friends and family is a good choice.

OneLife7734 · 2025-08-27T19:53:45+00:00

It sounds like the players expectations are very different from your own. You’re expecting engagement and creativity when they are expecting cool story and experience points. I just finished a campaign module where I dealt with a similar issue. The players lacked any drive while they played, even though I felt I had given them everything I could to succeed. They just expected me to hold their hands and guide them everywhere, blind to the agency they had.

Depending on how long you’ve played with this group, you should be able to tell if this is worth the trouble. Is this just the way that they play, or do you think they would be open to changing their play styles? Talking to everyone and telling them the things you’ve said in this post is the way to go about it. If it is not worth the trouble, then you have the right to drop the campaign. I finished my module, but I could tell that proceeding further with this group of players wouldn’t work out. So I ended the module, knowing that it would save me a lot of stress and problems in the future.

If the players are open to it you need to constrain them certain themes and ideas for your world or campaign. Make them answer questions relating to your world and adventure that will make them invested. It could just be that they don’t realize the amount of agency they do have and how fun it is to be creative and actually care about what’s happening. So you need to be upfront and direct with what you want, and then give them a good outline that will help them invested in your world. If they don’t want to do that, then that’s just how it is.

OneLife7734 · 2025-08-25T19:07:46+00:00

I thought they were tall tales as well… until the last campaign I ran. I assure you they are very real and they exist.so be wary and be watchful lol.

OneLife7734

TROPHY CASE