This story is a huge oof. My previous DM did this to my original character concept (Blood Hunter) because he thought they were too “edgy.” He also forbade all but one of us from playing gnomes because he didn’t like them.
Find DMs who will work with, not against you pic.twitter.com/Z3FQbim8Gq— Mike I Guess (@mike_i_guess) January 9, 2020
I do believe it is the DM’s right to set boundaries on the kind of game they want to run.
I also believe it’s the DM’s responsibility to acknowledge these boundaries up front in a non-adversarial way.
It’s also the player’s right to walk away & find another table to play at. 😉
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) January 10, 2020
As a long time DM and running many many games, this is good advice. As a DM you want to provide a good time for all participants and a balanced game as best as possible. While it’s nice to say “yes” to all requests either at our off the table, it’s okay to say “no” if it’s not in the best interest of the group. Sometimes the answer is no at the table and there’s a way to fit in whatever wackiness a player wants by having an off table discussion and coming to a compromise of what works and why. At the end of the day the DM has to make the call and a player then decides if they can go forward or if they feel that’s not fun and walk away.
Here’s some real advice: play one of the hundreds of indie RPGs that provide game mechanics which resolve interpersonal conflicts between players by setting the tone, opening up the creative flow of the game, and so on. D&D is notoriously lacking in these kind of mechanics and it often becomes the dark kingdom of a little dictator when the DM just overrides everything. I recommend Dungeon World, or any of the apocalypse system games, or just about any game that has come out of Seattle.
If you can’t make a character concept work, work with the player to collaborate on one. Don’t say no outright. You miss a lot of fun
Mr Mercer hit the nail on the head. And i think im noticing a trend of entitlement from players these days who are just being silly (like the 6int so i intimidate a dragon malarkey). What i think players should do is run thier own games with thier silly ideas in full force instead of expecting dms to cow to thier demands.