Never say no | Dm's tips and tricks #2

Saying No Ruins Good Dungeons and Dragons Games

In your role as the dungeon master, it is your job to encourage experimentation, out-of-the-box thinking and action on the part of your players. One way to fail at this very quickly is to reply to questions they ask with "no, you can't do that."

A good dungeon master knows that if the character is going to try something epic, that it needs to happen, regardless of what the rule book says about max press, how many gnomes can fit in a barrel, or the limitations of gravity. Saying "no" to any request goes against the very nature of ensuring everyone has a good time, which is the cardinal rule of dungeons and dragons.

Alternatives to saying "no"

Even if it is something absurd or obtuse, there are plenty of ways to communicate that to a player without ruling out the possibility altogether. Below are just a few options that might work in a given situation. For reference, we'll use a situation that came up in one of my games: Two gnomes, one a cleric and the other a specialist mage, were stuffed into a large barrel, with the dwarf fighter piloting a wagon to the gates of an enemy-controlled crossroads deep in a mountain crevasse. Graddock Halfbeard, the intrepid warrior, had failed his charisma check to bluff his way past the guards (seriously, who bases their plan on a dwarf fighter passing a charisma check? His name is Halfbeard because the charisma was so low that the player justified it in his backstory by having extensive burn scars on his face. Really, nobody thought this was a bad idea.....but hey....the DM should never say no, right?) and the bugbears and verbeeg at the gate to the crossroads weren't buying it. As two bugbear charged the wagon ahead of the verbeeg throwing spears, Graddock had to make a choice: use his turn to free his hidden allies from the barrel, or fight four large opponents by himself.

His wild idea was to accomplish both, he just needed to dead-lift the barrel, and throw it from atop the wagon onto the first bugbear. Two gnomes, one in chainmail armor weigh just about as much as even exceptional strength will allow to lift, much less hurl. The rules, according to the strength table in the players handbook, say this shouldn't be possible. But not wanting to stop his creativity, I provided him the option. Here are a few responses i could have given him to accomplish the task:

1. Make the challenge particularly difficult. "Sure, you'll need to pass a strength check with a -8 penalty."
2. Offer an alternative. "If you pushed the barrel onto its side, you might be able to kick it off the wagon at him."
3. Explain the ramifications. "Sure, but Cupshigh (the mage) has a really low constitution. I'm not sure he would get away without a scratch."
4. Just allow it. "Your attack roll will determine how far you can throw the barrel."

In some cases, the fourth option is required, just because the suggestion would make such such a great story that the dwarf (and the player) would talk about it every time the campaign came up over a beer.

Exceptions that prove the rule

The more and more I write about dungeon mastering, the more and more I have to point out that none of the tips and tricks I use are hard and fast rules. The statement Never Say No is a hard-line, always follow statement. Of course there are great reasons to say no to a player. If they are asking if they can act in a way that will disgust your other players, for instance, and make the table uncomfortable (some people go overboard with the sandbox idea of Dungeons and Dragons, and hit heavy trigger-topics that might bother other players). In any case, it is much more of a guideline, and a way of thinking about the game than it is a real rule to follow. But avoiding "no" as often as possible is still a guiding principle you should follow.

Credit where credit is due

In an upcoming post I will add another tip & trick, to always steal from the best. In this case, I can't find the page or youtube video I first heard this piece of advice shared, but it was by the amazing DM and king of the nerds, Chris Perkins. Seriously, if you are reading my blog, you should go read his. It's fantastic.

So what happened to the barrel?

I chose option 1. If i remember correctly, it was a -8 strength roll to see if he could even throw it, and an attack roll to see how far. He failed. Miserably. He lifted the thing, got it over the edge of the wagon, and basically just belly-bumped it over the edge, and the two gnomes rolled out of the barrel right in front of the bugbear.

All eventually went well. I rewarded the bold move by making it startle the lead bugbear, slowing him down for a round. The trio attacked, and won at the gates, then entered the crossroads and furthered their attack. At some point, Graddock had another great idea, to cling on to a broken elevator car dangling several dozen feet in the air from a wire between the two crevasse walls. Eventually the wire broke, and the car crashed down. Again, it probably wasn't something the rules would have allowed, a flying leap from a cliff-face to a swinging gondola in the air, but it was so epic that I had to allow it. The fall killed his opponent, the leader of this band of enemies, an ogre magi named Doozle, and Graddock was unconscious, recovering from his wounds for weeks, if I remember correctly. So, in neither case was the outcome necessarily good, but as a DM, you just have to let stuff like that happen. The Player, Todd, has played many more characters many more times, and that scene at the crossroads is one of the scenes he still talks about. Again, the hallmark that I succeeded as his DM on that day.

Edit: Graddock Halfbeard did not go unconscious from the fall. I remember now that he stood over the body of Doozle, the Ogre magi, shakily rocking back and forth with a severe concussion and several broken bones. The verbeeg and remaining bugbears loyal to Doozle surrounded him, and his time was almost up. Also in the same session, the gnome cleric Grawlix Plankthumper was turned to stone by Doozle....

Graddock did bluff his way out of it after all, even once he failed at the gates. Cupshigh came down to help, and they talked their way out of the verbeeg situation, alerting them that their leader was dead, and they didn't need to risk their lives here any longer to hold the crossroads for some orcish ally of Doozle's, especially with the remainder of the dwarven and gnomish army coming up the road behind their advance scouting party. The pair allowed the verbeeg to take what they could out of all of the residences, but they had to leave Doozle's "palace" alone. It ended peacefully, with Graddock looking menacing the whole time.