You may introduce your players offhandedly to a Tabaxi bartender. “Meow,” says Martha, who plays your party’s Gnome Druid. “Is he tall?” Innocently, you shrug and reply, “Tabaxi are taller than the average human — standing between six or seven feet — so, sure, he’s tall.” Next thing you know, the next 20 minutes of your campaign are dedicated to wooing the Tabaxi bartender upstairs, with the rest of the party assisting in the seduction.
Wizards of the Coast
And Gygax forbid you introduce a villain as “brooding” or “strangely alluring.” You will never get that party to kill that Bad Guy. Not ever. I hope you were planning a big wedding at the end of your “Curse of Strahd” campaign, because that’s where it’s heading, like it or not.
And last but not least …
To You, They Are Rules. To Your Friends, Merely Suggestions.
You’re a good DM. You’ve done your homework. You understand the rules. Studied up on proficiency bonuses. Know the difference between area of effect and single-target spells. But what you have accepted as Law, your players see as merely a suggestion, ready to be bargained.
If you as the DM have deemed that jumping across the river is an acrobatics check based on dexterity, your players will somehow find a way to argue that actually, it should be a performance check: because I’m only jumping to show off to the rest of the party, so, really, shouldn’t we use my +6 bonus to Charisma?
Wizards of the Coast
Or, sure, the spell is specifically called “Charm Person” — but isn’t a Dragon a person, in a way? What, are you trying to imply Dragons don’t deserve the rights and respect of a person? They have brains, do they not? Feelings? Impulses? Dragons are People Too! And I think my spell should work on them!
Have any Table Truths you’ve stumbled upon in your experience playing D&D? Shocking ways your players have twisted the rules? Unexpected objects or NPCs that became imbued with immense importance? Fire away in the comments. And as a Party troublemaker myself, let me just speak for all of us and say: I’m sorry. But not sorry enough to stop.
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