The meaning of "fair" in DnD

"So the goal of a "good" DM shouldn't always be to entirely "fair", but to be willing to listen and to adapt, "

Yeah, the last bit of my original post says: "Some people enjoy paying money to play blackjack knowing blackjack isnt fair. Try to make your dnd enjoyable."

Fair isnt entirely possible.

And part of being enjoyable is finding a game you want to play, which means dms need to know what kind of game theyre running and communicate that ahead of time so everyone isnt wasting everyones time.

The dm who counted ammunition, didnt mention that until my ranger was three sessions into a dungeon and six session into me joining the campaign.

The dm who started banning random spells didnt mention it until i cast one he didnt like and then he banned a dozen on the spot.

First step to finding a game and dm that you like is finding a dm who knows their own dm style and can communicate it up front, so you can find a good fit for you. If you just ban stuff on the fly all the time, its going to suck for your players.

Quote from SunIsGettingRealLow96589 >>

The dm who counted ammunition, didnt mention that until my ranger was three sessions into a dungeon and six session into me joining the campaign.

The dm who started banning random spells didnt mention it until i cast one he didnt like and then he banned a dozen on the spot.

First step to finding a game and dm that you like is finding a dm who knows their own dm style and can communicate it up front, so you can find a good fit for you. If you just ban stuff on the fly all the time, its going to suck for your players.

 

 First one sounds like miscommunication, don’t see how it could screw everything up. Maybe ask him if you could create your own ammo or scavenge it?

That’s a bad dm, considering most who ban random spells do it as a gut reaction instead of actually having a reason. Forcing them to write a manifesto won’t help if they only react to spells when someone casts them, not when they come up with the campaign.

"First one sounds like miscommunication, don’t see how it could screw everything up. Maybe ask him if you could create your own ammo or scavenge it?"

If it was a miscommunication, it was the dm who failed. And it screwed me over because i had taken wood carvers tool.proficiency(usually do for any archer charavter), but there was little to no usable wood in the dungeons and.caves we were in, according to the dm. Basically, i always had limited ammo, and would use a scimitar more than anything. After 4 sessions of that nonsense, i quit.

"most who ban random spells do it as a gut reaction instead of actually having a reason. Forcing them to write a manifesto won’t help"

Well, first of all, its a brochure, not a manifesto. Second of all, i think it would have helped in this situation because if most dms had brochures, this guy was so seat-of-the-pants on everything, he would have nothing, and that would have been a red flag.

Certainly ive had dms where a brochure wont help because sometimes people suck and they dont even know it.  I was in a party where the DM's girlfriend was also in the party. Eesh. Every encounter was designed for the girlfriend. The magic items were generally whatever the girlfriend wanted at the time. All the npcs talked to the girlfriend. The things we explored were things the girlfriend was interested in.  That was probably 3 months wasted before j gave up. Now, whenever i meet a new group i generally ask how everyone knows everyone else, just to look for any interrelationships that might make thinks wonky.