Your ultimate goal is to imagine yourself in the situations that your DM describes to you and then describe to your DM how you, as your character, would react to the scene.
Every other piece of playing is something that you will learn through repetition and recognition. Take some time to look over the rules of combat, just skim over it so you understand the basics. You can really dig into the rules of the game as situations come up and you want to understand them better. Take more time looking over the class you decide to choose, the better you understand your class, the easier it will be to make decisions. Every other roll in the game, outside of combat, should be announced by the DM, which will make your learning curve easier.
Focus on being able to describe your actions with clarity, do not worry about role play/acting right now. Silly voices or accents aren't necessary to play the game, even if they can be fun. As long as you can explain what your character is doing, or wants to do, clearly then the game should go well. The backstory of your character, their motivations, and goals, all influence your decisions, again imagining yourself in their place. As you put those two pieces together, clarity and character motivations, the more you'll be able to "become" that character and the role play/acting will just happen from there.
Lastly: the DM is the final say, even if you feel they're wrong, but that doesn't mean you can't talk to them about it after the game. I have earned my players trust, and the trust of new players they bring in, by being firm and fair about my judgments at the table. Even with that I find that some players still have the habit of arguing a point in the middle of a game which can completely stall out a game. If you have an issue with something that happened in the game, especially since you're new, wait until after the game to talk it out. It may be intimidating to call out your DM, some of my long time friends still have a hard time calling me out, but open communication is integral to the whole table having fun. As you're learning the ropes of the game look to your DM for guidance, talk to fellow players for their experiences, and reach out to us on the forums.
Welcome to the D&D family, I wish you many happy adventures, and may the dice favor you!
Character sheets may differ depending on who you play with and where you find them. I have a sheet at home that is varied enough to handle 3 different ttrpgs, looks very different from the PHB version and the DDB version. As long as you can find the Ability scores, weapon and spell information, and your AC/HP, you'll do fine since most everything is based off of those numbers.
There are many, many different designs of character sheets. As long as you can find the information you need it doesn't really matter what the sheet looks like.
All roleplaying starts with putting ourself in the situation of your character and thinking "what would I do?" If you don't know the game mechanics for what you want to do, that's OK. Tell your DM what you want to do and they can help tell you how you do it in game terms.
There are a lot of rules in the game. The good news is you don't need to learn them all at once in order to play. Some may never come up in your game at all. If no one ever casts a particular spell you will never need to know the rules for it.
Most rolls to do something in the game are a d20 +/- a couple of modifiers. You will quickly learn the ones for things your character does often. Don't be afraid to ask "what do I roll?" or "how does this work?"
So you say to address any issues after the game when there is a problem with the DM, but how do you handle a DM who seems to be bullying a new player. For example, new player roles natural 20 for a diplomacy or intimidation check to get information from someone, but they still refuse to give up any information. When asked where the interrogated person is from, they will just say “the city” or when asking about a specific person, they will respond with “that is information you don’t need to know” (now mind you, the player asking questions just rolled a natural 20). But then will give up the information to other players when they ask.
So you say to address any issues after the game when there is a problem with the DM, but how do you handle a DM who seems to be bullying a new player. For example, new player roles natural 20 for a diplomacy or intimidation check to get information from someone, but they still refuse to give up any information. When asked where the interrogated person is from, they will just say “the city” or when asking about a specific person, they will respond with “that is information you don’t need to know” (now mind you, the player asking questions just rolled a natural 20). But then will give up the information to other players when they ask.
A nat 20 on a skill check isn't a guaranteed success. That only occurs on attacks.
Yes, but you can’t roll higher than a 20 to ensure cooperation. You of course add the modifier and go with it. But they answer the same question for someone else in party and say, we are just trying to teach you how to ask questions. But it is literally the same question.
It is something lots of people misunderstand, because everyone always make that big a deal of it specially memes etc.
A Nat 20 doe'snt mean Auto succes with everything, it doesn't mean that the NPC who was set up by the DM to have 4 answers or 4 pieces of info, suddenly has 4 more.
If the DM deem that you had all the info you could get, a nat 20 will not change anything, he could wing it and improve yes, but its no obligation, the nat 20, just means that you made a great succes, not that you get extra stuff.
And at higher lvls there's DC's 30 for some stuff, so if with your nat 20 + bonus you don't meet the 30 DC, it fails.
Also it depends if the DM is more Rp inclined, so chances are that the player with the nat 20 din't ask the right questions.
In most cases its just a matter of asking the right questions, no matter the roll.
So its not really bullying, but more been strict.
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"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
So you say to address any issues after the game when there is a problem with the DM, but how do you handle a DM who seems to be bullying a new player. For example, new player roles natural 20 for a diplomacy or intimidation check to get information from someone, but they still refuse to give up any information. When asked where the interrogated person is from, they will just say “the city” or when asking about a specific person, they will respond with “that is information you don’t need to know” (now mind you, the player asking questions just rolled a natural 20). But then will give up the information to other players when they ask.
I would hint, at the table, "I rolled pretty high, I thought I'd be able to get more information." and then take the answer the DM gave me. One instance of this happening may be a case of the DM having not prepared well enough or the DM trying to withhold information artificially. If this is a repeating experience I would then talk to them after the game, since it would feel like my efforts are being wasted. I would start the talk off with a simple question: "What should I change about my approach to be able to get more information from my rolls?", since that is really what it boils down to. The answer that the DM gives me will then direct how the rest of the conversation will go.
Yes, but you can’t roll higher than a 20 to ensure cooperation. You of course add the modifier and go with it. But they answer the same question for someone else in party and say, we are just trying to teach you how to ask questions. But it is literally the same question.
I have 3 DMs that I am fortunate to play under, having been behind the screen for the majority of 32 years it's nice to be a player again. However, two of the DMs are brand new to that side of the screen and they make decisions that really don't sit well with me at times. The third DM has a very different approach and style to me and they make decisions that literally make me cringe. I'm very much set in my ways as a DM and, with the amount of experience I have, I have extensive knowledge about the game which gives me a skewed perspective from the player side of the screen. All of these things play into how I react to a DM who does things that I don't agree with and I've had to deal with those situations.
Taking your example and looking at a couple experiences I've had with DMs, I hope this will give you an idea on how to proceed.
One of the DMs I played under resolves everything with the roll of the dice, whether it technically needs to happen or not. A creature we were fighting rolled Stealth, at which point in time all of our passive Perceptions should have kicked in. Instead the DM had one of our players, the last one to attack it, roll Perception and the player beat the Stealth roll of the creature. At this point in time, according to how the players understood it this means the creature failed its Stealth check against the player. To all of our surprise the DM explained that the player knew the creature had hidden itself but was unsure of where the creature was, simply that they knew the general location. I, improperly, called the DM out immediately by saying that they were wrong, that "the rules say", and challenged their authority, they got defensive and upset with me. A better way to handle it would have been to comment that it was a strange ruling and I'd like to ask them about it after the game.
In another game, I created a character that was optimized specifically to control combat with magic. I chose spells that would remove opponents from combat, such as Hold Person, or create advantage for my party, such as Hypnotic Pattern. The only other thing I did was make sure to give him a decent AC so he'd be trouble to hit, high Dex with Mage Armor. In all other places the character was average. By the time we hit 6th level I started to notice something strange, it seemed more and more creatures were resistant, or immune, to my spells. It wouldn't have been a big issue if it weren't for the fact that the creatures weren't normally resistant or immune. I let it go for a while, I had a couple damaging spells just in case. When it got to the point that every creature somehow had a buff, item, or effect that made them immune to CC I called the DM out after a game.
I explained that my character was now unable to participate in the adventure, as he was built, due to the choices that this DM was making. I explained that in order to make my character effective, within the confines of the rules, I'd be behind the party in effectiveness for at least 4 levels. I proposed a compromise, if the adventure was going to continue this way, could I swap out one or two of my spells. The DM answered back with "You're an experienced DM/Player, I'm tired of you making combat so easy, deal with it". I couldn't come to an agreement with him, I couldn't convince him that there were other ways of handling the situation. I thanked him for the game up to that point and stopped playing.
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At your table:
If your DM is using these conversations like I do, mini-skill challenges, it is possible that a 25 Persuasion may be just enough to turn them from untrusting to cautious. This means they'll open up a little, but they aren't going to spill everything.
Explain what you want to say/ask clearly and succinctly: "I ask the guard where the bandits are known to hide." as opposed to "I ask the guard for any information about the bandits". Doing this creates little ambiguity, and forces the DM to give clear answers in return.
Approach the DM after the game to clarify their choices made in game when you feel they don't match your expectations. Make a note of it so you don't forget.
If you feel the DM is unfairly singling you out, explain your position, do not attack their play style. If you find that you're incompatible, thank them for their time and move on.
It is something lots of people misunderstand, because everyone always make that big a deal of it specially memes etc.
A Nat 20 doe'snt mean Auto succes with everything, it doesn't mean that the NPC who was set up by the DM to have 4 answers or 4 pieces of info, suddenly has 4 more.
If the DM deem that you had all the info you could get, a nat 20 will not change anything, he could wing it and improve yes, but its no obligation, the nat 20, just means that you made a great succes, not that you get extra stuff.
And at higher lvls there's DC's 30 for some stuff, so if with your nat 20 + bonus you don't meet the 30 DC, it fails.
Also it depends if the DM is more Rp inclined, so chances are that the player with the nat 20 din't ask the right questions.
In most cases its just a matter of asking the right questions, no matter the roll.
So its not really bullying, but more been strict.
Nat 20 is just the best possible result of what you are trying to do
If the DM wants there to be no information that you can get out of an NPC from a roll, honestly they should just not allow a roll in the first place (though this depends on the situation)
So you say to address any issues after the game when there is a problem with the DM, but how do you handle a DM who seems to be bullying a new player. For example, new player roles natural 20 for a diplomacy or intimidation check to get information from someone, but they still refuse to give up any information. When asked where the interrogated person is from, they will just say “the city” or when asking about a specific person, they will respond with “that is information you don’t need to know” (now mind you, the player asking questions just rolled a natural 20). But then will give up the information to other players when they ask.
One central point for everyone to remember is that you're there to play a game and have fun. What enables the people to have fun will depend on the people :) Some want an adversarial "us vs the DM" game, they enjoy the challenge and risk of failure. Others want a good story where everyone is contributing, active, helping create the world and plots and such.
So one thing you need to do is figure out what kind of people you are playing with. Is the DM setting up challenges and the players are 'trying to beat' the DM? Or is this a group that sees itself as working together more?
The other thing to remember is that this is a social game, and the DM is making these rulings based on all the subtle factors that human beings make decisions using. For example, you said that another player later asked the "same question" and got a more informative answer than when you asked.
Was it the same question, literally the same words in the same order? Even one word used differently, or a synonym, might mean something very different to someone else. For example, if you ask "What's your scheme here?" and someone else asks "What's your plan here?", I might look more favorable on the person asking about my 'plan'...because 'scheme' sounds negative. I might not realize that I am doing it, but I might be making that judgment. And the DM might be answering to one and not the other and not even realize he's doing it either.
Did the second asking of the question come after yours, in interrogating the same prisoner? Think about actual interrogation, by real-world professionals. It's not done by asking for the same information using differently worded questions. It's done often by hammering away, asking the same question over and over. And it's done by bringing in different people to ask the same questions. 'Good cop bad cop', right? You keep asking the very same question, eventually the prisoner says "Okay, FINE! I was at the bank!" So sometimes, yeah--the same question that didn't work before worked now, in actual interrogations or social situations.
Tone of voice and confidence and all sorts of very subtle factors goes a long way in communication as well. For in-game stats, the Charisma of the questioner will play a role too. As others have pointed out, a nat 20 is not an 'auto success' in social skills. A nat 20 by someone with a 20 Charisma will go further with my NPCs than a nat 20 from someone with a 9 Charisma.
That said, it's of course still possible that there was bias. You're a new person coming into a social situation with (I'm assuming) other people who had formed the group before you came around. That changes the group dynamic, and everyone has to figure out where the new person fits in. The DM isn't familiar with you yet, and doesn't know what your social role is yet (are you the one with the perpetual wry comment, the one who likes to calm down tense situations, the one who stays silent until the action starts, etc etc).
If regular player Fred says "I ask the prisoner XYZ", the DM in an important way already knows a lot about what is happening--he knows how Fred has interrogated people before, he knows that Fred can be intimidating in effective ways, he knows what Fred means when he says certain things. The DM doesn't know that about you or your character yet. So it may be natural for the DM to unconsciously give players he knows better the benefit of the doubt in cases where the new player may not get it. And maybe not because of personal bias.
That's why I try to go out of my way to help new players. If a new player in my game says "I want to question the prisoner", but it's clear that the player doesn't quite know what they are doing yet, I'll help them along. "Okay, you grab the orc by the ears and pull him off the ground. He looks terrified!" Where, with an experienced player, I might wait for the player to describe what she's doing. You may just have a DM who is waiting for more info like that from you.
And this is a point to remember--effective role-playing isn't just saying "I interrogate the prisoner, ask him where he's from. (role some dice) 20! What do I learn?" To do it effectively, you need to role-play the thing. "I casually stroll up to the prisoner. I'll take my dagger out, and start slowly running my finger up and down the blade, smiling. But really casual. When I get close to him, I'll look down at my boot and pretend to suddenly notice the blood splatter from the fight with his buddies. I'll 'tsk tsk', and carefully wipe the blood away, saying "That's the worst part of murdering people--the blood." Then I'll look up at the prisoner, casually pointing my dagger at him, and say "So...where are you from, again?""
That is going to get more info from my NPCs than 'Question, roll, ask for results'.
Here’s what I think you need to know: How to make a character. Not their personality traits or background, you can develop those later (although, if you want, you can make those while you’re in the character creation process), you need to focus on the absolute essentials: Class, race, background. Start with that. Then select skills, then equipment, etc. etc.
Don‘t expect too much. Even DM‘s are human. Some are new to the hobby, some can be good as actors, others won‘t or just describe as best as they can. Asking stuff which the DM isn‘t prepped for, could result in answers which doesn‘t sound logically. Don‘t assume it‘s all against you, but all of us have strengths and weaknesses. In a good team players and DM‘s can both improve by practicing.
I don‘t know why your DM just couldn‘t give you more information. Maybe he hadn‘t thought about your question before, and later had more idea‘s he wanted to share. A pre-written adventure module a DM can read in advance can help determining what the DM can fast react upon. Someone new, design an adventure from scratch, might not have fully fledged out everything and could not have an answer at that time. Be gentle, as prepping is hard work for a DM and he invests way more hours desigining/reading about your planned adventure or how to become a better DM, then you would by just participating like sitting in a cinema for 2-3 hours with not much to care about. A DM can easily invest 20 hours before each game sesson, to make your game more interesting. It will improve, but takes time and understanding on both sides...
One of my players I had long ago argued about not spinning a story about his background. He didn‘t know I researched the internet to gather more information for 8 hours, bought source material for him I read, digged into my archive of regional maps and prepped a story, which took another 12 hours, and he didn‘t know I did so for everyone, and he was not the only one the game is focussed upon. It just wasn’t the right time, or say it’s turn, as I want everyone to have fun and prepped stuff in order for. Just to give you an idea, how much work being a DM can be...
Sometimes your DM needs to create maps, because even some part of an adventure you can buy, is not fledged out in every direction. You can spend some hours to create such a map, depending if you run a VTT (more work creating player and DM variant), or in a traditional pen and paper session. Players usually don‘t see this effort, until they start playing the DM role as well. I encourage all of my players to be a DM once in a while. Some kindly reject because they think they cannot handle it, others are doing quite well but say as well, they are burned out after running a campagin for more than a year. So take care, play fair, cooperate and help each other. Noone want‘s to play play with his friends, because they want to hurt their feelings. Sometimes it just looks different then you‘d expect.
Thank you for all your advice. The group I play with are all pretty welcoming and like me are more focused on the role play portion of the game. I continued to have issues with the DM not really giving me any info when talking to people even in a normal setting and almost all interactions I had with NPCs started out hostile. None would talk to me and no store owners would ever offer any items even close to a normal price even after persuading with really decent rolls either. What I finally ended up doing because I don’t want to call him out and say you are being really unfair to me, was I simply as character turned to the other players and said “why is everyone in this village so bloody hostile?” This seemed to help a little and the next game play was very different and I felt like a productive member of the group.
Good you found a a way to be treated better. Maybe the other players are not that much interacting, and the DM could think you‘re focussing the game too much on yourself? Or he hadn‘t seen what he was doing and played defending his monsters and secrets too much. Who knows? It doesn‘t hurt to talk about something which is annoying either side personally after a session, because sometimes it‘s just miscommunication. I play VTT‘s and sometimes after a session create a anonymous voting, how everyone felt this session being either good or bad (because you can‘t see if they are bored to death looking into their mobiles instead, or see expressions of shock, anger, if you don‘t run with webcams - and I don‘t want to use webcams either). If I get a bad, then I ask the group what can be changed to make it a better experience. Luckily, I almost never get a bad. Well, last time I tried something new and asked one to draw maps I described for them themselves, which was seen more as as show stopper. My intend was to bring the pen and paper in it, and for me to elaborately describe in more detail what the group is seeing. But it wasn‘t wanted. You‘ll never know.. 🙂
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Hi y’all :)
I am beyond stoked That I am finally playing DND but I am having trouble understanding the game. What advice you got for me? Please send thank you.
Well... What do you have trouble understanding? To start with gameplay is loosely broken into 3 categories: exploration, social/role play, and combat.
Your ultimate goal is to imagine yourself in the situations that your DM describes to you and then describe to your DM how you, as your character, would react to the scene.
Every other piece of playing is something that you will learn through repetition and recognition. Take some time to look over the rules of combat, just skim over it so you understand the basics. You can really dig into the rules of the game as situations come up and you want to understand them better. Take more time looking over the class you decide to choose, the better you understand your class, the easier it will be to make decisions. Every other roll in the game, outside of combat, should be announced by the DM, which will make your learning curve easier.
Focus on being able to describe your actions with clarity, do not worry about role play/acting right now. Silly voices or accents aren't necessary to play the game, even if they can be fun. As long as you can explain what your character is doing, or wants to do, clearly then the game should go well. The backstory of your character, their motivations, and goals, all influence your decisions, again imagining yourself in their place. As you put those two pieces together, clarity and character motivations, the more you'll be able to "become" that character and the role play/acting will just happen from there.
Lastly: the DM is the final say, even if you feel they're wrong, but that doesn't mean you can't talk to them about it after the game. I have earned my players trust, and the trust of new players they bring in, by being firm and fair about my judgments at the table. Even with that I find that some players still have the habit of arguing a point in the middle of a game which can completely stall out a game. If you have an issue with something that happened in the game, especially since you're new, wait until after the game to talk it out. It may be intimidating to call out your DM, some of my long time friends still have a hard time calling me out, but open communication is integral to the whole table having fun. As you're learning the ropes of the game look to your DM for guidance, talk to fellow players for their experiences, and reach out to us on the forums.
Welcome to the D&D family, I wish you many happy adventures, and may the dice favor you!
Thank you for the welcome and information :)
I’m mainly confused because when I switch to the character sheet online It’s quite different from the hard copy.
And I was also stressing about learning everything right away, but I guess I just need to be patient and learn as I go.
Character sheets may differ depending on who you play with and where you find them. I have a sheet at home that is varied enough to handle 3 different ttrpgs, looks very different from the PHB version and the DDB version. As long as you can find the Ability scores, weapon and spell information, and your AC/HP, you'll do fine since most everything is based off of those numbers.
There are many, many different designs of character sheets. As long as you can find the information you need it doesn't really matter what the sheet looks like.
All roleplaying starts with putting ourself in the situation of your character and thinking "what would I do?" If you don't know the game mechanics for what you want to do, that's OK. Tell your DM what you want to do and they can help tell you how you do it in game terms.
There are a lot of rules in the game. The good news is you don't need to learn them all at once in order to play. Some may never come up in your game at all. If no one ever casts a particular spell you will never need to know the rules for it.
Most rolls to do something in the game are a d20 +/- a couple of modifiers. You will quickly learn the ones for things your character does often. Don't be afraid to ask "what do I roll?" or "how does this work?"
So you say to address any issues after the game when there is a problem with the DM, but how do you handle a DM who seems to be bullying a new player. For example, new player roles natural 20 for a diplomacy or intimidation check to get information from someone, but they still refuse to give up any information. When asked where the interrogated person is from, they will just say “the city” or when asking about a specific person, they will respond with “that is information you don’t need to know” (now mind you, the player asking questions just rolled a natural 20). But then will give up the information to other players when they ask.
A nat 20 on a skill check isn't a guaranteed success. That only occurs on attacks.
Yes, but you can’t roll higher than a 20 to ensure cooperation. You of course add the modifier and go with it. But they answer the same question for someone else in party and say, we are just trying to teach you how to ask questions. But it is literally the same question.
It is something lots of people misunderstand, because everyone always make that big a deal of it specially memes etc.
A Nat 20 doe'snt mean Auto succes with everything, it doesn't mean that the NPC who was set up by the DM to have 4 answers or 4 pieces of info, suddenly has 4 more.
If the DM deem that you had all the info you could get, a nat 20 will not change anything, he could wing it and improve yes, but its no obligation, the nat 20, just means that you made a great succes, not that you get extra stuff.
And at higher lvls there's DC's 30 for some stuff, so if with your nat 20 + bonus you don't meet the 30 DC, it fails.
Also it depends if the DM is more Rp inclined, so chances are that the player with the nat 20 din't ask the right questions.
In most cases its just a matter of asking the right questions, no matter the roll.
So its not really bullying, but more been strict.
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
I would hint, at the table, "I rolled pretty high, I thought I'd be able to get more information." and then take the answer the DM gave me. One instance of this happening may be a case of the DM having not prepared well enough or the DM trying to withhold information artificially. If this is a repeating experience I would then talk to them after the game, since it would feel like my efforts are being wasted. I would start the talk off with a simple question: "What should I change about my approach to be able to get more information from my rolls?", since that is really what it boils down to. The answer that the DM gives me will then direct how the rest of the conversation will go.
I have 3 DMs that I am fortunate to play under, having been behind the screen for the majority of 32 years it's nice to be a player again. However, two of the DMs are brand new to that side of the screen and they make decisions that really don't sit well with me at times. The third DM has a very different approach and style to me and they make decisions that literally make me cringe. I'm very much set in my ways as a DM and, with the amount of experience I have, I have extensive knowledge about the game which gives me a skewed perspective from the player side of the screen. All of these things play into how I react to a DM who does things that I don't agree with and I've had to deal with those situations.
Taking your example and looking at a couple experiences I've had with DMs, I hope this will give you an idea on how to proceed.
One of the DMs I played under resolves everything with the roll of the dice, whether it technically needs to happen or not. A creature we were fighting rolled Stealth, at which point in time all of our passive Perceptions should have kicked in. Instead the DM had one of our players, the last one to attack it, roll Perception and the player beat the Stealth roll of the creature. At this point in time, according to how the players understood it this means the creature failed its Stealth check against the player. To all of our surprise the DM explained that the player knew the creature had hidden itself but was unsure of where the creature was, simply that they knew the general location. I, improperly, called the DM out immediately by saying that they were wrong, that "the rules say", and challenged their authority, they got defensive and upset with me. A better way to handle it would have been to comment that it was a strange ruling and I'd like to ask them about it after the game.
In another game, I created a character that was optimized specifically to control combat with magic. I chose spells that would remove opponents from combat, such as Hold Person, or create advantage for my party, such as Hypnotic Pattern. The only other thing I did was make sure to give him a decent AC so he'd be trouble to hit, high Dex with Mage Armor. In all other places the character was average. By the time we hit 6th level I started to notice something strange, it seemed more and more creatures were resistant, or immune, to my spells. It wouldn't have been a big issue if it weren't for the fact that the creatures weren't normally resistant or immune. I let it go for a while, I had a couple damaging spells just in case. When it got to the point that every creature somehow had a buff, item, or effect that made them immune to CC I called the DM out after a game.
I explained that my character was now unable to participate in the adventure, as he was built, due to the choices that this DM was making. I explained that in order to make my character effective, within the confines of the rules, I'd be behind the party in effectiveness for at least 4 levels. I proposed a compromise, if the adventure was going to continue this way, could I swap out one or two of my spells. The DM answered back with "You're an experienced DM/Player, I'm tired of you making combat so easy, deal with it". I couldn't come to an agreement with him, I couldn't convince him that there were other ways of handling the situation. I thanked him for the game up to that point and stopped playing.
---
At your table:
If your DM is using these conversations like I do, mini-skill challenges, it is possible that a 25 Persuasion may be just enough to turn them from untrusting to cautious. This means they'll open up a little, but they aren't going to spill everything.
Explain what you want to say/ask clearly and succinctly: "I ask the guard where the bandits are known to hide." as opposed to "I ask the guard for any information about the bandits". Doing this creates little ambiguity, and forces the DM to give clear answers in return.
Approach the DM after the game to clarify their choices made in game when you feel they don't match your expectations. Make a note of it so you don't forget.
If you feel the DM is unfairly singling you out, explain your position, do not attack their play style. If you find that you're incompatible, thank them for their time and move on.
Nat 20 is just the best possible result of what you are trying to do
If the DM wants there to be no information that you can get out of an NPC from a roll, honestly they should just not allow a roll in the first place (though this depends on the situation)
One central point for everyone to remember is that you're there to play a game and have fun. What enables the people to have fun will depend on the people :) Some want an adversarial "us vs the DM" game, they enjoy the challenge and risk of failure. Others want a good story where everyone is contributing, active, helping create the world and plots and such.
So one thing you need to do is figure out what kind of people you are playing with. Is the DM setting up challenges and the players are 'trying to beat' the DM? Or is this a group that sees itself as working together more?
The other thing to remember is that this is a social game, and the DM is making these rulings based on all the subtle factors that human beings make decisions using. For example, you said that another player later asked the "same question" and got a more informative answer than when you asked.
That said, it's of course still possible that there was bias. You're a new person coming into a social situation with (I'm assuming) other people who had formed the group before you came around. That changes the group dynamic, and everyone has to figure out where the new person fits in. The DM isn't familiar with you yet, and doesn't know what your social role is yet (are you the one with the perpetual wry comment, the one who likes to calm down tense situations, the one who stays silent until the action starts, etc etc).
If regular player Fred says "I ask the prisoner XYZ", the DM in an important way already knows a lot about what is happening--he knows how Fred has interrogated people before, he knows that Fred can be intimidating in effective ways, he knows what Fred means when he says certain things. The DM doesn't know that about you or your character yet. So it may be natural for the DM to unconsciously give players he knows better the benefit of the doubt in cases where the new player may not get it. And maybe not because of personal bias.
That's why I try to go out of my way to help new players. If a new player in my game says "I want to question the prisoner", but it's clear that the player doesn't quite know what they are doing yet, I'll help them along. "Okay, you grab the orc by the ears and pull him off the ground. He looks terrified!" Where, with an experienced player, I might wait for the player to describe what she's doing. You may just have a DM who is waiting for more info like that from you.
And this is a point to remember--effective role-playing isn't just saying "I interrogate the prisoner, ask him where he's from. (role some dice) 20! What do I learn?" To do it effectively, you need to role-play the thing. "I casually stroll up to the prisoner. I'll take my dagger out, and start slowly running my finger up and down the blade, smiling. But really casual. When I get close to him, I'll look down at my boot and pretend to suddenly notice the blood splatter from the fight with his buddies. I'll 'tsk tsk', and carefully wipe the blood away, saying "That's the worst part of murdering people--the blood." Then I'll look up at the prisoner, casually pointing my dagger at him, and say "So...where are you from, again?""
That is going to get more info from my NPCs than 'Question, roll, ask for results'.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Here’s what I think you need to know: How to make a character. Not their personality traits or background, you can develop those later (although, if you want, you can make those while you’re in the character creation process), you need to focus on the absolute essentials: Class, race, background. Start with that. Then select skills, then equipment, etc. etc.
Don‘t expect too much. Even DM‘s are human. Some are new to the hobby, some can be good as actors, others won‘t or just describe as best as they can. Asking stuff which the DM isn‘t prepped for, could result in answers which doesn‘t sound logically. Don‘t assume it‘s all against you, but all of us have strengths and weaknesses. In a good team players and DM‘s can both improve by practicing.
I don‘t know why your DM just couldn‘t give you more information. Maybe he hadn‘t thought about your question before, and later had more idea‘s he wanted to share. A pre-written adventure module a DM can read in advance can help determining what the DM can fast react upon. Someone new, design an adventure from scratch, might not have fully fledged out everything and could not have an answer at that time. Be gentle, as prepping is hard work for a DM and he invests way more hours desigining/reading about your planned adventure or how to become a better DM, then you would by just participating like sitting in a cinema for 2-3 hours with not much to care about. A DM can easily invest 20 hours before each game sesson, to make your game more interesting. It will improve, but takes time and understanding on both sides...
One of my players I had long ago argued about not spinning a story about his background. He didn‘t know I researched the internet to gather more information for 8 hours, bought source material for him I read, digged into my archive of regional maps and prepped a story, which took another 12 hours, and he didn‘t know I did so for everyone, and he was not the only one the game is focussed upon. It just wasn’t the right time, or say it’s turn, as I want everyone to have fun and prepped stuff in order for. Just to give you an idea, how much work being a DM can be...
Sometimes your DM needs to create maps, because even some part of an adventure you can buy, is not fledged out in every direction. You can spend some hours to create such a map, depending if you run a VTT (more work creating player and DM variant), or in a traditional pen and paper session. Players usually don‘t see this effort, until they start playing the DM role as well. I encourage all of my players to be a DM once in a while. Some kindly reject because they think they cannot handle it, others are doing quite well but say as well, they are burned out after running a campagin for more than a year. So take care, play fair, cooperate and help each other. Noone want‘s to play play with his friends, because they want to hurt their feelings. Sometimes it just looks different then you‘d expect.
Thank you for all your advice. The group I play with are all pretty welcoming and like me are more focused on the role play portion of the game. I continued to have issues with the DM not really giving me any info when talking to people even in a normal setting and almost all interactions I had with NPCs started out hostile. None would talk to me and no store owners would ever offer any items even close to a normal price even after persuading with really decent rolls either. What I finally ended up doing because I don’t want to call him out and say you are being really unfair to me, was I simply as character turned to the other players and said “why is everyone in this village so bloody hostile?” This seemed to help a little and the next game play was very different and I felt like a productive member of the group.
Good you found a a way to be treated better. Maybe the other players are not that much interacting, and the DM could think you‘re focussing the game too much on yourself? Or he hadn‘t seen what he was doing and played defending his monsters and secrets too much. Who knows? It doesn‘t hurt to talk about something which is annoying either side personally after a session, because sometimes it‘s just miscommunication. I play VTT‘s and sometimes after a session create a anonymous voting, how everyone felt this session being either good or bad (because you can‘t see if they are bored to death looking into their mobiles instead, or see expressions of shock, anger, if you don‘t run with webcams - and I don‘t want to use webcams either). If I get a bad, then I ask the group what can be changed to make it a better experience. Luckily, I almost never get a bad. Well, last time I tried something new and asked one to draw maps I described for them themselves, which was seen more as as show stopper. My intend was to bring the pen and paper in it, and for me to elaborately describe in more detail what the group is seeing. But it wasn‘t wanted. You‘ll never know.. 🙂