Rules to Roleplay By

Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game and, therefor, requires at least a minimal amount of cooperative storytelling to be played at all. "Cooperative" can be a difficult thing to achieve however. To help you better work alongside your fellow adventurers, I've built a list of handy rules. To begin, I present to you my golden rule of role-playing:

The Golden Rule: Don't Be a Dick
This is actually the only rule you really need, but I understand that it can be difficult to unpack a concept as complex and nuanced as "being a dick." Also, one rule would make a pretty lame post. All of my other rules expand on this core concept, however, so its important to keep it in mind. To hep illustrate these rules, I have assembled two fictional players: Jonas and Jerkward. Both have been created from exaggerations of people I have played with and/or been. It should be pretty obvious which one is obeying my rules and which one is just being a dick.

Rule One: Respect Other Player's Experience Levels
No, I don't mean the running total that separates you from your new and better ways of breaking heads. Everyone sitting around your table has been playing this game for a different amount of time. You'll have your fourth edition newbies, your 3.5 veterans, and occasionally an AD&D superhero. Everyone knows different systems and everyone has different levels of understanding. Remember that before you start complaining about how slow someone is.

Jonas is playing in a game with one player who is completely new to D&D. This newbie is very slow with her turns and has to constantly check and recheck her bonuses and modifiers. Though he is understandably frustrated, he tries to help her with her turns and suggested she set up a cheat sheet with all her important numbers.

Jerkwad also plays with a newb who is slow with their turns. To get through her turns, he moves her character and tells her what abilities to use. When she goes to check her modifiers, he groans loudly and asks why they even let her play.

Rule Two: It Doesn't Matter What Your Character "Would Do"
We've all heard or even used the excuse "It's what my character would do!" Pro tip: that is never a good enough excuse. If it's in your nature to do something, you can usually go nuts (within reason). But the moment that your party asks you to stop, its your job (as a player) to come up with the reason why your character obeys. Solo shenanigans are fun, but D&D is a cooperative game.

Jonas plays a sticky-fingered Rogue with a soft spot for shinies. While in the king's palace, he notices an unguarded diamond in the gallery. When his party realizes that he's eying it, they remind him that they need to keep the king's trust if they want to operate in this kingdom. Jonas decides that his character reluctantly leaves the jewel alone for the sake of the party.

Jerkwad is playing a Cleric in his campaign and has decided, due to his upper class upbringing, that his character is racist towards elves. When the party's elf ranger gets into a tight spot with a gelatinous cube, he flat-out refuses to heal her. When the Ranger is flayed and digested, Jerkwad even adds a "good riddance."

Rule Three: DM is Law
This one is pretty straightforward. There are a lot of different "authorities" in D&D, such as books or the D&D website. Its very likely that you will have a disagreement over rules or what sort of material is acceptable to draw from. Make your case by citing as many sources as possible, but understand that the DM overrules all of them. If you don't like your DM's call, you may want to consider finding a new play group.

Jonas has discovered a way to create a character that can make a ridiculous number of attacks each round. When he talks to his DM about it, the character is rejected because it relies on a source book that the DM doesn't own. Jonas offers to let the DM borrow his book, but the DM also points out that the rest of the party probably won't appreciate waiting around for him to finish rolling all those attacks. Grumbling, Jonas relents.

Jerkwad is attempting to do something that the DM won't allow. The DM claims that there are no rules for it, but Jerkwad knows that a recent online article provided support for it. After yelling for a while, Jerkwad leaves the game to go look up the article, dragging off the DM to look at it. By the time he triumphantly displays the rules to the DM, they are out of time and the meeting ends.

Rule Four: Respect Your Game's Tone
Every game is different and every group sets a different tone. For some groups, D&D night is a time to kick back, hang out, and make silly jokes while crushing monsters. Other groups may take their time much more seriously and want to adventure as if they were doing it "for real." Make sure you understand your group's tone and that your character is able to behave accordingly.

Jonas has been playing an obnoxious Bard for the first few meetings of his group. He begins to realize, however, that his is consistantly the only character goofing around and that everyone else in the party is taking the game seriously. Not wanting to completely ditch the character, he adjusted to a more snarky but serious personality.

Jerkwad loves his loud, violent warrior. He is unparalleled in combat, but somewhat lacking in people skills. When his party takes a break from smashing things and starts asking around for information, he starts attacking everyone that the party so much as looks at.

Rule Five: Fill Your Role
D&D is a team based game, which means each person has a role to fill. It's important to make sure you do the job that your party expects you to do. Strikers really luck out in this regard as doing damage is one of the easiest things to do. Every Leader class has a method of healing, but it's important that you actually use those abilities. Disclaimer: I am in no way saying you have to be the best possible at your role, I am only saying that you need to do what your party relies on you to do.

Jonas is playing a wizard specializing in single-target damage. When a wave of powerful minions nearly destroys the party, however, he realizes that he wasn't doing his job. He retrains a couple of his abilities for AoE damage, without compromising the core of his character and redeems himself by nuking the bulk of an orc hoard with a well-timed Fireball.

Jerkwad is playing the party's fighter. In battle, he charges the furthest enemy he can and bashes away, leaving the squishier characters vulnerable to attack. After their Leader falls for the third encounter in a row, the bravest member of the group confronts Jerkwad about being a Defender. Jerkwad arrogantly retorts that the Leader would be fine if he just knew how to heal every now and then.