The role of the Dungeon Master is to provide a story and challenges in Dungeons & Dragons, but some players exhibit excessive paranoia, even though most DMs are not out to get their players. Tabletop RPGs are a form of collaborative storytelling, and D&D in particular focuses on combat and overcoming challenges due to its heroic fantasy theme. Since the role of DM requires more time and prep work than any other, few DMs aim to cut their own campaign short with a planned TPK. A good DM provides encounters that test the party’s tactics and teamwork, and challenges that leverage the characters’ skill sets. Plot elements like twists and betrayals can make a story interesting, but some players who have had poor experiences with tabletop RPGs in the past may exhibit an antagonistic style of play.
There certainly are some DMs who delight in making the party suffer, and there are D&D players as paranoid as Phillip K. Dick protagonists. Some groups who desire a ruthless challenge may even prefer this style, as any victories could feel more earned. Discussions of the tone and expected challenges of the game should take place prior to the start of a campaign, ideally. Players who exhibit excessive paranoia and engage in endless second-guessing of every facet of the game can slow down progress and irk their fellow party . The current 5e rules of D&D have smart design features that should make this sort of momentum-killing behavior unnecessary, if used correctly. ive perception scores eliminate the need for constantly checking for traps and ambushes, and ive insight can be used in lieu of incessantly second-guessing NPCs.
Much of this comes down to trust between the DM and the players. The most thorough session zero preparations cannot eliminate misgivings if the game itself does not build trust. Understanding how ive perception works in D&D, along with similar ive skills, means DMs should be feeding players information without requiring them to specifically scrutinize every square of the map for traps. Similarly, players need to distinguish between roleplaying a professional adventurer who takes adequate caution to protect themselves and their allies from simply being a nuisance at the table. A DM can build trust by showing that the characters’ ive skills do matter, offering information on traps and secret doors, along with insight-based information on NPCs who seem guarded or malicious towards the party.
DMs Build Trust By Giving Players Adequate Information To Make Choices
Combat can be a tougher issue to deal with, as players often become emotionally invested in the outcome of battles. If every fight is beyond the party’s abilities, the DM likely needs to revisit their encounter balance. By the same token, most players enjoy a degree of challenge, and finding that sweet spot is among the most difficult tasks for any DM. Characters with the best D&D feats for battle encounters might make short work of enemies that a less optimized character would find overwhelming. Complaining that a DM is being unfair is not the answer, whether it is with combat or social encounters. Instead, the player should have a mature discussion of their expectations, so they can get on the same page with their Dungeon Master.
Avoiding “gotcha” moments is the key to minimizing paranoid play in D&D. This does not mean that the story cannot have twists and turns, but it does require more transparency than some “old school” DMs are comfortable with. A DM should not intentionally put a series of overwhelming obstacles in the players’ path and then state after the fact that they should have run away. It is the DMs job to provide the players adequate information on what their characters should know. Skilled DMs can pull inspiration from Disco Elysium's weird rules into their D&D games to provide insights beyond simple sensory information.
Leveraging a character’s ive skills (such as ive nature for an encounter with beasts, or religion for a battle against undead) to relay that “this fight appears to be more than your group can handle alone” empowers the players to make a choice, where telling them after the fact comes across as mean spirited. When these issues arise, players and DMs should discuss them respectfully to ensure that they are not working against each other so that Dungeons & Dragons can be rewarding for everyone.
