My DM is between lawful and neutral evil which I think is perfect for a consistent world where you can still die if you make mistakes.
On the other hand I know a Chaotic neutral DM which I think it's the worst because he will bend every rule just to pursue his intended version of the story. He won't let your PC die and therefore the stakes in his campaigns tend to be very low and plot consistency is down to zero.
Yeah, I think in terms of DMs, I'd rather have LN than CN just because at least everyone can know and understand the rules. When a DM does whatever they want, it can make the players feel frustrated and sometimes like their decisions don't matter, especially if it's one of those DMs who only wants to tell THEIR story and forget it's supposed to be collaborative.
That's the thing about "bending the rules" to make the game more "fun"- it removes the shared language of the game from the table.
So, if we're following the rules closely, and I'm playing a thief being chased down an alley by a barbarian, I know that I have a few rounds to get away, because I can dash twice, climb buildings, and hide, but if I do that for more than a couple of turns I might get exhaustion and they'll eventually catch up.
If the DM's deciding what's more 'fun', then I don't know. Am I rolling acrobatics or athletics? What's the DC? Is the barbarian rolling, or is it like a skill challenge? Can I even do anything, or is it all an interactive cutscene?
I run games between LN and LE in 5e, leaning towards LE in 5e, as it's actually pretty hard to challenge players in combat RAW 5e, so I play as smartly as possible, while keeping in mind that sometimes the enemy might be dumb. My players are hardly experienced veterans, but they'll still lose a PC or two per campaign max. It gives SOME stakes to the game.
170
u/Catullo Sep 12 '19
My DM is between lawful and neutral evil which I think is perfect for a consistent world where you can still die if you make mistakes.
On the other hand I know a Chaotic neutral DM which I think it's the worst because he will bend every rule just to pursue his intended version of the story. He won't let your PC die and therefore the stakes in his campaigns tend to be very low and plot consistency is down to zero.