How to deal with a DM with poor knowledge of the system?

Currently got a DM who keeps his major NPCs classes and abilities very close to his chest, which is fine in itself, but he keeps messing up the abilities and the checks we should get against them and we only ever find out in retrospect once we piece together what the NPC was, usually long after the fight.

For example not getting spellcraft rolls when the enemy wizard casts an illusion in front of us, not even letting us know a spell was cast in-fact. Not giving us spot checks when we should get them etc, or thinking dimension door grants invisibility for some reason.

What's the best way to handle this?

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Originally Posted by WhatThePhysics

Express your complaints. If they don't budge, find another Dungeon Master.

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/thread

Great advice, right there. I will second it wholeheartedly.

Hmmm... I suppose I agree with a slightly softer version of the above.

Contrary to my personal experiences, don't assume the worst, just explain how the rules actually work, and how you'd like the game to go. Perhaps suggest someone with better system mastery (who wouldn't mind losing out on getting to make certain key decisions) help by co-DMing for a while.

In addition to telling them, you could help teach them how the game works.

Some DM's simply don't know or understand the rules vs outright breaking them. If they are willing to learn, they can be taught and get better about this kind of stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ErebusVonMori

What's the best way to handle this?

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Are they new?

DMs that are new to a system(an existing system, one they modded, or one of their own) are more prone to the occasional mistake. Less experienced DMs have an even higher error rate.

I would gently point out how consistency help bind the game together. Then I would ask if there was someway I could help as they got used to the system they were using.

Key points:
The DM makes the rules so it is their rules I want to help with.
I am offer my willingness to help rather than pushing a specific solution.

I deal with this all the time in my college group. I guess it's good that they want to tell a story and are into it, but generally, I'll let this go just due to incomplete knowledge of the system. Maybe correct them via email or group discussion as nice as possible.

Sometimes though, you just need to cut your losses and find a different group or DM yourself. If the story they are writing is good enough, I'll stick around.