Stuff you forgot you didn't know.

[Catullus64]

I've been playing this game for something like a decade now, and I tend to take my grasp of the core principals of the game for granted. Which means that when I occasionally start a game for entirely new players, its always amusing to see that things which you thought were common knowledge about D&D in the popular consciousness...aren't.

"Wait, this is a cooperative game? I thought we would be fighting each other."

"I didn't know that this game was set in medieval times."

"You mean there's more than one D&D world?"

And my favorite, from my own younger self: "You mean you (the DM) actually have to follow rules?"

What are some amusing fundamental misunderstandings about the game that you either see in new players, or remember thinking yourself?

[DMThac0]

I still get, and am still amused by:

"You're not kidding!? I really can do whatever I want!"

Most recent conversation I had with a group of new players:

"So what happens if we ignore the quest and wander off where ever we want?"
Me: "If you get too far off track there's a good chance a dragon will just eat your party and you'll have to roll up new characters."
*laughter* "Wait, you're serious?"
Me: "Depends on where you wander off to, you could simply get caught up by some tricky Pixies and transported to the Feywild."
"Neat! That sounds like fun!"
Me: "And then the bad guy wins. When you return there's a dystopian civilization, you don't remember that you were in the Feywild, and the grandchildren of the lord who sent you on the quest have exiled all of your families."
"We can lose?"
Me: "You can choose, there are consequences, and I'll just tell you how the world turns based on your actions."
"This is confusing...but, I can't wait to see what happens."

[Willie the Duck]

Therverian, did you mean to tell your players that if they didn't follow a railroad, their characters would die or the world would become a dystopian civilization? I know my players would balk at that kind of game. Perhaps I am misunderstanding.

Anyways, to the OP, things I could easily forget I had to learn. let's see:

• Trolls don't turn to stone in sunlight (as they do in Tolkein)
• That orcs and goblins are different things
• That a glaive is not that throwing star-like thing from Krull
• That spells, characters, and dungeons each have levels, and that they aren't the same thing
• Difference between attribute and attribute bonus
• That elves are vaguely human sized and neither make cookies, nor toys

edit: Therverian, not Catullus.

[DMThac0]

Catullus, did you mean to tell your players that if they didn't follow a railroad, their characters would die or the world would become a dystopian civilization? I know my players would balk at that kind of game. Perhaps I am misunderstanding.

Anyways, to the OP, things I could easily forget I had to learn. let's see:

The post is slightly out of context as I didn't feel like putting the whole conversation into the thread. The whole purpose of that conversation was them trying to figure out how much freedom they had as well as other session 0 material. Previous conversations had lead us to using extremes, which is how this one simply used the Dragon and Dystopian Future examples.

[Catullus64]

[*]Difference between attribute and attribute bonus

To be fair, the existence of ability scores separate from their modifiers is almost a complete artifact of older editions, and has very little reason to exist now. I hardly blame people for not thinking about that.

[Tawmis]

The big one for me, is players who don't understand how they can do anything.

I can't stand "railroading" players to do a specific thing or preventing from doing something their character might want.

So at times, the party will do something that's clearly not "in the plans" of the DM, and I am quick enough to respond to it.

Especially when it creates dire consequences that clearly change the campaign.

They've refused to believe that I don't have some magical means of thinking so quickly on my feet, based on character reactions. :)

[Lunali]

To be fair, the existence of ability scores separate from their modifiers is almost a complete artifact of older editions, and has very little reason to exist now. I hardly blame people for not thinking about that.

And honestly, it makes more sense to use the attribute itself most of the time or you end up with the all too common str 8 weakling pushing something the str 20 raging barbarian failed to push.

[Aaron Underhand]

My favourite from new players...

"So how do you win?"

[Mith]

First time playing eith new players in 5e, we had a level skip from 5 to 9. The DM has a golem hit the Cleric for 40 damage and the party freaks out. I look at them saying "What did you expect to happen? You're at 9th level now."