When playing Dungeons and Dragons, it is important that everyone in the group understands the rules since that can have a big impact on how a given game plays out.

What would you do if one of the people in your group was trying to build a character that wasn’t allowed, but when the dungeon master of the game said no, he got upset?

That is what happened to the group in this story, and the DM of the game can’t let him play that character, but he is afraid that it might cause this member to leave their group.

WIBTA for making a player make changes to their homebrew character?

I’ve been playing D&D with the same core group of friends for about five years.

This sounds like a lot of fun.

I’m 26M, and the group consists of two couples (Mike (25M) & Mary (25F), Eric (23M) & Annie (23F)) plus another single guy, Jack (24M).

We’ve been consistently playing together since 2022, though we’ve had other friends drop in over the years. For our next campaign, starting in a few weeks, we’re also inviting another friend, Olive (26F).

These people clearly know what they are doing.

We’ve completed three full campaigns (two DM’d by me from 2022–2023, and one DM’d by Mike that wrapped up in early December), as well as several one-shots run by nearly everyone in the group, including Jack.

Jack previously DM’d a one-shot that the group enjoyed. Since then, he’s expressed interest in DMing a full campaign.

Jack sounds like a self-centered player.

As a player, Jack enjoys combat-heavy play (which isn’t inherently a problem as everyone enjoys different aspects of the game) but often disengages when it’s not his turn, frequently using his phone or computer.

During Mike’s campaign, he told Eric and Annie he was bored and felt no one was having fun, which caused some tension in the group.

This is a fair way to decide.

When it came time to choose our next campaign, both Jack and I pitched ideas. I suggested we each explain our concepts and take a ranked vote.

Jack proposed a very combat-heavy campaign using the 2024 rules (which our group has never used), describing it as “Warhammer on crack” – his words.

These proposals all seem reasonable.

I pitched a published module with about a 55% roleplay focus using 2014 rules, and also suggested a round-robin of one-shots DM’d by everyone else in the group.

The group voted, and my campaign won. Jack was the only one who voted for his as a first choice. Later that night, Annie mentioned that Jack looked close to tears, which made me feel awful, I don’t want him to feel unwanted.

D&D can get very complex.

I followed up by explaining the setting and promised a detailed Session Zero PowerPoint. In that presentation, I listed approved species, this is an animal-folk-only setting, no humans, elves, etc., and stated that homebrew races required prior approval.

Jack later sent me his completed character from D&D Beyond: a homebrewed lizardfolk subspecies he created himself.

Apparently this can make things difficult.

While lizardfolk were approved, I wasn’t comfortable allowing an untested homebrew race in a level-one campaign. Jack said he was bored of standard lizardfolk mechanics and had replaced two features with four new ones.

I felt the new abilities were too strong and suggested trimming or revising them.

My understanding is that the DM of a session should have the final say.

Jack pushed back, insisting on keeping everything as-is. We’ve been going back and forth for days.

I vented to Mary and Olive, who both think I should simply say no, since I’m the DM and we were clear about no homebrew.

This could make their entire group pull apart.

Mary also suspects Jack may intentionally be difficult since his campaign wasn’t chosen. I don’t want to be a jerk, but I also feel like he’s making collaboration impossible.

So, would I be wrong for requiring Jack to change his character when we clearly said no homebrew?

AITA?

I’ve never played D&D, but from what I do understand, the DM of a game makes the rules, so he would not at all be out of line for saying no to this character.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this situation.

He needs to be very clear about the rules.

This commenter says Jack seems insufferable.

Some players cause trouble.

You have to play by the rules.

This person says he is doing nothing wrong.

Managing personality conflicts can be the hardest part of D&D games.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.