Would you consider using this tactic? (Not an "Ivor and Brazenburn's Screw-up thread)

[the_brazenburn]

For those of you who have read my campaign guides and the numerous "help me" threads Ivor and I have posted, my group (yes, and me as well) often go off topic. Normally, I'm okay with this, but sometimes it just gets too much. When this happens, I sometimes resort to a tactic that is both crude and effective.

Step 1: Put all of the dice in an opaque container.

Step 2: Turn the container upside-down on the table.

Step 3: Say, "If you don't stop messing around, I'm going to lift this container and reveal the dice underneath. You will be struck by lightning and take an amount of damage equal to the results of the dice."

Usually, they shut up. I've only had to actually follow through on the threat once. The total amount of damage was actually quite low (like, less than 30), but it did a good enough job on the character that he soon fell to the orcs he was fighting.

I usually only use this as a last resort, but what does the collective hive-mind of the GitP forums think of this?

[BBQ Pork]

Heh. My party has joked about "1dEverything" with DMs with just under a quart of dice.

I suppose you have enough dice that you have a sufficient quantity trapped, with the working dice free.

But I digress.

It's a shame if your party gets this out of hand that you feel the need to do that, but hopefully everyone got back on track. The game needs to be fun for everyone, so you as DM need to determine just how far off-track they can be.
Preferably not by killing a character.

Did they feel afterward that you were being reasonable or unreasonable?

[Pelle]

"Rock falls, everyone dies" is probably a more effective version of this tactic...

[Unoriginal]

For those of you who have read my campaign guides and the numerous "help me" threads Ivor and I have posted, my group (yes, and me as well) often go off topic. Normally, I'm okay with this, but sometimes it just gets too much. When this happens, I sometimes resort to a tactic that is both crude and effective.

Step 1: Put all of the dice in an opaque container.

Step 2: Turn the container upside-down on the table.

Step 3: Say, "If you don't stop messing around, I'm going to lift this container and reveal the dice underneath. You will be struck by lightning and take an amount of damage equal to the results of the dice."

Usually, they shut up. I've only had to actually follow through on the threat once. The total amount of damage was actually quite low (like, less than 30), but it did a good enough job on the character that he soon fell to the orcs he was fighting.

I usually only use this as a last resort, but what does the collective hive-mind of the GitP forums think of this?

"If you don't stop messing around, I'm going to punish your character" is a way to grab the attention, but personally I think it's more efficient to simply directly tell them to shut up and listen, if the polite methods have been exhausted. Threatening characters don't always work, and it kinda break the "PCs are people, not just game characters" approach I favor.

When I was younger, a lot of DMs in the RPG club I went did the "you get hit by a divine fruit/flying necropolis", but the players ended up being more annoying in order to get punished in funny/epic ways.

[kardar233]

Honestly this sounds like a category error to me. If the tangents bother you a lot, talk to the players and say something like “when we sit down to play D&D, I want to play D&D, not listen to the new comedy idea you had. Can you agree to stay on topic during the game?” If there’s an agreement in place, it’s much easier to hold them to it.

I’d personally build in some leeway for diversions that are awesome. Last session the bartender of the tavern we were in turned into a demon, and when I shouted “It’s a demon, get it!” to the Kundarak dwarves who were drinking there, the players of our Cleric and Warlock independently put on outrageous Scottish accents and were extremely indignant dwarves: “Oooh it’s a demon now is it, I would never have guessed that if you hadn’t told us.”

Now we have the legend of Left Dwarf and Right Dwarf.