Quote Originally Posted by kyoryu View Post
Better:
Player: "I insult the king!"
GM: "That may not be a good idea. You know this king has a reputation for not having much of a sense of humor, and nobles, in general, tend to stomp out anything that even appears to be insolence. Given how tough the guards are, you're pretty sure they could take you out. Being imprisoned might be the least bad thing that could happen to you."
Player: "Who cares? I do it anyway!"
GM: *sigh*

You haven't given the player anything that the character wouldn't know, and know they know they're playing a stupid game, and so it's perfectly fine that they then win a stupid prize.
Spoiler: Reminded me of my player...
Show
Reminds me of one of my players. After the king's servant just relayed their quest to the party, this guy decides to go say "Hi" to the king (because, you know, it's a breach of etiquette to send such stuff via servants).

Riding a horse.

Into his personal bedchamber.

Even fighting guards.

Each of these steps had "That may not be a good idea + explanation" from my side before it.

Facepalms from other players were many. "It's what my character would do" + "It's the custom of my people to enter bedchambers of their lieges horseback!" were also stated in defence.

Surprise! The player felt I was treating him unfair when I told him to roll a new character, as that one was thrown into jail.




Eldan's advice is suprisingly sound. Nobody wanted to switch from our local DnD clone until I just said I'd GM. Give it a try.

I did. And unfortunately, now it means I only get to GM. One other player stepped up, but his games are... well, ever seen a railroad? Well, remove the turnouts. You do not get choices.

@Eldan: On the other hand, most of my usual players live far apart now - so when I tried yelling "I'll GM" out of the window, people just didn't seem to care.