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Defending Out of the Fun

by Mike on 25 May 2026

Kelsey Dionne, the creator of Shadowdark, was on the Dungeon Master Diaries podcast and mentioned something that clicked in my head in a way I had never considered. Kelsey mentioned that she can tell when a player designed a character class instead of a gamemaster because the player-built custom classes almost always include ways to get rid of the things that make Shadowdark challenging in the first place – encumbrance, light, rations, and so on.

There's an oft cited quote about game design from Raph Coster's book, a Theory of Fun. The quote is summarized by Soren Johnson on the Designer Notes blog from way back in 2011.

"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."

If we consider this quote and Kelsey's insights as a lens, we might notice these behaviors in some players focusing particularly on defense. Focusing on defense is textbook loss aversion. Anything players can do to further protect their characters, they'll do, even if it leads to the game becoming boring – maybe for them, the GM, or the rest of the group.

When I get vexed with something in an RPG, particularly D&D or 5e, it's almost always a defensive or threat mitigation issue. Hospitaler's blessing from back in the 4th edition of D&D gave characters other than the paladin hit points every time they were attacked which led to the characters leaving a beholder fight better off than when they started. The 5e spell heroes' feast used to give the whole group immunity to poison damage, making huge swaths of monsters significantly less threatening and some monsters, like ancient green dragons, were a joke. WOTC fixed this issue in D&D 2024, thank the gods.

In a recent Dragonbane campaign I played, getting attacked by monsters was really rough on the characters. Monsters don’t roll to succeed on an attack – they just do damage. Characters can dodge but doing so uses up their turn which also sucks, particularly if they fail to dodge and take the damage anyway. Needing to use an action to dodge makes the heroic ability Fast Footwork really good because you can dodge without taking your turn by paying three will (a common resource in Dragonbane). On top of taking this heroic ability, players started boosting their evade skill making it easier and easier to dodge. Later in the campaign, when most characters had Fast Footwork and a high evade, battles went from frustrating to boring. They might fight powerful monsters like blood demons or vampires and the result was losing some will. I’m oversimplifying – there's more to it, of course – but that’s the crux of it. Focusing on maximizing the evade skill and continually using Fast Footwork defends out of the fun in Dragonbane but that line of fun between frustrating and boring can be thin.

For a long time I've been vexed by the 5e shield spell. It's just too powerful. That +5 bonus to AC stacks with disadvantage and it's always useful at every level of play. The higher level the characters get, the more spell slots they're willing to spend to keep that +5 bonus up. It also interrupts the flow of the game so much that I have to pause before I start throwing attacks to ask if the recipient is thinking of casting shield so I can slow down.

Players love shield. It's likely the best 1st level spell in 5e. Talk about banning it or nerfing it and players go berserk. Why? Because it's so good.

But I'm not talking about banning or nerfing shield. Instead, when we consider a players' desire to defend themselves out of the fun, there are other things GMs can do that aren't so confrontational.

Here's the big one, particularly for 5e – be wary of giving out defensive magic items.

A +2 shield doesn't seem like a big deal, but that extra +2 stacks with everything. If we look at high-end magic armor, like +3 plate and a +3 shield, we now have a character with an AC of 26.

Characters get a ton of threat mitigation capabilities in 5e just through class abilities, subclass abilities, and spells. We don't need to help them further by rewarding a lot of defensive magic items. Instead, make magic items with cool non-defensive abilities. Maybe give them a suit of infernal plate armor that casts fire shield once per day. Sure, they get fire or cold resistance for that one encounter but the real fun is the damage monsters take for hitting them. Now players want to be hit.

D&D 2024 has a bunch of trap magic items in it – items that make the game harder for the DM to run. The biggest culprit are the terrible crafting rules in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. Using those rules, it's far too easy to make any magic item a character wants – including items that make the whole game harder and less fun to run like custom enspelled items with, you know, six charges of shield in them. This poor GM found out the hard way that rings of resistance no longer require attunement which means every character can wear ten rings of resistance if they craft them. Instead, let characters build magic items only when they get a specific component required to make the item. See Lazy 5e Crafting Guidelines for more on this topic. Limiting crafting components lets you control the pacing of these new items.

Practical Advice

So what are some practical tips for keeping players from defending themselves out of the fun?

Be careful giving out high-AC magical armor. Keep bonuses to just +1. Spice them up with one-use-per-day spell effects.
Be careful giving out other defensive magic items like rings of resistance, displacer cloaks, too many rings of protection, and other defensive magic items.
Limit crafting. Use wish-lists and scavenger hunts to locate one particular item they need to make a juicy magic item and use this to steer them towards fun offensive items instead of defensive gear.

Above all, remember that many players seek anything to reduce the threat to their characters. It's a huge drive for them. But if they truly get what they want, the game isn't much fun anymore. Understand this drive and let it help you decide what rewards they get, how you manage encounters, and ultimately how you run your game.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on What Is the Lazy RPG Talk Show? and Moldheim – Dragon Empire Prep Session 66.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Leave at least an hour for a big boss fight.
Think about what each character enjoys doing in combat. Build encounters to suit.
Use random tables to inspire ideas.
Build set pieces with interactive features for big meaningful battles.
Consider the in-world purpose of the puzzles you include in your dungeon.
Include multiple paths and secret passages in your dungeons.
Watch the clock and pace your session to fit the time you have.

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