My friends and I have been playing D&D and one of them is the DM and I feel like because of him the game isn’t very fun. I get that the DM is in charge of the game but he is very strict and passive. I thought the game was supposed to be where you can do anything you want depending on what you roll for what, Like throw the child your holding at the dragon your fighting (I tried to do that and my friend wouldn’t allow it) and I was really disappointed when it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I was hoping to just do random fun stuff and so where my friends but the DM won’t let us. So am I just not playing the game how it’s supposed to be played or is the DM not being fair or not playing the game right?
Well, I'd say that throwing the baby at the dragon WASN'T the smartest idea.
D&D is about going on an adventure with your friends and experiencing a large story together. The DM is supposed to facilitate that overall, but he can tell you "no" if you're being ridiculous and generally a bad player. While I haven't been able to experience your game first-hand, I'd say that the DM was within his right to say "no," as that was kind of ridiculous. However, I will say that the DM shouldn't completely railroad the party into doing whatever campaign he wants, as that sucks the fun out of everything and shows that he can't adapt on the fly due to whatever decisions your party is making.
Given the one example you've stated, I would say that the DM could (not is) be in the right for this one. However, have you tried to make decisions like that in the past? Would those be in-character for who you're playing? This is a roleplaying game, after all. Has the DM been far more restrictive with previous events and such?
Sounds like that could be a little much. Usually, with DMs I've had, they're either like, "wait, do you really want to do that?" as a warning that it's a bad idea, or they just give consequences to stupidity. Because I agree throwing a child at a dragon isn't a great idea, but most DMs would allow you to do almost anything.
If this is a one-time thing, that's one thing, but if it's consistent, then maybe you guys need to talk about having a little more freedom.
Perhaps your DM has seen some terrible derailed campaigns. Perhaps they're new. I don't know, but I'm sure there's a way to fix problems if they do exist, and I think the main thing is just talking about it.
With my DM at school, the main problem was that it was a lot of worldbuilding and little combat, but after we brought that up, we were able to fight a few more little skirmishes here and there. One of my friends DMed more recently, and it was her first time. She learned she needed to have more NPCs prepared and generally prepare more for the unexpected. And sometimes railroading is perfectly okay. In my most recent campaign, everyone was indecisive, and our DM had to constantly hint at us to go places. He was worried that this wasn't good DMing, but everyone was fine with it in this case.
I guess my point is, all of this really depends on the situation. Just keep communication open and see if that helps.
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