As a DM do you punish players who are using stealth, but still talking to each other at the table?

No, part of the fun is people talking to each other. Although I will “punish” if it’s funny.

It’s not “punishment” to run the game consistently.

I don’t watch “Dragon’s Den”, so I can only imagine what you’re talking about.

But if people say they are trying to be stealthy, but then start jabbering at each other, then yeah there will be noise, and if there’s someone near enough to hear and notice it, they might.

That’s a pet peeve of mine in many shows where people are supposedly trying to sneak around, or even out-maneuver armed foes in the dark, but they’re stopping to loudly chat, look at each other, shine flashlights around, etc.

I’ve run dragons den encounters before. Sure, they use stealth and that’s fine. I have them roll a stealth and I have the dragon roll a perception. That’s how I run it. I don’t mind if the players talk to each other. Although I will object if I have one player try to tell another player how to run their character, especially if they’re in different parts of the room or whatever.

Some players I know of (I don’t play) have secret conversations with each other online. I don’t know if that’s what you mean.

Yeah, I would imagine talking if you are in the same room is fine with stealth, but in different rooms thats odd. I like the perception checks.

@Caravanfan, since you are into DnD/TTRPGS, I have to ask, have you played Baldur’s Gate 3? I know it’s a video game, just wondering.

@MakeItSo1701 Believe it or not, I don’t play video games. The last video game I played was Myst in the ‘90s. I like arcade games but that’s about it.

Oh, I thought you were looking for a submarine game a while ago

@MakeItSo1701 Yes, that’s right. It was just a whimsy. The ones I looked at were either too simple or too complicated (like a flight simulator) so I never followed through. Nowadays the only online game I play is crosswords. I do play D&D online but it’s with people and online maps.

I haven’t DMed before, but it’s a good question. I tend to agree with @Caravanfan‘s perspective. Ultimately it’s about having fun with friends. I do prefer when the DM requires the player to actually communicate as the player for things like persuasion checks, so:

Player: “I’d like to roll to persuade the king to increase our reward by an extra 100 gold pieces”
DM: “What do you say to the king?”

I feel like this is along the lines of your question in terms of the DM encouraging engagement by the players in the story.