D&D General D&D as a Curated, DIY Game or "By the Book": Examining DM and Player Agency, and the DM as Game Designer

[Don Durito]

I really wouldn't conflate enjoying curated settings with enjoying railroads. Now one may of course like both, but they're completely separate things. I like playing in curated worlds where the GM has put a lot of thought in things and have an unique vision. I want to explore such worlds, and that it is a product of someone else's mind makes it surprising and exiting. But I want to do the sightseeing at my own pace and not on rails.

You curate the setting so the game can focus around a particular theme and not be a railroad.

If what I want to do is run a Dwarf focused game set in the last great dwarven city as enemies approach on all sides what I don't do is start the game with a random collection of characters in a random village and then find some hook to railroad them along to the Dwarf city.

This way the players also know up front what they're getting into and can assent to it or not.

 

[Oofta]

i believe that players are smart enough to make difference between a control freak DM vs the one who has an unusual story world to share. Sadly they are sometimes the same person.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've never run into it. I mean, I've had bad DMs, but there was no correlation between world building and bad DMing.

I mean, unless you count the DM who bragged about his unique world where there were places like BobTown where everybody was named Bob. No reason really, no curse, nothing. Just that was the name for the first NPC so he went with it. I mean, I guess that's unique.

Good thing is that nowadays it's a lot easier to share information and details about campaigns than it was even a decade ago.

 

[Krachek]

Maybe I've been lucky but I've never run into it. I mean, I've had bad DMs, but there was no correlation between world building and bad DMing.

I mean, unless you count the DM who bragged about his unique world where there were places like BobTown where everybody was named Bob. No reason really, no curse, nothing. Just that was the name for the first NPC so he went with it. I mean, I guess that's unique.

Good thing is that nowadays it's a lot easier to share information and details about campaigns than it was even a decade ago.

Control freak DM was long time ago, hopefully. I agree that sharing ideas but also having access to inspiring materials had never been so easy.

 

[Minigiant]

Obviously I think a DM should be open about what kind of campaign they run. But I fundamentally disagree with the "forced to design for a diverse market". Maybe that's true in your neck of the woods, but it's not in mine. I've never had a problem finding players wherever I lived.

I think that's the key.

If the pickings of DMs are slim, players will be forced to sacrifice their wants to get in a game.

If VTTs and gaming meetup continue to develop, DMs who don't think of the "consumer" or "audience" will see a lot more Nos.

. I agree. But is also boggles my mind that players would sign up to play a game and make a character and not care about the details of the world of the intended theme of the campaign.

Yet this is much more common.

Because there are more players than DMs.

If Tom and Tim are the only DMs in Joe's area, Joe is going to pitch his dream evil fiendish orclock to both Tim and Tom whether they like it or not.

 

[Don Durito]

One issue that always seems to get ignored in the conversation is that when I think of "curated" campaigns (homebrew, DIY), I am not really concentrating on exlcusion.

Yes, exclusion of some standard things does accentuate what remains. But in my experience, most DMs that go to the effort of having a curated campaign are also altering and adding things to their campaign world as well!

I feel like, far too often, people conjure up this image of some tyrant, standing athwart the PHB and the DMG, yelling, "Stop, there shall be no dragonborn here, for I do not allow them to pass through these gates to my pristine world!"

Really, though, the DMs who have spoken up have discussed (at length) the custom races and/or classes and systems that they have added to their campaign worlds. The homebrew and 3PP material that would not normally be available.

I think that this aspect gets (sadly) overlooked.

Yes. I find it quite bizarre. As I said in that thread a while back in communicating expectations, a big part of pitching a campaign is selling players on all the cool potential involved with a particular campaign idea.

Take the Dwarven kingdom campaign I mentioned a few posts ago. I could just say "Dwarves only' but it would probably be better if I gave some good incentives, both mechanical and storywise to play a dwarf. (After all Legolas is a character that could work in a Dwarven Kingdom game).

Of course if after all that, I had absolutely no buy-in to the central concept, I wouldn't run the game (or would run it for different players).

 

[Oofta]

I that's the key.

If the pickings of DMs are slim, players will be forced to sacrifice their wants to get ina game.

If VTTs and gaming meetup continue to develop, DMs who don't think of the "consumer" or "audience" will see a lot more Nos.

I guess it doesn't bother me if I get 100 "no" as long as I get 6 "yes"*. Not sure why it would matter to anyone. Unless you're trying to make a living at it but that's a whole different subject of course.

But this is also off topic and just carrying over stale arguments from other threads. I think there is plenty of space in the hobby to allow everything in the book or curated campaigns. Each DM, each group, needs to follow their bliss.

Have a good one.

*Which, admittedly, 1 is kind of a gimme since my wife plays.

 

[Don Durito]

I guess it doesn't bother me if I get 100 "no" as long as I get 6 "yes"*. Not sure why it would matter to anyone. Unless you're trying to make a living at it but that's a whole different subject of course.

But this is also off topic and just carrying over stale arguments from other threads. I think there is plenty of space in the hobby to allow everything in the book or curated campaigns. Each DM, each group, needs to follow their bliss.

Have a good one.

*Which, admittedly, 1 is kind of a gimme since my wife plays.

I've seen some of the ads for people being paid on Roll20 and my god to they make me want to cringe.

DM as customer service role!

 

[prabe]

I've seen some of the ads for people being paid on Roll20 and my god to they make me want to cringe.

DM as customer service role!

And even if you're not being paid, being told "no, thanks" stings at least a little.

 

[Minigiant]

I guess it doesn't bother me if I get 100 "no" as long as I get 6 "yes"*. Not sure why it would matter to anyone. Unless you're trying to make a living at it but that's a whole different subject of course.

But this is also off topic and just carrying over stale arguments from other threads. I think there is plenty of space in the hobby to allow everything in the book or curated campaigns. Each DM, each group, needs to follow their bliss.

Have a good one.

*Which, admittedly, 1 is kind of a gimme since my wife plays.

I t goes to to the idea of seeing D&D as a game or a hobby.

If seen as a game, one the a game company can make money off, it will expand. This expansion will push for services to help players match with DNs who share their desires.

Therefore DMs will end up having to market and advertise. And services for that will develop.

 

[prabe]

Therefore DMs will end up having to market and advertise. And services for that will develop.

I'm not sure--at least, it's not happening yet.

I started both my campaigns at local game stores. (Different ones, because reasons.) I did so for a few reasons: My place was small and crowded; I wanted a larger group than I could muster just from friends; and I specifically wanted to expand my comfort zone by gaming with people I at least started out not knowing. I had no trouble getting players for either campaign, with nothing more than a little write-up on Meetup.