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Ryan Dancey speaks - the Most Successful Year for Fantasy RPGaming ever. However...
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<blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 2809507" data-attributes="member: 1106"><p>There was some old stuff that Ryan Dancey quoted to that effect. DMs routinely overrate their ability - most aren't any good at making rules, and I think that can be extended to stories too. Your average DM would get rejected by Dungeon magazine, and only gets worse if he's pushed to create on the spot.</p><p></p><p>$480,000,000 says I'm right and you're wrong, though. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p><p></p><p>Can you give an example of typical DM improvisation? Lay down your cards, show me your experience. Here's an example of bland:</p><p>"You run across, um...a goblin village. There's, um...4 huts, and a fire that they seem to be cooking something on."</p><p>"Okay, you slew the 24 goblins in the village. They have...um....432 silver pieces and a dagger +1."</p><p></p><p>The alternative is wacky, which can be great fun, but not consistently so. I prefer wacky to bland, but most DMs take their campaigns too seriously to attempt it. 3E also makes wacky more difficult to do, because everything's so codified that there are barriers to inventing stuff on the spot.</p><p></p><p>There's a reason why most campaigns are railroads from one adventure to the next, and this is probably one of the main reasons. Computer games have professional designers devoting hundreds or thousands of man hours to stories alone - to suggest a typical DM can compete with that isn't realistic. Exceptional DMs, maybe, but they're rare.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rounser, post: 2809507, member: 1106"] There was some old stuff that Ryan Dancey quoted to that effect. DMs routinely overrate their ability - most aren't any good at making rules, and I think that can be extended to stories too. Your average DM would get rejected by Dungeon magazine, and only gets worse if he's pushed to create on the spot. $480,000,000 says I'm right and you're wrong, though. :p Can you give an example of typical DM improvisation? Lay down your cards, show me your experience. Here's an example of bland: "You run across, um...a goblin village. There's, um...4 huts, and a fire that they seem to be cooking something on." "Okay, you slew the 24 goblins in the village. They have...um....432 silver pieces and a dagger +1." The alternative is wacky, which can be great fun, but not consistently so. I prefer wacky to bland, but most DMs take their campaigns too seriously to attempt it. 3E also makes wacky more difficult to do, because everything's so codified that there are barriers to inventing stuff on the spot. There's a reason why most campaigns are railroads from one adventure to the next, and this is probably one of the main reasons. Computer games have professional designers devoting hundreds or thousands of man hours to stories alone - to suggest a typical DM can compete with that isn't realistic. Exceptional DMs, maybe, but they're rare. [/QUOTE]
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