Teaching RPGs

[Micah Sweet]

I don't understand why people would want to watch boring people play D&D, but professional performers, like on The Adventure Zone, Dimension 20, Not Another D&D Podcast and the obscure show called Critical Role are the equivalent of table reads by entertaining actors or comedians. And I've paid to go see the actors of The Thrilling Adventure Hour do the equivalent of table reads (radio plays, in this case) in person.

At worst, watching Dimension 20 and Critical Role is a great way to level up as a DM, especially D20, which is wildly creative.

Presuming you're a fan of their DMing style of course. Otherwise, it's just entertainment.

 

[PJ Coffey]

Presuming you're a fan of their DMing style of course. Otherwise, it's just entertainment.

The AP DMs that I've interviewed, people like WackSteven and Little Red Dot (not major names I know) have said that it's a different style.

Performing for an audience is different then the normal fare.

I do quite enjoy doing voices though. Need to work on my range.

 

[dragoner]

nods I wouldn't go that far. But I believe that we can't cost along on keeping games inaccessible.

The absolute pushback against this concept and the realities of the situation is wild and quite funny to me TBP

Not sure what you are on about here.

I said to her that it would take me hiring someone else as I like pencil and paper personally, as I use computers too much. I mean I do have a free form fillable pdf chararcter sheet up on dtrpg, though I have another I just print out, and a lot of time ruled notebook paper is fine. As a publisher, I know it is unethical to criticize other publishers, and I just saw a lawsuit play out where one had to issue an apology plus pay an indemnity. I mentioned to another pub that and I think he was offended, though one can see it such as at dtrpg where we aren't allowed to leave ratings on others games. Reading the room is sort of crucial here as this a 90% oriented DnD place and they will be upset if they think someone is attacking them.

 

[MGibster]

I don't understand why people would want to watch boring people play D&D, but professional performers, like on The Adventure Zone, Dimension 20, Not Another D&D Podcast and the obscure show called Critical Role are the equivalent of table reads by entertaining actors or comedians. And I've paid to go see the actors of The Thrilling Adventure Hour do the equivalent of table reads (radio plays, in this case) in person.

It's weird, but then I'm convinced a lot of RPG material published in the 1990s was more for reading entertaining than it was for use in any game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's weird, but then I'm convinced a lot of RPG material published in the 1990s was more for reading entertaining than it was for use in any game.

A lot of great reading though. I doubt I would have stuck with RPGs through the '90s if they hadn't been a good read.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's weird, but then I'm convinced a lot of RPG material published in the 1990s was more for reading entertaining than it was for use in any game.

I think this may have been explicitly conceded at some point in the White Wolf forums on Usenet back in the day.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Presuming you're a fan of their DMing style of course.

Very few DMs couldn't learn something from Mulligan's setting designs, IMO.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My own gaming experiences have been pretty multifaceted.

Since I started in ‘77, I’m probably what most would consider an “old school” gamer. But I was an early adopter of homebrewed electronic character sheets for my favorite games. I made an Excel spreadsheet for HERO back in 1991 or so, and all of my D&D characters and campaign design notes have been electronic ONLY since the introduction of the Palm Tungsten in 2002. I migrated to the Notes app an iPod touch in ‘07, and have stayed in the Apple system ever since via phones & tablets.

And in all that time, I’ve been virtually unique in my use of tech. Sure, there was use of 4Ed’s character builder, but most of the other players in my group used printed character sheets. Some even limited the use of electronic gear at the table. It should be noted, all but a couple of those players worked either as programmers or IT professionals. One even works on computer games.

When I go in the stores and see people running games, the people most likely to be online are the GMs, not the players.

So, while I’m sure the prevalence online gaming will grow, and may one day become the norm, I’m not so certain that day is imminent.

Further, I’m not so sure that this will perforce lead to a negative effect on the skillsets of gamers. To be honest, I’m not sure why anyone would think it would.

 

[aramis erak]

What if WOTC is focusing on online play?

What are you gonna do about it?

Not use it.
Not encourage others to use it.
Not answer any rules questions about it. (which is about 1-2 hours a week of my online time)...

Having seen what the Beyond version of Spelljammer looks like... well... it's hard to cite it's hard to use, and I don't think it's any more of a threat to dead tree at the moment than is the fact that 5E Spelljammer is fundamentally very different from AD&D2 Spelljammer, both as a type of resource, and as a setting provided within that resource.

New Spelljammer sells mostly to people who don't know old Spelljammer, and most Beyond focused players and groups are not going to care that it's different... unless and until they find themselves in a group that doesn't use it, houserules it all to hell, and doesn't warn ahead of time about either aspect.

From an economics standpoint, it's in their best interests to make the DDB system as download-unfriendly as possible, while migrating as much of the fanbase as possible to digital, and making the rendering as fast as possible, while also making it useful in play... that's a lot of different directions, and while they will, undoubtedly, eventually dispense with dead tree, that's unlikely to be done for the upcoming churn...

They don't want/need grogs like me, who will use older editions henceforth.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Very few DMs couldn't learn something from Mulligan's setting designs, IMO.

Setting design and table play are different things.