When did DM's get lazy?

[Romnipotent]

when they started working 7-6 days and playing on saturday with no free time after shopping/cleaning and visiting the kids

 

[Psion]

I was looking over the new PrC format WotC has and noticed the "Adaption" section, which details how the class can fit in Forgotten Realms, Eberron and homebrews.

I don't know about other DM's but most of these sections seem pretty common sense to me.

Maybe. Maybe not. I am a big fan of idea-laden product. Any little nugget of an idea might be one that I didn't come up with myself. I think I am pretty creative but as the saying goes, two heads are better than one; two imaginations (or many) are also better than one.

Other than that, I agree with Romnipotent. Being "Married with children", I have less time than I used to have to spend of creative tasks that might be peripheral to creating the campaign.

 

[devilbat]

As everyone else has stated, I don't think theres a problem at all with the "adaptation" section. I thiink it serves as a good reminder for the busy DM, as well as being helpful to beginners.

 

[bloodydrake]

Heck YES! I am that lazy! Self proclaimed world's laziest DM and proud of it.

A question that really has to be asked is: Why am I buying a product only to have to do umpteen hours of work adapting it on my own? That's fine for those who enjoy reinventing the wheel with every product they buy, but, for me, I want to buy a product and with the minimum amount of effort possible, plunk it down into play. It bugs me to no end to buy a product and then have to completely rework it in order to use it. If including a couple of pages of information as to how this can be slotted into this or that campaign, then it's all good. I wish more publishers would do this. Include ideas for how to fit this into a low magic (Eberron), mid magic (Greyhawk) or high magic (FR) campaign.

Isn't the point of buying stuff to make my life as a DM easier? Why should buying a new book mean MORE work for me? If I'm willing to shell out the thirty bucks or so for the book, then, hey, I want to save thirty dollars (or MORE!) worth of work.

I gotta agree with Hussar this is exactly what i want. Being a fairly rookie dm to 3.something and having way to much to do as it is,having products that are high quality and provide the conversion notes to fit into the retail campaign world i use is a godsend.

This is why products like the Shackled City appeal to me its rich with details of the town its npc's the surrounding areas ect.It profides for me all the stuff i don't have time to do myself.

Age of Worms is even better with player maps and conversion notes in webenhancements. Dropping the campaing in a standard FR world or Eberron world suddenly becomes viable without having to reinvent the wheel each month.

I wish other publishers of Settings would talk with companies like paizo for permission to provide conversion notes for these adventures on their sites.Having conversion notes for Wilderlands,Scarred Lands ect ect for these epic adventure campaigns would be awesome and it would be great to get people to buy into 3rd party settings knowing they can easly use official adventures in their setting.

 

[SWBaxter]

Have DM gotten so lazy that WotC can pad a word count offering them advice they should figure out on their own.

Every DM I know who's at least halfway decent aspires to be as lazy as possible. Bringing an entire world alive is a pretty significant task, and somebody who doesn't take every shortcut they can find inevitably either quits within the first half dozen sessions, or ends up with a dull cookie cutter world. Of course, in the long run this means the "lazy" DMs do far more work, since a reasonable amount of work on a multiyear campaign adds up to a lot more effort than burning out in the first month.

 

[Mark Chance]

Note that some DMs have a life outside of their weekly game sessions....

Quite so. I work most Mondays through Fridays from 7:00 a.m. until at least 4:30 p.m. I often have to put in an hour or so on weeknights after the kids have gone to bed, and I usually spend several hours during the weekend working as well. And this is just work-related. It doesn't include family obligations, such as cooking, cleaning, helping with homework, birthday parties, et cetera.

IOW, I'm not using pre-generated materials because I'm lazy. I'm using them because I have a life that doesn't revolve around gaming, which is to say, I have a life.

 

[Eternal Knot Games]

I just wish when I was a new GM I'd been given help with the settings, instead of all my games dying one or two sessions in...

I also wished for advice in being a GM in general.

 

[Mark Chance]

What's next? Another sentence or two on how a XXX of Hextor fits in a Greyhawk setting?

Since you asked about Hextor:

Church of Hextor

Hextor's portfolio covers six aspects: tyranny, war, discord, massacres, conflict, fitness. Each aspect represents one of Hextor's hands, and the Church of Hextor's structure reflects these representations. Each of Hextor's Hands controls a different function within the Herald of Hell's organization.

Hand of... - Function within the Church
Tyranny - This is the top tier of the Church. It directs the myriad activities of the other Hands.

War - This Hand controls Hextor's armies on the field of battle.

Discord - Sometimes Hextor needs to gather intelligence and destablize an area before conquest. This Hand holds Hextor's spies.

Massacres - When people step out of line with Hextor, they answer to his Hand.

Conflict - Not every problem can be solved by violence (at least initially). This Hand holds Hextor's ambassadors.

Fitness - This Hand ensures proper instruction in both mind and body.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Maybe. Maybe not. I am a big fan of idea-laden product. Any little nugget of an idea might be one that I didn't come up with myself. I think I am pretty creative but as the saying goes, two heads are better than one; two imaginations (or many) are also better than one.

Agreed. I think that any tool that WotC can give DM's, whether common sense or not, is a good thing. You just may not have thought of an idea, so adaptation notes are great.

Really, the 3e rules for D&D have focused on rules so much that it's good to see the trend shift to include flavor aspects. I welcome this addition.

 

[green slime]

Have DM gotten so lazy that WotC can pad a word count offering them advice they should figure out on their own.

Sometime between the second child and working 60 hours a week....

Yeah, I guess that is being real "lazy".