When did DM's get lazy?

[Ridley's Cohort]

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.

Exactly right. If I want a grabbag of interesting ideas that will take me an entire weekend to build something usable for my particular campaign, I can get those for free on the web.

The point of laying out the cash for a book is to get someone who is better at design than me to take a stab at it first. And if he is actually that good, he will include some notes on how to adapt to various campaign styles.

I have noticed that the flavor text introducing a PrC can be misleading. The Adaption and Prereq sections give a much more reliable picture of what the class will look like.

 

[antman120]

Since 2 of my players always want to DM, whenever I can't get the adventure ready, one of them has got an adventure ready. But it is true, every little bit helps.

 

[JoeGKushner]

For my level of play, I've been unimpressed with the "conversion" notes thus far most of the time as they are rather obvious points of "put this here" as opposed to something new and detailed.

Having said that, I can see where it would be useful for new GM's, GMs who might not be overly familiar with said source material, GM's that are having a brain cramp, etc...

 

[Ranger REG]

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

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

Meh. Considering that the majority of the published material caters toward player's interest more than aiding DMs both newbies and vets, I'd say this is a good change in the company's direction.

 

[Black Pharaoh]

I got "lazy" when I got a job and a family and don't have the time and energy I used to be able to devote to playing and prepareing.

 

[Henry]

I think you have your answer, von Ether. For my take, more flavor is preferable to more crunch, and wherever I can get an idea to fit in a certain monster, PrC, or item, I'll take it.

 

[Arnwyn]

When did DM's get lazy?

When we got jobs, careers, and lives.

 

[Sejs]

As others have already said:

'DM' and 'lazy' don't belong in the same sentance together. Being a DM requires a much greater time investment than just showing up and being a player does. It's the difference between cooking a nice meal and eatting a nice meal.


If someone cooked you a nice meal, are you going to complain that the stewed tomatoes came out of can rather than having been made by hand?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

For my level of play, I've been unimpressed with the "conversion" notes thus far most of the time as they are rather obvious points of "put this here" as opposed to something new and detailed.

Having said that, I can see where it would be useful for new GM's, GMs who might not be overly familiar with said source material, GM's that are having a brain cramp, etc...

It also helps to establish "canon," which is something in which, I'm led to believe, fans of published settings are interested.

 

[Altalazar]

Having it gives the option. You can use it or not. Never underestimate the value of features that make life easy for the user. One could call a DM lazy for not creating the whole adventure from scratch. But that's not the point. As long as it is short, a little conversion sidebar is nice (short because it does use up valuable space).