D&D 5E Are DMs getting lazy?

[Olaf the Stout]

For me it's a case of being time poor, rather than lazy. With work, wife, kids and other interests, I don't think I'd be able to run a game if it wasn't for published adventures.

 

[Reynard]

For me it's a case of being time poor, rather than lazy. With work, wife, kids and other interests, I don't think I'd be able to run a game if it wasn't for published adventures.

In my experience so far, 5E is very improv friendly. I can usually get at least 4 hours of play out of each hour of prep in a sandbox style setting -- write up a couple sites, a couple encounters and a few NPCs and from there it is all in the players' hands. They don't need to know that you did not have a set hex for that Banshee and Zombie Treant encounter that they stumbled upon or that the Tomb of the Night Chief appeared in the mountains because that is where they went.

 

[Nebulous]

I don't think "lazy" is a good word to use. Adults get very, very busy, and they're looking for shortcuts so they can enjoy their hobby more, versus maybe not being able to enjoy it at all.

 

[Nebulous]

In my experience so far, 5E is very improv friendly. I can usually get at least 4 hours of play out of each hour of prep in a sandbox style setting -- write up a couple sites, a couple encounters and a few NPCs and from there it is all in the players' hands. They don't need to know that you did not have a set hex for that Banshee and Zombie Treant encounter that they stumbled upon or that the Tomb of the Night Chief appeared in the mountains because that is where they went.

That's true, but I guarantee there are harried people out there that have 30 minutes before a game to scan through a pre-made module to remind them of what is happening, and that's all the time they have. Now I don't have kids and the people I game with don't have kids (which is surprising considering they're married), but even WE play for just 2 hours a week. Time is a luxury. And even with all that extra time I'm looking for shortcuts as well, and the main reason is because I HAVE invested endless hours over the years prepping sandbox games, and while it's fun, only 5 people in the world care about it. It's not worth the time/payoff, so I look for ways to ease my workload, because like you said, the players aren't going to know what I created or what was written in a book.

Besides, even with a premade module I add and tweak things to make it unique, it's never purely as written.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It seems that in a number of threads, a certain subset of folks are very upset at the lack of adventures and such for 5E, to the point of suggesting they will "run out" of things to do with 5E in a year or so. While I would certainly like to see a more robust release schedule with both standalone modules and setting books (not to mention Dungeon and a Dragon back in publication) the idea that you would "run out" of stuff to do with D&D is just plain weird. It's D&D. One of the core conceits is that you, the DM, will be creating most of the game content (usually in conjunction with your players). Need a new and interesting magic item? Create it. Need a monster that the PCs have not faced before? Create it. Need to know what it costs and how long it takes to create a magic item? Decide. These aren't the burden of the DM, they are the joys!

For fear of of sounding like an in-my-day curmudgeon, are DMs these days just too lazy to make the game their own?

You are indeed being an "in-my-day curmudgeon", as you put in, unquestionably.

Certainly since 2E, and realistically, long before, there's been an appetite for pre-made content. The fact that pre-made content is often of superior quality to homebrew stuff (for non-experts, anyway) only reinforces this desire.

So, no, DMs are not "getting lazy". That's really the end of the discussion.

(If you want to go further, a compounding factor is that the average DM now is probably 30+, with an SO, maybe kids, likely a fairly demanding job, etc. whereas "back-in-the-day", he or she was probably a teen or twenty-something with much lighter relationship and job commitments, if any. Speaking from personal experience, when I was 16 or even 22, I could sit around all day writing up rules and coming up with stuff - at 36, however, I am lucky if I have enough time to write adventures, let alone anything else - I can come up with the stuff - I still have the skill - but I sure as hell don't have the time).

 

[Reynard]

That's true, but I guarantee there are harried people out there that have 30 minutes before a game to scan through a pre-made module to remind them of what is happening, and that's all the time they have. Now I don't have kids and the people I game with don't have kids (which is surprising considering they're married), but even WE play for just 2 hours a week. Time is a luxury. And even with all that extra time I'm looking for shortcuts as well, and the main reason is because I HAVE invested endless hours over the years prepping sandbox games, and while it's fun, only 5 people in the world care about it. It's not worth the time/payoff, so I look for ways to ease my workload, because like you said, the players aren't going to know what I created or what was written in a book.

Besides, even with a premade module I add and tweak things to make it unique, it's never purely as written.

Obviously everyone is different but to me prepping for a premade module is more work intensive than prepping original content. Module writers don't know my players, first of all, and too often important information is buried in the prose (Pathfinder APs are especially bad about this -- I even asked James Jacobs about it and he said it was intentional since APs were purchased to read as often as be played). Modules are great for ideas and maps and sometimes cool encounters but usually they just don't make running the game any easier. Again, IME, the couple hours it takes prep a module for effective play is much better spend creating sandbox content.

 

[Hussar]

i kinda sorta see what Reynard is talking about, but, I'd point out a different element - creating campaigns. There is a thread right now talking about "what is gold good for" that is getting lots of traffic. The fact that the 5e DMG spends several pages talking about downtime activities in broad strokes gets generally pooh poohed. "Why don't they tell us exactly what is involved in building a castle?" or "What does carousing really mean?" go the various criticisms. For me, as someone who started back with B/E D&D, my first thought is, "Well, why are you DMing? Isn't that my job to answer these questions?"

I mean, all that kind of stuff is part and parcel to running a campaign. It's done in broad strokes because my game world and your game world are different. If WOTC gets specific, then they have to start dictating what the "standard campaign" looks like. Whether it's a 3e game world or a 4e game world or something else, once you start nailing down specifics, the game worlds that are created with those systems start looking very much the same.

The magic item economy, for example, meant that a lot of 3e game worlds looked a lot alike. You either followed the WbL guidelines in the 3e DMG, or you had a huge amount of work cut out for you.

On and on. I don't want WOTC to tell me exactly how much a guard room in a castle costs - that level of fiddly bits doesn't interest me in the slightest, for one, but, also, once you make that determination, it means that the players will start to expect it to look like that. I love the fact that 5e doesn't fight me every step of the way when I'm designing a campaign. Fantastic.

No, 5e will not gently hold your hand and tell you every little detail. You are expected to buck up and give it some thought yourself. It's part of being a good DM. The mark of a great DM is one that can look at the general and make it specific.

 

[Nebulous]

No, 5e will not gently hold your hand and tell you every little detail. You are expected to buck up and give it some thought yourself. It's part of being a good DM. The mark of a great DM is one that can look at the general and make it specific.

And look at it, make a judgement call instantly that the players are happy with, that's another sign of a great DM.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Obviously everyone is different but to me prepping for a premade module is more work intensive than prepping original content. Module writers don't know my players, first of all, and too often important information is buried in the prose (Pathfinder APs are especially bad about this -- I even asked James Jacobs about it and he said it was intentional since APs were purchased to read as often as be played). Modules are great for ideas and maps and sometimes cool encounters but usually they just don't make running the game any easier. Again, IME, the couple hours it takes prep a module for effective play is much better spend creating sandbox content.

I think you're working a mistaken assumption here - that most groups want sandbox content.

Sandbox content is absolutely the lowest-prep kind of content in many ways, because you're inevitably going to just have to make a lot of it up on the spot. So comparing that to a highly-detailed plot-heavy adventure is pretty strange and not, imho, a valid comparison.

My experience, and I don't believe I'm remotely unusual in this, is that true "sandbox"-style play, which is basically player-driven, is relatively rare, and kind of a niche interest. That the vast majority of DMs running D&D (and indeed most other RPGs) are in fact running fairly plot-oriented stuff, much of which might verge on the rail-road-y.

I know that, compared to most DMs/GMs/Storytellers I've played with, I do things pretty differently, occupying a sort of middle ground between sandbox and pre-written (which is also lower-prep than full-on pre-written). Most DMs I've played with - they have a lot more on paper than me. My brother, for example, always does.

Also, you're making second bad assumption - that because it takes you a long time to adapt stuff compared to generating it, that's fairly universal. I do not believe that's true. I mean, take me or my wife - we can certainly write our own adventure faster than we can prep a pre-made one (you sound the same way). My brother, though, or most DMs I know? Definitely the other way - and indeed many of them don't even significantly modify the adventure for their group. You're welcome to sneer at that, but it's how they roll.

And you're still just dead wrong about "getting lazy". Not only is lazy the wrong, but there is absolutely nothing new about this. Nothing whatsoever. 5E is just really showing up the problem because it's severely failing to provide the stuff these DMs expect.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

i kinda sorta see what Reynard is talking about, but, I'd point out a different element - creating campaigns. There is a thread right now talking about "what is gold good for" that is getting lots of traffic. The fact that the 5e DMG spends several pages talking about downtime activities in broad strokes gets generally pooh poohed. "Why don't they tell us exactly what is involved in building a castle?" or "What does carousing really mean?" go the various criticisms. For me, as someone who started back with B/E D&D, my first thought is, "Well, why are you DMing? Isn't that my job to answer these questions?"

I get what you're saying here, but do you understand that making up entire campaign settings isn't something every DM enjoys?

In particular, it's something many DMs enjoy initially, but which can get very old, very fast. If you don't inherently hugely enjoy making maps, thinking about economies, politics, etc., making up names and so on, it can really get you down. As much as you might come up with an awesome kingdom or two at the start, as you expand out and so on, it may well weigh very heavy.

So there's a reason people buy campaign settings, and it has literally nothing to do with being "lazy".

I'd also add that "People who are good at writing campaign settings" and "People who are good at DMing in actual live situations" are two entirely different circles on a Venn diagram. They may crossover, but one of the problems RPGs have always had is with DMs who can write the hell out of a campaign setting, but can't run the game for toffee (particularly if they start getting precious about said setting).

No, 5e will not gently hold your hand and tell you every little detail. You are expected to buck up and give it some thought yourself. It's part of being a good DM. The mark of a great DM is one that can look at the general and make it specific.

Do you not see the GIANT GLOWING PROBLEM with this?

Let me just break a nerd taboo and say it - most DMs aren't great. This includes a lot of you guys, no doubt. Maybe it includes me, who knows? But most DMs aren't great. Most DMs are somewhere in the mediocre to good range. Very few DMs are truly great. DMs who are great on their feet, particularly, barely need pre-written adventures at all.

DMs can compensate for their failing, though, with serious preparation, great knowledge of the rules, and a good attitude. Pre-written adventures can also help them, particularly if they're inexperienced.

Either way though, Reynard is wrong about it being new, period. It's always been with us. 5E's lack of material just shows it up.