D&D General Can we talk about best practices?

[Mort]

Also, the biggest argument for narrative control is just spells -- those cute little bits of narrative chunky goodness that everyone just overlooks because they've been lampshaded for so long by "because magic." I was kinda hoping someone would bring this up -- it's the best example of narrative bits in 5e (or any D&D). However, even here, the specificity of application and effect and the huge authority the GM wields over everything else (including the ability to shut these down trivially) mean that they don't actually enable narrative play, even while being narrativist elements.

5e has actually SEVERLY cut back on the narrative control of spells, at least as compared to prior editions. AND increased the DMs ability to shut spells down, as you say, trivially.

 

[Mort]

Again, there's a reason I was saying "narrative focused" and "narrative oriented". I wasn't suggesting that 5e supports narrative gameplay in the same respect as Fate does.

Although the features you pointed out (Portent, etc.) do indicate that 5e isn't entirely bereft of such mechanics. Personally, I love it when my players engage with such mechanics. I've seen some people suggest expanding various mechanics to further support such play (such as using Inspiration to add a new detail into the game - this isn't some random guard you encountered but actually your old war buddy Bob).

If you want a blast from the past you can take a look at this thread on narrative control in D&D (long enough ago that 3e was the edition). People reacted, IMO, surprisingly negatively to even the slightest bit of narrative control to the players. You were in that thread actually, and I think also surprised at the negativity.

Ok, lets see if I can stay on the topic of Best practices going forward. Sorry for the thread jack.

 

[pogre]

Are you a newbie DM?

OK. Here are some other examples from actual youtube videos that are similar:
"The Worst Dungeon Master Taboos You Can Commit in Dungeons and Dragons"
"8 Things Terrible DMs Do"

I have not watched these, but I assume they are general common sense. My point stands that I find it much more helpful when folks talk about how they run the game and why.

 

[el-remmen]

OK. Here are some other examples from actual youtube videos that are similar:
"The Worst Dungeon Master Taboos You Can Commit in Dungeons and Dragons"
"8 Things Terrible DMs Do"

I have not watched these, but I assume they are general common sense. My point stands that I find it much more helpful when folks talk about how they run the game and why.

I am convinced those kinds of videos don't exist to actually give advice, but are clickbait for DMs to either agree with and reinforce their view that they are already great DMs or to disagree with and say how they are great DMs despite doing X, Y, Z!

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think its valuable to seperate game systems (which are like engines) and the games we use them to create, although I know some schools of design do see them as synonymous.

I don't know that they're synonymous, but I don't that you can entirely disconnect them either, unless the GMing style is so loose that what game system is used is mostly irrelevant.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The character sheets stay with the GM, because the GM won't forget to bring all the notes to every game. If you want to look at your character sheet at home, take a photo.

Or alternatively, keep your sheets (both with the GM and personally) digitally, and just print the damn thing out if you want or if your game culture doesn't believe in electronics at the table. This has the virtue of always having a backup, too.

 

[Thomas Shey]

GURPS is flexible, but it wouldn't be my first choice to run either a narratively focused fantasy game, or an old school dungeon crawl. It might be a better choice than 5e for certain concepts, but not those IMO.

Honestly, for a genuine hard-core old school dungeon crawl it seems fine, unless part of your internal concept is based on not having clear mechanics. That's essentially what its predecessor In the Labyrinth got started as, after all.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Personally, I think it makes more sense to look at D&D holistically. If all someone wants to do is criticize the lack of narrative rules in the ruleset, okay. It hasn't stopped people from running narratively focused games and enjoying the experience.

Sure, a different game might be a better "script". I never suggested otherwise.

In an earlier post, I compared D&D to a multi tool and bespoke games to a set of screwdrivers. If what you want to do is drive a bunch of different screws, then obviously the screwdrivers are the way to go. However, if you want to carry a tool around with you that's good, but not ideal, for a lot of different jobs, you take the multi tool. The multi tool has different utility than the set of screwdrivers. Criticizing it as not being a good screwdriver might technically be accurate, but I would say it's missing the forest for the trees.

The problem with this is that it still requires one assume D&D is a good general-purpose tool. I have to note I don't actually see that is true. D&D seems to be good at running D&D style settings a few closely related offshoots, but the farther away you get from heroic fantasy the less adequate it looks, to me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Or you can simple phrase it as “during the first session it’s good to discuss the following:”

while I think creating a comprehensive all encompassing best practice document might be daunting, I think creating a short list is in no ways difficult.

here’s a simple one: “discuss which books the players can use to make their characters”

Is there anyone out there that thinks thst would be a bad thing to discuss?

I think it works for D&D style games specifically and a few others, but there are whole classes of game where it'd be a largely pointless exercise.

 

[teitan]

Sounds like table rules to me