D&D General How to be a Better DM: One Size Doesn't Fit All

[TerraDave]

A few different issues in the thread..

Here is another. For years now, DMs have been offered advice, often from vaunted and influential sources in the industry, that may make running their game harder and less fun for them--though it may please certain hypothetical players.

DMing is a social and hobby activity. Of course you want to do it well, but you have to do it for yourself in a way that you enjoy. If the bar goes too high, no one will jump over it, except maybe jerks who don't care (and to continue the analogy just walk under the bar).

Hopefully the reputation of the jerks will proceed them, and that will take care of itself. But the rest of us are also doing this just for us.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Imagine there's no minstrels
It's easy if you try
No bards to annoy us
No lutes for them to try

Imagine all the people
Killin' a bard today
Ah

Imagine there's no troubadours
It isn't hard to do
No valor bards to annoy us
And no lore bards, too

Imagine all the people
Hackin' a bard to pieces
You

You may say that Snarf's a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join me
And all the bards in the world will be done

Only a bard would make such a complete parody of a John Lennon song about how much bards suck. It's clearly just a scheme to smack-down their competitors.

 

[Lyxen]

If you watch the video of them playing from their home games, before the stream, their style is substantially similar. While a couple of the cast members are audience conscious and adjust their playing to suit the audience (mostly Sam), most of them didn't need to make any adjustments - they're just playing D&D as they did before the stream. Go back and watch the first few streamed sessions. They had a tiny audience and had no expectations. They were just playing ... and it is very similar to what we saw all the way along.

I only watched the home game video and the start of the stream, no time to watch more, but I completely agree that these guys are just playing together as friends, and in the end, apart from the fact that Matt does great voices and one or two have character voices, I have to make an effort to remember that they are voice actors, they look like players to me. Good players who are having fun, but I've seen tons of them over the years.

Not all DMs run a game like Matt Mercer, and not all players play like his group does - but that style is something I saw as far back as 1982. Immersive play is not a fallacy.

Exactly the same for me. The one thing that they do really well, though, is not letting the tension down during play, and I think that's a credit to Matt as a DM, but I also think that knowing that they are streaming also helps to keep up the pressure.

For me, apart from the great voice acting of some, this is the only major difference that I see with the way have been gaming since the end of the 70's, the fact that there is no lull in the game. We have digressions, we have sequences where only a few of the players are engaged, sometimes only one and the DM, sometimes really long in character discussions of options that turn up into endless series of "what if" and end up being really boring even for us, no one would watch that on stream...

Mercer is a good DM and the players are REALLY game and like to chew scenery - but strip that away and his game is near bog standard D&D 5e.
It's zero to hero, start small (small area, single town) and expand the world from there.
The rules are standard 5e with Nary even a homebrew (he shoehorned in a pathfinder class initially and has introduced more stuff as he goes but mostly classes and items, the rules remain untouched).

This is not a criticism - it's a comment stating anyone who wanted to start their own campaign could use the way he started and expanded his as an easy to follow model.

Again, I have not watched much, but I completely agree, so far (I'm only up to episode 5), it's been a nice but fairly standard dwarven town, a fairly classic dungeon and fortress, etc. The one thing that stands out are the NPCs, and for me that would be the one advice to get, make your NPCs interesting, but honestly the way it works at our tables and that I see mimicked in the show is when the NPC is "adopted" by the PC. So maybe that's the trick, find the NPCs characteristics that will make it be adopted by the party, in whatever role makes it the most fun.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

part from the great voice acting of some, this is the only major difference that I see with the way have been gaming since the end of the 70's, the fact that there is no lull in the game.

So, this has been an interesting digression in the thread, and wholly unexpected given that was really a throw-away line. Everyone is welcome to continue conversing about Critical Role, but ... I think I will make a different, more fully-fleshed out post with full thoughts on the subject.

Continue as you will, but if you want more meat on the bones, I should have a full post to attack/discuss shortly, and will allow this to either peter out or get sidetracked into something else.

 

[Oofta]

So, this has been an interesting digression in the thread, and wholly unexpected given that was really a throw-away line. Everyone is welcome to continue conversing about Critical Role, but ... I think I will make a different, more fully-fleshed out post with full thoughts on the subject.

Continue as you will, but if you want more meat on the bones, I should have a full post to attack/discuss shortly, and will allow this to either peter out or get sidetracked into something else.

Sorry, I didn't realize it was such a touchy topic. I do understand that the Matt Mercer effect can be detrimental to some people, but I think people can get a lot of positive from it too.

Does that mean I should actually read your original post and explain why I disagree? So much work!

 

[Lyxen]

So, this has been an interesting digression in the thread, and wholly unexpected given that was really a throw-away line. Everyone is welcome to continue conversing about Critical Role, but ... I think I will make a different, more fully-fleshed out post with full thoughts on the subject.

Continue as you will, but if you want more meat on the bones, I should have a full post to attack/discuss shortly, and will allow this to either peter out or get sidetracked into something else.

No, honestly, I think I'm done on the subject, I only mentioned Critical Role because others did, as I'm not an expert at all. My take on the thread was that there were things to pick on how to be a better DM, but maybe focussing on NPCs and making sure that the PCs are always engaged.

 

[Oofta]

I was perusing the thread by @Malmuria which was a comment thread about a survivor thread set up by @CleverNickName and it made me think about the overall issue of DMing, and why people both crave advice, give advice, and why the topic of good DMing can be so contentious and filled with so much one-true-wayism. Given that I wanted to write out my thoughts more in full, I decided to start a thread- a thread, about a thread, about a thread.

Please note- I am using the term "DM" instead of "GM," because I feel like it, because I'm mostly discussing D&D, and because I want to. Feel free to use whatever your preferred nomenclature is.

1. Why we always argue about definitions.

I do agree with this. Too often people get caught up arguing semantics, trying to come up with an objective definition for things that are completely subjective. Corollary to this is that because different people have ever-so-slightly different definitions of what something means leads to the the claim that the whole thing is pointless. If you can't come up with a logical argument, obfuscate!

2. Railroads and player agency and fudging, oh my!

Do what works for you and your group. I don't personally use modules because I find them either so broad they take longer to really understand that it's more work than just making up my own stuff. When I do get them, I just pull out pieces for inspiration. Probably why nowadays I prefer PDFs so I can just cut out the important bits into my notes and ignore what I don't want to use.

Fudging can get annoying if it's noticeable, but the DM is always adjusting things for their group either before or during the game. If they didn't, that first level party would be facing ancient red dragons and be dead before the PCs could say "is that a dra...". I don't remember the last time I modified a die roll, but I will adjust planned encounters or use less than optimal tactics.

3. So, what does any of this have to do with being a better DM?
Start every day with a smile so you can be done with it as quickly as possible.

One of the best things to happen to the growth of D&D is the rise of the streaming games; but this is, conversely, one of the worst things to happen to DMs. Yes, there are actual games by actual DMs streamed out

Well, the "[streams] aren't D&D games, those are entertainment." is where we went off the rails. Let's just say I disagree.

But I disagree that you shouldn't listen. I listen to advice all the time. I reject a lot of it, but I still listen. I don't care how long you've DMed or played, you can always improve. Heck, there's some posters I don't block simply because they remind me of what I should not do. Sometimes your purpose in life is to be an example of what not to do.

Of course my game, my advice, may not apply to your game and vice versa. In addition to that, accept that you can't be the right DM for every player. There are some good DMs out there that wouldn't be the right DM for me. This is such a personalized game, there's no way to please everyone and sometimes trying to please everyone means you end up pleasing no one.

4. Conclusion.

Yeah, don't get too worked up about what anyone posts. Agree, disagree, it doesn't really matter. There is no one true way. If you and your group are having fun you're doing it right.

 

[Umbran]

Maybe, refuting the advice because Oofta doesn't need it does a bit of a disservice to the advice, and those other GMs...

Hm. I've been informed that this post came across... poorly. And, for that, I apologize. I have no problems with Oofta, and was, in fact, trying to specifically note that he seems to be skilled at the craft. But I'll own that the construction was a little weird, and that means it could come across badly. Sorry about that.

 

[robus]

I find it pretty sad that the biggest thing in D&D in a long time is commonly looked down on as “not D&D”.

 

[Oofta]

Hm. I've been informed that this post came across... poorly. And, for that, I apologize. I have no problems with Oofta, and was, in fact, trying to specifically note that he seems to be skilled at the craft. But I'll own that the construction was a little weird, and that means it could come across badly. Sorry about that.

I am aware of the Matt Mercer effect, and that in some ways it can be detrimental for some people because it can set expectations too high.

I do find it useful to watch streams like this because it's given me more confidence to be, well, a little silly at times when I DM. In my last game there was an encounter with giant apes and I went all in on vocalization and acting out the apes. Not sure I would have done that before.

But no one should expect a professional voice actor DM with unlimited dwarven forge budget any more than they should expect a pick-up basketball game to be NBA level. I personally like doing voices and mannerisms and I practice at it to get better*. On the other hand everybody should lean into their own unique strengths.

*So next time you see that guy driving down the road talking to himself? If it's me, it's likely that I'm just trying to repeat the accent or mannerisms of someone that was just talking on the radio or trying out a new "voice". Practice may not make perfect and my "french" accent is still based on Pepe Le'Peu, but if it's something you enjoy practice makes better.