D&D 5E Regarding DMG, Starter Set and Essentials kit: Are they good for the starting DMs?

[Stormonu]

Seems to me that 58.5% of all statistics are made up.

And the other 98% is just flat wrong.

 

[Stormonu]

Some experienced DMs here want 50$ book (1 of 3 required) to be THE instructional manual on the game...because it makes perfect sense with reality given

1. Newcomers usually get into the game as players before advancing to become DMs (if ever).
2. Kids usually read far less these days and learn new games via streaming and instructional videos.
3. There are 3 starter sets available for a fraction of the price of the core books that do teach newcomers how to run a game.
4. A tome (or series of tomes) is far more intimidating than a starter set.

Personally, I'd like to see something on the order of the old Rules Encyclopedia - an entire, full D&D game in one book (20th level would be nice, but I'd settle for 10th level too). Something in the range of 320 pages. The three-book model is a bit tiresome, and many other RPGs have been able to get away with "one book to rule them all". Core book, optional add-on books - market it as D&D lite, I think it wouldn't be a bad model.

Throw out a starter set for the beginners - where the intent that the $20 is split among 4-5 players by the way, and I think that could work.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Building off what gorice said: This is like saying "Baking is the simplest thing in the world. You heat up an oven. You mix your ingredients. You put them in the oven. You take them out. Food!"

Baking is easy. It used to be most people did it. I do it, and I'm rubbish at most things. It's just that these days we have an entire profession dedicated to making it look difficult in order to justify their massive salaries.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No, sorry, that's just not true.

Yeah, it is.

D&D is not anywhere near that simple. You're describing RPGs, specifically DM-centric ones.

Which is what D&D is.

D&D is an RPG, but it is not anywhere near as simple as you're suggesting, and no, D&D does not let that be "all there is to it".

D&D has specific rules and guidelines, huge amounts of them.

Which you don't need to know in order to learn how to play.

The whole 6-8 encounters/day and the difficulty moderation of the encounters alone places 50-100x the DM work burden that a lot of RPGs do (I mean that literally, to be clear). Then D&D is entirely DM-centric as well, with no player narration and limited player creativity allowed, RAW/RAI, which again puts vastly more weight on the DM.

Completely unnecessary, since a starting DM can (and should) run pre-made adventures with all the encounters already planned out.

There is no need for a DM to ever create content. Creating content and running the game are completely separate skills.

And you say "Oh well people are unnecessarily panicking" and I say, no they're right to panic, D&D has too many goddamn rules and they're not good rules.

So throw away the rules. The only rule that matters is "the DM decides".

Re: encouraging people to read, ummmm, that's an unconventional take. Most educators I know would suggest neither comics nor Tolstoy were a particularly great way to get people reading.

I'm a professional educator, are you? Comics are a great way to help reluctant readers. There are some intellectual snobs in the profession who hate them. They are idiots.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Baking is easy. It used to be most people did it. I do it, and I'm rubbish at most things. It's just that these days we have an entire profession dedicated to making it look difficult in order to justify their massive salaries.

Except it isn't easy at all. I would know. My dad has gotten really big into it. Trying to develop his own recipe for buttermilk bread has been an unending source of confusion and frustration, where seemingly identical batches (where the ingredients were weighed to the gram, not measured by volume) produced significantly different results.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Trying to develop his own recipe for buttermilk bread has been an unending source of confusion and frustration

But why is your dad trying to develop his own recipes for buttermilk bread? Perfectly good recipes already exist. That is stuff you do not need to do to be a perfectly satisfactory baker. The point of baking is to make food that tastes nice, not to come up with fantastical new recipes.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

But why is your dad trying to develop his own recipes for buttermilk bread? Perfectly good recipes already exist. That is stuff you do not need to do to be a perfectly satisfactory baker. The point of baking is to make food that tastes nice, not to come up with fantastical new recipes.

Because every other recipe he's tried hasn't worked out correctly either.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Because every other recipe he's tried hasn't worked out correctly either.

But you don't need to be able to make buttermilk* bread in order to create tasty baked goods! Just as there are lots of things a new DM does not need to be able to do.

* Buttermilk is a highly variable ingredient that changes with age and temperature**. Baking with it is therefore an advanced skill. Newbie bakers do not need to be able to cook with buttermilk in order to create tasty baked goods. If you put buttermilk recipes in books for newbie bakers you are going to put them off.

** Cooking is chemistry, but once you start involving enzymes it becomes organic chemistry, and is therefore very temperature sensitive.

 

[AnotherGuy]

So not only does THACO demand higher grade maths equivalency but DMing requires proficiency, expertise and possibly a feat. I look forward to next week's topic where one needs to be a thespian before one can roleplay while November will see flaring a prerequisite for dice rolling.

 

[Oofta]

Except it isn't easy at all. I would know. My dad has gotten really big into it. Trying to develop his own recipe for buttermilk bread has been an unending source of confusion and frustration, where seemingly identical batches (where the ingredients were weighed to the gram, not measured by volume) produced significantly different results.

If you aren't trying to be an artist, baking is easy. Grab a recipe, throw ingredients together and off you go. A incredibly small percentage of recipes may be difficult but if baking were hard mankind would have never survived. Sounds like your dad stumbled across one that's difficult.

I've figured out how to make plenty of things from an old family recipe book that includes things like baking temperature being a "hot oven" and "add flour until not sticky" and the ever so useful measurement "a pinch".

But the basics? Follow the recipe and throw it in the oven.