D&D General The DM Shortage

[billd91]

Im on year two of running 5e dnd games after a long hiatus. Since 1e, the game has evolved and continues to evolve. To me, one of the hinderances to running 5e isnt so much prep time as it is managing in game time. Combats are still just a drag of time and I find myself just continually cutting out combat encounters for the sake of game flow.

How long was that hiatus? I ask because 5e combat is, in my experience, a LOT faster than either 3e or 4e. I can understand 5e feeling slow compared to 1e, but it's pretty fast compared to its 2 immediate predecessors.

 

[Vaalingrade]

5e really did repeat a lot of the sins of its fathers.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mod Note:

How about let’s drop the child psych/fear line of commentary. Not really helpful.

 

[Digdude]

How long was that hiatus? I ask because 5e combat is, in my experience, a LOT faster than either 3e or 4e. I can understand 5e feeling slow compared to 1e, but it's pretty fast compared to its 2 immediate predecessors.

15 plus years. I think its the number of options low level characters have now compared to much earlier editions. This might just be my perception or even more importantly, my group taking forever to decide what to do. In 3e i was much more quicker to enforce choose or pass your turn in combat.

 

[tetrasodium]

15 plus years. I think its the number of options low level characters have now compared to much earlier editions. This might just be my perception or even more importantly, my group taking forever to decide what to do. In 3e i was much more quicker to enforce choose or pass your turn in combat.

My experience as well. standard action move action swift action period. Start voicing them quickly or I'm moving on.

 

[Greg Benage]

"No wonder no one ever comes in here--it's too crowded!"

Maybe we've never seen an influx of new players like this before, and maybe that's to 5e's credit rather than a problem that needs to be solved by [insert favorite game here].

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Or makes them even more afraid, because they have no one to fall back on should they need the help.

When do you hold a child's hand? When there is danger, such as a busy road. Thus hand holding becomes associated with a fear response. And, as the Bene Gesserit teach, fear is the mind killer.

Of course, when you leave the child alone, you still keep a surreptitious eye on them. But it's important they believe you have confidence in them in order for them to have confidence in themselves.

Fear is a learned response. Children only become afraid of having nothing to fall back on when they are used to always having someone helping them, whether they need the help or not.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Subgenre typically help decide which playstyles you might choice, houserules you made,and 3pp you snag.

No, it doesn't. And a new DM shouldn't be making any house rules. You have to understand how something works before you start trying to fix it.

It's "I like X & Y. How do I make my game feel like X & Y"

How do I make the game WORK has to come first.

Robert E. Howard never set out to write Sword and Sorcery stories. The subgenre wasn's invented until many years after his death. He just wrote what he liked.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I really, strongly believe that any DM shortage, if it exists, is best addressed in the long term by getting kids into the hobby.

I agree with this. I started young, and found it easy because no one told me it was difficult.

But remember, the existence of a problem does not imply the existence of a solution. Whilst there may be some things that we can do to help a little around the edges, there is no way to completely fix the problem.

 

[Clint_L]

When do you hold a child's hand? When there is danger, such as a busy road. Thus hand holding becomes associated with a fear response.

?????

Ummm...I don't know about you, but generally hand-holding for me and my child or other loved ones is a sign of affection. Like, if I see see two people walking down the street holding hands I don't think, "They must be terrified!" This whole line of pop psychology argumentation is goofy.

I've run a D&D summer camp and teach two beginner campaigns each term. Also, I've been teaching for decades. You don't teach people by "throwing them in the deep end," unless you are trying to teach them to hate something. You teach people by figuring out where they are at and providing scaffolding and modelling to bring them along so that they acquire confidence and begin to take over. You guide them (holding hands is an excellent way to help guide people, BTW), and then let them go.

With regards to teaching 5e, in my experience it is generally easier than other editions of D&D just because there are fewer inconsistencies in the rules, and the rules, though still extremely complex, tend to be more intuitive. As for when they are ready to DM: as soon as they want. That goes for making house rules, too: as soon as they want. It's only a game, and all that matters is that everyone is having a good time.

We have no shortage of DMs. If anything, we have a shortage of players.