D&D General The DM Shortage

[Paul Farquhar]

You don't teach people by "throwing them in the deep end,"

No one threw me in at the deep end. I jumped in the deep end all by myself, because there where no adults hovering around going "be careful, you might drown!"

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:
Folks,
You were already asked once to drop the child psychology/fear line of discussion.
So, really, please let it be. Thanks.

 

[FrozenNorth]

There are so many times I see something laid at 5e's (or Wotc-era) D&D's feet that I feel was either there from the beginning, or at least present since way back in the day.

Yup, we just didn’t notice it because we were young and had a lot more free time.

I remember prepping a long time for my teen games. Now, prep is the time after the kids go to bed the day before the game.

 

[Minigiant]

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

We as a community have it both ways.

We can't tell new DMs to both play by the core.rules and make up your rules.

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.

That's the thing.

I think a majority of new D&D fans don't actually like straight traditional D&D. That's why they are so obsessed with changing stuff and scaring themselves out of being DM.

 

[Oofta]

...



I think a majority of new D&D fans don't actually like straight traditional D&D. That's why they are so obsessed with changing stuff and scaring themselves out of being DM.

So millions of people don't like the game they play? Seriously? Where do you come up with this theory? Pretty much every home game I've ever been involved with in every edition of D&D have always had a few house rules here and there with the possible exception of 4E because of it's structure. Whenever we ask how many house rules people have on this site, which has far more old school DMs than the general populace, the majority have only a few house rules, maybe a page or less.

Just because you don't seem to care for the game does not mean that others think the same as you.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We as a community have it both ways.

We can't tell new DMs to both play by the core.rules and make up your rules.

Make ad hoc rulings is the core rule.

Trying to houserule for every eventuality is what should be avoided by inexperienced DMs.

That's the thing.

I think a majority of new D&D fans don't actually like straight traditional D&D. That's why they are so obsessed with changing stuff and scaring themselves out of being DM.

5e seems to be moving in a direction that makes it more thematically appealing to new players.

But traditional D&D, if you mean have a hole in the ground and fill it with monsters, takes less work for DMs. That's probably how it caught on in the first place. So, if you are trying to say "newer players like a strong narrative, and that generates extra work for DMs" then you might have a point.

 

[Minigiant]

So millions of people don't like the game they play? Seriously? Where do you come up with this theory? Pretty much every home game I've ever been involved with in every edition of D&D have always had a few house rules here and there with the possible exception of 4E because of it's structure. Whenever we ask how many house rules people have on this site, which has far more old school DMs than the general populace, the majority have only a few house rules, maybe a page or less.

Just because you don't seem to care for the game does not mean that others think the same as you.

I didn't say they don't like D&D
I said they might not like straight traditional D&D.

Less dwarves, wizards, delving and grit. More rabbitfolk, firebenders, intrigue, and shine.

So starter adventures and beginner DM advice might have to change to appeal to them.

 

[Reynard]

We as a community have it both ways.

We can't tell new DMs to both play by the core.rules and make up your rules.



That's the thing.

I think a majority of new D&D fans don't actually like straight traditional D&D. That's why they are so obsessed with changing stuff and scaring themselves out of being DM.

I mean, if you grew up with Harry Potter or Avatar as your touchstone for fantasy, and someone invited you to play D&D, you would look at the game and wonder what in the world you were supposed to do with it to get either of those flavors of fantasy out of it. D&D is its own genre that is most prevalent outside itself with fantasy video game RPGs because of the inherent feedback loop between them. Up until recently, the best example of D&D in media was Jackson's Lord of the Rings and even that fails under inspection.

Of course that generation is trying the hack the game to death to do what they want -- it doesn't look like their fantasy. It doesn't look like anything, except D&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Less dwarves, wizards, delving and grit. More rabbitfolk, firebenders, intrigue, and shine.

So starter adventures and beginner DM advice might have to change to appeal to them.

None of the recent starter adventures have been particularly gritty, dungeon-bound or requiring of dwarves and wizards. Aside from possibly dropping dwarves for rabbit folk in a starter set I don't see that you are suggesting anything different.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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