WotC WotC partners with Start Playing to connect players and DMs and form tables.

[Vaalingrade]

But . . . sigh. WotC certainly IS a big corporation that makes big corporate decisions, and has been racking up the blunders over the past few years . . . but to see evil everytime they are involved with something is paranoia.

"I mean sure, my neighbor keeps telling me he's a kleptomanic, and has stolen from the guy down the street a number of times, but I'm not seeing him stealing right now, so there's no reason to lock my door. That would be paranoid.

 

[Reynard]

Well, that would be a benefit for WotC? Yes?

StartPlaying paying for a license is possible, but I doubt it in this case. This is just a marketing partnership between the two companies. I really doubt anybody is paying anybody . . . other than players paying the GMs!

I'm not sure what WotC gets out of the deal. No one new is going to learn about D&D or Beyond because of this agreement.

 

[GrimCo]

It's easier to be player. And for lot of people, it's more fun to just play.

Like everything else, DMing is a skill. More you train it, easier it gets. Once you have sufficient mastery over the system and know your player preferences, it gets easier to do prep work and it's less time consuming. It also helps if you have natural knack for storytelling and you can improvise on the spot. Just that two can save you bunch of time on prep work.

Lots of new DMs make mistake of over preparing. They spend too much time and do too much work and then half of that goes into trash can cause of player decisions. Repeat that couple of sessions and people burn out or just lose interest. Prep work is an art, how to do just enough but not too much. It takes time to find that balance and not get dishearten by it in the process.

And lets be honest. You need to be at least somewhat talkative person to be DM. You can be quiet type and still enjoy and play. But to run, you need to like talking a lot.

 

[Reynard]

It's easier to be player. And for lot of people, it's more fun to just play.

Again, I am not saying that everyone should be comfortable GMing, but less than 20% (1 in 5) seems way out of whack.

 

[TerraDave]

Why is WotC doing this?

If some people want to charge, and pay, for what others do for free, whatever.

But WotC doesn’t have to promote it? Why promote it?

 

[GrimCo]

Again, I am not saying that everyone should be comfortable GMing, but less than 20% (1 in 5) seems way out of whack.

Yeah, that's a bit low. But then again, it's always been shortage of people willing to run games, no matter what system or edition it is.

Why is WotC doing this?

If some people want to charge, and pay, for what others do for free, whatever.

But WotC doesn’t have to promote it? Why promote it?

Cross platform marketing? Testing ground to see if there is enough customers willing to pay for games so they can implement pay to play model in their VTT?

 

[Dire Bare]

Why is WotC doing this?

If some people want to charge, and pay, for what others do for free, whatever.

But WotC doesn’t have to promote it? Why promote it?

Why not promote it? Really failing to see the issue here.

 

[MichaelSomething]

So what's your take? Why so many players, so few DMs?

Part of it is connecting the players to the right DM.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

"I mean sure, my neighbor keeps telling me he's a kleptomanic, and has stolen from the guy down the street a number of times, but I'm not seeing him stealing right now, so there's no reason to lock my door. That would be paranoid.

It's more like my neighbor made some minor mistakes over the years, and I refuse to engage with him cause of potential mistakes I think they might make.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It's more like my neighbor made some minor mistakes over the years, and I refuse to engage with him cause of potential mistakes I think they might make.

Like sending goons after a dude and trying to slash an entire industry's throat. Minor mistakes.