D&D General A Rant: DMing is not hard.

[prabe]

I guess being a Dungeon Master is a hard as you make it. If you say it's super- hard, expensive, and time consuming, and it feels like a thankless job, I believe you. If you say it's deeply rewarding and feels like time and money well-spent, and that the smiles on your friends' faces make it all worthwhile, I believe you too.

If you say that you find it nigh-impossible because of how it interacts with your neurology, I believe you. (Not arguing--it's just a possibility you didn't include.)

 

[Zardnaar]

Its not super hard. It requires more effort. That could count as hard to someone.

Players generally just have to turn up.

 

[AlViking]

Yes you would. You would have an experience of handling a different sort of vehicle that may improve your ability to respond to other unexpected conditions and circumstances in the future. If you are on the road and a semi ahead of you or next to you or about to overtake you appears to be in trouble, you will be better able to anticipate what they might be trying to do, or be able to do, or be able to see. You would also be able to engage in forum discussions about vehicle design theory (the famous VNS) from a greater position of broad knowledge.

Whether this 1% increase in your Drive skill would make it worth your while renting a semi for the day is a reasonable question. If you're happy with what you drive/play already then maybe it isn't. But there is absolutely a benefit that could be had from trying it. Saying you could not possibly learn from new experiences is hubris.

I disagree. I don't see how driving a big truck (I have driven grain trucks and pulled 5th wheel trailers) made any significant different in my driving skills. Things that have made a difference? A driving course, video racing games with reasonably realistic physics implementations, simply driving more miles in my car under varying weather conditions and finding empty parking lots to learn how to drive on ice like I did when I was first learning. Saying that I could improve by 1% is both unproven and not a significant enough difference to matter.

As far as engaging in conversations, maybe. So what? I can also learn about other games if I want to have a more in-depth discussion of them. But for the most part I don't really care how other games work unless there's something I can apply to my D&D game. Learning chess isn't going to make me any better at cribbage.

What is hubris is you telling me that you know better than I do what is best for me or anyone else.

 

[AlViking]

I just recently read a book where the author spent a week riding along with a long-haul trucker in the US, and I get the feeling the experience changed his outlook on a lot of things, and might have made him a better driver in some ways. Honestly, just driving (even co-driving) a rented truck further than you can get in a single day can be an eye-opener.

(This is me agreeing with you, completely.)

It may make you more aware of how to interact with semis on the road, other than that I don't see how it would matter. If I had multiple people playing different games at my table when I DM, knowing more about how those games work would be essential but will also never happen so to me the analogy falls apart.

 

[AlViking]

I agree that the second quote is not objectionable. But I see things like the first quote a lot more. Here's an example in this very thread:

So let me get this straight - you ask me to play canasta and I say "Sorry I'm not interested, I have limited time and and I'm having a lot of fun with my Gin Rummy game", it's a thing? How?

 

[prabe]

So basically you're unable to imagine how an experience you haven't had can change your outlook and maybe your behavior. Noted.

 

[KYRON45]

So let me get this straight - you ask me to play canasta and I say "Sorry I'm not interested, I have limited time and and I'm having a lot of fun with my Gin Rummy game", it's a thing? How?

I have always wanted to learn how to play canasta. My uncle never cursed like he did when playing that game.

 

[AlViking]

I have always wanted to learn how to play canasta. My uncle never cursed like he did when playing that game.

Did you at least learn some interesting verbiage?

 

[KYRON45]

Did you at least learn some interesting verbiage?

I learned swearing at my mom was NOT a good idea.

 

[Lanefan]

How?

There are GM-less TTRPGs. There are TTRPGs with no randomness at all. There are TTRPGs with no classes or races. There are TTRPGs which do not use numerical attributes. There are TTRPGs which aren't even about characters.

There are self-driving cars and all sorts of other types of cars as well.

TTRPGs are at least as different as vans, trucks, and sports cars.

Trucks and vans are not cars; they're trucks, and vans.

And my point is that when someone like that says "this is the one and only system I need and you are just wrong that I don't have perspective", well, they're...just wrong. They simply don't have perspective.

So reading, discussing, and listening about other systems isn't enough to give perspective?

To turn the hose of hyperbole around, that's like saying only those who have been in politics can have any perspective on such, or only those who have recorded and sold music can have any opinions on such.

Sorry, but that's ballhockey.

"I will never even try anything else because I'm happy with what I have" is not expressing one's taste. It is valorizing ignorance under the excuse that, because you have enjoyed X, anything you say about X is a matter of taste. That is false.

The saying "ignorance is bliss" is not without merit sometimes.