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

[SableWyvern]

Again, that's just not true. If you learned to drive a semi, you absolutely would be a better driver.

Having broader experience makes people better at anything. That's just true. Doesn't matter what it is. Broader experience is how everyone gets better at anything.

I agree. However, it's completely beside the point.

The real point is, there is no good reason for @AlViking to be put in a position where they need to defend their decision in the first place. Sure, playing other games B, C and D might make them better at playing game A by some measurable amount. But that doesn't mean that the degree to which doing this ends up increasing their overall enjoyment of the hobby will be any higher than if they just kept playing game A. It doesn't mean that the degree to which their skill at game A increases by playing B, C and D will be higher than the degree to which their skill will increase by just continuing to play A. It doesn't mean that they even consider, "skill at engaging in this leisure activity" to be important to them at all, or more important than a range of other factors.

The whole line of argument is a strawman and it goes back to another way of putting down people who don't play their games they way others want them to. "Hur hur, ignorant self-saboteur, you only think you're having real fun! By sticking to your one game, you lack important skills that the rest of us develop and your games are worse as a result."

 

[SableWyvern]

You absolutely SHOULD do any or all of these things. But, why are you claiming that it's an "instead" and not "and".

Because my time is finite. Any activity I undertake comes at the cost of not doing something else at that time.

What specific activity do you believe a one-game roleplayer should not engage in, in order to find the time to play the additional games you want them to? Generally speaking, the impression I get is that they're expected to not play the game they would prefer to, while trying other games -- in which case, you're not just saying, "Do both," you're saying, "Do less of A in order to do more of B". Alternatively, if you're suggesting that they keep playing the existing game just as much and add in new games, then you're saying instead that they need to find more overall time in which to engage in the hobby, as if they don't already spend as much time as they are able to or wish to.

 

[SableWyvern]

I mean, good grief, we've seen claims that learning to drive a different vehicle in no way would make you a better driver, which is patently false. Gaining broader experience always makes you better at things.

I agree that argument is wrong. It's also, as I mention, a strawman, and people are arguing against it because they've got their backs to the wall. They're being attacked, called ignorant and the like, simply for doing what they enjoy, by a bunch of people acting like playing a range of games makes them some kind of morally superior, culturally more refined elite that is entitled to stand in judgement of the unwashed mass of single game ignoramuses.

 

[soviet]

What specific activity do you believe a one-game roleplayer should not engage in, in order to find the time to play the additional games you want them to?

Forum posting?

Ultimately I don't care if people only want to play one game and not try any others. But I will push back on people who say that there is nothing that can possibly be learned from doing so, or that all other games are inferior, or that the things that their chosen game can't do (or can't do well) are not possible to do in an RPG.

 

[soviet]

I agree that argument is wrong. It's also, as I mention, a strawman,

It's not a strawman. It was literally said, a few pages ago.

 

[MichaelSomething]

All the arguments being made in thread for trying more games could just as easily be used to argue that, instead of playing an RPG, people should go take a cooking class, go to the gym or watch a movie. All those things have just as much chance to be life changing, can increase your range of experiences, have inherent benefits and can even assist you in getting more enjoyment out of RPGs.

Now you're talking! I also recommend going camping to better understand overland travel, picking locks since it's a common rouge activity, and maybe even forging your own sword!

 

[AlViking]

Again, that's just not true. If you learned to drive a semi, you absolutely would be a better driver.

Having broader experience makes people better at anything. That's just true. Doesn't matter what it is. Broader experience is how everyone gets better at anything.

Saying it's true doesn't make it so.

I disagree that driving a semi would make me a better driver and you haven't given a shred of justification for why would other than your repeated assertion. Playing chess is not going to make me better at Parcheesi. There is zero evidence that playing one RPG will make me any better at another. What, exactly am I supposed to get better at? Role playing? That has little to do with rules. Same with creating scenarios, planning adventures, the whole shebang of DMing.

 

[soviet]

Now you're talking! I also recommend going camping to better understand overland travel, picking locks since it's a common rouge activity, and maybe even forging your own sword!

I think you're being sarcastic but doing and understanding these things really would make one's fantasy games better.

The point is not 'therefore you should go out and do them'.

The point is 'therefore you should not dismiss those activities as having no value' and 'therefore you should not speak authoritatively on what is and isn't possible in the real world regarding those activities'.

 

[soviet]

Saying it's true doesn't make it so.

I disagree that driving a semi would make me a better driver and you haven't given a shred of justification for why would other than your repeated assertion. Playing chess is not going to make me better at Parcheesi. There is zero evidence that playing one RPG will make me any better at another. What, exactly am I supposed to get better at? Role playing? That has little to do with rules. Same with creating scenarios, planning adventures, the whole shebang of DMing.

I gave you a couple of reasons why driving a semi would make you a better driver, which you seem to have ignored.

 

[SableWyvern]

Forum posting?

Ultimately I don't care if people only want to play one game and not try any others. But I will push back on people who say that there is nothing that can possibly be learned from doing so, or that all other games are inferior, or that the things that their chosen game can't do (or can't do well) are not possible to do in an RPG.

Yes, I agree that both extremes are wrong -- although, in my experience, the people I've seen making unreasonable comments about their single-game preferences typically only do so after they've already been attacked for their preference.

It's quite common for people to moan about people that only want to play D&D and then all get together to tell each other how much better they are than these ignorant fools. I rarely, if ever, see the opposite initiated without pre-existing context. On the other hand, EnWorld is the only D&D-centric place I frequent and I'm rarely in 5e-specific threads here, so perhaps it does happen, just not in places I visit or when I'm paying attention.