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

[soviet]

Really? Because all I remember is "It would make you a better driver" because different vehicles handle differently. So? Why would actually driving a semi make me better at driving a car? I can understand how semis handle, how they need much further stopping distance, basic dynamics of a large truck without ever sitting behind the seat. I also know truck drivers have limited sight lines because ... wait for it ... I read about it and it's logical.

I didn't ignore them, I don't think it proves your point.

You don't think real world experience has any value and you think your own five minute consideration of 'what you imagine other perspectives to be' is all the insight anyone could ever gain from anything. This is an unusual perspective for someone posting on a discussion board to take. (Well, not that unusual, to be fair.)

Although, thank you for proving that @SableWyvern's position ('no-one is rejecting the potential value of other perspectives') to be incorrect.

 

[AlViking]

To an extent. But I don't believe that @AlViking is making some absolute statement that they know everything about how every game will play. They're making a conversational statement that they've got a reasonable idea what they like and, on the balance of probabilities, the cost of not playing the game they know they will enjoy outweighs the chance that some other game that doesn't sound like it's their type of thing actually turns out to be amazing.

If people do start digging in and making more absolute statements, it's most likely because they are being forced to defend a simple choice by people who are accusing them of ignorance, stupidity, lack of culture, self-sabotage and like.

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. Yet, if someone tried to argue that someone who refuses to replace an RPG session with a cooking class is equivalent to someone who hates all non-Beatles music so much they can't even stand listing to soundtracks during a movie, they would be rightly ridiculed.

I think my love of travel, camping, learning about what life was like at various times in history, my fondness of mimicking accents and doing voices, my interest in mythology and multiple religions make me a better DM. Playing other TTRPGs? I just don't see it making a big difference, even if I had time and opportunity which by and large I do not. Could I possibly, maybe learn something by playing other games? Sure. I could also learn something from any number of other activities. Could I possibly, maybe learn something by playing other games? Sure. I could also learn more from any number of other activities. Could playing other games make me some small percentage "better"? I don't see any reason to expect a significant difference. That word "significant" keeps getting ignored.

Yes, different games have different approaches. But this idea that I can't even conceive of playing a game with a different approach or understand the concepts well enough to use them in my game if I wanted to do so? Ludicrous. What always amazes me is that the same people who repeatedly tell me that I'm doing it wrong insist that there's some vast cabal of people who claim that D&D is the one true game for everyone that I've never seen evidence of. Do I think D&D is the best game for everyone? No. Do I think everyone would be better off if they only played D&D? Heck no. Why is it so hard to accept that I enjoy playing a specific game and I see no value in playing other games just because some rando on the internet say it would be good for me?

Maybe I just don't care if I get "better" because we're having a lot of fun as is.

 

[soviet]

If nothing else, driving a semi would mean that you could back up and park a car a LOT better. If you can parallel park a semi or back a trailer into a small space with minimal clearance, it gets a LOT easier to back up and park a car. As someone who had to learn to park a tank, I can honestly say that the many, many hours of training driving a slew of vehicles for the army made me a much, much better driver than anyone who has only driven a car.

I don't drive at all. I have never sat and operated a car in any capacity (unless Roadblasters counts). My understanding of what a driver can or can't do is entirely coloured by watching people drive cars I am a passenger in, and movies. I do not pretend that 'well, I have seen Drive, and Bullitt, and Vanishing Point, and all the Mad Max films' means I understand driving. If someone tells me 'soviet, this is not an easy driving manoeuvre, it is really difficult' I would have to say 'OK'.

 

[AlViking]

You don't think real world experience has any value and you think your own five minute consideration of 'what you imagine other perspectives to be' is all the insight anyone could ever gain from anything. This is an unusual perspective for someone posting on a discussion board to take. (Well, not that unusual, to be fair.)

Although, thank you for proving that @SableWyvern's position ('no-one is rejecting the potential value of other perspectives') to be incorrect.

I don't need to drive a semi in order to understand what their limitations are. I can grok other perspectives without playing other games.

 

[AlViking]

This.

People are allowed to have their fun however they like it. But it isn't controversial to say the more experiences one has, the broader their horizons and thus concept of fun will be.

People that are offended by the idea of people suggesting they should consider trying new things are exactly the kinds of people that most need to try new things, IMO.

But it's gone far beyond "suggesting" which is the whole issue. It's that "You will never rise to our level of expertise unless you do what we do". Because for a lot of us, it would take significant effort and disruption of games we are having fun playing to "try out" other games. It's just not practical for me or the people I game with.

 

[Hussar]

But it's gone far beyond "suggesting" which is the whole issue. It's that "You will never rise to our level of expertise unless you do what we do". Because for a lot of us, it would take significant effort and disruption of games we are having fun playing to "try out" other games. It's just not practical for me or the people I game with.

Again, this is entirely on you and has absolutely no relation to anything anyone here has said.

 

[Lanefan]

If anything i think the 1999 data woukd trend towards even shorter games now.

I strongly suspect the average gane is a few sessions in the lvl 1-7 range. WotC has basically told us this.

Then as now I also suspect the vast majority of gamers are casuals.

In the mid-late 1990s I very much suspect most of the people still playing were hard-core nutballers i.e. the opposite of casual. Most casuals had long since drifted off, many of them to M:tG

 

[soviet]

But it's gone far beyond "suggesting" which is the whole issue. It's that "You will never rise to our level of expertise unless you do what we do".

Which is 100% true. If I've been to France multiple times, and you've once looked it up on wikipedia, I know more about what France is like than you do. If I've read 100 games and played 20 of them, and you've only ever read or played D&D (the figurative 'you') I know more about RPGs and RPG design than you do. These are just facts.

Because for a lot of us, it would take significant effort and disruption of games we are having fun playing to "try out" other games. It's just not practical for me or the people I game with.

That's fine. I don't say you must do these things. I don't say that doing these things is free of opportunity cost. I don't say that prioritising the opportunity cost of trying them over the potential benefits of trying them is incorrect. I simply say that doing these things would not have zero value, I simply say that doing these things would increase your overall understanding of the field. Valuing your fun over 'possible learning experiences' is fine but it doesn't mean that those learning experiences wouldn't be real.

 

[Reynard]

But it's gone far beyond "suggesting" which is the whole issue. It's that "You will never rise to our level of expertise unless you do what we do". Because for a lot of us, it would take significant effort and disruption of games we are having fun playing to "try out" other games. It's just not practical for me or the people I game with.

I count one person saying that. Everone else is just saying it will have a net benefit, not that you suck for not engaging with it.

But if I may be so bold: go to a con or two and try games you haven't, or games you have with different people. Small regional cons are everywhere, all the time. I would be very surprised if you couldn't find one within a reasonable day trip distance.

Or don't.

 

[Lanefan]

People playing evil characters is a giant red flag. They tend to be disruptive and tank the game.

Thing is, one group's disruption could be another group's bread and butter.

I say let 'em fight, as long as it stays in character.

I am sure some folks can do it but every evil pc in any game over the last 30 years has been bad for the group.

One of the PCs in my current game has a well-known history of murder in her past (including of both someone else's PC and a valued NPC party member), and she'll play this up so that the other PCs will at least try to stay on her good side; this to avoid waking up one morning being suffocated by a pillow. And yes, Detect Evil will pull her every time.

Worth noting also that this murderess has also become the party's most valuable character, in terms of how much less the group would be capable of without her. They'd be idiots to kick her out, and they know it.