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I see people playing the same word games, taking each other's comments out of context in an argument, debating semantics, being driven by ideology more than data -- things people do when they have a gut feeling about something unprovable and refuse to concede that someone else heard them but...

I disagree all over the place! 😂 Bad can be very subjective. When do you ever find another game that's exactly the same in all but one way? What gives one the right to say that another's behavior needs to change? Are they the Sheriff of Badtown? They can suggest or ask for it to change, but a...

We should create a spinoff thread to this one called "I can't wait for this Daggerheart fad to end." Ha! Kidding. Good morning, everyone! 🤗

It's an unhelpful characterization. It's one thing to use "bad" or "you suck" with a friend in jest, but it cuts differently with a stranger or an acquaintance as a criticism. Besides, who made them the judge of bad?? That's the DM's job. 😊 Ha! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

OK, so it's a battle over semantics. Perhaps if we change the words we're using, we'll realize that our positions aren't that far off from each other. Can we try characterizing those less-than-perfect DMs as something other than "bad"? Because I'd look at this differently if it were closer to...

Let's recap the past 200-300 posts on this thread. Somewhere between 2.5-25% of DMs may or may not be bad, depending on one's personal trauma and their definition of "bad." Additionally, some enworld members advocate for the inclusion of rules to control DM behavior. Other enworld members...

Interesting angle. If that is true, I bet there's a correlation between people who lack the confidence to speak up or cause conflict, with their initial decision to join a game with a bad GM in the first place. I suspect that players who seem to repeatedly find themselves in games with what...

Fair enough about players. That's true. This thread was DM focussed from the start so understood. I've never considered myself to be a bad DM. (Sorry, I know how that sounds.) Not as I was young and learning, and not as a vet. I think I always brought the right attitude to it and was blessed...

Well, I said what I meant and meant what I said (yaaaargh, he said in his best Popeye voice). Bad players are worse because circumstance never forces them to change. An acquaintance of mine of 30+ years has always been a horrible person, predator, someone I'd never trust. Years ago he played...

No, not back to blaming players. I never stopped blaming them. At least as often as DMs. Why would bad players get a pass? Look, you can't have it both ways. If DMs can be bad, and you appear to think they are often, then so can players. I think bad players are a bigger problem, but I'm sure...

Me too. It feels like folks are grandstanding and showing off, and I don't like the pressure of trying to create so much on the spot from whole cloth. I want my RPGs to recharge my batteries, not drain them. Being a D&D DM is much easier for me because I've almost always prepared my key assets...

For sure, some people are just tone deaf. I can usually forgive tone deafness when it comes from well-intentioned naivete, but when it's someone who simply doesn't give a crap about others, I won't deal with someone like that unless I have to.

OK, I think I follow. I think part of the subtext for me is...why even bother writing a lot of this GM boundary stuff down though? I ignore a solid half to 2/3 of the material in the 2024 DMG already. I don't need it. A lot is overkill and mostly just slows the game down for me. I also don't...

I'll echo that! It's like front-row seats to a reality TV show. Ooh! Hand me the popcorn!!!

Didn't you also have teachers who said, "Two wrongs don't make a right?"

Brilliant response and solid reasoning. 👏

Naw, I don't like that. It's not like calculating someone's score on a multiple-choice test. I may give the exact same DM a 12 that someone else gives a 3. What'd be the point? I don't see the value in attributing a numerical value to a human's performance in a complex, subjective experience at...

Chalk it up to different gaming experiences then because I don't agree with "often don't care." Some don't care? Absolutely. But are you implying that DMs in general often don't care? If so that hasn't been my experience.

This is the same debate between different philosophies. When I DM, I honestly couldn't care less what the monster stat block says, because I don't think the author ever truly intended every member of an entire species to only be able to use Legendary Resistance 3/day...because that would be...

Exactly! That goes to that earlier comment about me letting players play non-standard species/races (in my example, a juvenile red dragon). I've never let a player in the party play a powerful creature without also disadvantaging them. To maintain balance, I offset the pros with some cons. They...