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

[soviet]

OK, I have a solution. As an experiment, everyone in the thread buy my game Other Worlds, read it, and report back in a week to see what benefit you gained. I think the hardcover version is easier to learn with.

 

[SableWyvern]

OK, I have a solution. As an experiment, everyone in the thread buy my game Other Worlds, read it, and report back in a week to see what benefit you gained. I think the hardcover version is easier to learn with.

If you were serious about the upsell, you'd be pointing out that if one is good, two copies must be twice as good.

 

[soviet]

If you were serious about the upsell, you'd be pointing out that if one is good, two copies must be twice as good.

Buying two copies would absolutely teach people an important lesson!

 

[Hussar]

I took a race driving course that really taught me a lot, far more than driving a truck ever would. I suppose there might be something I could learn about the limitations of the semi that might lead me to treat them with a little more respect while driving, like limited lines of sight and needing significantly more distance to stop. But I can also learn those by reading articles. So I agree it's unlikely to hurt but I don't see why people assume it would help.

Spoiler: My experience with a race driving school

Some of it was pretty simple way of visualizing what your car can do - imagine a rope tied to your steering wheel to your brake petal, the harder you turn the less you can use your brakes and vice versa. One of our first lessons was related to that and how you relate to an emergency such as a semi jack-knifing in front of you while driving highway speeds. Your natural reaction might be to turn the wheel as far as you can and slam on the brakes since it works on TV. But your tires can only do 100% of any one thing - turning or stopping. So you're far better off slamming on the breaks and then lifting off the brakes as you starting to turn. If you do start to skid, turn into the skid as fast as possible and if you can't regain control you're kind of SOL so the best you can do is slam on the brakes and hope for the best.

Other things were like how to read a track line and get around corners as fast as possible because the course was both defensive driving an race driving. Hint: going sideways around a corner is typically quite slow, it only works better under very specific circumstances like rally driving on gravel. TV shows dramatic driving, not effective driving.

In any case, it did make me a better driver because it was focused on the dynamics of the vehicle I was actually operating.

So, apparently learning a completely new thing and not specializing in one single thing made you a better driver? You issue isn't with the idea of moving outside of a specific system, but with the example?

 

[AlViking]

So, apparently learning a completely new thing and not specializing in one single thing made you a better driver? You issue isn't with the idea of moving outside of a specific system, but with the example?

My issue is with your unfounded assertions that you know best and that there is one true way.

 

[Maxperson]

And right there. There we have exactly what I was talking about. Someone with absolutely no experience with something proclaiming that doing that thing could not possibly help, despite not having any experience with that thing.

You don't think being able to parallel park a semi-trailer using only your mirrors might just make you better at parking? Just a tiny bit?

No. Not at all. To park a semi takes different skills and involves spaces of radically different sizes. There's nothing there that would help me park a car. My extensive experience parking my cars, though, that helps a ton.

Now, where the analogy falls apart is getting your truck license is a pretty extended process. This isn't something you can do in 3 hours. Yet, you could pick up an RPG, read the rules, and play a session, for many RPG's, in three hours. How long do you think it takes to learn Dread? There's THOUSANDS of one page RPG's out there. Spend 10 hours and you've got a session on Trail of Cthulhu or Savage Worlds under your belt.

Yet, we see repeated claims that learning another system cannot possibly help you play D&D. Could not possibly improve your game.

The truck licensing process is precisely because it's not at all the same as driving a car. It involves different skills regarding something super massive and dangerous.

As for RPG claims, I mostly saw people arguing that wider knowledge didn't mean you were better at it than someone who specializes in D&D, not that it wouldn't or couldn't help.

I personally think that both methods are about the same with regard to DM competency, but will result in different experiences when playing the game.

 

[Mecheon]

I'm never going to drive a semi for a living, so what value is there in knowing how to drive one? It's not going to help me be a better driver in general. It's not going to help me drive my car. It can only help me drive a semi, which I'm never going to do. It would only be of value to me if I was going to make a living as a truck driver.

I mean, when you drive the car its very likely there could be a semi on the road. Driving isn't a one person thing, there's going to be other people out and about, and those other people are going to be far larger threats than one's ability to park. Having experience in the semi means you know what that driver has to face. Sure, you've probably heard "Yeah it has blind spots and takes longer to brake", but you never are really going to know exactly how one can perform unless you've had experience in it

Its not going to help you park a car, sure, but if Brakecheck Barry or, worse, a Ranger Driver, are out and about, its going to help you be a safer driver around semis

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, when you drive the car its very likely there could be a semi on the road. Driving isn't a one person thing, there's going to be other people out and about, and those other people are going to be far larger threats than one's ability to park. Having experience in the semi means you know what that driver has to face. Sure, you've probably heard "Yeah it has blind spots and takes longer to brake", but you never are really going to know exactly how one can perform unless you've had experience in it

Its not going to help you park a car, sure, but if Brakecheck Barry or, worse, a Ranger Driver, are out and about, its going to help you be a safer driver around semis

I'm already VERY careful around them, watching for movement towards me in case they missed me in the blind spot, or even moving over a lane. I also make sure they aren't close behind me, even to the point where I'm rarely directly in front of one.

 

[GrimCo]

Don't know how it's in other parts of the world, but here, if you wanna drive semi, you first need car licence. Regular B licence is 30 hours of theory, 9 hours of first aid and at least 35 hours of practice. But C license (one for trucks) is just 10 hours of theory and 15 hours of practice on top of your B license. And with new regulations about mandatroy safety features in cars/trucks, new trucks ( from 6/7/2022 for all new models, from 6/7/2024 all new registered), need to have blind spot monitoring, vulnerable road user detection (pedestrians/cyclists), and reversing cameras or sensors.

Unlike sports or driving, or any other activity that relies on brain muscle connection and muscle memory, ttrpgs are entirely mental construct. Things work different by just you saying they work different. That means it's easier to port new ideas across systems. TRPG mechanics are abstract models- rules, probabilities, and narrative permissions, that are fully understood through explanation and reasoning. Since play is mediated by language and adjudication rather than embodied skill or muscle memory, a mechanic’s function can be grasped conceptually without firsthand experience. Once you understand what an idea is meant to do and what behavior it encourages, you can adapt it to D&D without ever engaging with the original system in play. And that's beauty of it. You can watch people on Yt who played other games, distilled best parts, and present them like concepts and ideas.

Play other games if playing other games is fun for you. But, if you have limited play time, ttrpgs in general aren't your hobby ( like good chunk of casual D&D players aren't into broader hobby), or you can't find enough people to try something new, well, play what you like and have fun with, you still can learn and take different stuff from different games trough other channels.

 

[Hussar]

No. Not at all. To park a semi takes different skills and involves spaces of radically different sizes. There's nothing there that would help me park a car. My extensive experience parking my cars, though, that helps a ton.

I thing @Maxperson here has perfectly encapsulated exactly my point.

He has, with zero experience or training, decided that learning to drive a large vehicle will in no way improve his skills at driving a car. It is not possible that learning to drive a large vehicle will improve his driving. Now, he believes this despite being directly told by people with experience and training driving large vehicles that learning to drive large vehicles will improve his driving. But, because he has zero experience or knowledge, there is absolutely no argument that can be made that will change his belief.

And you see this in gaming all the time. People who absolutely reject concepts or methods despite having no direct experience and not even really understanding what the concept or method is or how it works. Completely rejecting things and essentially denying that other people's direct experience could possibly be valid.

And folks want to claim that you can be a really good DM this way? Look, I'll be the first to admit I'm not a good DM. Not even a little. I muddle along and people seem to be having a good time, but, great DM? Nope. Not me. I've been fortunate enough to play with some really great DM's over the years and I'm not them. But I want to be a really good DM. So, the idea that I'm going to deliberately ignore methods and concepts that might make me run a better game just because it happens to not come from a D&D book? Not likely. I'll take all the help I can get thanks.