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

[HatWearingFool]

Well, we're pretty sure that the majority of players are 18 years old or older. Most evidence points to this. While there are significant numbers of teens playing, that demographic is dwarfed by older demographics.

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From: this thread: WotC - Comparing EN World's Demographics to the D&D Community's

So, assuming that new DM's would be adults isn't too much of a stretch. Again, sure, there are new DM's under 18. After all, according to the above, a quarter of players are under 18. But, again, we're talking about a minority of players. While @EzekielRaiden didn't bring receipts to say that the majority of gamers are adults, I wouldn't have really thought that he had to. It's hardly controversial.

Now, as far as people choosing to DM after playing for some time, again, I don't think that's terribly controversial. That's how things have worked in the hobby for a very long time. New player gets introduced to the game through existing gamers, tries it, likes it, and then goes on to try running games.

Do you honestly believe that most people who DM D&D have never played before they try running games? Or even a majority or people?

There is some fascinating stuff in this thread/discussion.

It’s interesting to see that a lot of people do drop out of the hobby as time goes on. Which is interesting given the number of groups I know that have been playing since the 80’s.

But I guess I know a lot of groups and people that have also left the hobby. I wonder how much of the loss is due to bad GMing?

Edit: It would also be great to get some post pandemic numbers. I’d love to see how things have changed. I love data.

 

[Umbran]

The rant had exactly NOTHING to do with, or judgement against, people that find DMing hard.

Um... maybe you didn't intend it to be, but...

"DMing is not that hard. We learned to do it when we were 10," sure doesn't come across as a compliment to those who find it hard.

It reads like, "What, you find it hard? Dude, 10 year-olds can do this! And people shouldn't tell you about content or products to help you!"

You can feel all kinds of offended if you like. I can't control how you feel. But don't leverage charges of abelism against me.

So, no aggression intended here: You seem very keen on how other people's words have impact, but you seem to be exempting yourself from that same scrutiny.

In your vehemence, you may be missing that there's probably a lot of gamers with ADD or other challenges that might well find DMing hard. You're arguing strongly that folks should not actively tell them that it is okay to find it hard, and suggest content or products for them.

If we started this with an analog, "Climbing stairs is not that hard!" how do you think this would look?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Art isn't hard. All you have to do is write "R. Mutt" on a urinal and submit it to a gallery. EZPZ.

What I will say is that "DMing" is a multi-disciplinary skillset, and you need at least a moderate degree of competency in a lot of fields, fields that most people don't normally accrue skills in. Perhaps you have lived a life that let you gain all those skills, I actually did and feel DMing comes easy to me too, but I have also watched literal award winning artists and people with PhDs struggle with the basic parts of running an adventure.

When I was in my 20s I was about to leave on an internship to work on an MMORPG. To connect with my mother, I tried to teach her how to play the game so we could hang out virtually. My mother, in her 50s at the time, could not figure out how to simultaneously move the camera and her character at the same time; something so basic to anyone who's played a 3D video game since the N64 came out. Moving your character isn't hard... but if you're a 50 year old woman whose last video game was Zork, even something "easy" is far out of your wheelhouse.

 

[prabe]

The point of the rant seemed to be aimed at people who make it sound harder than it is, usually people with products to sell that they purport will make it easier for you. The GM-Advice-Industrial Complex isn't all that, or even all caused by that--there are other causes I can point at that aren't germane or relevant to the point, here. The fact ten-year-olds learn to do it does kinda argue that it's not really as hard as you might come to think if you read about it.

I was fairly fortunate, in that I played more than a little before I ever really tried seriously to run anything, though I think I got better once I'd played at more tables--especially in the way of learning some of what I really don't (or at least didn't) like. That said, two of the guys I played with started as GMs, in the early-mid-1980s, when they would have been like ten, so there are people who start out as GMs (and it seems like a reasonable guess those are mostly the guys who end up "forever GMs," but I have neither research nor the interest in doing it to back that up).

 

[The Firebird]

Um... maybe you didn't intend it to be, but...

"DMing is not that hard. We learned to do it when we were 10," sure doesn't come across as a compliment to those who find it hard.

It reads like, "What, you find it hard? Dude, 10 year-olds can do this! And people shouldn't tell you about content or products to help you!"

I am reading @Reynard differently. To me, it comes across as: "if you find DMing hard, don't sweat it. You're doing great. All the people out there selling products and saying you must do X or Y are wrong and you don't need to compare yourself to them. Believe in yourself, just by showing up and trying you're doing a great job".

Which is a positive and encouraging approach.

 

[Reynard]

I am reading @Reynard differently. To me, it comes across as: "if you find DMing hard, don't sweat it. You're doing great. All the people out there selling products and saying you must do X or Y are wrong and you don't need to compare yourself to them. Believe in yourself, just by showing up and trying you're doing a great job".

Which is a positive and encouraging approach.

^^^^

 

[Bae'zel]

I am reading @Reynard differently. To me, it comes across as: "if you find DMing hard, don't sweat it. You're doing great. All the people out there selling products and saying you must do X or Y are wrong and you don't need to compare yourself to them. Believe in yourself, just by showing up and trying you're doing a great job".

Which is a positive and encouraging approach.

On the other hand, it can be patronizing and condescending. My sister has intense social anxiety. She's tried DMing many times and always freezes up. Last time she had a bit of a panic attack mid-session when things got too complex for her.

Telling her "naw don't sweat it, it's easy!" is dismissing her challenges. Inadvertently, perhaps. But to her it IS a big deal, it IS hard, despite the platitudes.

To be fair though, the concept of cognitive challenges / impairments / disabilities and neurodivergence is still relatively new.

 

[jayoungr]

That a bunch of 10-year-olds have attempted a thing is not the same as saying that doing it is easy. 10-year-olds paint. 10-year-olds play violin. 10-year-olds write stories. Does that mean that it is easy to paint like Dali, Michaelangelo, or Picasso? Does that mean it's easy to play Mozart, Bizet, or Rachmaninoff? Does that mean it's easy to write like Joyce, Woolf, or Frost?

I think you're missing a key point here, which is that 10-year-olds are usually DM'ing for other 10-year-olds, who are not as demanding an audience as adults. It's not that unusual for 10-year-olds to write or paint or DM well enough to impress their peers.