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

[Cadence]

Possibly. As I said, though, we use it the way you do as well, but I just see it used to mean difficult a lot more often.

Laborious [as in effort requiring] vs. Difficult [as in skill requiring]? As in hard work vs. a hard subject. For a hard class it wouldn't be clear which was meant? (Tons of busy work with picky grading, or a class in a complicated, difficult to understand subject).

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yes it does.

Easy means little effort is required. Hard means the opposite.

Doesn't matter if that effort is mental (i.e. learning, problem-solving, etc.), or physical, or a combination of both: the principle is the same.

Edit to add: I too am starting to wonder if this is a regional thing. I'm Canadian and I believe @Hussar got his start here, maybe we use the word differently than you do in California.

I'm PNW born and raised and that perfectly comports with how I would use that word.

Writing a novel is a lot of effort. It is hard to write a novel. Doubly so to write a successful one.

 

[Hussar]

Why not attempt to uplift the community of gamers by sharing some interesting game mechanics instead of expecting everyone to play every TTRPG someone somewhere may played and learned an interesting technique?

There's a difference between expecting someone to play a game and suggesting that their game would be better if they played a different game. There's also a difference between not having played a new system and outright refusing to play a new system and then claiming that there is absolutely no value in playing a new system.

 

[Hussar]

Running games is like that. What you learn from other systems is useful, but only if the players like it. If they don't like it, then it's not useful to engage those techniques. Focusing on D&D will make you better at D&D style DMing, but if your players are bored with that or want more, it won't be as useful to stay focused as it would to broaden your knowledge.

((bold mine))

See, I disagree with the bolded part. Focusing on D&D will result in stagnation as the DM simply repeats the same formula over and over again because the DM never gets introduced to new ways of doing things. It's exactly the same way that singularly focusing on anything leads to stagnation. Without the constant influx of new ideas, new techniques, innovation, etc, all a person is doing is retreading the same, tired path.

 

[Hussar]

PNW

PNW? Pacific North West?

Pre-natal weaponry?

 

[Hussar]

Something I will point out though.

Look at the reactions in this thread. @Maxperson talks about using player facing rules in his game and how they did and didn't work. Anyone who has any experience using these kinds of systems instantly groks what he's talking about and there have been zero challenges to his experience.

A dozen examples were give from a request for examples on systems people had brought into D&D from other systems. Every single example is challenged and followed by demands for further explanation because @AlViking has no experience with these systems and has no actual context to judge these things.

To me, this is the huge benefit of having experience with multiple systems. You can talk to other DM's about their techniques, what's worked, what's not worked and learn from their experiences without first having to go through endless challenges and questions and diving down the endless rabbit hole of trying to explain why these things worked.

 

[AlViking]

There's a difference between expecting someone to play a game and suggesting that their game would be better if they played a different game. There's also a difference between not having played a new system and outright refusing to play a new system and then claiming that there is absolutely no value in playing a new system.

I have never once claimed there would be no value to playing another game for some people. It's a false accusation as you should know by now.

I simply don't believe playing other games automatically make you any better and the time spent playing a different game can also be spent just as effectively doing other things.

 

[AlViking]

Something I will point out though.

Look at the reactions in this thread. @Maxperson talks about using player facing rules in his game and how they did and didn't work. Anyone who has any experience using these kinds of systems instantly groks what he's talking about and there have been zero challenges to his experience.

A dozen examples were give from a request for examples on systems people had brought into D&D from other systems. Every single example is challenged and followed by demands for further explanation because @AlViking has no experience with these systems and has no actual context to judge these things.

To me, this is the huge benefit of having experience with multiple systems. You can talk to other DM's about their techniques, what's worked, what's not worked and learn from their experiences without first having to go through endless challenges and questions and diving down the endless rabbit hole of trying to explain why these things worked.

I asked for specific rules examples in the hope of starting a conversation. Most of the responses were "I got better at _____" with no specifics of how or why, other than the game was more focused on what the blank was. That was my only complaint.

But thanks for telling me that I can't possibly conceive of how other games or systems could work, obviously you must believe I'm mentally incapable of understanding even simple concepts.

 

[SableWyvern]

See, I disagree with the bolded part. Focusing on D&D will result in stagnation as the DM simply repeats the same formula over and over again because the DM never gets introduced to new ways of doing things.

This assumes a complete lack of ability to react to or learn from one's experiences, take on board feedback or try new things without having them fed to you. It assumes you can't learn about anything without experiencing it directly. It assumes you can't change the rules of an RPG or change your style of play unless you first find and play a game someone else has written to show you how to do that thing.

These new games you think people need to try in order to avoid stagnation? They were each invented by people who had not yet played the game they were making when they started work on it.

Focusing on D&D does not necessarily result in stagnation, and playing other games does not prevent your D&D game from stagnating. Focusing on D&D might result in stagnation, but the reason you keep getting pushback is because you are saying that it will result in stagnation.

 

[Hussar]

I have never once claimed there would be no value to playing another game for some people. It's a false accusation as you should know by now.

I simply don't believe playing other games automatically make you any better and the time spent playing a different game can also be spent just as effectively doing other things.

So, you never said anything about learning to drive a truck would not make you a better driver? Maybe someone hacked your account? You never claimed that?