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

[Hussar]

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.

I'm fairly confident in stating that completely refusing to look at other games and only focusing on one single activity will result in stagnation. That diminishing returns is a real thing and there is an upper limit to how good you can be at something if you absolutely refuse to broaden your focus.

Again, if I stated that I can be the best guitarist by ONLY playing rock music, I'd get laughed at.

If I stated I could be the best writer by ONLY writing one single genre and never even reading any other genre, I'd get laughed at.

If I stated I could be the best teacher by ONLY using a single method and refusing to even look at any other methodology, I'd very rightfully get laughed at. ((And, having seen THAT in action, I can only feel really, really bad for those students))

So, yeah, refusing to broaden your experience will not result in being better at whatever you are trying to do. You will only get so good at something before you are just retreading the same worn paths over and over again.

 

[Hussar]

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.

That's not quite what I said.

I said that you lack the experience required to understand what people are talking about. Again, you've demonstrated this, IN THIS THREAD. The fact that you have to ask how these things work means that you don't understand these concepts. At no point did I say that you cannot understand them. You absolutely can understand them. That's why virtually everyone who tries these games can understand them. It doesn't take any particular intelligence or ability to understand how they work.

But, since you lack the experience, you don't understand how they work. It's no different from me saying I have no idea how too fly an airplane. I've never flown an airplane. I lack the experience required to fly an airplane. I have no idea how difficult it is to fly an airplane, since I lack any experience in which to contextualize things. I'm not stupid. It doesn't require any particular genius to learn to fly an airplane. I just lack the experience.

And, for me to engage in any sort of conversation about how to fly airplanes is mostly impossible since i simply do not have the language or the experience.

Not knowing something =/= lack of ability. It just means a person doesn't know something. Most people cannot tell you why there is a "b" in the word doubt. That doesn't make the people who do know smarter. It just means they learned something that other people didn't learn.

What I cannot fathom is the defense of the idea that it's somehow a bad thing to say that experience and knowledge makes you a better DM. ((Or better at anything for that matter)) That it's somehow elitist or gatekeeping or insulting to say, "Hey, if you broaden your experience in this thing (whatever this thing is), it will make you better at this thing".

 

[Maxperson]

Pre-natal weaponry?

As a father of two, I have experienced that.

 

[Maxperson]

((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.

I disagree, because of what I said earlier. Just like your friend learned from other types of calligraphy, such as performative, so to do DMs learn from various editions as time goes on. This is true not just from changes in rules and style of the editions, 3e being very different from 1e/2e, 4e being very different from 3e, etc., but also from what is taught to DMs in the DMGs. The 5e DMG had advice on "yes, and," as well as plot points and other different techniques that were not present in 3e and before. I don't know if they were in 4e.

here is no stagnation by focusing on D&D. Focus of that type is how you get specialists in types of law and medicine. Those are not stagnant jobs. They are just highly specialized. Being a DM who solely knows D&D and knows it well is one way to become very good at it.

 

[SableWyvern]

Again, if I stated that I can be the best guitarist by ONLY playing rock music, I'd get laughed at.

There is a huge excluded middle between "best" and "stagnant".

Stagnant is an insulting, loaded term and, though you've said in the past you don't mean it when you say a one-game-gamer will be a bad GM, the fact that you keep using terms like that and presenting them as absolutes makes it hard to believe you.

 

[Maxperson]

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?

I think he did, and I will echo that sentiment. Learning how to drive a truck is not going to help me stay in the lanes better, or park my car better, read road signs better, or brake at more appropriate times. All it's going to do is make me a better TRUCK driver. I'm not going to get generally better at driving.

 

[AlViking]

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?

I don't think driving a semi would always make you a better driver. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.

Same with playing games other than D&D. It might help some and not others. It's certainly not required. There are many ways to improve your ability at DMing.

 

[SableWyvern]

I don't think driving a semi would always make you a better driver. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.

It is unlikely to hurt -- chances are, you'd learn some skill somewhere that would be translatable. It's extremely unlikely it will make you a worse driver.

Is learning to drive a semi an efficient use of time and resources if your goal is purely to be better at driving a family sedan? I doubt it very much.

 

[Scott Christian]

Mod Note:
Folks, I'll speak broadly, as there's several of you who seem to be on this track:

Butting heads isn't constructive. Posting questions to force the other person to admit they were wrongity-wrong with wrong sauce isn't going to get them to admit anything, and more importantly, these boards don't exist to get people to tell you you are correct.

So, chill out. Take a breather. De-escalate. Figure out what you want from the interaction. Make sure that's a worthy, constructive goal. Double check that they way you are addressing others is actually apt to move toward that goal. Be polite, kind, and respectful, please and thanks.

It is clearly not worth the interaction.

 

[GrimCo]

4 games that i ran and played most are D&D, WoD, 7th sea and GURPS.

Only thing i took away from runing long campaign in GURPS is that i don't wont to play or run GURPS ever. Haven't touched that system in 17 years. To be perfectly honest, i can barley remember any rules or how that game works any more.

For D&D, playing and running different editions (2nd, 3.x, pf1, 4e, 5e) was more useful than playing or running other 3 games. My D&D games are very different than my WoD games which are different than my 7th sea games. There is almost no spillover from one system to another in play style, themes, plots, pacing, campaign length, amount of prep work etc.

One good thing about playing with same group for very long time is you can see how much your games change over the years, even if you still nominally play same game. Did we play other games? Yes, we did, but it wasn't biggest impact on the change (for better). I would say, i'm much better DM and player today than 10 or 20 years ago. It's mostly due to growing up, maturing, getting better at some skills i picked up trough life: from being a junior army officer, calm leadership under pressure, discipline to do boring work, clear communication of intent, consistent and fair rulings, decisiveness, and the ability to adapt plans when naughty word goes sideways. From corporate sales and management- active listening, reading the room, improvising when things go off-script, aligning different player motivations toward a shared goal, negotiating outcomes that feel like wins for everyone, and maintaining momentum without forcing choices, curiosity about my players, a genuine interest in what excites them, humility to accept feedback and admit mistakes, system literacy sufficient to make confident rulings even if i’m wrong, again consistency so players can trust the game, courage to say “no” when necessary and “yes” when i think it will make the game better, emotional intelligence to manage table dynamics, resilience when sessions don’t land as hoped. Finally, from being a parent- patience, empathy, emotional self-control, encouragement over punishment, knowing when to be firm and when to be flexible, celebrating small successes, and prioritizing trust, safety, and long-term fun. What i want to say with this too long paragraph is that we all pick up different skills and behavior patterns trough work, other hobbies, and life in general, that make us better players and DMs, even if we only ever play or run one single game (or single edition of one game).

Personally, i know for sure i'm not best DM in my social circle, let alone compared to some others out there. But i don't need to be. I need to be just good enough so that my players have confidence in me and know that they will have fun playing games i run.