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

[definiteFreakyFishGuy]

Pick him up and plonk him down in northern Michigan in February and he's got a problem. Because he has no experience with this kind of driving. Which means that he cannot actually drive outside of the southern part of his state for several months of the year. Driving to Nevada for Christmas is difficult because you get snow and ice in the mountains at that time, which he doesn't drive in.

Drop anyone in New Jersey, they will come out a significantly worse driver than before. Trust me.

 

[Hussar]

Drop anyone in New Jersey, they will come out a significantly worse driver than before. Trust me.

Heh. Having spent some years driving in South Korea, I'm pretty aware of just how bad drivers can be. Wow. That was eye opening.

 

[Maxperson]

Which, to me, perfectly encapsulates the point I've been making. @Maxperson may very well be a fantastic driver. But, he's only a fantastic driver in Southern California. He admits that he doesn't deal with ice or snow. He drives in Southern California, a pothole is a mythical beast he's never seen. He has never really seen any inclement weather - it rains like what, twice a year in Southern California. (that's meant as a joke btw) He has never driven in an ice storm. Or a monsoon. Or serious fog. He's always driving on very well maintained, paved roads in virtually always perfect weather.

Weeeeelll, I live in the pothole capitol of the world, so I see those aplenty. Lots of experience with potholes. And it gets pretty foggy here a few times a year, so I'm not unexperienced with fog, but also not the best with it.

Do truck driving schools have fog machines that cover a large enough area to establish high skill with fog? Also, the infrequency of rain here actually makes our roads MORE dangerous when it rains, because the oil and other things rise up out of the cement/asphalt to make the roads more slippery than in places where it rains more often. When it rains here I generally pass several accidents every rainy day.

Pick him up and plonk him down in northern Michigan in February and he's got a problem. Because he has no experience with this kind of driving. Which means that he cannot actually drive outside of the southern part of his state for several months of the year. Driving to Nevada for Christmas is difficult because you get snow and ice in the mountains at that time, which he doesn't drive in.

So, @Maxperson is a fantastic driver so long as he stays (ahem) in his lane. Stays in his comfort zone. Driving a car he is very familiar with in conditions that he is very familiar with that are very rarely more challenging than a light rain. I mean, as a perfect example, I ask my Japanese students, and I live in the south of Japan where it never snow, how to open a car if the locks are frozen. They'd never even heard of locks freezing, let alone know what to do. Two centimeters of snow and they close the highways. :wow:

Right. So long as I stay in D&D, I'm an amazing DM.

Actually, I have run multiple systems and read many more. My position is based on the amazing DMs I have played with who never ran anything other than D&D. I know that it's possible to be every bit as good as someone who has run/read multiple RPG systems.

This is why I argue that single system DM's aren't very good DM's. It's too self limiting to stay with one single system and never get outside of that comfort zone. You get better at something by challenging yourself. By constantly trying new and different things. It's easy to be a good at something when you never step outside of that comfort zone. If you want to be great at something, you have to challenge yourself. Constantly try to learn new things.

This is where you run into trouble. There's nothing objective to back up this opinion. It's possible that for it to be more likely that you'll be a good DM if you have experience with multiple systems, but there's no objective "You will be better than a single system DM." involved.

That's how you get better.

One way to get better. There isn't one true way.

 

[Mecheon]

This isn't a case of multiple systems being better. It's a case of the DM not doing his job. When it comes to 3e, you're far better off with a DM who has mastered that system and can explain it, than be with a DM who only sort of knows it, but also sort of knows 3 or 4 other systems.

As for grapple rules, that can be an improvement for some or even many, but not an objective improvement. I'm sure there are folks who liked the grapple rules for the various editions. There's no rule or technique from another game that can objectively improve D&D if brought over.

If they had some experience with other games, though, could have explained it better using what the system was being used for, as someone who knows that 'hey, advantage exists' wasn't exactly taken with the idea of a narrative control based system. May not be for you exactly, but I'm sure you can agree the wider knowledge base is going to have more wider grab points for new players. Which, frankly, is where the car metaphor really falls down because playing RPGs and driving cars are nothing alive, given one's a group activity and the other isn't.

And, look. If they make a D&D themed comedy night, just saying "3e grapple rules" is going to be enough to get raucous, terrifying laughter, let's be honest.

 

[AlViking]

I'm really sorry, I know I've been banging this drum for far too long, but, I've been noodling around a bit and I think I may have a really clear way of explaining myself. When talking about @Maxperson's driving, he said this:



Which, to me, perfectly encapsulates the point I've been making. @Maxperson may very well be a fantastic driver. But, he's only a fantastic driver in Southern California. He admits that he doesn't deal with ice or snow. He drives in Southern California, a pothole is a mythical beast he's never seen. He has never really seen any inclement weather - it rains like what, twice a year in Southern California. (that's meant as a joke btw) He has never driven in an ice storm. Or a monsoon. Or serious fog. He's always driving on very well maintained, paved roads in virtually always perfect weather.

Pick him up and plonk him down in northern Michigan in February and he's got a problem. Because he has no experience with this kind of driving. Which means that he cannot actually drive outside of the southern part of his state for several months of the year. Driving to Nevada for Christmas is difficult because you get snow and ice in the mountains at that time, which he doesn't drive in.

So, @Maxperson is a fantastic driver so long as he stays (ahem) in his lane. Stays in his comfort zone. Driving a car he is very familiar with in conditions that he is very familiar with that are very rarely more challenging than a light rain. I mean, as a perfect example, I ask my Japanese students, and I live in the south of Japan where it never snow, how to open a car if the locks are frozen. They'd never even heard of locks freezing, let alone know what to do. Two centimeters of snow and they close the highways. :wow:

The same goes for a single system DM. They might be great so long as they stay in their comfort zone. They've done really well within this specific kind of game and kind of campaign. But, because they have no experience outside of that comfort zone, they would start to struggle. They don't have the experience or tools because they've always stayed in their comfort zone.

This is why I argue that single system DM's aren't very good DM's. It's too self limiting to stay with one single system and never get outside of that comfort zone. You get better at something by challenging yourself. By constantly trying new and different things. It's easy to be a good at something when you never step outside of that comfort zone. If you want to be great at something, you have to challenge yourself. Constantly try to learn new things.

That's how you get better.

Michael Schumacher was one of the best race car drivers the world has ever known and never once drove a semi. I grew up in the upper Midwest so I learned long ago how to drive in many weather conditions. When I took my advanced driving course, there was training on emergency maneuvers and the instructor just shook his head at how well I had done at emergency braking before turning. At the end we did a lap around a track, the instructor was so surprised at how fast I had done the lap that he initially thought it was a mistake. While it's not the same I play a racing game where you can do practice laps and see how you compare to others. I typically get in the top 1% and as high as the top .1%. Meanwhile I've never driven in a semi nor have I ever had an accident* except for one time when someone rear-ended me.

I don't care if my DM would be better at running a BitD campaign if he had actually had previous experience with that game any more than I would care how good they can play piano. If I want to take ideas from BitD, I can read up on what ideas I could use by typing "what ideas from blades in the dark can I use in my D&D campaign" in my favorite search engine and get pages of input. On the other hand I don't want to play or run Blades in the Dark, I want to play and run D&D.

There are many ways to get better at running D&D games. In my opinion the best way is to run D&D games but there is no one true way.

*I don't count the couple of times I ended up in the ditch as a teen, I was driving a Pinto and still learning. Then there was the black bear that tried to commit suicide by running in front of me out of the woods at dusk while I was pulling a trailer on 1e in Canadian wilderness. My wife claimed she could see individual hairs on his posterior, but I somehow managed to see it coming and slow down in time. Still not sure how.

 

[Maxperson]

And, look. If they make a D&D themed comedy night, just saying "3e grapple rules" is going to be enough to get raucous, terrifying laughter, let's be honest.

After playing 3e/3.5e for 19 years, we still had to look up the rules to make sure we were getting them right, but I'd still take those rules over 5e or 5.5e every day of the week and twice on game day. At least the 3e/3.5e rules didn't let you swing a greatsword or two weapons at the person grappling you, or cast spells with somatic components, keep full dex bonuses, etc. The 5e rules are far more absurd and nonsensical than 3e/3.5e's ever were.