D&D General A Venn Diagram Poll About D&D

[Shiroiken]

Currently B. Pre-Internet it would have been a purple circle surrounded by a blue circle, since we didn't talk about rules outside of the game.

 

[Blue]

I find it dependent on group ... but I have curated the groups I am willing to play with or run, and we're all in the B area. Basically, sometimes there's clever stuff or honest questions that need a quick word, but mostly not. I do run for my kids and niece & nephew where there's a bit more basic rules questions or just stuff they haven't seen, but it's still B because of how much wonderful time we spend on things that interact with the mechanics lightly if at all.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A while ago, someone described Dungeons & Dragons to me as "thirty minutes of fun, packed into five hours." That can't be right, can it?

So I'm playing around with a new toy (a Venn Diagram maker) and it begs the question:
View attachment 139484

I’d say B still has too much overlap, but there is some time spent discussion rules. At my table, though, it is probably less than 20 minutes in a 4 hour session.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I went with B, because that reflects my main group.

But I just got finished running a Ravenloft session with a couple of new players, and my life feels like E.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Aging Bard]

As a very old person, I believe that the DM has a major obligation to know the rules. This is doubly true if you are a "rulings over rules" person because you need to know when there is not a clear rule. As a result, early DMing was very hard, and all DMing is hard regardless, which is why the rules have shifted towards more player agency. I'm not in favor of this, but I completely understand and accept it.

 

[ccs]

About B-/C+

 

[Yora]

It's none of the above.

I would say most discussions about rules happen during play, but those discussions only take up a very small amount of play time, not most of it.
Having both circles be the same size is already wrong.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

When I DM, we never discuss rules, and the only reason I'd vote B is because we look up how spells work. There's so many, and you really have to do that during the game.

However, I play a campaign as player and the DM runs the game 100% RAW. And he stops the game all the time to look up the rules. In case of doubt, it's a 10 minute break, and I get to raid the fridge or build a dice tower. Bloody annoying.

 

[dave2008]

For instance, should diagram E be interpreted to mean “literally every second of the game is spent discussing rules”?

No, it would be: "every second we talk about rules is during a game." Look at it from the rules discussion angle, not game time angle. Does that help?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Really, the red circle should be tiny. We spend very little time discussing rules either in or out of the game.

For the most part, rules decisions are delegated to the DM, not decided by committee.