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<blockquote data-quote="Greg Benage" data-source="post: 6547828" data-attributes="member: 93631">I think DMs today are often too hard on themselves. I think this is related to a trend toward story- or plot-based games and away from location-based games. I've followed that trend over the course of 35 years of gaming, even leaving D&amp;D for other games that I felt better supported that style of play, and I've increasingly come to think it's a mistake.DM prep doesn't have to take a lot of time. Your players are eager to do most of the work for you, and in my experience it will be more memorable for them when they do most of the work for you. And frankly, most of the DMs I've experienced really should let the players do the work, because the DMs aren't very good at creating story-based games. This applies to the heavily plotted published adventures for 5e, as well: They aren't very good. Since I've started playing more online, especially, I can't count the number of DMs I've watched flailing away trying to run a good D&amp;D campaign like an epic novel. Most just can't do it effectively, and I feel bad for them. Most could create a cool dungeon, though, and in a fraction of the time. And with a little luck, their players might have taken their adventures in that dungeon and turned them into an epic (if typically somewhat gonzo) story.I hope more DMs and gaming groups will put the dungeon back in Dungeons &amp; Dragons. The older I get, the less time I have, the more DMs I see fail at being an epic storyteller, the more I'm impressed with the dungeon's simple brilliance.(All IMHO, YMMV, WWJD, etc.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greg Benage, post: 6547828, member: 93631"] I think DMs today are often too hard on themselves. I think this is related to a trend toward story- or plot-based games and away from location-based games. I've followed that trend over the course of 35 years of gaming, even leaving D&D for other games that I felt better supported that style of play, and I've increasingly come to think it's a mistake. DM prep doesn't have to take a lot of time. Your players are eager to do most of the work for you, and in my experience it will be more memorable for them [I]when[/I] they do most of the work for you. And frankly, most of the DMs I've experienced really [I]should [/I]let the players do the work, because the DMs aren't very good at creating story-based games. This applies to the heavily plotted published adventures for 5e, as well: They aren't very good. Since I've started playing more online, especially, I can't count the number of DMs I've watched flailing away trying to run a good D&D campaign like an epic novel. Most just can't do it effectively, and I feel bad for them. Most could create a cool dungeon, though, and in a fraction of the time. And with a little luck, their players might have taken their adventures in that dungeon and turned them into an epic (if typically somewhat gonzo) story. I hope more DMs and gaming groups will put the dungeon back in Dungeons & Dragons. The older I get, the less time I have, the more DMs I see fail at being an epic storyteller, the more I'm impressed with the dungeon's simple brilliance. (All IMHO, YMMV, WWJD, etc.) [/QUOTE]

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