D&D 5E Aversion to Creativity?

[Hussar]

/snip

People want the former, rules they can use to build stuff, made by designers who (supposedly) know how to create good rules instead of being told "rulings, not rules. Do it yourself, we don't care".

Given the title of the thread, the irony of this statement is just mind blowing.

Isn't this precisely what the OP is talking about? That there are some "fans" of the game who simply don't want to create things but want WOTC (or whoever) to do it for them?

 

[Sunseeker]

Given the title of the thread, the irony of this statement is just mind blowing.

Isn't this precisely what the OP is talking about? That there are some "fans" of the game who simply don't want to create things but want WOTC (or whoever) to do it for them?

What it really comes down to is: who cares? What business of it of anyone else's if someone runs a homebrew adventure or not?

 

[Eric V]

Given the title of the thread, the irony of this statement is just mind blowing.

Isn't this precisely what the OP is talking about? That there are some "fans" of the game who simply don't want to create things but want WOTC (or whoever) to do it for them?

Maybe some people express their creativity in the -adventures- they create, as opposed to homebrew rules?

Maybe some people don't have an aversion to creativity, but don't have the requisite time to invent, balance, and playtest a bunch of new rules? All things a game company can do.


Maybe some people don't have an aversion to creativity, but are humble enough to know they don't have the talent to homebrew the rules in a balanced way?

They are all still "fans" thank you very much.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I like to create my own stuff, but I also like official supplements. The notion that one can't enjoy both is a false dichotomy.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Given the title of the thread, the irony of this statement is just mind blowing.

Isn't this precisely what the OP is talking about? That there are some "fans" of the game who simply don't want to create things but want WOTC (or whoever) to do it for them?

Yup...that's pretty much what I was saying when I started this thread.

Maybe some people express their creativity in the -adventures- they create, as opposed to homebrew rules?

Maybe some people don't have an aversion to creativity, but don't have the requisite time to invent, balance, and playtest a bunch of new rules? All things a game company can do.

Maybe some people don't have an aversion to creativity, but are humble enough to know they don't have the talent to homebrew the rules in a balanced way?

They are all still "fans" thank you very much.

Creating adventures is a good thing. I love seeing what other people have cooked up in their devious little DM minds!

However, your second sentance about time, balance, playtest... I had to sit here a moment to think about what you meant. Reading the next part, about "humble enough to know..." made me pause even longer. Why? Because a DM does this, and is expected to do this, all the time, on the fly. It's called "DM'ing". If there are no, or inadequate, rules for something then the DM makes up a rule or whatever 'on the spot'. Play continues (this is playtesting, believe it or not). If what the DM came up with sucks donkey snacks, then he/she adjusts it and keeps on going. If the pattern of "everything the DM creates/comes up with sucks"... well, then you have a sucky DM. Plain and simple. That person shouldn't be DM'ing, IMHO. There is one person in my group who fits this to a T. He can't DM to save his life. Another in my group is definitely "lacking" on the DM front, but can pull it off; his strong point is NPC roleplaying....but rules and such? Not so much.

My point is that if you (generic "you", btw) are a DM and are any good at your 'craft', you create rules, spells, monsters, etc. all the time during game. A DM who just up and closes his books, and says "I guess we have to quit guys...there aren't any rules for fixing up a smashed galleon...sorry" an hour into the 5-hour session really shouldn't be DM'ing as far as I'm concerned.

When I see DM's, for lack of a better word, "passing the buck" to a game company (re: WotC or 3PP) and then complaining about having passed said buck it has me scratching my head. I mean, why even play an RPG if all you are going to skip over one of THE most rewarding aspects of it? The use of you and your players imaginations? It just doesn't make any sense to me and I just don't get it.

Anyway, thanks to all who replied. I haven't gone through all of the posts yet, but that's what I'm gonna do now.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Zak S]

I make my own stuff because I don't have time to prep modules.

By the time I wade through the flavor text trying to find the meat and take notes on what's actually relevant so I can run it with some confidence I know wtf is going on it's taken 3 times as long as writing my own thing PLUS the published stuff's usually no better than what you'd get with random tables.

Once in a while a module is supposed to be a rare challenge (Tomb of Horrors, Rappan Athuk) and that intrigues me because of the chance to say you beat it. But for the most part modules feel like: "Now you don't have to cook your own sausage! There's one somewhere in this 30 ton pile of dicks!"

 

[PeterFitz]

I'm running my 5e group through Tomb of Horrors right now, and it's been very relaxing (for me). It's not a module that really needs anything much in the way of preparation, so I can just pull the levers and press the buttons and see what falls out of the machine.

Having said that, I can feel those urges welling up that indicate that it's time to start exercising my own brain again, so hopefully we'll be done with the Tomb pretty soon,one way or another.

 

[jeffh]

I was just thinking this morning about how Every. Single. Area description. in Every. Single. Paizo product buries the lede.

(And I probably shouldn't single out Paizo, they're just the first to come to mind.)

The stuff the GM needs most in order to run the encounter is never at the beginning of the description and only sometimes clearly called out in some other way. Boxed text goes into great detail about what the furniture looks like and who likely built it but never even mentions that "Oh, by the way, there's also a frickin' glabrezu demon in the middle of the room and it's eating your face as we speak". That's always like three paragraphs into the GM notes, after a bunch of at best moderately interesting background stuff that the players are almost certain to never interact with.

So, in at least partial agreement with Zak, as usual. (And yet I can't stop acquiring the things, even when I know the only part I'll ever even consider using is the maps.)

I think Zak underestimates how much more creative he is than the typical gamer and therefore also underestimates the audience that modules could/should be useful to. But one thing he is spot-on about is that the people designing them and laying them out seem to give surprisingly little thought to practical usability at the table. I don't know what else you'd ever consider if that was your job, but apparently they've thought of something. There's got to be a better way to package them than the ones 90% of the industry is using. And most of the innovation there seems to be coming from, of all places, the OSR.

 

[Derren]

Given the title of the thread, the irony of this statement is just mind blowing.

Isn't this precisely what the OP is talking about? That there are some "fans" of the game who simply don't want to create things but want WOTC (or whoever) to do it for them?

So when do you publish your own RPG? Or are you averse to creativity?

 

[Sailor Moon]

I make my own burgers all the time, but sometimes I want one from a chipper.