D&D General Being a DM is like being a cook

[EzekielRaiden]

Just have to post this here…

I have encountered people who felt this way about some cookbook stuff. It's not as unusual as one might think.

 

[TerraDave]

Cooking is so not about following directions...its about taste and knowing basic techniques. With that, the direction part is easier, without it the direction part will be far less intuitive . (Baking is more about directions, but you will note that professionals often distinguish between the two.)

As for DMing...the analogy is even weaker, unless its like a Korean BBQ/Fondue situation. Then they are not really cooking...but they are helping it happen.

 

[TerraDave]

That's largely down to the apparent behaviour of the restaurant owners in the US one though.

In the UK, the vast majority of the failing restaurants on the show are just kind of sad. People have lost their energy, lost their vision, are chasing a fading market or the like (the restaurant market in the UK is more changeable than that of the US outside big cities, even in smaller communities), they can see they've screwed up but don't know how to fix it and most of the owners are downbeat and kind of depressed, and do want his help (he often has to yell at the chefs rather than the owners, as I recall).

In the US, there's a lot more in the way of owners who feel like their failure is caused by an outside force or simply the stupidity of customers, even though in the vast majority of cases it's sheer pigheadedness, menus the size of planet Jupiter, corner-cutting to the point where the food is gross, or simply capricious and irrational visions of how restaurants "should" work. So many of the owners are belligerent and defensive, and it takes a lot more yelling to get through to them.

I don't know if that's a genuine cultural difference, a difference in how the restaurants were selected by the team who sets that up, or just an editing/scripting decision to make the US episodes more fiery. Probably a combination of all three, I'd guess.

Oh no, its an American thing. Self-depreciation is definitely more British. Defiance and blame are very American---ultimately of the system or government (which are the same thing but are not the same thing).

Americans are individualists, who insist that somebody else needs to fix the problem.

 

[Umbran]

Oh no, its an American thing. Self-depreciation is definitely more British. Defiance and blame are very American---ultimately of the system or government (which are the same thing but are not the same thing).

Americans are individualists, who insist that somebody else needs to fix the problem.

Mod Note:
1) The stereotyping here's kind of a problem. Please stop.
2) Real world politics (which includes bringing "government" into the discussion) isn't appropriate.
3) Restaurant rescue shows are about as real as professional wrestling or "Real Housewives".

 

[nevin]

This reddit thread about cooking reminds me of discussions here about being a DM.

Being able to follow written instructions vs adapting on the fly? What do DMs need more of??

it's a great analogy withone exception. It's like being a cook on a reality TV show with everyone questioning and attacking everything you do. (at the beginning). Once you master it and your players are comfortable with the table its cooking. Most potential DM's drop out during the reality suckage stage.

 

[nevin]

Oh no, its an American thing. Self-depreciation is definitely more British. Defiance and blame are very American---ultimately of the system or government (which are the same thing but are not the same thing).

Americans are individualists, who insist that somebody else needs to fix the problem.

as an american , emotionally I want to argue with that very very very accurate statement but I cant.

 

[overgeeked]

I can see it. A bit.

If cooking = DMing then recipes = rules and/or modules. Learning to DM is done through following the rules and running modules. But, importantly, recipes are the training wheels of cooking. Following recipes teaches you to follow recipes, they do not teach you how to really cook. Lots of practice and ignoring recipes, substituting things, and improvising is where you really learn to cook. Matching that to DMing: lots of practice and ignoring the rules/modules, making house rule, and improvising is where you really learn to DM.

Not the best analogy, but it works. Sort of.

 

[payn]

This reddit thread about cooking reminds me of discussions here about being a DM.

Being able to follow written instructions vs adapting on the fly? What do DMs need more of??

Depends if you are a baker or a cook. I find that cooking can be winged, recovered, improved by improvisation. Baking is much less forgiving and requires an exact science to achieve the best results. A cook can be given techniques and will learn as they go. A baker needs to learn to follow directions and make measurements to a T.

 

[Laurefindel]

While I think there is a lot more to cooking than following recipes/instructions (it’s one of the few things where art truly meets science IMO), I like the GM-ing=cooking analogy:

It requires you to know your public, care about tastes and intolerances of others.

It requires a subtle balance of ingredients; a little variation is fine but stray too much and you might upset the chemistry and ruin your meal.

The “ingredients” you start with will greatly influence the ”taste” of your campaign.

Each DM ends-up with its own personalized variation; no two spaghetti sauce taste quite the same.

I could go on, but I like the analogy. I disagree with the premise (?) that if you’re good at following instructions you’ll be a good DM however; there’s too much more to it to boil it down to that.

 

[jasper]

challenge accepted.
Other cooks have put me on my back due to food poisoning.
Now I must dm a game where everyone at the table must get their stomach pumped!