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

[Malmuria]

Cooking is about technique and learning to use your senses, not following written instructions. That's why seeing a video of someone cook is helpful, because they can show you what to look for in a given recipe. Best is being next to someone cooking, who may not even tell you exact measurements but will show you.

For example

Why Do Recipe Writers Lie About How Long It Takes To Caramelize Onions?

Browning onions is a matter of patience. My own patience ran out earlier this year while leafing through the New York Times food section. There, in the...

slate.com

 

[prabe]

Cooking is about technique and learning to use your senses, not following written instructions. That's why seeing a video of someone cook is helpful, because they can show you what to look for in a given recipe. Best is being next to someone cooking, who may not even tell you exact measurements but will show you.

For example

Why Do Recipe Writers Lie About How Long It Takes To Caramelize Onions?

Browning onions is a matter of patience. My own patience ran out earlier this year while leafing through the New York Times food section. There, in the...

slate.com

Preparing a written recipe is cooking. I find watching videos the least helpful way of learning how to cook a given dish; I do better with a written recipe or three--though I do best if I know what I'm aiming at.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

To my mind the main places DMing is like cooking (particularly cooking for other people) are:

A) You have to remember the allergies and dietary restrictions of the people you are preparing for. This need not mean that every dish conforms to the needs and preferences of everyone, but the meal as a whole has to get each of the specific people it is cooked for properly fed.

B) People won't always choose to consume the things you present them in the way you intend, and it's best to focus more on whether they're enjoying it than trying to proscribe how they enjoy it.

C) Quality of ingredients matters, but sufficient care and skill can get great results out of mediocre ingredients, and even the finest ingredients can be mangled into something inedible.

D) There are many very fine things you can cook that are simply not worth the intensive time and effort that goes into preparing them, unless you enjoy the process of preparing them (I never thought I would think of a way in which fantasy world-building was like trying to execute a Julia Child recipe, but here we are).

E) You can follow a recipe, or not, and it's possible to create something great either way. Skill in following a recipe is about knowing how to successfully adapt it, recognizing when it is wrong or inappropriate to your needs, and knowing how to interpret its more obtuse directions.

 

[Malmuria]

Preparing a written recipe is cooking

Certainly. My point was that writing is not the best medium to communicate how to cook. This may be analogous to games--we depend on written game products, but actually sitting down at table and playing with people with experience is actually the best way to learn.

edit: that is, the gap between written text and actual practice is similar in cooking as in ttrpgs. To paraphrase one such poorly written* rpg, to do it you have to do it.

*yeah I said it!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Certainly. My point was that writing is not the best medium to communicate how to cook. This may be analogous to games--we depend on written game products, but actually sitting down at table and playing with people with experience is actually the best way to learn.

I would go beyond that to say that both recipes and DM facing materials are often not very well written for actually directly implementing, and rely more on the skill and experience of the person using them to know how to get a useful result from them than on clear communication.

 

[aco175]

I do have a recipe for a 5-room dungeon or a 3-act play that I follow to some success and can even alter them to taste.

I do think one can swap cooling with about anything and can make it work. Being a traffic cop, being a 1st grade teacher, being an Olympic athlete in one of the non-sports like curling or badminton.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Certainly. My point was that writing is not the best medium to communicate how to cook. This may be analogous to games--we depend on written game products, but actually sitting down at table and playing with people with experience is actually the best way to learn.

For some people, I'm sure it is.* I would even say that, for most people, getting some practical experience is important. But I find a lot of folks conflate "many materials are bad at teaching" with "materials are inherently bad at teaching."

You can absolutely make better teaching materials. Even if books are necessarily only one part of the process, and have often been done poorly, is not an excuse to give up on doing them better.

*Not to toot my own horn, but I never had a single in-person game before I started DMing. I only had around four actual long-running games even, and not one of them was with someone intending to teach me the ropes of DMing. Books, and soliciting advice, were my primary sources. I did pretty well, all things considered (with Melissa Block, as a friend of mine liked to joke.)

edit: that is, the gap between written text and actual practice is similar in cooking as in ttrpgs. To paraphrase one such poorly written* rpg, to do it you have to do it.

*yeah I said it!

Really, now? I've found it quite well-written. Not really sure what purpose the broadside serves here tbh. Particularly because Dungeon World is the game that taught me how to GM.

 

[nevin]

Certainly. My point was that writing is not the best medium to communicate how to cook. This may be analogous to games--we depend on written game products, but actually sitting down at table and playing with people with experience is actually the best way to learn.

edit: that is, the gap between written text and actual practice is similar in cooking as in ttrpgs. To paraphrase one such poorly written* rpg, to do it you have to do it.

*yeah I said it!

but for many it's the only medium they get that gives them the information they need. And it a medium where they can get data without watching some 30 year DM do a perfect job and make them feel useless.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

but for many it's the only medium they get that gives them the information they need. And it a medium where they can get data without watching some 30 year DM do a perfect job and make them feel useless.

Exactly. We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Even when there are better options, we should ask for the best tools we can get, because some people don't get a choice.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I could not agree more with the thesis of this article.

Below, true and correct footage of me running a game and helping a player.