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Burning Questions: Why Do DMs Limit Official WOTC Material?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7762691" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Between this thread and the other "Bad DMing" one, one thing stands out to me.</p><p></p><p>People really, REALLY take ownership over their games. I think the reason I'm getting so tangled up in these arguments is that I don't. I never see it as "my" campaign or "my" world. It's ours. It's the table's. And, if someone up and said, "Well, I'm going to run X, if you don't like it, you run something", my response would be, "Do you prefer 4d6 or point buy?" Because behind that current DM, there's at least two if not three or four other people who are perfectly willing to run a game at any point in time. For me to get what I want, I REALLY have to sell it to the group. When I ran my Primeval Thule experiment and banned all classes with cantrips, I faced a real uphill battle convincing the group that this was a good idea. </p><p></p><p>But, at no point could I simply say, "Well, either I run it this way or someone else runs" because, well, I'd be shunted to the player seat so fast I'd have burns on my cheeks. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p>At the end of the day, I look at what makes DMing fun for me is knowing that I ran the most enjoyable game I could for this group. The more fun that the players are having, the more fun I have. Which generally means that yup, I'll put my preferences behind what the players want most of the time. If I can convince the players that my ideas are good enough, then, yay, I get what I want. But, otherwise, I'm pretty much stuck if I want to run a game where any of the players aren't interested.</p><p></p><p>So, to use the Matt Mercer example. A DM who is unwilling to listen to what his or her players clearly state that they want, and adjust to their tastes, is a bad DM. DMing should always be about listening to the players and giving them what they want.</p><p></p><p>To use [MENTION=277]jasper[/MENTION]'s example, to me it's unbelievable that the group would exclude a friend just so they could go eat Chinese food. That's a pretty dick move. That's not what I want my friends to do and I would never do that to a friend. "Hey, we're all going somewhere that you hate, see you later" when there are obviously other options available is unbelievable to me. That would be the last time I went anywhere with you. And, if I'm late coming to the car, you're going to take my wife home and leave me there? Yeah, number one, I'd be looking for a new wife pretty quickly if she didn't get out of that car and number two, that would be the absolute last time I'd associate with you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7762691, member: 22779"] Between this thread and the other "Bad DMing" one, one thing stands out to me. People really, REALLY take ownership over their games. I think the reason I'm getting so tangled up in these arguments is that I don't. I never see it as "my" campaign or "my" world. It's ours. It's the table's. And, if someone up and said, "Well, I'm going to run X, if you don't like it, you run something", my response would be, "Do you prefer 4d6 or point buy?" Because behind that current DM, there's at least two if not three or four other people who are perfectly willing to run a game at any point in time. For me to get what I want, I REALLY have to sell it to the group. When I ran my Primeval Thule experiment and banned all classes with cantrips, I faced a real uphill battle convincing the group that this was a good idea. But, at no point could I simply say, "Well, either I run it this way or someone else runs" because, well, I'd be shunted to the player seat so fast I'd have burns on my cheeks. :D At the end of the day, I look at what makes DMing fun for me is knowing that I ran the most enjoyable game I could for this group. The more fun that the players are having, the more fun I have. Which generally means that yup, I'll put my preferences behind what the players want most of the time. If I can convince the players that my ideas are good enough, then, yay, I get what I want. But, otherwise, I'm pretty much stuck if I want to run a game where any of the players aren't interested. So, to use the Matt Mercer example. A DM who is unwilling to listen to what his or her players clearly state that they want, and adjust to their tastes, is a bad DM. DMing should always be about listening to the players and giving them what they want. To use [MENTION=277]jasper[/MENTION]'s example, to me it's unbelievable that the group would exclude a friend just so they could go eat Chinese food. That's a pretty dick move. That's not what I want my friends to do and I would never do that to a friend. "Hey, we're all going somewhere that you hate, see you later" when there are obviously other options available is unbelievable to me. That would be the last time I went anywhere with you. And, if I'm late coming to the car, you're going to take my wife home and leave me there? Yeah, number one, I'd be looking for a new wife pretty quickly if she didn't get out of that car and number two, that would be the absolute last time I'd associate with you. [/QUOTE]
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