D&D General Can we talk about best practices?

[jmartkdr2]

In creative endeavors, the "rules" are usually just guidelines: when the community says "don't do this" it's because they've seen a lot of people do this and it didn't work how they wanted. But there's always the one genius who did the thing and made it awesome. Usually, said genius understood the 'rule' better than most people. So advice is possible, without knowing the context beyond which game you're playing, if it's taken as advice and not 'the definition of good.

(exception: copyright law. Those are the true "rules of writing.")

So, some of my advice: if you're new, overplan. The more planning you do the better you'll be at improvising. If it's a modern game, play by the rules as much as possible until you understand them well enough to know why they are the way they are. Then you can start changing them to get specific results. If you're new, run short games - don't plan for epic tales out the gate. Don't worry overmuch about game balance - the only bad imbalance is when one pc overshadows another. Outside of that, just dial up or down the difficulty. Most mistakes you can make as a dm aren't problems unless they become the new normal, and even then it's unlikely. You can always dial the difficulty up or down if it's too easy. Let the pc's be the main characters of the story, even if they're not the protagonists for now.

 

[Malmuria]

Well, there are best practices for playing a specific game or a branch of games. In pretty much all new-school games, taking risks, not making complex plans and screwing your character for the sake of drama are good ideas, and trying to protect your character from harm is a stupid endeavour.

Now, there's no "correct way" to run and play D&D, but, honestly, that's a lie and a direct result of WotC not having damn balls. Every tool has the best way to apply it.

That's the main reason I'm such an advocate for division. That big tent BS doesn't really do anyone any good.

Yes, and I find the "anything is fine as long as your table is having fun!" line to be...true, I guess, but vacuous. In case of dnd, it leads wotc to just say 'play the game however you want' without giving concrete tools and guidance for dms. I suppose the ravenloft book might be a step in the right direction but I haven't looked at it closely.

Games that zero in on a particular kind of play experience don't have this problem. If you are playing Call of Cthulhu, you probably want a particular kind of experience, and the book can design the game and its advice around delivering that kind of experience.

What kind of experience is 5e?

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

Yeah, "anything is fine as long as your table is having fun!" is pretty much just a thought terminating cliche, its not that the fun isn't valuable, but there's more than one kind of fun, some people might be comfortable with the fun of a beer and pretzels experience, but other people sit down for something else-- if all they wanted was a beer and pretzel experience, they'd do something with less time investment that does it just as well. It can be used in a kind of anti-intellectual way that doesn't tolerate taking things more seriously than the speaker does (and typically, that's also where they draw the line) even if the people they're criticizing are diving as deep as they are because its fun.

I think its valuable to seperate game systems (which are like engines) and the games we use them to create, although I know some schools of design do see them as synonymous.

 

[CleverNickName]

I think the most comprehensive Best Standard of Practice for gaming was summed up in just 4 words.

"Don't be a dick." -Wil Wheaton, keynote speech at PAX, August 2007.

It's just good advice for everything, really. Gaming, marriage, Halloween costumes, you name it.

 

[Mercurius]

I've always liked the idea that "play" can be defined as "something you do for its own sake." Meaning, we play--first and foremost--for play's sake, for enjoyment. Play is fun.

Games are a structured form of play, thus the point of D&D--as a tabletop roleplaying game--is to have fun. What that means varies with each person, each group. Meaning, the "uber best practice" is to play in such a way that facilitates fun and enjoyment for those you are playing with.

Now apply this to all sorts of other "best practices," and you have a solid general approach: anything that serves the enjoyment (fun) of those at the game table.

This includes such seemingly obvious best practices like "don't be a jerk." That differs by individual, as everyone has their own sensibilities, tolerances--what they consider "jerkish" behavior. So "don't be a jerk" could be understood as "don't do things that significantly diminish the fun of those you play with." Within reason, of course (thus the "significantly").

In this regard, I think a "best practice" could be: get to know the people you game with, who they are, what they like and don't like, and treat them kindly. But what that means, well, varies. But it isn't that complex.

Now of course RPGs have been around for almost five decades, so there is a whole body of ideas around it that have developed. It is good to get a sense of what the generally agreed upon best practices are, which is also why every single RPG has a section in the beginning that has basic guidelines about how to play, beyond just the rules, and why there are such things as the Dungeon Master's Guide. But as with anything in D&D--or in art, music, writing, sports, etc--these are a template that can be improvised off of. Every artist finds their own approach, which veers from traditions to varying degrees.

And more to the point, every practice or theory or idea of What The Best Way To Play Is, come down to the context of your actual group, comprised of real individuals. Without context and a sense of the individuals involved, all such best practices run the risk of becoming dogma and/or divorced from the reality of the people involved.

(this is a variation from my "Rule of Fun" post in the railroading thread)

 

[Ovinomancer]

Yes, and I find the "anything is fine as long as your table is having fun!" line to be...true, I guess, but vacuous. In case of dnd, it leads wotc to just say 'play the game however you want' without giving concrete tools and guidance for dms. I suppose the ravenloft book might be a step in the right direction but I haven't looked at it closely.

Games that zero in on a particular kind of play experience don't have this problem. If you are playing Call of Cthulhu, you probably want a particular kind of experience, and the book can design the game and its advice around delivering that kind of experience.

What kind of experience is 5e?

D&D.

 

[Mercurius]

Yes, and I find the "anything is fine as long as your table is having fun!" line to be...true, I guess, but vacuous. In case of dnd, it leads wotc to just say 'play the game however you want' without giving concrete tools and guidance for dms. I suppose the ravenloft book might be a step in the right direction but I haven't looked at it closely.

Except that's not what WotC does, and it doesn't have to be either/or.

You offer guidelines and tools, but also say "start with these, but make the game your own, whatever is fun for you and your group."

Again, it isn't either/or - but without being grounded in the Rule of Fun, you divorce yourself from the bottom line of what matters: which is the enjoyment of those at the table.

 

[loverdrive]

And while it might not be the best possible game for either, it can capably manage both

Is it, though?

I mean, for a "heavily narrative" game, using 5E isn't that different from playing slovesochka, the game of "the GM will tell you what happens" and for an oldschool dungeoncrawler you'll need to backport (or invent) turn-based exploration, reaction rolls, wandering monsters tables... A ton of stuff.

I certainly understand the appeal of a multitool, but I don't think 5E really is one. GURPS is a multitool alright. Fate, too.

What 5E really provides is absence of tools outside of it's sweet spot, so, yeah, it doesn't get in the way of whatever you're trying to run, but it also doesn't really help.

 

[Lanefan]

2) Re-write your character sheet every so often if it's hand-written and has been erased a ton.

And for hell's sake keep the old one!

It's inevitable - as in it happens every freakin' time! - that there'll be a transcription error, or something will be skipped or forgotten, and you'll need to refer to the old sheet at some point.

 

[Yora]

The character sheets stay with the GM, because the GM won't forget to bring all the notes to every game. If you want to look at your character sheet at home, take a photo.