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<blockquote data-quote="Jack Daniel" data-source="post: 8161931" data-attributes="member: 694"><p>What gets to be called a bad DMing practice? Some treat dice-fudging as an absolutely necessary tool in the DM's kit and others consider it the death knell of player agency and the meaning of the game. Is it good or bad DMing practice to have a campaign with a plot? Should DMs always encourage players to talk in "voices"? Is moving an encounter or a location <em>into </em>the path of the PCs a clever way to conserve prep-work and take advantage of the indeterminacy of campaign details that haven't yet "hit the table," or is it wretched illusionism and quantum ogreing, a way of deceiving the players into thinking that they have choices they don't really have?</p><p></p><p>I would caution anyone against conflating "good DMing practices" with "personally preferred DMing practices." Beyond that, the idea that bad DMs can leverage their own scarcity to continue being bad DMs seems more like a boogeyman than a real phenomenon. It suggests that bad DMs can't grow into good DMs on their own, or that there's some sort of inertia that keeps bad DMs bad so long as they continue to have players.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That seems a terribly narrow-minded way to look at DMing. There's nothing wrong with only wanting to run D&D to the exclusion of other RPGs. I may not be fond of published adventures, but I won't fault a DM who runs them. Some games that focus on combat are tremendous fun. Downtime is an <em>incredibly </em>useful mechanic for keeping the game focused on the action when different player characters have personal agendas that would otherwise eat precious "screen time" and result in boring-ass spotlight-hogging. I thoroughly <em>despise</em> any definition of "role-playing" that means "improvisational playacting," and D&D should support my style of play as well as yours.</p><p></p><p>I would despair at the notion that my particular flavor of D&D (old-school board-gamey fantasy wargaming with a heavy emphasis on dungeon exploration and challenging the players) might be lost from the world while a story-driven, thespianism-heavy style flourished. If anything, we should all strive to see the <em>variety</em> of possible play-styles flourish, expand, and be celebrated.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jack Daniel, post: 8161931, member: 694"] What gets to be called a bad DMing practice? Some treat dice-fudging as an absolutely necessary tool in the DM's kit and others consider it the death knell of player agency and the meaning of the game. Is it good or bad DMing practice to have a campaign with a plot? Should DMs always encourage players to talk in "voices"? Is moving an encounter or a location [I]into [/I]the path of the PCs a clever way to conserve prep-work and take advantage of the indeterminacy of campaign details that haven't yet "hit the table," or is it wretched illusionism and quantum ogreing, a way of deceiving the players into thinking that they have choices they don't really have? I would caution anyone against conflating "good DMing practices" with "personally preferred DMing practices." Beyond that, the idea that bad DMs can leverage their own scarcity to continue being bad DMs seems more like a boogeyman than a real phenomenon. It suggests that bad DMs can't grow into good DMs on their own, or that there's some sort of inertia that keeps bad DMs bad so long as they continue to have players. That seems a terribly narrow-minded way to look at DMing. There's nothing wrong with only wanting to run D&D to the exclusion of other RPGs. I may not be fond of published adventures, but I won't fault a DM who runs them. Some games that focus on combat are tremendous fun. Downtime is an [I]incredibly [/I]useful mechanic for keeping the game focused on the action when different player characters have personal agendas that would otherwise eat precious "screen time" and result in boring-ass spotlight-hogging. I thoroughly [I]despise[/I] any definition of "role-playing" that means "improvisational playacting," and D&D should support my style of play as well as yours. I would despair at the notion that my particular flavor of D&D (old-school board-gamey fantasy wargaming with a heavy emphasis on dungeon exploration and challenging the players) might be lost from the world while a story-driven, thespianism-heavy style flourished. If anything, we should all strive to see the [I]variety[/I] of possible play-styles flourish, expand, and be celebrated. [/QUOTE]
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