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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3663449" data-attributes="member: 18280">On top of Imaro's excellent response to this, let me add a few thoughts.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />(1)  Your doing more work beholdens you to you.  You have to make the game worthwhile to you.  If you aren't having fun, you are liable to burn out.  This might seem mercenary to you, but it is pretty obviously true.  In general, if you are not getting more out of a hobby than you put into it, you won't be doing that hobby for long.  The same is true for players, btw, which is why if you're a bad DM, you generally won't have players for long.  They aren't getting as much out of it as they put into it.(2)  You are breaking the game down too much.  Your players might listen to you because your game is overall interesting and exciting, even if every little bit is not....like the Tarrasque fight you mentioned in another thread.  It is the overall effect of the game that you are judged by, not the niggling details.  However, sometimes niggling details are important to achieve an overall effect.(3)  While in the long run, you earn your players' attention by being a good DM, when you first sit down at the table with new players, you gain that attention because of the position you occupy.  You thereafter either reinforce and deepen that respect by being a good DM....or erode it by being otherwise.  However, without that initial social contract (we will pay attention to you) the players have no way of learning what sort of DM you are.What the DM in the article needed was some solid advice on how to build up a relationship with his players that reinforced and deepened their respect for him as DM, while at the same time acknowledging that he needs to fulfill his own needs as a DM or else he will burn out.  And, frankly, looking over this thread, I can say with great certainty that there are a large number of EN Worlders who could have crafted a better response than the article gave.I believe that The more work you put into something, the more you expect to get out of itandThe more responsibility you undertake, the greater leeway you need to be able to meet that responsibilityare pretty universal truths, applying to far more than RPGs.  Indeed, as a DM I reward players who put more into the game because they put more into the game.  I imagine that you do, too.  When I am at work, I expect to get paid more than I spend going to work, and I expect to have the leeway required to do my job.  When I get home, I expect to get more use out of my house than the value I am paying in rent would be worth if I went elsewhere.This isn't elitism, and it isn't mercenary.  It's simple economics, reflecting the most common transactions (some would claim all transactions) that occur in real life.  Likewise, I have yet to meet the player who is happy expending 100 gp worth of resources to obtain a 50 gp reward.  YMMV, but I very much doubt that it does.RC</blockquote>

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