D&D (2024) DMG and Pf2e GM Core... Same design philosophy?

When it comes to learning new things... I believe gaining that information nowadays tends to often be via online resourcing-- websites, apps, video. So as the instruction of world-building is mainly towards newer players-- and those newer players tending to be of the younger generations-- teaching via book is not used or as necessary as it was for the Gen Xers and above. If the younger generations want to learn about more advanced Dungeon Mastering techniques (including building your own worlds)... I suspect that they will get that info online and not via any Dungeon Master's Guide. Thus, printing information in the new DMG that is pretty much the same repeated information that has been printed and had videos made about countless times before is probably not the best use of page count.

People nowadays are always making jokes about how no one reads the DMG... well, that's because they are all watching YouTube videos on how to learn to DM instead. Heh heh... what WotC should be having Chris Perkins or some other YouTuber do now is a series of YouTube videos where they narrates each chapter of the new DMG and talks about what is said in them and how to put them to use. Because while barely anyone will sit down to just read that book anymore... thousands upon thousands will watch videos of someone talking about it, LOL.
 

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When it comes to learning new things... I believe gaining that information nowadays tends to often be via online resourcing-- websites, apps, video. So as the instruction of world-building is mainly towards newer players-- and those newer players tending to be of the younger generations-- teaching via book is not used or as necessary as it was for the Gen Xers and above. If the younger generations want to learn about more advanced Dungeon Mastering techniques (including building your own worlds)... I suspect that they will get that info online and not via any Dungeon Master's Guide. Thus, printing information in the new DMG that is pretty much the same repeated information that has been printed and had videos made about countless times before is probably not the best use of page count.

People nowadays are always making jokes about how no one reads the DMG... well, that's because they are all watching YouTube videos on how to learn to DM instead. Heh heh... what WotC should be having Chris Perkins or some other YouTuber do now is a series of YouTube videos where they narrates each chapter of the new DMG and talks about what is said in them and how to put them to use. Because while barely anyone will sit down to just read that book anymore... thousands upon thousands will watch videos of someone talking about it, LOL.

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needz moar red arrow.
 

I understand that, MAYBE, I made a clickbaity title :oops:. Belive me, this was involontary, I'm sorry (I'm one that hates those). It was a sincere question,I should have titled about "Worldbuilding tools" philosofy. Hope I didn't waste too much of your time :cry:
 

I could see them publishing something like the Manual of the Planes with cues to create cosmologies and planar sub-worlds, along with theme appropriate random tables and maps.

Then do the same with wilderness and urban themes.
If so, I hope they start with wilderness and urban before branching off into planar adventures. 100% of the campaigns I have played in involved wilderness or urban exploring. 1 has involved the planes.
 

I don't think the D&D designers are trying to discourage world-building. I imagine they may think that planned world-building instead of random world-building is preferable, at least for discussing in this version of the DMG.

There's a lot of books out that focus on random tables for NPCs, world-building and the like. They may be deferring to those resources or planning to do a sort of follow-up book that focuses on that in the future.
 

Warning this is kind of a rant on the DMG xD

I think the dungeon masters guide needs an entire chapter on social and leadership skills. The current offering of short paragraphs limited to session 0 and safety tools is woefully inadequate, especially when even enfranchised and veteran DMs, on these very forums, struggle with basics in these areas.

It is strange that a role comprised almost exclusively of social interations and group management is given no direction on the basic skills required to succeed in those areas. Instead we see these unprepared DMs flood social media with "horror stories" that are all too indicitive of this inadequacy. Where most of these issues would be prevented with basic social and leadership skills, but instead they are allowed to plague the community and ruin countless games.

We spend hundreds of pages on commonly available mechanical drudgery, only to seldomly touch the underlying skills required to be an effective DM. Learning to inspire and build trust are far more useful to your average DM than random table #637.

Its fine that we have mechanics in the DMG, but it's almost criminal that we simply ignore the fundemental skills required to succeed at this role.
 

There is a whole school of DMs who I call "DMs by random tables." It does seem to me that this style of play has fallen out of favor a lot in the last decade or so. This doesn't make me sad because it's the antithesis of how I run a game, but not using it means the DM has to do more work.

I suspect we'll see some books with exactly this kind of thing because WotC seems to have ceded the play style. It will be interesting to see the mechanics they suggest for designing adventures. The fixed encounter nature seems ... ahem ... very 4E so I approve (:)).
 

The 3rd party Marketplace opening up on D&D Beyond is a good inticator that you will see those sort of niche products delivered by companies other than WotC. Kobold Press already has an excellent Design series to support homebrew GMs and they could drop it on the Marketplace with very little product risk to WotC and collect some easy percentage platform fees.
 

Its fine that we have mechanics in the DMG, but it's almost criminal that we simply ignore the fundemental skills required to succeed at this role.
I do not believe it is truly effective to try and teach someone how to be social by having them read a book. That is beyond what a DMG would be capable of doing.

The best the book could do would be to tell potential DMs "You really want to be better at running the game? Take improv classes. Learn how to take stuff given to you by your scene partners and then make up effective responses on the fly that push the story forward. Learn how to listen to other people and build off of their ideas. Learn how to be clear in how you speak so that your partners can effectively react to you and build upon your own."

I know full well that most people here on these boards roll their eyes whenever they see me talk about improv and story and narrative... but that's really what this game (and all roleplaying games) are about-- it is the social interaction between players at the table to create a story via a tactical miniatures combat game. And very few people can learn how to get better at social interaction by not socially interacting but instead trying to figure it out by reading about it.
 

I do not believe it is truly effective to try and teach someone how to be social by having them read a book. That is beyond what a DMG would be capable of doing.

The best the book could do would be to tell potential DMs "You really want to be better at running the game? Take improv classes. Learn how to take stuff given to you by your scene partners and then make up effective responses on the fly that push the story forward. Learn how to listen to other people and build off of their ideas. Learn how to be clear in how you speak so that your partners can effectively react to you and build upon your own."

I know full well that most people here on these boards roll their eyes whenever they see me talk about improv and story and narrative... but that's really what this game (and all roleplaying games) are about-- it is the social interaction between players at the table to create a story via a tactical miniatures combat game. And very few people can learn how to get better at social interaction by not socially interacting but instead trying to figure it out by reading about it.

Improv isn't the issue, it's not important to playing the game. I was addressing a different issue, social and leadership skills for conflict resolution and trust building. and I don't know that you can't teach those through text. Some of the knowledge that is missing is simple advice, such as leading with a positive when giving criticisms. How to listen effectively, stay positive, or the importance of being honest.

There is a lot of small things that many just don't know. So they approach the people relations side blindly and unable to effectively communicate. They can't deal with problem players well. They sabotage their own building of trust. And it's all because they don't follow some pretty basic ideas.

I recently had to kick a problem player from a game I was running for online DMs. When I did that one of the players commented that it was refreshing to actually have a DM who did what they said. That most DMs just tolerate bad behavior. I think that's telling of the lack of leadership and social skills in DMs as a whole.

So a book can't teach improv, but can it teach basic leadership skills?
 
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