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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 4690380" data-attributes="member: 59506">I have to agree with Crothian, I think it's a Skill and an Art. Actually, I think you (Kzach) made a good argument for the Art aspect yourself. I think viewing DM'ing as just a skill is what leads to being inflexible as far as on-the-fly story/plot/adventure modification goes. To me, viewing DM'ing as just a skill limits it to strictly an "If-Then" exercise. Using your creativity to go outside the parameters of the adventure, to me is an "Art". But, I agree with you whole heartedly on the missed opportunity. I would have definitely come up with something for the characters that tried something the adventure didn't have a preset answer for. That's where the "Art" aspect comes in IMO. Using my own creativity is what makes DM'ing so much fun for me. If it was just a skill for me, then I really don't see a difference between DM'ing and "Managing" (although, I'd say there is a certain amount of "Art" to good Management also<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />). I've been in a situation before where the DM essentially punished me for a bad decision by leaving me stranded, with no way to contribute to the adventure, for about 4 hours of real-world time (although it may have been that the DM just didn't have any idea of what to do). So, I have a distinct distaste for situations like that. However, punishing the players/characters with a really tough or dangerous encounter, because of a bad decision - well that's what the game is all about<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.</blockquote>

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