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<blockquote data-quote="Pauper" data-source="post: 7044126" data-attributes="member: 17607"><p>Well, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?494858-Request-Reduce-DM-Award-Gold&p=6919376&viewfull=1#post6919376" target="_blank">you could start here</a> with my math-based suggestion to reduce DM award gold in modules to somewhere between 20-30% of DM XP rather than the current 50%.</p><p></p><p>My next suggestion (which I suspect you're already doing) is to identify the most-frequently asked-about DM Quests on the various social media groups ("For this DM Quest, how does this work? Or can I do this?") and either eliminate them or reduce their scope to make them more specific and unambiguous.</p><p></p><p>Lastly, re-think the seemingly common-sense idea that, if a given season can advance a single PC from 1st level to Tier 3, then a DM who runs all those adventures should also be able to advance a single character that same amount. If you decide this is really the target, then balance the in-module DM awards with the DM Quest awards so that a DM claiming all such awards for running a full season can accomplish this -- which I'm certain would involve reducing individual awards to a lower and more easily justifiable number. Otherwise, decide what the target should be and adjust the awards accordingly to hit that target.</p><p></p><p>As an example: Running all 20 DDAL SKT modules grants the DM 45,000 XP, a potion, up to three additional scrolls or potions, and a magical weapon or suit of armor or other wondrous item that appeared in a Season 5 module. Add the XP, gold, and downtime from those actual modules likely pushes the total award well into Tier 3 range (>85k XP total -- I don't have all the Season 5 modules to review their DM awards, but if they follow the DM Rewards guidance in the SKT DMs Guide, they'll easily let a DM get to that point). And that doesn't count any of the quests that allow you to double your rewards for running in a store, running when you weren't expecting to, etc., though given those are situational, maybe you want to keep those as 'extra bonus' XP and don't factor them into the regular sum.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>My guess is that people who complain that the awards are too low aren't really complaining about the awards, but are instead justifying to themselves why they don't DM (or DM more). Sure, the goal is to encourage additional DMing, but DMing solely for the sake of earning rewards isn't really meeting the goal, either, if the goal is to have additional DMing that helps grow the game and cultivates new players (and ultimately more new DMs). It would be great to come up with a system whereby DMs are rewarded based on the quality of their DMing -- special certs at conventions, for example, since that's the place that's easiest to quantify how well a DM is doing her job, or the apparently short-lived "<a href="https://geekdad.com/2014/08/david-oak-stark-dm-year/" target="_blank">DM of the Year</a>" award which was handed out one time at GenCon and apparently never again.</p><p></p><p>I'm glad to provide suggestions and point out places where the system doesn't quite work as well as it might. I suppose the criticisms from people who don't like to be told they could be doing things better is just part of the price of doing that business.</p><p></p><p>--</p><p>Pauper</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pauper, post: 7044126, member: 17607"] Well, [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?494858-Request-Reduce-DM-Award-Gold&p=6919376&viewfull=1#post6919376"]you could start here[/URL] with my math-based suggestion to reduce DM award gold in modules to somewhere between 20-30% of DM XP rather than the current 50%. My next suggestion (which I suspect you're already doing) is to identify the most-frequently asked-about DM Quests on the various social media groups ("For this DM Quest, how does this work? Or can I do this?") and either eliminate them or reduce their scope to make them more specific and unambiguous. Lastly, re-think the seemingly common-sense idea that, if a given season can advance a single PC from 1st level to Tier 3, then a DM who runs all those adventures should also be able to advance a single character that same amount. If you decide this is really the target, then balance the in-module DM awards with the DM Quest awards so that a DM claiming all such awards for running a full season can accomplish this -- which I'm certain would involve reducing individual awards to a lower and more easily justifiable number. Otherwise, decide what the target should be and adjust the awards accordingly to hit that target. As an example: Running all 20 DDAL SKT modules grants the DM 45,000 XP, a potion, up to three additional scrolls or potions, and a magical weapon or suit of armor or other wondrous item that appeared in a Season 5 module. Add the XP, gold, and downtime from those actual modules likely pushes the total award well into Tier 3 range (>85k XP total -- I don't have all the Season 5 modules to review their DM awards, but if they follow the DM Rewards guidance in the SKT DMs Guide, they'll easily let a DM get to that point). And that doesn't count any of the quests that allow you to double your rewards for running in a store, running when you weren't expecting to, etc., though given those are situational, maybe you want to keep those as 'extra bonus' XP and don't factor them into the regular sum. My guess is that people who complain that the awards are too low aren't really complaining about the awards, but are instead justifying to themselves why they don't DM (or DM more). Sure, the goal is to encourage additional DMing, but DMing solely for the sake of earning rewards isn't really meeting the goal, either, if the goal is to have additional DMing that helps grow the game and cultivates new players (and ultimately more new DMs). It would be great to come up with a system whereby DMs are rewarded based on the quality of their DMing -- special certs at conventions, for example, since that's the place that's easiest to quantify how well a DM is doing her job, or the apparently short-lived "[URL="https://geekdad.com/2014/08/david-oak-stark-dm-year/"]DM of the Year[/URL]" award which was handed out one time at GenCon and apparently never again. I'm glad to provide suggestions and point out places where the system doesn't quite work as well as it might. I suppose the criticisms from people who don't like to be told they could be doing things better is just part of the price of doing that business. -- Pauper [/QUOTE]
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