D&D General Ginni D Yes, And

[jdrakeh]

For us old fogies who spend our time engaging with the ancient medium of forums, sure. It might be new for the young whipper-snappers who spend their time engaging with the (now only slightly less ancient) medium of Youtube.

That's fair. I guess my problem is that she frames it as some kind of original advice, when it's not. Like, at all.

 

[Charlaquin]

That's fair. I guess my problem is that she frames it as some kind of original advice, when it's not. Like, at all.

I don't agree. She frames it as advice, in contrast to the very common advice of using "yes, and," and isn't specific about it being an original idea or not. It's a simple enough concept, it's entirely conceivable that she may have arrived at it independently, but either way it's not particularly relevant. The important thing is it's good advice, which her target audience may not yet have heard, and she's sharing it with them. That's all positive in my book.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Alright. Having watched it, it is much closer to what I'd hoped ("we must build upon 'yes, and'" rather than rejecting or restricting it per se). For those DMs who need to hear this, it's well-made. I just am not of the opinion that this is the useful advice a lot of DMs today need. I think they need to learn how to say "yes(, but/and)" a lot more than they need to learn to say "no." So I worry that this is like teaching a novice trombonist advanced jazz techniques while they're still learning their arpeggios; it may very well be the case that this young trombonist will go on to exclusively play jazz, but high-level improvisational jazz teachings, even if well-taught, may have deleterious effects on the steps between "learning the basics" and mastery.

At the very least, though, I hope this will teach those DMs that I consider to be far too quick to say "no" and far too slow to say "yes" the idea that flat "no" (and often even flat "yes", too!) should essentially always be followed with "...and" or "...but," and that "no, and" is really a tool of last resort, something to fall back on when you're completely out of options and unable to muster the creativity to develop a satisfying alternative. She does make quite clear for her own table that she actively avoids "no, and" if at all possible, but I fear that some might take that as "oh, that's what you do, so I can just ignore that" rather than the clear implication, which is that "no, and" is just a really undesirable option compared to the other three.

 

[overgeeked]

I don't agree. She frames it as advice, in contrast to the very common advice of using "yes, and," and isn't specific about it being an original idea or not. It's a simple enough concept, it's entirely conceivable that she may have arrived at it independently, but either way it's not particularly relevant. The important thing is it's good advice, which her target audience may not yet have heard, and she's sharing it with them. That's all positive in my book.

Exactly.

Looking through the transcript at no point does she claim this is a new idea or original to her or claim she's created it.

 

[Reynard]

And here I thought it was 9 uncontroversial minutes. Huh.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I have to disagree with her in-passing claim at 0:25 that the GM is supposed to be playing the villain. The GM plays the opposition (and all the other NPCs) but I've had plenty of players who were definitely the villains of the campaign. Sometimes your game's End Boss is the last hope of reigning in the PCs before they destroy the world with their ill-considered and/or selfish actions.

 

[KYRON45]

And here I thought it was 9 uncontroversial minutes. Huh.

Welcome to the internet.

 

[Reynard]

I think it is good to talk about this stuff, even for us oldies who have been playing for decades and even when the ideas aren't necessarily new. People get stuck in their ways and stop listening, especially to young people, and end up not being quite as wise as they think.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

It is not anything particularly novel, but it was well articulated and it was nice to see the decision space explained this clearly. Good advice certainly.

 

[DarkCrisis]

That's fair. I guess my problem is that she frames it as some kind of original advice, when it's not. Like, at all.

Always kind of bugged me about some of her content as well. Repackaged advice (that people give her money for).

Then i realized: It’s not for me.

It’s for newer gamers who haven’t heard it before or haven’t come to a similar conclusion on their own.


As for the subject “yes and” fails when you have a player who’s like “I’ll stab the King” which in the end will just screw up everyone else’s fun time. The DM must consider EVERYONE and sometimes a “no” has to come out.