D&D General How to be a Not-Terrible DM: Thoughts on the Upcoming DMG

[EzekielRaiden]

I know there's a lot more involved here, but...any advice built on the foundation of "don't listen to advice" does not sit well with me. Doubly so when it's paired with "and don't listen to players either."

 

[Mannahnin]

I know there's a lot more involved here, but...any advice built on the foundation of "don't listen to advice" does not sit well with me. Doubly so when it's paired with "and don't listen to players either."

TBF, he elaborated that general advice, especially when grounded in undefined terms and circumstances, is often inapplicable, while specific advice is often good and useful.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's also simply true that Jaquays' book that I referenced has been widely lauded for decades, and that there have been other books over the years whose DM or GM advice has received a broad consensus of being considered worse or better than average.

MGibster just referenced another older book with good advice that Micah praised as great, which seems contradictory to his previous statement that "Providing generally applicable advice just isn't possible". I think that's false, and given his comment about Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads: The Unexpurgated Cyberpunk Referee's Guide, I suspect that's not what he meant. I'm guessing he meant that UNIVERSALLY applicable advice isn't possible. Which, sure, but we should know better than to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

I want to say too that I am glad I saw this thread. I want to start a local gaming club at the library. And one of the things i want to do is create a GMing course for any who are interested.

This thread helped reinforce the idea that I need to define terminology I want to use in my presentation. And that I do not have to use any prior terminology, or rather, I can redefine prior terminology.

Ooh, apropos of the whole thing, I just remembered that people having been saying good things about Justin Alexander's new book.

And I also really like a lot of Matt Colville's Running the Game series.

 

[payn]

I know there's a lot more involved here, but...any advice built on the foundation of "don't listen to advice" does not sit well with me. Doubly so when it's paired with "and don't listen to players either."

Exactly. I think my approach is more take as ideas, not beliefs (as often sold by influencers and fanatics).

 

[EzekielRaiden]

TBF, he elaborated that general advice, especially when grounded in undefined terms and circumstances, is often inapplicable, while specific advice is often good and useful.

Which just sounds, to me, like the extremely overused "WHITE ROOM!!!! WHITE ROOOOOOM!!!!!!" non-argument.

Theory has its uses. Yes, it is theoretical rather than practical. That's something you need to keep in mind. But practical--"specific advice"--has no more of a guarantee of utility than theoretical does. I could give someone specific, practical advice all the livelong day for Dungeon World or 13th Age, but that would be pretty much useless for running something like Prince Valiant or Werewolf. But good, well-reasoned theory is applicable almost anywhere.

 

[Mannahnin]

Which just sounds, to me, like the extremely overused "WHITE ROOM!!!! WHITE ROOOOOOM!!!!!!" non-argument.

Theory has its uses. Yes, it is theoretical rather than practical. That's something you need to keep in mind. But practical--"specific advice"--has no more of a guarantee of utility than theoretical does. I could give someone specific, practical advice all the livelong day for Dungeon World or 13th Age, but that would be pretty much useless for running something like Prince Valiant or Werewolf. But good, well-reasoned theory is applicable almost anywhere.

I have observed in practice the general phenomenon he describes.

Threads full of general advice and theory tend to be challenging to parse for actionable content, not just because of inconsistent use of jargon, but because much of the advice is contextually dependent. Look at Lanefan's posts about GMing, for example!

Threads where someone poses a more specific issue or problem in their game tend to get a lot of really helpful and germane advice from folks who've dealt with the same kind of issue.

That being said, of COURSE there is SOME generally good advice. Hence the good reputation of Jaquays' Campaign Sourcebook & Catacomb Guide for nearly three decades now, for example.

 

[Mannahnin]

The core guidance:

1. Take general advice with a large grain of salt, bearing in mind different contexts and priorities. But specific advice can be very valuable.
2. Running multiple different games will teach you things and generally help you be a better GM.
3. Practice will make you a better GM.

Seems to me like it should be pretty uncontroversial.

 

[KYRON45]

I know there's a lot more involved here, but...any advice built on the foundation of "don't listen to advice" does not sit well with me. Doubly so when it's paired with "and don't listen to players either."

Always listen to players!!!!
To be a good DM you need someone around to think your good.
Being an angry lonely complaining guy without players makes you a crank, not a DM.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The core guidance:

1. Take general advice with a large grain of salt, bearing in mind different contexts and priorities. But specific advice can be very valuable.
2. Running multiple different games will teach you things and generally help you be a better GM.
3. Practice will make you a better GM.

Seems to me like it should be pretty uncontroversial.

Bruh. I think Mannahnin just volunteered to do the CliffNotes for all of my posts!

 

[KYRON45]

Bruh. I think Mannahnin just volunteered to do the CliffNotes for all of my posts!

I just like looking at all the words. THE WORDS!!!!! So many words.