Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I'm an incompetent normal-magic DM--how do I fix it?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 2951648" data-attributes="member: 317"><p>I'm the one that originally made the comment Numion responded to in an old thread. What I meant by my statement was in my experience playing D&D (20+ years now), the DMs that ONLY run high fantasy games tend to use magic as a band-aid for all problems, and that players tend to rely on magic to circumvent all problems. Why try to KO a guard, bluff your way past other sentries, undermine structural supports and free prisoners to take down the bandit chieftain when you can go invisible, summon a horde of creatures, stone shape and fireball the place into cinders? Not to mention with Detect Evil, Zone of Truth, True Seeing, and various divinations make it VERY hard to run a good mystery/investigation that can't be solved with minimal effort. To counteract that and still make it challenging, every bad guy has to have just as much magic to counteract the PCs. While some people might enjoy that much magic, to me it becomes a modus operendi for ALL adventures (witness the numerous scry/buff/teleport tactics, or Fly/Imp Invis/Fireball wizard done to death), and takes away fun and unusual opportunities that are present in a lower-magic game.</p><p></p><p>Does it make me an incompetent DM to prefer low magic? I don't think so. I have better things to do than sit there and memorize dozens of pages of spell and item descriptions, looking for counters to each of the PCs abilities and/or trying to squeeze the system for every ounce of synergy I can. I've been running a successful low-magic D&D game for 13 years now (characters around 12th level, with about 1/4 the magic suggested in the core books), and my players still love it and talk about old events in it frequently. With my prep time for games becoming more restricted with time, I prefer to focus on plot, making memorable NPCs and villians, and raising interesting moral quandries than engaging in a magical arms race with the players. Does that make ALL high-magic DMs incompetent storytellers or have less deep campaigns? Absolutely not, its just not a playstyle I enjoy, and there is a tendency of inexperienced DMs to go very high magic and neglect other areas of their game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gothmog, post: 2951648, member: 317"] I'm the one that originally made the comment Numion responded to in an old thread. What I meant by my statement was in my experience playing D&D (20+ years now), the DMs that ONLY run high fantasy games tend to use magic as a band-aid for all problems, and that players tend to rely on magic to circumvent all problems. Why try to KO a guard, bluff your way past other sentries, undermine structural supports and free prisoners to take down the bandit chieftain when you can go invisible, summon a horde of creatures, stone shape and fireball the place into cinders? Not to mention with Detect Evil, Zone of Truth, True Seeing, and various divinations make it VERY hard to run a good mystery/investigation that can't be solved with minimal effort. To counteract that and still make it challenging, every bad guy has to have just as much magic to counteract the PCs. While some people might enjoy that much magic, to me it becomes a modus operendi for ALL adventures (witness the numerous scry/buff/teleport tactics, or Fly/Imp Invis/Fireball wizard done to death), and takes away fun and unusual opportunities that are present in a lower-magic game. Does it make me an incompetent DM to prefer low magic? I don't think so. I have better things to do than sit there and memorize dozens of pages of spell and item descriptions, looking for counters to each of the PCs abilities and/or trying to squeeze the system for every ounce of synergy I can. I've been running a successful low-magic D&D game for 13 years now (characters around 12th level, with about 1/4 the magic suggested in the core books), and my players still love it and talk about old events in it frequently. With my prep time for games becoming more restricted with time, I prefer to focus on plot, making memorable NPCs and villians, and raising interesting moral quandries than engaging in a magical arms race with the players. Does that make ALL high-magic DMs incompetent storytellers or have less deep campaigns? Absolutely not, its just not a playstyle I enjoy, and there is a tendency of inexperienced DMs to go very high magic and neglect other areas of their game. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I'm an incompetent normal-magic DM--how do I fix it?
Top