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Interview with Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter about their 5E adventures.
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6309163" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I think the key there is the phrase <strong>can also</strong>. Wild flailing and stumbling through vague rules can certainly cause a lot of DM burnout, and can simultaneously cause player burnout. The DM makes a call that leads to a bad experience because the game didn't bother to make that call and then everyone has a sour taste in their mouth. </p><p></p><p>I think the fact is different DMs have different strengths, and what's good for some might not be good for all. A good DMG needs to support an individual DM where they're weak, and to enhance an individual DM's strengths. Some DMs are fair arbiters, talented at making judgement calls. Some DMs are natural storytellers. Some DMs are living libraries. Some are talented worldbuilders. Some DMs are just good <em>hosts</em>. The DMGs of various e's have a tendency of presuming all DMs share a given trait and lack other traits, which is part of why the DMGs tend to be the weakest of the basic rulebooks -- those hard-coded assumptions are hard to shake. </p><p></p><p>Like, I grated against 4e's idea of knowing what your NPC's are for in a narrative sense before you deploy them. One of my strengths as a DM is spontaneity, so the assumption that I would know what an NPC was for before they entered the scene and we found out was <em>bonkers</em>. But 3e's town generation was something of a godsend in that respect. -- what, I can spend a bit of prep time and then have this righteous hive of bees ready to toss a PC party into and see what shakes out? AWESOME.</p><p></p><p>That doesn't make the 4e perspective bad, though -- just not great <em>for me</em>. There's plenty of folks with a clearer idea of narrative that this works wonders for. It likewise doesn't make the 3e town gen rules objectively good, just good <em>for me</em>. It sucks for anyone who doesn't see the point in whipping up 98 low-level NPC statblocks that will likely never get interacted with. </p><p></p><p>Gygax's advice didn't work for everyone. Neither did Wyatt's, or Monte's, or Zeb's. Styles differ, and there's no One True Way to be a DM, so there's no One True Way to guide people in their DMing. DMGs are hard to write. 4e did perhaps the best job to date, but there's plenty of room for growth.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6309163, member: 2067"] I think the key there is the phrase [B]can also[/B]. Wild flailing and stumbling through vague rules can certainly cause a lot of DM burnout, and can simultaneously cause player burnout. The DM makes a call that leads to a bad experience because the game didn't bother to make that call and then everyone has a sour taste in their mouth. I think the fact is different DMs have different strengths, and what's good for some might not be good for all. A good DMG needs to support an individual DM where they're weak, and to enhance an individual DM's strengths. Some DMs are fair arbiters, talented at making judgement calls. Some DMs are natural storytellers. Some DMs are living libraries. Some are talented worldbuilders. Some DMs are just good [I]hosts[/I]. The DMGs of various e's have a tendency of presuming all DMs share a given trait and lack other traits, which is part of why the DMGs tend to be the weakest of the basic rulebooks -- those hard-coded assumptions are hard to shake. Like, I grated against 4e's idea of knowing what your NPC's are for in a narrative sense before you deploy them. One of my strengths as a DM is spontaneity, so the assumption that I would know what an NPC was for before they entered the scene and we found out was [I]bonkers[/I]. But 3e's town generation was something of a godsend in that respect. -- what, I can spend a bit of prep time and then have this righteous hive of bees ready to toss a PC party into and see what shakes out? AWESOME. That doesn't make the 4e perspective bad, though -- just not great [I]for me[/I]. There's plenty of folks with a clearer idea of narrative that this works wonders for. It likewise doesn't make the 3e town gen rules objectively good, just good [I]for me[/I]. It sucks for anyone who doesn't see the point in whipping up 98 low-level NPC statblocks that will likely never get interacted with. Gygax's advice didn't work for everyone. Neither did Wyatt's, or Monte's, or Zeb's. Styles differ, and there's no One True Way to be a DM, so there's no One True Way to guide people in their DMing. DMGs are hard to write. 4e did perhaps the best job to date, but there's plenty of room for growth. [/QUOTE]
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