Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon 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 Next
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
*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!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
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
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
It's Your Turn to GM
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="Haffrung" data-source="post: 8201601" data-attributes="member: 6776259"><p>Some people don't have the temperament to be GMs. They're too passive, anxious, lazy. Or can't step back and be an impartial adjudicator of a game. However, it would be good for the game groups - and the hobby in general - if more people gave it a shot. At the very least, it would make them appreciate the GM(s) they do have.</p><p></p><p>The industry does a poor job of on-ramping the task of being a GM. The format of adventure material has changed little in 40 years, besides making the content even more text-heavy and verbose. Indie and OSR publishers are making inroads with formatting that gives primacy to ease of use at the table. But adventures by the big publishers still expect the GM to memorize whole chapters of content, or make extensive notes and summaries. For most WotC campaign books, you can find player-made play aids online that do the work of summarizing chapters, presenting flowcharts, tracking NPCs, etc. The fact these have to be made at all speaks to a failure of design by the publisher.</p><p></p><p>As for support for GMs making their own adventures, WotC provides nothing besides some general advice in the DMG. No plug-and-play locations, lairs, maps, encounter tables, settlements, or NPCs. You’re in you own.</p><p></p><p>GM advice online is helpful. It's also intimidating. When a potential new GM goes to a Youtube channel for GM advice and sees 50+ videos with topics ranging from building pantheons to managing tactical combat to developing engaging NPCs, they can be forgiven from asking themselves what they've gotten themselves into, and backing out before they've even started.</p><p></p><p>The wealth of material meant to train GMs has paradoxically made the baseline of what we expect a GM to be today - system master, world-builder, tactical genius, actor, screenwriter - more daunting to inexperienced GMs. I started playing D&D when I was 9, and was DMing (and creating my own adventures) when I was 10. This was not unusual at the time. The reason the game was so accessible is because the expectations of what it meant to be a GM were far lower. On Thursday night I would sit down with a piece of graph paper while my parents watched Magnum P.I. in the background and draw a dungeon. The following night, while my parents watched Dallas, I would populate that dungeon with monsters, treasure, and cool stuff. On Saturday, I was ready to run my new dungeon.</p><p></p><p>D&D and other RPGs may have moved past simple dungeon-crawls as the default mode of play. But that format is unsurpassed in the ease with which it helps new players ramp up as GMs. It doesn't even have to be dungeons - you can have very simple play structures and ease of use with formats like the one used by Beyond the Wall. The problem is that the default by the big publishers to epic save-the-world campaign, deep NPC backstories, complex factional rivalry, etc. present a daunting barrier to aspiring GMs. I've been a GM for 40 years, but I doubt I would have become one (or at least started as an adolescent) if I was introduced to the hobby with today's adventure and campaign paradigm.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Haffrung, post: 8201601, member: 6776259"] Some people don't have the temperament to be GMs. They're too passive, anxious, lazy. Or can't step back and be an impartial adjudicator of a game. However, it would be good for the game groups - and the hobby in general - if more people gave it a shot. At the very least, it would make them appreciate the GM(s) they do have. The industry does a poor job of on-ramping the task of being a GM. The format of adventure material has changed little in 40 years, besides making the content even more text-heavy and verbose. Indie and OSR publishers are making inroads with formatting that gives primacy to ease of use at the table. But adventures by the big publishers still expect the GM to memorize whole chapters of content, or make extensive notes and summaries. For most WotC campaign books, you can find player-made play aids online that do the work of summarizing chapters, presenting flowcharts, tracking NPCs, etc. The fact these have to be made at all speaks to a failure of design by the publisher. As for support for GMs making their own adventures, WotC provides nothing besides some general advice in the DMG. No plug-and-play locations, lairs, maps, encounter tables, settlements, or NPCs. You’re in you own. GM advice online is helpful. It's also intimidating. When a potential new GM goes to a Youtube channel for GM advice and sees 50+ videos with topics ranging from building pantheons to managing tactical combat to developing engaging NPCs, they can be forgiven from asking themselves what they've gotten themselves into, and backing out before they've even started. The wealth of material meant to train GMs has paradoxically made the baseline of what we expect a GM to be today - system master, world-builder, tactical genius, actor, screenwriter - more daunting to inexperienced GMs. I started playing D&D when I was 9, and was DMing (and creating my own adventures) when I was 10. This was not unusual at the time. The reason the game was so accessible is because the expectations of what it meant to be a GM were far lower. On Thursday night I would sit down with a piece of graph paper while my parents watched Magnum P.I. in the background and draw a dungeon. The following night, while my parents watched Dallas, I would populate that dungeon with monsters, treasure, and cool stuff. On Saturday, I was ready to run my new dungeon. D&D and other RPGs may have moved past simple dungeon-crawls as the default mode of play. But that format is unsurpassed in the ease with which it helps new players ramp up as GMs. It doesn't even have to be dungeons - you can have very simple play structures and ease of use with formats like the one used by Beyond the Wall. The problem is that the default by the big publishers to epic save-the-world campaign, deep NPC backstories, complex factional rivalry, etc. present a daunting barrier to aspiring GMs. I've been a GM for 40 years, but I doubt I would have become one (or at least started as an adolescent) if I was introduced to the hobby with today's adventure and campaign paradigm. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
It's Your Turn to GM
Top