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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5748988" data-attributes="member: 2067">Not all DMs find the same things tedious. Not all DMs find the same things hard. Some DMs can't deal with divination and teleportation. Other DMs have no problem with those, but can't make a dungeon for junk. Other DMs hate combat. Some DMs hate puzzles. You can't categorically say that DMs need rules for attacks but no rules for how "fast" each action is. Some DMs say that drinking a potion takes a round. Some DMs say you can do it fast enough that it's not really an action. I, as a DM, for instance, can't stand making hundreds of little judgement calls. I don't want to have to consider the ramifications of a decision I've made. I don't want to have to worry about the "balance" of letting them drink potions freely or not. I don't want to be asked for permission -- "can I shut this door and still attack on my turn?" is not something I want to have to make up my mind about. I want the system to basically deal with these tedious little meaningless choices without me. I'd much rather worry about the villain's plot, the elves' architecture, the wacky voice I'm going to use for the idiot henchmen, whether or not Alicia is having fun with her thief, if it's time to order some pizza, etc. I do not want to have to be involved with the mechanics on the micro level during game-play. I want them to do their job and get the heck out of the way of my four hours of fun pretending to be a magical gumdrop elf. The more allowances and permissions I have to grant, the more tedious and frustrating the entire affair is. I want to run a game. In order to do that, I need a game engine. A game engine consisting almost entirely of "Do whatever you want!" is useless to me. Why did I spend $150 on your 3 books and read about 400 pages? To be told to do whatever I want? What I want to do is think about bigger things than action economy.Now, it's important to me to be able to do what I want anyway. Regardless of what the rules say, if I find drinking a potion as a minor action is too much for my group for whatever reason, it is important that I can, if necessary, drill down to that rule, and change it, without suddenly breaking the game, and without endangering the confidence of my players. I agree almost entirely with the central thrust of Monte's message, here. There are things DMs do better than rules, and making judgement calls for their own groups is certainly one of them. An ounce of guideline is worth a ton of rulespeak. But what, exactly, the DM wants to make judgement calls about can't be mandated by the game. You can't say "Here's detailed rules for attack rolls, and here's us throwing up our hands at how long it takes to drink a potion, because that's up to you!" It is more useful to say "Here's basic rules for attack rolls and action economies, and here's how to change them, and what will happen if you do."Because not everyone wants to play Amateur Game Designer when they're in a room with five other people once a week -- or every two weeks or every month. Not everyone wants to carefully consider the strengths and weaknesses of every monster available to present a coherent, balanced, and effectively challenging encounter for their current group, and select appropriate, class-specific weapons, armor, and defensive items, perhaps from a specific wishlist. Some people just want to roll on a random encounter chart (complete with a random treasure table) and get on with the bigger issues in the game.I'm one of the latter folks, when I'm at the table (though I am one of the former folks in between sessions!).</blockquote>

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