MONSTER MANUAL 4: More Monsters/Less Fluff or Vice Versa?

[Lonely Tylenol]

So don't be a DM if one cannot make the time.

I really don't know if I can directly reply to this sentence without using profanity, so just imagine the most longshoreman-like exclamation you can concoct, and assume that's my initial reaction.

I'm a full-time student, a dad, a part-time house painter, a miniatures painter, and someone who likes to relax with a beer and watch some hockey every once in a while (Go Oilers!). I only have so many hours in a week to prepare my campaign, and if I didn't do it, I wouldn't get to play at all. I make heavy use of Dungeon magazine modules, pull NPCs from anywhere I spot them, and generally use a ton of short-cuts and tools to make better use of my time so I can focus on making a good game rather than wasting time nit-picking my way through endless minutia that someone else could have done for me.

Roll treasure? Screw that. Currently, I randomly generate it using a web tool, and throw in custom items when the mood strikes me. Heck, I don't have to even do that when I use modules, since they come complete with treasure already generated. Of couse, I don't see anyone complaining that Dungeon has been making lazy DMs for the last almost-30 years by their fiendishly clever inclusion of pregenerated treasure.

The more of the dull, unfun work that gets done for me, the more of the interesting, fun work I can do. And that's a major reason why I DM. I can make up interesting NPCs to challenge the players. I can set up interesting encounters. I can work out NPC motivations and overarching goals that will influence the story. Why? Because I pulled all the unimportant NPCs out of the tables from the DMG and back-issues of Dungeon, where the work has been done for me.

Maybe everyone likes the spoon-feeding, but I'm not a "baby" to the game and feel the material is unnecessary, a lot of it deserves to simply be D&D website articles.

Could you be any more offensive? Seriously. Everyone who doesn't share your taste, or who doesn't have time for ground-up all-inclusive world building is a "baby"?

 

[Pielorinho]

Moderator's Notes:
Two notes:
1) If you find a post that violates board rules, we definitely appreciate your reporting it to us so we can look at it. Please, please do not post an insulting response to it, not even an obliquely insulting response to it.
2) Do not insult people who play the game differently from you. You may be sure that your playstyle was handed down from the heavens by the gods of gaming, and that all other playstyles are inferior heresies, but that's an opinion you need to keep to yourself. Calling other playstyles "spoonfeeding" or the like is unnecessary and inflammatory.

Thread closed.
Daniel