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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8440676" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I have! Discussing games here has definitely resulted in changes to my gaming. I only started posting here regularly with the launch of 5e, and at that point, D&D and a handful of other games were all that I'd played. I hadn't really been engaged with the wider hobby prior to that. Since then I've started playing several new games, and I've read many others. A lot of that is directly attributed to my interactions with people here on these boards. That's something that I try to keep in mind when it seems like these discussions are just going in circles.****** On the topic of principles for GMing D&D 5e; I have to say that I agree with those that have said the principles are not clearly defined. But at the same time, I have to say that the lack of clear definition was by design, and has led to a specific approach for the edition, which is to largely leave things up to the individual GM or (hopefully) the group as a whole. So I can see why some folks think that this goal was an obvious one.The DMG is near at hand in my office, and I've just thumbed through it a bit to see how it presents its advice. The bulk of the advice is very broad and generic. Very often, a few different ways to go about something are offered, with suggestions about how to achieve them. But none of these really amount to what I'd call a principle. The vast majority of guidance the DMG gives is in how to create a campaign world, how to craft adventures and locations and NPCs, and then how to make changes to the rules. When you get to the section "Running the Game" on page 235, things actually touch on the nature of authority and how to actually run the game. However, a lot of it feels like filler or very basic advice like "Rolling attack dice and damage dice at the same time may speed the game up" and stuff like that. When you get to actual how to run the game type stuff, the text doesn't commit. In the section "Role of Dice" they offer the idea of rolling for everything except mundane tasks, OR to not roll at all except for combat. Then they offer "The Middle Path" of using both methods as needed, with a reminder that the dice aren't in charge...YOU ARE!! On pages 238 and 239 you get about a half page of guidance on setting DCs for tasks. It amounts to providing the chart for Typical DCs, from Very Easy- 5 up to Nearly Impossible- 30, and then says to keep these in mind when assigning a DC not established by a rule or an adventure. This is rudimentary advice.There's nothing at all like a principle offered throughout most of the book. Nothing like the very specific lists offered in many other games. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, I'd say. It's good in that it leaves the game flexible; different groups can adapt it to their needs, and can run things how they like. It's bad because it offers very little in the way of actual guidance for anyone new to the game and because it doesn't present a cohesive model of play. Different people will read that book and then proceed with running a game in potentially significantly different ways. For me personally, and in looking at things subjectively, I'd say that the bad outweighs the good, here. It would have been better to offer more specific guidance in how to actually run the game. But, given the game's popularity, it's hard to say that they should have done that.....the results they've had with not doing it are hard to argue. The end result is that you have a game where things are always fuzzy. There's no hard delineations or sharp edges. Everything's a bit mushy and morphic. Which seems to work for a lot of groups, but it doesn't exactly make for easy discussion.</blockquote>

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