LordEntrails
Hero
Someone else (or you) said this earlier and I disagree. Many of us, maybe most of us here at ENWorld are DMs and game designers. But I think that most DMs are not game designers, nor should they be expected to be.Nah, being a DM is being a game designer. You design an encounter or a map or an NPC? That's game design. The stuff you buy, the books, they're not the game, they're the game engine. Just like video game designers use the Unreal Engine for exemple, we are designers using the D&D 5e engine.
I think I meant the negative there. Looks like I forgot the "not".why no?
Because then you limit the versatility of the middle of the group DMs. Those that want to be creative, but don't feel comfortable deviating from RAW.And that's bad because..?
In terms of this issue, I see three general categories of DMS. A) Those who only run things RAW / use prepared adventures. B) Those who create their own adventures, but will only use RAW (so if a monster has a role listed, they will only use them in that role) and C) those (you and I included I think) who will twist and adjust and change anything to suit our desires.
It's this B group that are in danger of being stifled by assigning roles. Now I admit that when someone starts out DMing in group B these assigned roles would be beneficial, but they will never progress to group C if stat blocks include "roles". But as I have said twice now; IMO there are better ways to accomplish the stated goal of making encounter design and running easier for DMs that do not have the downsides of using Role labels on stat blocks.