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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 2401838" data-attributes="member: 7737">Right! Fortunately, the current rules set makes content design activity much more structured. For the first time, we have actual rules for making a monster. Or a magic item. Or a spell (the Epic rules). Now, we may argue about whether the rules themselves are flawed or incomplete, but the framework at least exists. As a long time DM, I can say that this pleases me greatly. I want my DM creations to be rules-legal, even though I could use my DM powers to circumvent the rules at will. Now Ryan's comment begs the question, "Should content design be inextrixably linked to DM'ing?" And I believe the obvious answer is, "No, because the art of DM'ing is separate from the art of creating adventures / monsters / whatever." I also think that with the greying of the D&D player base, more and more DMs prefer to spend their time DM'ing as opposed to designing content. Hence the clamor for adventures, whether they are in Dungeon magazine or from 3rd-party publishers. Hence the clamor for various play aids such as stat block generators or dungeon tiles. It seems that many people want to spend less time designing content and more time actually gaming. Now what interests me about the recently published DMG II is that it explicitly addresses content design, but it spends much less time on the art of DM'ing (for lack of a better term). Perhaps this is a wise choice, however: you could read a book on the art of DM'ing, absorb its lessons, and never need to refer to it again. So if the DMG II were 200 pages on the art of DM'ing, buyers would feel ripped off once they had read it through. But, in actuality, the DMG II has plenty of charts, tables, and rules-y sections to which buyers can refer again and again. Hmm. I thought I had a point when I started this post, but I seem to have lost it along the way. Well, such is the nature of message board posts.</blockquote>

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