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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7714495" data-attributes="member: 37579">All games will vary greatly depending on the DM and their experience at telling a story and managing a table. That's largely independent of the system. A good DM will always be able to make things fun and engaging. I've played in enough Living Greyhawk and Pathfinder Society games to know that an average or inexperienced DM being given a crunch heavy system is not a good thing, as they do not know the rules, make a lot of mistakes, slow the game down consulting the books, and cannot properly adjudicate at the table. I don't think being an amateur game designer is always necessary, not in really rules lite games. Medium rules games maybe, as not all actions are designed so you need to make up rules. Really rules lite games tend to be much more storytelling focused, so game design is unnecessary as there are no rules to design.If playing something like the Tearable RPG (<a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202680/Tearable-RPG" target="_blank">http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202680/Tearable-RPG</a>) there's only really one type of action resolution, so either it applies or it doesn't.Dread. Zero hesitation. Dread.Emphasis added to your post. You add the huge caveat that the rules have to be known. Because you can't follow rules you don't know.Both games require the DM to tell the story, keep the action moving, describe the setting and situations, and present the NPCs. But with Dread they need to know almost zero rules. They can just focus on the story. In the 5e game, said new DM also has to learn all the 5e rules at the exact same time and answer rules questions. Suddenly there are two points of failure: telling the story and managing the rules. If the DM isn't skilled at either, the game will not be fun.A crunchy system can be a story crutch, as you can just "play" the mechanics: having combat encounters and relying on the inherent fun of the game system to have a good time. But that presumes some system mastery, otherwise a combat encounter can be too easy or hard. I played in a game with an experienced 2nd Edition DM who was new to 3e and it was a disaster because he had no idea how CR or EL worked. To say nothing of sloooooow combats as the DM tries to figure out what their monsters can do, checks rules, makes poor tactical choices, and the like.The thing is, people learn to tell stories long before they can play RPGs. My 6yo son knows how to tell a story. New DMs can come into the game with amazing table management and storytelling skills. That's easy.</blockquote>

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