D&D General The DM Shortage

[Clint_L]

Some people are definitely seeing it.

Well, that doesn't mean anything. We have an overabundance of DMs with the established groups in our school's D&D Club - one group is currently running three simultaneous campaigns, taking turns, because it has three DMs, with two more waiting in the wings. I could just as easily run a thread called "The DM Overabundance" if anecdotal evidence is all we are going with. The only hard number we have, from WotC, suggests there is not a DM shortage.

Unless we are talking locally. Strategies for finding a DM in your local area, that kind of thing. I could use two more players in my group, as two of my regulars just made a baby and are going to be playing irregularly at best.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I'd expect the greater problem was that they were players who dared to learn the rules and expect the game to be played by them.

Yeah, I think there's a difference between telling people who are worried about trying RPGs that they don't need to get things perfect and telling your players not to worry about rules because you feel like changing them.

 

[Reynard]

Well, that doesn't mean anything. We have an overabundance of DMs with the established groups in our school's D&D Club -

So you're saying that your anecdotal data is right and everyone else's is wrong?

 

[jmartkdr2]

So you're saying that your anecdotal data is right and everyone else's is wrong?

No, he's saying no one's anecdotal evidence is proof of anything.

I live in an abundance of dm's as well. The only people with real data say it's actually a balance.

I do think more could be done to support new dm's - it's scary because there's a lot of elements, but it's not actually all that difficult because you can make a lot of mistakes and still do a good job. That's tricky to convince people of.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Why lie to potential new DMs? The context of where and when and with what system and what expectations players had back in the black & white days of yore is incredibly important to how easy DMing used to be when we were 12. Because, importantly, that’s all changed. The system is no longer 64-pages in total. Player expectations are no longer in the basement. And there’s no longer the relative safety of pre-internet isolation. Everything that made it easy to DM is gone.

Maybe you’re older than I am. My first set of rules was the D&D cyclopedia. I remember it being long and a bit of a slog. The fact this was pre-internet access meant I was pretty much on my own.

The 5e PHB doesn’t seem measurably harder. My youngest started younger than I did (at 8) and he is doing fine.

 

[Aldarc]

It's funny how some people are saying that 5E is harder to run than old editions because there are more rules - or at least rules that people use. Meanwhile on other threads we hear constant complaints about there not being enough rules. There's no way to make everyone happy, there will always be compromise.

If people want to play OSR games, good for them. I'll keep my consistent reasonable rules that, while overly verbose at times, actually make sense for the most part. If I have people argue with me about rulings (which has happened in every edition) I just let them ramble for a few moments, ask them if they're done and then make a decision. If they can't handle the DM making a call they can find the door. The game moves along just fine for me.

I've never seen a difference between editions in any private or public game. The DM makes the call and the game moves on. If someone argues they can either accept the ruling or find a different DM. Your experience is far from universal.

Sometimes it's not a matter of how many or how few rules there are but whether there are good (enough), well-written rules in the right place.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Ugh, it's part of the reason I stopped playing AL. The players would get so competitive that every ruling I made, they'd be scouring the intrawebs, trying to find a tweet or something to put me in my place. Some DM empowerment- why not make the rules rock solid in the first place, rather than make them subject to interpretation, then plaster your interpretation on Twitter?

If you succeed, you could make a billion dollars as a contract lawyer.

The alternative is a text dense enough to put off many players that is still subject to interpretation.

 

[Oofta]

Ugh, it's part of the reason I stopped playing AL. The players would get so competitive that every ruling I made, they'd be scouring the intrawebs, trying to find a tweet or something to put me in my place. Some DM empowerment- why not make the rules rock solid in the first place, rather than make them subject to interpretation, then plaster your interpretation on Twitter?

Though when they started reading the adventure and complaining when I'd change something (despite being specifically allowed to do that in AL), I drew the line. No more public play for me!

I haven't run public games for a while for a variety of reasons, but when I did I just didn't put up with rules lawyers. Let them explain, tell them my decision and if they don't agree they could find another table. A simple and calm "I've made my ruling, we're moving on. We can discuss after the game." was all it ever took. In theory if they had insisted I would have asked them to leave the table but it never came to that fortunately.

 

[Maccwar]

It would be nice if they put up something like the old 2e Catacomb Guide for new DMs to reference. The last two starter sets and the essentials kit have been very light on DM advice. Yes there's a video to go alongside the latest set but it is only about four and a half minutes long.

DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide (2e) - Wizards of the Coast | AD&D 2nd Ed. | Rules | AD&D 2nd Ed. | Dungeon Masters Guild

DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide (2e) - Whether you're a novice DM getting ready to referee your first AD&D game or an old pro who's running an established

www.dmsguild.com

 

[Reynard]

It would be nice if they put up something like the old 2e Catacomb Guide for new DMs to reference. The last two starter sets and the essentials kit have been very light on DM advice. Yes there's a video to go alongside the latest set but it is only about four and a half minutes long.

DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide (2e) - Wizards of the Coast | AD&D 2nd Ed. | Rules | AD&D 2nd Ed. | Dungeon Masters Guild

DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide (2e) - Whether you're a novice DM getting ready to referee your first AD&D game or an old pro who's running an established

www.dmsguild.com

Man I loved that book.