D&D General The DM Shortage

[Celebrim]

I'm using playstyle fairly broadly here; obviously not every game or even every session focuses on the same things, and sometimes people run things with a different tone or feel deliberately. But using playstyle somewhat broadly, I can say that I've run games as disparate as super rules-heavy 3.5 and Pathfinder in the same playstyle as The Window or Microlite20. I've even done Dread in the same playstyle.

What dice you pick up and throw to resolve something is probably the smallest part of the game.

 

[overgeeked]

It's surprising but awesome to see so many people saying the rules don't matter.

 

[Oofta]

What dice you pick up and throw to resolve something is probably the smallest part of the game.

I also find that it matters who you are throwing the dice at.

Unless you're talking about which dice you roll in which case, never mind.

 

[Minigiant]

Really.

If I were to get into 3rd party. I would make a book of villains. One iconic villian for each race and one for each class plus a few out there ones. 20+ villainous NPCs, their personalities and traits, who they'd employ, how their organizations works and bases lock, and sample encounters for their henchmen or final fight.

That would help new DMs more than most linear or semisandboxy adventure books to me.

 

[Reynard]

Really.

If I were to get into 3rd party. I would make a book of villains. One iconic villian for each race and one for each class plus a few out there ones. 20+ villainous NPCs, their personalities and traits, who they'd employ, how their organizations works and bases lock, and sample encounters for their henchmen or final fight.

That would help new DMs more than most linear or semisandboxy adventure books to me.

shoots. Suggests an interesting question i don't think we have actually talked about: what do the actual games of these new GMs look like? What are new players playing? Canned adventures? Homemade dungeons? Improv shopping dramedies? Do we know? And if we don't, how can we -- or WotC -- know what would help them?

 

[Minigiant]

shoots. Suggests an interesting question i don't think we have actually talked about: what do the actual games of these new GMs look like? What are new players playing? Canned adventures? Homemade dungeons? Improv shopping dramedies? Do we know? And if we don't, how can we -- or WotC -- know what would help them?

And like I said before, none of those answers matter because only one style of DMing is ever supported by actual official and unofficial guidelines.

The same way we only teach players the game via "I attack" warriors then are shocked a large percentage of the community doesn't know the rules for anything else.

 

[tetrasodium]

Really.

If I were to get into 3rd party. I would make a book of villains. One iconic villian for each race and one for each class plus a few out there ones. 20+ villainous NPCs, their personalities and traits, who they'd employ, how their organizations works and bases lock, and sample encounters for their henchmen or final fight.

That would help new DMs more than most linear or semisandboxy adventure books to me.

There was a complete villain book back in the 3.x days that was really good (even today) but I'm not sure if it could be expanded to one for each race like that

 

[jasper]

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!

HEY YOU MET MY HIGH SCHOOL GANG GRAND KIDS. Back in 1981 I had two players yell at me "to run the module AS WRITTEN. " I had just flipped the encounters in two rooms.

 

[Reynard]

And like I said before, none of those answers matter because only one style of DMing is ever supported by actual official and unofficial guidelines.

The same way we only teach players the game via "I attack" warriors then are shocked a large percentage of the community doesn't know the rules for anything else.

I think it is still an interesting question. I wonder if there's any data out there. I suppose the VTTs might be able to provide some insight based on what is activated for any particular game.

WotC must be asking? I know they do the playtest surveys but do they do general surveys?

 

[jasper]

I've apparently (thankfully) been doing 5e all wrong by that metric

Heretic. YOu need to go by leagues and paces. Using metric in D&D is just wrong.