D&D General The DM Shortage

[Aldarc]

I will tell you one thing. The desire to resurrect Edition Warring kills a lot of my enthusiasm for the hobby, possibly contributing to the DM shortage through my absence and others who are similarly repulsed by such bickering over what is meant to be a fun past time.

 

[Minigiant]

Or play OSR breeze through prep and encounters in 1/10th the time.

Isn't that the point.

That people who want to DM do not want to run Old School Mechanics and/or Tropes.

Isn't that the whole core of these thread?

Simple D&D is geared to "old people" and lacks variants to youngify it.
Complex D&D lacks proper/good training and guidelines to gear it to Younger fans.

 

[Reynard]

Isn't that the point.

That people who want to DM do not want to run Old School Mechanics and/or Tropes.

Isn't that the whole core of these thread?

Simple D&D is geared to "old people" and lacks variants to youngify it.
Complex D&D lacks proper/good training and guidelines to gear it to Younger fans.

I think OSR gaming is more popular with millenials than old gits like me, at least as far as I can tell by online spaces.

 

[Minigiant]

I think OSR gaming is more popular with millenials than old gits like me, at least as far as I can tell by online spaces.

Doesn't mean it's not old and runs on old tropes.

I like many of the musicians my mother and father like but none of them scratch the top 10 of my playlists.

The D&D community is hard pressed to admit that many of the games tropes are from before 1950 and chosen by people who were tween, teens, and adults in the 1980s. Some of the themes and tropes might be timeless but not all of them are.

If you literally rewrite something to a stylet hat is more than one generation old, it is a style more than one generation old. For most people, there are only a few artisitic acts of their parents' time that they will spend money or effort going to see.

 

[bloodtide]

I see most younglings and millenials will only play new games...but that has always been true. Someday D&D 6E will come out and all the same people will be falling over themselves to play the "only" D&D game.

And few will agree to play any "old" game. D&D 3.5E is already "too old" for them, let alone something like Star Wars D6.

 

[Zardnaar]

I see most younglings and millenials will only play new games...but that has always been true. Someday D&D 6E will come out and all the same people will be falling over themselves to play the "only" D&D game.

And few will agree to play any "old" game. D&D 3.5E is already "too old" for them, let alone something like Star Wars D6.

I've run Star Wars D6 as one offs for my younger 5E players.

It's a nice plan B when missing players or whatever. They liked it.

 

[Minigiant]

I see most younglings and millenials will only play new games...but that has always been true. Someday D&D 6E will come out and all the same people will be falling over themselves to play the "only" D&D game.

And few will agree to play any "old" game. D&D 3.5E is already "too old" for them, let alone something like Star Wars D6.

It's not about the game being old.
It's about the themes and tropes the game uses being old.

Or in other words, one of the reasons why Critical Role was a hit is that it used PCs, NPCs, races, classes, plots and concepts that appealled more to Millennials and younger Concepts that would be unavailable, unsupported, or often banned in older games or older game cultures. One of 5e strengths was that it had enough space and visible design to allow DMs to shift their campaigns to the styles that were popular without needed to build from the ground.

But it still took a lot of work and had zero guidance doing so. Hence why the most successful non-burned-out DM are millennials age 35-45 who are veteran DMs of 3e or 4e and thuse already have 5-15 year of DMing experience to design systems and fabricate mentally.

I mean it's no shock to me that almost everyone at CR is mid to late thirties early forties.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Of course not, but those things are fun for some, and should still be in the mix.

Sure, I don't think anyone is suggesting banning them. But the idea that new players, inspired to play D&D by cover illustrations of heroes fighting dragons, will be happy with a bait-and-switch to a management sim is simply not being realistic.

There is an expectation that D&D is - exciting.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure, I don't think anyone is suggesting banning them. But the idea that new players, inspired to play D&D by cover illustrations of heroes fighting dragons, will be happy with a bait-and-switch to a management sim is simply not being realistic.

There is an expectation that D&D is - exciting.

I think a lot of people here would be perfectly happy with those elements not being present. And exciting is as exciting does.

And I fought dragons just fine for decades before 5e, thank you, and the cover art was at least as inspiring to me back then.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think a lot of people here would be perfectly happy with those elements not being present.

I would have been perfectly happy if those elements hadn't been in in the 1980s. I never used them because they didn't interest me. But that's not the same as trying to stop other people having them. But to present them as a solution to DM workload is simply not realistic. Sure, it involves less work for the DM. But it's not what most players want to with their time. A solution is needed that involves less work for the DM which does not involve the players doing stuff most people find boring, or spend their real lives struggling with.