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<blockquote data-quote="Yaguara" data-source="post: 9103246" data-attributes="member: 6703721"><p>I realize that I am coming into this discussion late so if anything I say is covered in one of the previous 54 pages - I apologize. That being said:</p><p></p><p>On the subject of this alleged "DM Crisis" I haven't seen it. Finding 5e D&D games to join as a player hasn't been difficult. There are plenty out there and they all have GMs. The last three groups I have joined all had multiple DMs. That's just locally. With the advent of VTTs there are even more. I haven't run a ton of 5e games (D&D is not my preferred game) but I didn't find the games I did run all that challenging. The rules are generally quite simple and the game lacks the crunchiness and unintended consequences of previous iterations and clones (like Pathfinder). Rules Creep is a thing but it isn't any worse in 5e than it was in AD&D, 3e, 3.5e, Pathfinder 1, 4e, etc.</p><p></p><p>That is not to say that the hobby as a whole could not benefit from more GMs. But that isn't new either. There has always been more players than GMs and there has always been more mediocre/poor quality GMs than good ones. That is just the nature of the game. Having been in this arena since the 70s, I can tell you there are a lot more options today than there was when I started.</p><p></p><p>One thing that was said earlier, which I agree with, is that the current D&D team doesn't do a very good job of teaching basic DMing skills. Sure, you can find a wealth of resources online but much of those are ill-informed or contradictory so it would be much better for WOTC to issue an official "big Crayola marker" version of a DM blue-print that can get a new DM started with some sense of confidence.</p><p></p><p>There has been a lot of talk about the "Old School Renaissance" but, speaking as someone who graduated from the "Old School," it is nonsense. The early iterations of D&D and AD&D were rules nightmares filled to the brim with fiddly rules, runaway exploits, terrible math, and unintended consequences. No one can tell me the original Cavalier (introduced in Unearthed Arcana) was in any way balanced or anything other than unabashed power-gaming. All these new "OSR" games seem to do is cherry-pick the old rules to eliminate the egregious stuff (also called "house-ruling") and emphasize encounter based games over plot based games. All of these things you can do in 5e with equal facility and are not unique to these OSR games. </p><p></p><p>The other thing I don't understand is the "not enough monster options at CR X" complaint. I think many people don't really understand the CR concept. Let's say I need a CR 13 encounter but I don't like any of the CR 13 options in the books I have. What do I do? Well, there are lots of options. I can use more lower-CR monsters than I might ordinarily. I can use the standard number of lower CR monsters and weight the encounter in their favor (i.e. prepared ambush, advantageous terrain, multiple encounters with little to no rest in between, etc.). I can take an existing CR 13 monster and change the "window dressing" but keep the math as is. I can buff a lower CR monster or debuff a higher CR monster. I can mix and match lower CR monsters to create powerful synergies. I can add "allies" to the encounter to let the players take on a higher CR. My point is that there are always a ton of options available to the GM when creating encounters beyond a rating on a stat list.</p><p></p><p>CR isn't the end-all-be-all for creating encounters. Personally, given all the potential variables for a player group, I find CRs incredibly unreliable anyway so mostly ignore them for anything beyond a "general ballpark" measure. It doesn't matter what the CR rating is - what matters is how engaging the encounter is for the players.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Your mileage may vary.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaguara, post: 9103246, member: 6703721"] I realize that I am coming into this discussion late so if anything I say is covered in one of the previous 54 pages - I apologize. That being said: On the subject of this alleged "DM Crisis" I haven't seen it. Finding 5e D&D games to join as a player hasn't been difficult. There are plenty out there and they all have GMs. The last three groups I have joined all had multiple DMs. That's just locally. With the advent of VTTs there are even more. I haven't run a ton of 5e games (D&D is not my preferred game) but I didn't find the games I did run all that challenging. The rules are generally quite simple and the game lacks the crunchiness and unintended consequences of previous iterations and clones (like Pathfinder). Rules Creep is a thing but it isn't any worse in 5e than it was in AD&D, 3e, 3.5e, Pathfinder 1, 4e, etc. That is not to say that the hobby as a whole could not benefit from more GMs. But that isn't new either. There has always been more players than GMs and there has always been more mediocre/poor quality GMs than good ones. That is just the nature of the game. Having been in this arena since the 70s, I can tell you there are a lot more options today than there was when I started. One thing that was said earlier, which I agree with, is that the current D&D team doesn't do a very good job of teaching basic DMing skills. Sure, you can find a wealth of resources online but much of those are ill-informed or contradictory so it would be much better for WOTC to issue an official "big Crayola marker" version of a DM blue-print that can get a new DM started with some sense of confidence. There has been a lot of talk about the "Old School Renaissance" but, speaking as someone who graduated from the "Old School," it is nonsense. The early iterations of D&D and AD&D were rules nightmares filled to the brim with fiddly rules, runaway exploits, terrible math, and unintended consequences. No one can tell me the original Cavalier (introduced in Unearthed Arcana) was in any way balanced or anything other than unabashed power-gaming. All these new "OSR" games seem to do is cherry-pick the old rules to eliminate the egregious stuff (also called "house-ruling") and emphasize encounter based games over plot based games. All of these things you can do in 5e with equal facility and are not unique to these OSR games. The other thing I don't understand is the "not enough monster options at CR X" complaint. I think many people don't really understand the CR concept. Let's say I need a CR 13 encounter but I don't like any of the CR 13 options in the books I have. What do I do? Well, there are lots of options. I can use more lower-CR monsters than I might ordinarily. I can use the standard number of lower CR monsters and weight the encounter in their favor (i.e. prepared ambush, advantageous terrain, multiple encounters with little to no rest in between, etc.). I can take an existing CR 13 monster and change the "window dressing" but keep the math as is. I can buff a lower CR monster or debuff a higher CR monster. I can mix and match lower CR monsters to create powerful synergies. I can add "allies" to the encounter to let the players take on a higher CR. My point is that there are always a ton of options available to the GM when creating encounters beyond a rating on a stat list. CR isn't the end-all-be-all for creating encounters. Personally, given all the potential variables for a player group, I find CRs incredibly unreliable anyway so mostly ignore them for anything beyond a "general ballpark" measure. It doesn't matter what the CR rating is - what matters is how engaging the encounter is for the players. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Your mileage may vary. [/QUOTE]
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