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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 8463850" data-attributes="member: 6685541">Quick Note: I tagged this as D&D General because I specifically want to talk about running D&D games. I know that other systems have really different ways of sharing the narrative burden. Feel free to bring those other games into this discussion, but let's overall focus on running D&D.I'm an elementary school teacher, and I find a lot of my teaching practice bleeds into my DM'ing. One of the things I've tried to do in my classroom is reduce the amount of time that I, as a teacher, am talking. If I can have a student revoice something, I will. If I can have a student take attendance, pass out snacks, give appreciations, read the directions, etc etc etc, I will.This is part of a larger trend of moving teaching (especially in elementary school) away from lecture-based lessons. The general idea is that teachers used to speak 70% of the time, and the goal now is that teachers speak 30% of the time, and students speak 70% of the time. Generally.Anyways, I've started to think about this in my D&D games.I've started to feel uncomfortable with how much my voice as a DM dominates the table during D&D. I'm often the one explaining the rules, describing scenes, and filling the session with talk, talk, talk. However, I feel like this is the base expectation of D&D: that the DM should speak 70% of the time. After all, it is my job to describe what the characters are seeing, then describe what happens when they try different things.I do, however, want to try speaking less. I want to try to pass that burden over to the players. I want to try to speak 30% of the time.Here are some ideas for ways I could pass the narrative burden over to players:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have players describe the consequences of their actions in detail (for example, I say "you hit, describe the blow").</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ask players to describe inconsequential features of dungeons and towns ("Bob, tell us about this cultist statue...").</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Allow players to play as NPCs in scenes their characters aren't present in ("Kathy, why don't you play as the blacksmith...")</li> </ul>Here are some more radical ideas:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ask players to design important NPCs, and play as those NPCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ask players to design towns, then run portions of the session when characters are in town.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ask players to create interesting descriptions for dungeons, then run the mechanics while the player describes what the dungeon looks / sounds / smells like...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have players design random encounters, then describe those encounters when they occur...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ask players to contribute design ideas to settings during battles, and then have their descriptions be narrative truths...</li> </ul>So what do you think? Is this a strange, quixotic quest with no real benefit? Is this a molehill just I'm willing to die on?Do you think there's any benefit to a DM speaking only 30% of the time?</blockquote>

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