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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannager" data-source="post: 5834698" data-attributes="member: 73683">I'm not advocating that someone take the role as DMing when they don't like DMing. What I'm saying is that, as a DM, I've always found it more helpful to focus on what my players find enjoyable, because I find that when they have a good time, I have a good time. Many DMs have a list of things they want out of their game, but unlike the players, I think a certain (significant) portion of the DM's personal hedonistic calculus ought to include the satisfaction he derives from creating a play experience that the players will enjoy. Players can certainly think from this perspective as well, but I think it's particularly important that the DM consider it. I was referring to entertaining in the very broadest sense - taking on a role whose purpose is to bring about enjoyment in others. "Entertainer", here, can just as easily mean a competent rules adjudicator as it can a world class method actor behind the screen.We had a conversation about this going on earlier in the thread. I advocated using the DM's ability to lie to the players as a way around this. Operating from the assumption (and it's one that you can certainly challenge, though I don't think anyone has tried yet) that, on the whole and all else held equal, handcrafted encounters will tend to be more enjoyable than randomly generated encounters, we can reasonably state that it could be useful to design encounters ahead of time and merely pretend to generate them randomly.If you are able to maintain the appearance of randomness for your group - I won't get into a philosophical discussion, here, but I would argue that what the group you're referring to is looking for is not actual randomness, but rather the feeling of experiencing a set of circumstances that no one anticipated - then you will have the best of both worlds: the quality of handmade encounters with the appearance of randomness.Ahh, now this is something else. Mind you, the scenario you discuss here is pretty far-removed from your typical D&D game. But yes, if you buck the non-competitive paradigm that lies at the root of the game, random encounter tables suddenly become akin to a third-party "arbitrator", capable of facilitating a competitive sort of game if the random tables are designed properly. In this scenario, the DM is not really the DM, but is rather another player who happens to be in control of a number of characters at once. That said, I don't think the sort of random tables you or I are discussing do an adequate job of filling that role.There are plenty of ways to run D&D, yes. I can think of none (save the remove-the-DM scenario you outlined above) where it would not improve the play experience to replace random encounters with well-crafted encounters, especially if the players are none the wiser. Being able to come up with one's own scenario is not a requirement of a DM, you are absolutely right. I firmly believe that using published adventures is a totally valid way to play D&D, for instance. What I also believe is that a DM's responsibility includes creating as solid a play experience as realistically possible. I believe that, as outlined above, random encounters do not accomplish this as well as well-crafted encounters do. If a DM does not have the time to prepare encounters in advance, or if the DM is caught unprepared for a situation by an unexpected choice on the part of the PCs, then using random encounters as a convenient tool to keep the game running smoothly is absolutely called for. Would you prefer that I say something like, "I believe that replacing random encounters with well-crafted encounters will probably result in a better play experience for your typical group?" I mean, it won't actually mean that I believe anything different, I'd just be saying that. Or is it just no longer okay for people to give advice on D&D? Is this another example of, "No one knows me better than me, even when I don't," thinking? I think eventually this will no longer be the case. I mean, sure, some people will throw a fit if D&D is no longer available in dead tree form, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good decision for the hobby. It's just a matter of when.</blockquote>

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