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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7884665" data-attributes="member: 6779196">I... Agree with the content of what you’re saying here, but something about the presentation rubs me the wrong way. No DMing isn’t an especially difficult skill to learn, yes many DMs dedicate far more time to it than is necessary, yes that effort is generally better spent on the fundamentals than on excessive preparation... But at the same time, lots of DMs just really enjoy the time they spend on it. Many are proud of the DMing skills they have cultivated and I think rightly so. And how much prep you “absolutely need” varies from one DM to the next.Take me for example. I know I’ll never be one of those DMs who can come to the table with nothing but one sheet of notes and some blank papers and run a great session out of that. That degree of improvisation is just not a part of my skill set, and my time is better spent on advance prep than on refining improvisation skills that just don’t come easily to me. After years of practice, I’ve learned what parts of the game I am good at doing with little to no prep, and what parts I am not, and I can run a much more enjoyable game with much less effort when I prepare in advance the things I know I will need prep for than I can trying to improvise as much as possible.As well, while DMing doesn’t have to be a lot of work, it’s work we voluntarily take on in order to entertain our friends. Saying “actually, DMing is so easy a 12-year-old can do it” is... technically accurate, but leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it downplays the work that DMs willingly spend their limited free time on for the benefit of others. So, while I agree that many DMs make DMing harder on themselves than they need to, I think it should be acknowledged that they do so out of love. They should be encouraged to learn more efficient prep habits rather than shamed for employing inefficient ones.</blockquote>

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