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Unearthed Arcana: Mages of Strixhaven
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8306725" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>I think you're misunderstanding the issue a bit.</p><p></p><p>I definitely agree that bad DMs exist. I've had them myself. But the sample set thing points to one of the major issues - people don't keep playing with bad DMs, because bad DMs can't be fixed. A lot of people have played with "a bad DM" or even more than one, but very few of them stick around for long. Why? Because D&D is no very little fun with a bad DM. Indeed RPGs in general are.</p><p></p><p>And again, you can't defeat bad DMs with rules. You can mitigate them a bit. You can help mediocre or poor DMs to maybe become decent or good DMs with good rules, and good advice. But actual bad DMs? It's like a band-aid on a gushing wound. The kind of guy who does what you describe will never be fixed with rules. You just have to not play with people like that.</p><p></p><p>As a result you can't build the entire game around trying to mitigate bad DMs. It's like trying to build cars entirely around dangerous/drunk drivers, because literally everything, including the stories they were allowed to tell, would have to locked down tight. If you really want to play RPGs and can't find a good DM, either become one, or play a DM-less RPG like Ironsworn (it's pretty good).</p><p></p><p>So in the end you have to look at how many sessions you're playing with bad DMs - if you keep playing much after you've realized they're "bad" in the way you describe, it's on you, not the rules. I've played with a few bad DMs, maybe three - but that's a total of like a dozen sessions, if that, as compared to thousands with mediocre-to-great DMs. Wh</p><p></p><p>Also, there's a big difference in how often one finds bad DMs online as opposed to IRL, because IRL they tended to get weeded out as people in their area learn about them, whereas online, they can always just change names/games, if they even need to do that, which they often don't because people often don't hear about them being bad.</p><p></p><p>In the end though, you can't design a game like D&D around bad DMs though. You have to assume basic good faith and competence.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8306725, member: 18"] I think you're misunderstanding the issue a bit. I definitely agree that bad DMs exist. I've had them myself. But the sample set thing points to one of the major issues - people don't keep playing with bad DMs, because bad DMs can't be fixed. A lot of people have played with "a bad DM" or even more than one, but very few of them stick around for long. Why? Because D&D is no very little fun with a bad DM. Indeed RPGs in general are. And again, you can't defeat bad DMs with rules. You can mitigate them a bit. You can help mediocre or poor DMs to maybe become decent or good DMs with good rules, and good advice. But actual bad DMs? It's like a band-aid on a gushing wound. The kind of guy who does what you describe will never be fixed with rules. You just have to not play with people like that. As a result you can't build the entire game around trying to mitigate bad DMs. It's like trying to build cars entirely around dangerous/drunk drivers, because literally everything, including the stories they were allowed to tell, would have to locked down tight. If you really want to play RPGs and can't find a good DM, either become one, or play a DM-less RPG like Ironsworn (it's pretty good). So in the end you have to look at how many sessions you're playing with bad DMs - if you keep playing much after you've realized they're "bad" in the way you describe, it's on you, not the rules. I've played with a few bad DMs, maybe three - but that's a total of like a dozen sessions, if that, as compared to thousands with mediocre-to-great DMs. Wh Also, there's a big difference in how often one finds bad DMs online as opposed to IRL, because IRL they tended to get weeded out as people in their area learn about them, whereas online, they can always just change names/games, if they even need to do that, which they often don't because people often don't hear about them being bad. In the end though, you can't design a game like D&D around bad DMs though. You have to assume basic good faith and competence. [/QUOTE]
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