D&D 5E What a DM has to do in 5E

[Morrus]

I'm sorry, the moderators told me my viewpoints are too controversial

No we didn't. Do NOT lie to other posters about our conversations with you about your attitude. You will immediately be asked to leave permanently if you ever do that again.

And for talking about moderation in-thread, please take three days off. When you come back, try to be courteous.

 

[Mistwell]

I am also finding 5e DMs with a lot more flexibility and a lot less worry about the level of the monsters vs the level of the players. It takes a few sessions to get a feel for it, but one you do it's not hard to judge an encounter just by eyeballing it.

 

[DMZ2112]

I am also finding 5e DMs with a lot more flexibility and a lot less worry about the level of the monsters vs the level of the players. It takes a few sessions to get a feel for it, but one you do it's not hard to judge an encounter just by eyeballing it.

I cannot overstate how important this is to D&D5. I acknowledge that Challenge Rating never "forced" us to write adventures that had more to do with the numbers on our characters' sheets than the words, but I'll be damned if it didn't turn out that way for me and a lot of other dungeon masters. We need to get back to theme being the most important design element.

 

[Sadras]

I cannot overstate how important this is to D&D5. I acknowledge that Challenge Rating never "forced" us to write adventures that had more to do with the numbers on our characters' sheets than the words, but I'll be damned if it didn't turn out that way for me and a lot of other dungeon masters. We need to get back to theme being the most important design element.

Could not agree more. I was burned out with 3.x even though I loved its detail. Wish I could wing it like other DMs.

 

[dmgorgon]

No we didn't. Do NOT lie to other posters about our conversations with you about your attitude. You will immediately be asked to leave permanently if you ever do that again.

And for talking about moderation in-thread, please take three days off. When you come back, try to be courteous.

Perhaps I shouldn't be saying this, but he already had his IP banned at the WotC forums... yes it went that far.

Don't feel bad about doing that.

 

[dmgorgon]

I am also finding 5e DMs with a lot more flexibility and a lot less worry about the level of the monsters vs the level of the players. It takes a few sessions to get a feel for it, but one you do it's not hard to judge an encounter just by eyeballing it.

Yes, 5e encounters will have a lot more leg room for mistakes. It certainly makes DMing less stressful.

 

[Lokiare]

No we didn't. Do NOT lie to other posters about our conversations with you about your attitude. You will immediately be asked to leave permanently if you ever do that again.

And for talking about moderation in-thread, please take three days off. When you come back, try to be courteous.

I know this will earn a perma ban, but I think the truth needs to be known, these are the PMs from the mods which indicate my view is too controversial:

Dear Lokiare,

You have received a warning at EN World: RPG News & Reviews.

Reason:
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Edition Warring

Lokiare,

Let us make something abundantly clear. We recognize that you have a passion for the game, which is good. But you need to understand that EN World is not an appropriate place for you to prosecute a campaign to make the upcoming 5e what you want it to be. EN World embraces a wide variety of games and playstyles, not just yours.

Nor is EN World a place for a place for "calling out" people. That admits to a confrontational style, which isn't going to fly here for long, as constant confrontation is decidedly uncivil, and is a violation of EN World Rule #1 - Keep it civil.

Together, those elements combine into what we usually refer to as "edition warring".

What you are doing is not revealing, "The Truth!" simply because your approach and constant negativity aggravates too many readers. You are spending a great deal of time and effort, but not convincing anyone who doesn't already agree with you. This puts you in a position of adding nothing useful to the community, and being a source of acrimony. Consider how long we are apt to allow that to continue.

We suggest you lay off 5e for a while. Go spend some time talking about games you do like, rather than criticizing things you don't like.

-Umbran, EN World Moderator
-------

Original Post:
https://www.enworld.org/index.php?posts/6265132/

Do you actually want them to listen to you? If so, how do you think you treat those guys in your posts? WotC employees sometimes browse these threads. When they come across your posts, do you think they're encouraged to keep paying attention to what you have to say?

What are you talking about?

I treat people on the forums the way they deserve to be treated. If they keep doing personal attacks, I call it out. If they want to try to play semantic arguments I call it out.

If they can't provide facts and numbers I call them out.

That's the only way we can have a discussion that comes to a consensus or at least is constructive. I'm not doing this because I'm hateful or spiteful or hate WotC. I'm doing this so we can continue to get D&D TTRPG products and all of us can get a game we can play.

People need to stop characterizing my arguments in the worst possible light or I might have to resort to smileys.

Warnings serve as a reminder to you of the forum's rules, which you are expected to understand and follow.

All the best,
EN World: RPG News & Reviews

I do not edition war. Critiquing an editions rules without insulting it is not edition warring, by EnWorlds own definition.

With all due respect, you should not presume to know the rules of EN World, or how they should be interpreted, better than the moderation staff. And don't mistake this for a negotiation, or an instance where "rules lawyering" will at all be useful to you.

You might instead want to consider this as an opportunity for learning something.

Critique is, of course, allowed. When we see a constant stream of it from a user, however, it is pretty clear that there is something else afoot.

"Calling people out" is the essence of keeping it civil especially if they are using personal attacks, dictating opinions, and other things that are disruptive to constructive conversation.

We have a "report a post" feature. When you feel someone is getting into personal attacks, or other violation of board rules, we expect you to use it, and ignore the attack.

On an internet messageboard, "calling out" turns a reasonable or logical discussion into a battle of egos. You have no authority, no recognized and accepted expertise, and no non-verbal cues that normally help humans resolve such things - you lack any route to resolve the issue, except by simply not allowing the other guy to have the last word. EN World does not recognize, "I win because I didn't give up," as a valid rhetorical technique.

Meanwhile, the moderators have authority to end clashes. Thus, we ask you to not enter the ego-contest. Say your piece, and leave it at that, please.

If EnWorld is not a place to lobby for a play style to be added to 5E, then what is it? Its supposed to be a place of discussion. You have a 5E section of your forums. I'm discussing 5E. That is in no way a violation of your terms of service.

"Lobbying" and "discussing" are not equivalent. In fact, they are rather opposite. A discussion requires a two-way exchange of information. Lobbying is activism for a cause, and admits that your idea is fixed, and you will not actually accept any other opinion as accurate or acceptable.

I also don't have any negativity in my posts. Any negativity is assumed on the part of the reader.

A constant stream of what amounts to "this is a bad mechanic", "this will make a bad game", and, "WotC is dishonest" is most assuredly negativity.

Go engage in discussion that isn't about what's wrong with 5e. Make some posts about how awesome your favorite game is, and how great your last session went, without comparing it to any other game or edition, or using it as an opportunity to criticize in a backhanded manner. Then you may see the difference.

My posts are accurate, to the point, and fact filled.

"But it is Teh Trvth!" is probably the most common defense we see from edition warriors. You realize that even if you are correct, that doesn't prevent you from being an aggravating jerk about it, right?

There is no emotional connotations within. I seek out the truth and point it out to others. That they refuse to engage on an intellectual level and instead use disruptive emotional outbursts is not a problem stemming from me. It is a problem stemming from them and they should be the ones receiving warnings.

We will deal with others as seems appropriate. We are talking about you, right now, not them.

As an author, you must consider your audience. If you have already realized that your current approach does not reach the audience, then it is time to change your approach.

I'd like to appeal your rash decision to give me a warning with other moderators, or perhaps your supervisor. Please forward me the details on how to do that, so I don't have to PM every moderator on the board to get the information.

You are, of course, free to do so, and we make no secret of how to do so. There is a thread stickied to the top of the Meta forum titled, "How to contact a moderator". Or, you can send a Private Message to anyone you choose - just click on "send new message" in the sidebar under your Inbox, and type in their username. Morrus owns the site, and is the ultimate authority.

So you are aware, the text of all warnings are recorded for all the moderators to see, so it isn't like this was secret. I think you'll find the rest of the staff does not feel giving warnings is "rash".

-Umbran, EN World Moderator

Now that the truth is out. Do what you want I'm done with this place where facts and numbers are not valued, but logical fallacies and 'positive' trash are valued above everything else. Have fun with your 'yes men'

 

[Morrus]

I know this will earn a perma ban, but I think the truth needs to be known, these are the PMs from the mods which indicate my view is too controversial:

Yup. Bye. Shame you couldn't find a PM that showed someone saying an opinion about a game was in some way "controversial". I'll leave the post there, because some folks sometimes indicate they don't notice the efforts we go to to keep thing peaceful without resorting to bans, especially when so many ex-members on the web claim they were banned for their "opinions", and not their obnoxious manners. This is a fairly typical example of that.