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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tav_Behemoth" data-source="post: 5080347" data-attributes="member: 18017">Chzbro, I agree that even back in the day, I'm certain lots of people had a storytelling approach, just like lots of folks used minis, invented crunchy skill systems, and otherwise didn't act like we expect of old-schoolers! I'm using it here to say "those things that were part of the original approach but are in opposition to the mainstream contemporary approach." If the 4E DMG was giving advice about how to remain inscrutable while the PCs talk themselves into your diabolical deathtrap, presumably we'd have an old-school movement that extolled the virtues of cutting to the chase and getting right to the deathtrap already, and they'd canonize guys from back then who took that approach!Piratecat, it wasn't me who made you the poster boy for storytelling DMs: I'm just following the trend!I think that not letting players get bored and nudging them towards fun choices without showing your hand are both tools common to sit-back and lean-forward DMs. I think cinematic is also too wide an adjective, but maybe it's getting at something to say that my favorite kind of action movies are heist films like A Man Escaped where there's a very high planning-to-action ratio.I also think that a lot of our DMing style comes from what we dislike or are bad at! It stresses me out to feel like the plot is up to me so much that I feel like it's easier to generate a table with six ideas for what happens next and let the dice choose, even though that's six times more work!Interesting that we all seem to throw out a lot of stuff that doesn't get chosen and figure things out only right before the PCs need to know it. Maybe those are also good DMing skills universally, or maybe the sit-back thing I'm seeing here doesn't correlate with other kinds of DM approach.I don't think it's just a well-polished adventure or one that's designed to deliver concentrated goodness in a four-hour slot: both of those were also true of my mine-rappelling example.</blockquote>

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