What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?
- Thread starter SlyFlourish
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Andy Dempz
Explorer
The Mothership Wardens Operations Manual walks you through prepping both a session and a campaign. It’s one of the best published examples of that that I’ve ever seen.
dragoner
KosmicRPG.com
True, though just to note, while the mechanics are similar, Solis People of the Sun is a modern sci-fi, solarpunk-ish, near future setting.and over here too!
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Dire Bare
Legend
Publishers creating more resources to help support and encourage gamers to take the GM's chair is a good thing.Preparation is fundamental to the creation of entertaining ttrpg one-shots and campaigns. Consider the best published ttrpg adventures and how much preparation was required to create them. Great adventures, great scenes that get a group of players interested and engaged don't happen by accident. Can a GM adept at storytelling pull a fun adventure out of their butt? It happens, but that's the exception not the rule here. Running ttrpgs WELL is a skill that requires practice and regular education and more practice.
I watch way too many streamed ttrpg actual plays on YouTube and ..... the hundreds of sessions have proven to me that good GMs are are very rare creatures. In AD&D Monster Manual terms, that means about 4% of all streamed ttrpg adventures feature a GM who knows what they are doing. Which means most players aren't getting the experience they really want from the hobby.
The "explicit divide" between players and GMs is Game Mastery: using maps, creating interesting NPCs, knowing the rules, setting expectations, handling OOC issues, creating scenes that interest the players and challenge their characters, reward players for exceptional RP, plus more - and all that starts with PREPARATION.
And experienced players and GMs can tell when a GM is winging it. We can tell when a GM isn't familiar with the rules. We can tell when a GM hasn't prepared the combat scenarios. We can tell when NPCs haven't been fleshed-out. We can tell when the GM isn't familiar with the setting. And IMNSHO when GMs "wing-it", the adventure SUCKS. As A player, I have - and will continue to - dropped out of ttrpg sessions because I can tell the GM hasn't prepped their material. Say what you want about Matt Mercer but that guy is a Gamemaster. He knows his stuff and it's deeper than voice-acting. Do you think he just "wings it"? Of course not, and that's why his campaigns have been so entertaining for so many people.
In life, if you look at the people who are the very best at what they do, understand that preparation is foundational to their work ethic and resultant success. Doesn't matter what occupation. Again, sure, you can run ttrpgs with little or no prep. But, that experience will almost never be as engaging for a group as when done by a GM who has prepped their material and is ready to game.
Back on topic: What does the ttrpg hobby need? The same thing it's always needed and the reason why I started running games in the first place:
We need more players to step into the GM chair and run games for the thousands of players out here.
But . . . expecting your average GM to rise the level of the top stars in various streamed games isn't a realistic expectation. Even with good tools and support.
Providing tools or changing systems to reduce the need for significant prep lowers the barriers to GMing and will encourage more folks to take it on. Making it clear you don't have to be at the level of Matt Mercer or Brennan Lee Mulligan, or even close, to have a good time with your friends, is important also.
I run an after-school D&D club for middle-schoolers and, as you might expect, most of them are very hesitant to take on being the DM, even if they are interested. I've been encouraging them to learn the rules, but more importantly . . . just do it! Don't worry about prep, making mistakes, or not running a perfectly smooth game! Just get in there and play! Your skills will improve with practice, as with anything.
Theory of Games
Storied Gamist
I didn't type anything like that. Read the text please.
I typed that GMing is a skill that requires practice and education and more practice. Also, at a certain point, Matt Mercer knew nothing about running ttrpgs. He LEARNED. If a GM takes the hobby serious, they can become great. But being great requires prep.
This is going to be a kinda weird answer, but...
Sports teams.
People argue about sports for days. They love to do it. There are multiple billion dollar sports industries. When people argue about sports they spent hours ranting about teams they hate, and evangelize teams they love. What they don't do is spend all their time tearing down their favorite sport. Sure, they may spend time complaining about new rules, or referees, etc. But overall, being a fan is about liking the game and hating your opponent (not hating the game).
RPG discourse these days is too often about tearing down RPGs. This is bad game design. That is bad for the industry. People often have literally no separation between their opinions about what they want to play, and their steadfast beliefs about what the rest of world ought to be playing. The arguments are often infighting that attacks the industry from within, rather than promoting it.
So, what we need are some kind of sports teams. Healthy rivalries that promote RPGs through friendly-ish antagonism. I feel like this was kinda-sorta fulfilled in D&D 2e by the high number of settings, and in 3e by rules discussions (which isn't to say these things didn't have their own problems). I have no idea what it looks like in the current RPG landscape.
Committed Hero
Adventurer
A format for materials that creates projects which streamline GM prep. That might help existing ones and entice new ones.
payn
Glory to Marik
To be fair this isnt unique to RPGs. Sports talk has changed alot in the decades as well. This kind of thing has become prevalent with the rise of social media. Folks are conditioned to positions over interests type discourse so it unfortunately comes out this way in the wash on any subject.
I think you need to be intentional with your own discourse and hope that the example follows. Yes, it does feel like emptying the sea with a teaspoon.
I play Battletech a wargame, and having factions that different folks can build towards allows exactly this. I think if you can combine a healthy rivalry in a "semi-competitive" environment it works wonders. That kind of thing needs to be fostered though or it spirals out of control. I like the concept though.
It’s one that’s done an exemplary job of distinguishing itself from D&D, yes.
As I said, I get all of that but I do feel that there’s a lot of noise in the RPG space. If a designer’s goal is to do their version of D&D, I’m going to suggest that in and of itself, is not as compelling as they may think.
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I think Mike’s Return of the Lazy Dungeonmaster is one of the best examples of how to prep a 5e D&D game too. But is it the final word on this? Is there nothing else to say, and what about other systems in other genres?
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