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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7757340" data-attributes="member: 177">Yes, well, I think it is easy to exaggerate preparing material is an issue, especially considering the volumes of pre-written material that is available.  A great many modules require basic reading comprehension and retention, and that's about it.  Not what I'd call a high bar for a game that is already reading-dependent.I think it is even easier for us to exaggerate how likely it is our thoughts match reality.  The OP supposes that the lack of GM is because of difficulty, perceived or actual, rather neglecting the idea that, just as the hobby in general is not for all people, perhaps the role within the hobby is not for all people.  It isn't like we have data as to why there aren't more GMs.  Maybe we shouldn't talk like we *know*.Yes, but if you tell a new GM, "Your stories aren't actually going to be good," you are probably not sending them a particularly motivating message.And you've been improvising stories for a long time.  I have, too.  I don't know about you, but I started with prepped materials, and built out a skillset of improvising around those materials.  I was already highly proficient at running the game before I improvised full scenarios on my own at runtime.  This part of the thread seems to be saying that a barrier to entry is prepared work, as if improvising material was not also work.  Much of the point of prepping (either authoring your own or prepping someone else's scenario) is to front load a lot of the effort, so that at runtime, you can concentrate more on adjudication and the players.  You're saying "do it *all* at runtime", as if that is fundamentally easier.  But the overall cognitive load is greater. I don't think you are lessening the runtime workload that we are positing is a barrier.How many people here have seen improv comedy - "Whose Line is it Anyway" for example.  You all realize that improve comedy is rehearsed, right?  It is not rehearsed in the details of the exact words said, but is rehearsed in terms of the style and approaches.  Wayne Brady may not know the exact line he's going to use when he steps on stage, but he knows the overall form before he begins - he's worked over each of the games played with his fellow cast members dozens of times.  The new GM does not have that rehearsal and skillset, or knowledge of the overall form.  They haven't run the scenario dozens of times.  Reading novels and watching movies does not prep up a library of game elements that will roll of the tongue, any more than watching comedies makes you Wayne Brady.</blockquote>

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