The Fearless DM

Wow, take a few weeks off of gaming (for work and travel, and uhh.. pursuing an alternate hobby in two-wheeling adventure..) and what do you get? Maybe an insight check.

My son and I (both longtime LFR players) just got back from Origins and I have some insight to share:

1) Not everyone DMs like our groups out here. We’re lucky.

2) I can’t *quite* put all the blame on the DMs, but I think I see what the issue is.

Here’s the deal: We played in two LFR games at Origins (I cancelled the rest after these). Two games I would describe as fairly down experiences. The DMs were great people, did a good job, one of them especially did a lot of roleplaying with us..  this isn’t just about roll vs role. But the games both failed- they bogged down in combat. Neither of these games technically finished in time.

What was missing? Here’s what I think it was: Neither DM really knew when not to apply the rules. I would like to point out that it eventually dawned on each of them too late (when time was running short or it was just getting ridiculously grim, then a DM would suddenly decide to not apply some effect or allow an effect to stack or whatnot. But that’s the wrong time. That’s already too late. When you get to that point, you might as well go all out and kill the PCs, because at least the battle ends quicker.

Pacing is really important. Easy is better than hard. Quick is better than slow. Fun is better than boring. Action is better than carefully managed resources. What’s happening in the game right then..is all that matters. And it doesn’t matter if a battle or two or ten aren’t “challenging”. It’s justa flipping combat. If you can truly accept that the game “isn’t about combat” (rather than just give lip service to the idea, and then fretting about whether the monsters AC and damage ratings are high enough..), then you should understand the rest quite simply. 

“updated monster stats” are bullshit. They solve nothing.Unless your game really is “just about combat”

“updated skill challenge DCs” are bullshit. They solve nothing. Unless your game really is “just about combat”

I’ve had bad experiences in organized play before- usually it’s bad prep, untalented or lackluster DMing. This was the opposite- it was people who knew the systems perfectly well, and also- I have to blame certain players insisting on minor rules points for at least some of this. When we tried to fight the bad guys and suddenly they are giving each other cover bonuses and everythings a “hard corner” versus a “soft corner” or there’s a question over stacking effects every single round or a single player gets his turn and suddenly time stops still while he strokes his chin and goes “Hmmmmmmmmmm…..”….  and then considers the 3 or 4 different moves he might take.. we’ve kinda lost.

I’ve taken a lot of criticism because I completely disagree with the idea that “D&D combat is a glorified videogame” or boardgame or whatever. That’s not how I’ve ever run it- I feel like we emphasize action and cool moves and catch phrases in our battles. But you just can’t do this when the next player in line suddenly cant figure out if hes going to go three squares or if he’s going to go two squares and then activate his power, or maybe he should draw his implement first…or..it’s very frustrating.

Ironically newbie players are better at this, because they don’t come so stuffed full of preconceived notions about how to play.