Roleplaying Games
Musings of a Dungeon Master #3: Embrace the Lessons of the Past
We are always looking forward to the future as a community. We want the newest edition, the freshest rules, and the hottest new system. However let us consider a quote from Bruce Lee. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
It is appealing to us as Game Masters to have as many arrows in our quiver as possible. Perhaps we should focus on reinforcing the knowledge we already have. I myself have often fallen into the bad habit of buying publications simply to add a new rule or a new idea to my internal library. Instead of the desired effect of enhancing my ability to run a fun an interesting game, I seem to dilute the game I am trying to run.
The inspiration of this article is rooted in a game of Old School Essentials (OSE) I had the pleasure of playing in last week. The system itself is very rules light. This is something I did not expect for a game based on Second Edition D&D, as I had been led to believe the old games were all crunch. The DM allowed me to roleplay out moments, instead of relying on a skill check. In fact the only dice rolled were really during combat. I wasn’t punished for rolling poorly on a stealth check, because I did not need to make one. I announced my character was sneaking, and because he is an Elf in soft clothing, it seemed logical that he could remain undetected to the Goblins lounging by their campfire.
The opposite side of this sits in my experience of playing a Barbarian in 5e. The character leans heavily into their strength and endurance, yet has at times offered a surprising knowledge of local fauna, simply because I have rolled well on a nature check. Whilst many DMs are opposed to allowing you to roll a check you are not proficient in, sometimes it is a necessity, as that check has been made imperative to the story. We all aspire to offer Matt-Mercer-levels of improvisation in our games, but the simple factor is our natural skill caps. Having the story go off rails due to the one proficient party member failing breeds a reliance on all party members being able to try.
Taking this new knowledge forward in a practical sense, I will no longer be looking for new mechanics that will lead to bloat, gameplay slowdown, and obstructions to learning. And instead I will aim to be more free flowing with my style. It is long overdue that I play the rules listed in the systems book, instead of feeling an undying need to tamper with them like a Gnome with too many spanners.
Let me know your thoughts on the matter. Should we embrace the old style of play with dice rolls being saved for meaningful moments? Or should we praise our new skill checking overlords, because after all, it is exciting to roll a lot of dice, isn’t it?
