CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
Maaaaaan, I hate arguments about this stuff. But @pogre asked a good question, and I want to respond constructively, so here goes.
To the second question, no I doubt it. The trouble with a "more direct game play experience" is that everyone at the table is going to have a different experience, even when they are playing the same game. I feel like the more direct I try to make the players' experience, the more pronounced those differences are going to become. Taken to the extreme, I could very likely end up with one happy player sitting next to four unhappy ones at the table.
To the third question, yes actually. A couple of the things we talk about when we start a new campaign is "what kind of game do you want to play?" and "what do you expect to get out of this game?" Usually the answer to the first question is a genre of fiction, like Steampunk or High Fantasy or Gothic Horror, and the answer to the second question is usually something like "Huh? I'm here to hang out with my buddies, have a few beers, and holler about dragons." That's about as deep as we go with it. We don't get too far into the weeds with stuff like "here is a list of rules I need you to use/fix/remove in order for me to have fun" at a Session Zero. I reckon you'd get laughed at.
To the first question, yes I do. I don't just write the stories and enforce the rules, I am always trying to find new ways to keep the game interesting and new. (Lately, I've been getting into mini-games. Last month, I wrote a little mini-game for the town's "Fishing Contest" that used a wind-up Pakoo fishing game. Last summer, the party participated in a drinking contest at the town fair, and I wrote a little mini-game for that which was a lot like playing blackjack with d6s...you needed to roll as close as you could to a target number without busting.) I'm all about making the experience different each time, to break the monotony of combat scene after combat scene after combat scene.Do you think about players’ game play experience? Would D&D benefit from a more direct game play experience goal? Is this something you discuss with your players in session zero?
To the second question, no I doubt it. The trouble with a "more direct game play experience" is that everyone at the table is going to have a different experience, even when they are playing the same game. I feel like the more direct I try to make the players' experience, the more pronounced those differences are going to become. Taken to the extreme, I could very likely end up with one happy player sitting next to four unhappy ones at the table.
To the third question, yes actually. A couple of the things we talk about when we start a new campaign is "what kind of game do you want to play?" and "what do you expect to get out of this game?" Usually the answer to the first question is a genre of fiction, like Steampunk or High Fantasy or Gothic Horror, and the answer to the second question is usually something like "Huh? I'm here to hang out with my buddies, have a few beers, and holler about dragons." That's about as deep as we go with it. We don't get too far into the weeds with stuff like "here is a list of rules I need you to use/fix/remove in order for me to have fun" at a Session Zero. I reckon you'd get laughed at.