If you are running a pickup game open to new players you will probably have all the above problems which is part of the reason why I'd never run a D&D game.
If I were going to run a game it would be a second-generation or later game like Toon or Paranoia or Call of Cthulhu which were all designed by people who played D&D and recognized what was wrong with D&D and the culture around it.
To be fair newer versions of the game fix some of the brokenness such as too many kinds of dice (you think it is fun until you realize that unless you buy 20x as many dice as you need you're going to always be looking around on the floor the right dice, and there's nothing dramatic about rolling 20d6 for a dragon's attack because it's always going to do about 60 points of damage, etc.)
Second-generation games give you everything you need to start in a single book (even a scenario) whereas with D&D you need to buy several books just to get started.
The long-term character progression works OK in a group of committed players but it makes the stakes so high that players take it so seriously so it is not a lot of fun for the DM. In a shorter, simpler game with higher character mortality you can give the guy who came in 30-40 min late a preroll, a minute of instruction, and some pretense for why they are late and it's NP.
I am not going to say it is the high point of DMing because it isn't but if I want to run a Paranoia game in a hurry I can kill off most of their clones before they get to the briefing room in my very dangerous Alpha complex with little-more-than random encounters and have them rolling on the floor laughing and coming back for more. Prerolls are probably more important preparation than an actual scenario because if people aren't fluent with character creation they're going to ruin it for each other (e.g. if you are creating new characters you want to have 1-1 sessions with players and not do it in a group... In D&D in particular you could spend years with a character and there is no way you want to rush the process, if I really wanted to do a D&D activity with young people I might just have them do nothing but create characters so they can get fluent)
Unfortunately the same way that "autism" and pill-seeking behavior have crowded out awareness of other neurodivergences, developmental disabilities and mental health conditions, D&D has crowded out awareness of other tabletop RPG's so you will never see some study where people find 5 out of 75 depressed people had fun playing D&D and 62 out of 75 depressed people had fun playing Toon.
Comments
If you are running a pickup game open to new players you will probably have all the above problems which is part of the reason why I'd never run a D&D game.
If I were going to run a game it would be a second-generation or later game like Toon or Paranoia or Call of Cthulhu which were all designed by people who played D&D and recognized what was wrong with D&D and the culture around it.
To be fair newer versions of the game fix some of the brokenness such as too many kinds of dice (you think it is fun until you realize that unless you buy 20x as many dice as you need you're going to always be looking around on the floor the right dice, and there's nothing dramatic about rolling 20d6 for a dragon's attack because it's always going to do about 60 points of damage, etc.)
Second-generation games give you everything you need to start in a single book (even a scenario) whereas with D&D you need to buy several books just to get started.
The long-term character progression works OK in a group of committed players but it makes the stakes so high that players take it so seriously so it is not a lot of fun for the DM. In a shorter, simpler game with higher character mortality you can give the guy who came in 30-40 min late a preroll, a minute of instruction, and some pretense for why they are late and it's NP.
I am not going to say it is the high point of DMing because it isn't but if I want to run a Paranoia game in a hurry I can kill off most of their clones before they get to the briefing room in my very dangerous Alpha complex with little-more-than random encounters and have them rolling on the floor laughing and coming back for more. Prerolls are probably more important preparation than an actual scenario because if people aren't fluent with character creation they're going to ruin it for each other (e.g. if you are creating new characters you want to have 1-1 sessions with players and not do it in a group... In D&D in particular you could spend years with a character and there is no way you want to rush the process, if I really wanted to do a D&D activity with young people I might just have them do nothing but create characters so they can get fluent)
Unfortunately the same way that "autism" and pill-seeking behavior have crowded out awareness of other neurodivergences, developmental disabilities and mental health conditions, D&D has crowded out awareness of other tabletop RPG's so you will never see some study where people find 5 out of 75 depressed people had fun playing D&D and 62 out of 75 depressed people had fun playing Toon.