Creating a Course for Newbie GM's ---

HypthtcllySpkng

*eyeroll*
Here's my pet project. Please, input your thoughts at your availability. Attached file explains gist. Some of you may prefer offering input on different course levels, or even just on the intro itself. Input as it pleases you. The thing is meant to be made available for free and posted in a bunch of places online so it gets accessed by lots of folks. I intend to put a lot of work and thought into it.

If you think its a stupid idea, be nice.
 

Attachments

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Brilliant idea. I wish you much success.

Not going to be easy --- D&D's Achilles Heel has always been that it takes a creative and organized mind to be a good DM.
It's not for everyone.
 

HypthtcllySpkng

*eyeroll*
Ya with any luck this helps filter out the shitty GMs that have spawned because of Critrole and the seeming ease of fifth edition.
 

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
The Angry GM's first four or five posts on adjudicating actions are brilliant (his website slowly goes downhill after that, though).
Right? I got tired of waiting for his megadungeon to materialize. And then I got more tired of his faux swearing. And then I got really really tired of wading through his two-million-word tirades trying to pick out the few nuggets of useful information. It's weird, because I can still happily read through the Alexandrian's long-winded essays. Angry just turned into a tl/dr.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Ha! The Achilles Heel is the Megadungeon. Or maybe it's the blogger's Achilles Heel and the DM's plantar fasciitis? :ROFLMAO:
I meant it in the sense that there was a game "requirement" that they couldn't package and sell. They wanted to maximum profit, but were hampered by the fact that only a very small audience was capable of making their system function well. That's why latter editions kept shifting the focus towards the players to share the burden (and/or passive-DM-as-product-reader and/or Storytime Railroad). Those were things they could put in a box on a shelf.

EDIT: To my elitist (geek-pride) way of thinking, requiring an expectional DM is the high-road---everything else is dumbing it down for the mentally-lazy masses.
 
Last edited:

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
yeah man, I picked up what you were laying down, just couldn't resist another jab at the great white whale that is the megadungeon.

everything comes down to the GM in the end. I've met people who've had a fantastic time playing universally reviled games because they had a fantastic game master. Like I have a buddy who still talks about the long running CarWars campaign he played in using Palladium mechanics for the on-foot stuff... CarWars for me was half a day of building your car and the track and then a 10 minute fist fight followed by several days of not talking to each other. Rinse and repeat 3 months later when we all got bored of Temple of Elemental Evil again... :ROFLMAO:
 

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
hilarity aside, here's my first take on your document @HypthtcllySpkng :
-Inconsistent writing voice. You go from casual to irreverent to academic and back. I get that this is just a treatment, but still... it reads like a blog post.
-Kind of seems like you're letting Mr. Colville run your first lesson for you...
-It seems like you're curating rather than creating practicum. It's cool if you are, I just need to be sure. Like you're first objective is to collect a huge list of links, then sort them by subject, and then create units where you write a brief introduction summarizing and highlighting your points and then send the reader on to the relevant link primed to absorb key information.
-Is this going to be a book or a blog/website?
 

HypthtcllySpkng

*eyeroll*
hilarity aside, here's my first take on your document @HypthtcllySpkng :
-Inconsistent writing voice. You go from casual to irreverent to academic and back. I get that this is just a treatment, but still... it reads like a blog post.
-Kind of seems like you're letting Mr. Colville run your first lesson for you...
-It seems like you're curating rather than creating practicum. It's cool if you are, I just need to be sure. Like you're first objective is to collect a huge list of links, then sort them by subject, and then create units where you write a brief introduction summarizing and highlighting your points and then send the reader on to the relevant link primed to absorb key information.
-Is this going to be a book or a blog/website?
Indeed.
1. The writing voice is an issue of a lack of editing, and it is half-written to potential contributors and half-written as a part of the guide. I'll separate that out, and clean it up soon.

2. Oh, it'll be a lot more than Colville. Per your third point, it will likely be a combination of practicum with heavy curation of lessons from others. There'll be Mercer, Perkins, Gygax, and just about anything else I can find in written or video online, including links to people's blogs and so on. The idea is, as you said, to summarize what'll be in the link, calling it a "lesson" and the summary will add additional thought as we decide it's necessary.

For instance, what would you do to teach someone about Traps in D&D? Well, first you throw in the trash everything 5e presents. There's gotta be a solid 10 articles and blog posts around that have great thought on the subject, and of course, Mercer and Colville and Perkins have all made statements on the subject. Gygax did. Etc. So we assemble all of it, in some cases literally tweets, cherry-pick the best thought, summarize the rest in the guide and point them to the best and most relevant 1 or 2 articles. An "additional reading" bit at the end of the lesson, and of course, some "examples of great traps" to cap it off and you have a lesson. There'll be in course 101 a Traps for Dummies with more basic advice from famous and entertaining people. And then in 301, more "dig into the philosophy of a trap" Advanced Trap Making for the Experienced Grognard. *sips tea*. That'll be a little less famous GM's and a little more obscure but thoughtful GM no ones heard of, I imagine.
The summaries then will be individually hand-written, and thought contributed could come from a dozen different sources. Contributors to any given lesson receive credit, per typical internet rules.

3. Goal is for it to be a reasonably updated pdf, and to have its completed form seeded around the internet in strategic locations. A few subreddits, some back alley forums, maybe tweet it at Colville and Perkins and pray. Its home location would be a G-drive link or something and I'd just leave that up and occasionally tinker with the file and throw up a changelog. If it caught on -- and it probably wouldn't, we're dreaming here baby --maybe a site funded by donations just to host it? But the idea is I'm using other people's content and throwing my own thoughts and the thoughts of other friendly GM's from around the net on top of it. There are legal issues if I make it a book or whatever, and a blog doesn't concentrate everything the way I'd like, though I'm open to the suggestion I suppose, maybe once a semi-complete version of the doc is out, a blog could help further enhance the content.

If even one GM did the whole thing, and it helps them, guides them into better gaming, and supports their table, I'd be happy.

The Angry GM's first four or five posts on adjudicating actions are brilliant (his website slowly goes downhill after that, though).
Indeed. I like his monster building articles, but they are enormously long-winded. Helpful in 5e when the monster design rules are such ballsack.


A question, to guide further thought and give me some early goals:
For Course 101 - what are some things, just rapid-fire, that we think we would want every beginner GM to know?
 

EOTB

So ... slow work day? Every day?
The most critical elements of gamer master success have nothing to do with any game

take a toastmasters class; you can be an OK-to-goodish GM if public speaking raises the queasies in your stomach, but not a great one. The mechanics (voice projection and confidence, presence, improvisation, etc.) are the same.

Honestly appraise yourself - does failing in public create anxiety? This must be conquered. You must fail in public over and over again to become a great GM. Obscuring a failure from those around you will prevent becoming an excellent GM.

It is better to be quick and in the ballpark than unquestionably accurate and slow. If someone's identity is at all bound up in their knowledge base, this often impedes great GMing. Tempo, tempo, tempo.

The currency of unforgettable gaming is an enjoyable tension; generated through interesting ambiguity and mystery that climaxes in a reasonable amount of time into decisive action. Yes, these are the same social skills used to create a feeling of intimacy between strangers. If not good at this, stop trying to GM RPGs and dive into life. Come back later when you can intrigue a small group of strangers into wanting to learn more about you in the course of an evening. No module content will cover up a lack, regardless of how great it may be.

Determine your primary motivation for DMing. If it is anything other than an external focus on a small group of people leaving the sesstion thinking that they just made the best choice of what to do with their evening, out of all possible options, the odds of keeping a campaign going long-term nearly vanish. Your efforts will be buried in turnover.

A lack of basic self-confidence often leads to tight-ass GMing in an effort to avoid looking "easy". Develop your self-confidence and you'll know when to switch between generosity (which is often appropriate), and conservativism when players are testing the boundaries.

Do you have a sense of personal style when it comes to clothes? Knowing what looks good on you, crossed with what how you like to look, is a mindset that leads you towards picking things that match with your strengths and weaknesses instead of just buying what everyone else seems to be buying. You need this as a GM also. It doesn't matter if someone says module X is wonderful if module X draws on aspects you don't wear well. Find people similar to your style and pay attention to their recommendations most.

Game-related elements

A+ factual knowledge of the game system is nearly irrelevant to becoming an excellent GM; prioritize investing time into A+ factual knowledge accordingly; perfectly fine to let this accumulate organically over a long period of time.

Related: reading does not replace playing; it is, in fact, counter-productive if done apart from play

If you enjoy the idea of a setting that works exactly as you think it should in all respects, you will spend so much time tinkering it will be hard to find time to create and run. This ties into "what is your primary motivation for DMing". Almost always, nobody cares about the specific world vision other than the DM's ego.

Instead of falsely equating an omnipresent sense of mortal threat with tension, develop your judgement of when players' plans and actions should result in runaway and overwhelming success for them. Tension is not fear, but uncertainty tied to desire and curiosity. What do players desire, and are curious about? If they'll win, and what winning gains them. Keeping them in a perpetual state of concern that they're about to die drains healthy tension out of a game if nothing they do seems to reverse this basic state. Aim for a game that is six or seven parts neutral and three parts dynamic, with the dynamism being for good or ill based upon the players skill and choices during the neutral phase.

Poverty is campaign death. Players should have resources to do a lot of whatever they desire requiring money, but not quite all. But like mortal threat, if poverty is the base state instead of affluence (as opposed to "rich") then it will be hard for you to find out what your players would like to do if they could - because they can't, and so they won't bother.
 
Last edited:

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
The idea is, as you said, to summarize what'll be in the link, calling it a "lesson" and the summary will add additional thought as we decide it's necessary.
I would like this in small digestible bights. This might be better as a blog than a document...
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
For instance, what would you do to teach someone about Traps in D&D? Well, first you throw in the trash everything 5e presents. There's gotta be a solid 10 articles and blog posts around that have great thought on the subject, and of course, Mercer and Colville and Perkins have all made statements on the subject. Gygax did. Etc.
For Course 101 - what are some things, just rapid-fire, that we think we would want every beginner GM to know?
I consider Courtney Campbell's treatment of traps to be pretty much definitive. Its too bad he trashed his website, but he has started reposting some of his "Thursday Tricks".

Your goal is to learn how to write your own content and build a long-running campaign.
Full stop.
That's sort of a "deep end of the pool" kind of approach for "Course 101". You could lose some good talent. I would be inclined to start with running a session.

Squeen's post does illustrate an issue of concern to me, though. I'm not sure you can really have teach GMing in a wholly system agnostic way. There will always be different techniques for different systems, which increases the more divergent the systems become. And this is hardly the crowd to ask for advice on how to run a storygame. For that matter, I doubt squeen's goal makes much sense to a GM who wants to run Paranoia. I think you need to pick a family of systems with broadly similar characteristics, at the least. Which around here means D&D + clones.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
I think Beoric has a good point and a good critique of my flippant response.

What is the goal of the course?:
(a) to make someone a good arbitrator for an evening's game (a 101 level course)
(b) to teach so-so DMs how to take it to the next level and get at the heart of D&D with campaign play (an advanced course)

I think you are aiming for (a) and so can disregard my comment.

That said. When I re-started playing solely as a DM I had seen enough good DMing that I was able to work my way through (a) in a few sessions. while (b) was/is proving to be much more elusive.

EDIT: It just occurred to me you are writing a Dungeon Master's Guide...:)
 

HypthtcllySpkng

*eyeroll*
I think Beoric has a good point and a good critique of my flippant response.

What is the goal of the course?:
(a) to make someone a good arbitrator for an evening's game (a 101 level course)
(b) to teach so-so DMs how to take it to the next level and get at the heart of D&D with campaign play (an advanced course)

I think you are aiming for (a) and so can disregard my comment.

That said. When I re-started playing solely as a DM I had seen enough good DMing that I was able to work my way through (a) in a few sessions. while (b) was/is proving to be much more elusive.

EDIT: It just occurred to me you are writing a Dungeon Master's Guide...:)

A little bit of a, little bit of b. Ultimately I'd like to hit both points, but for a start Course 101 is definitely A.


@EOTB serious question, are you of the persuasion, as many believe, that anyone can be a DM? Or is it your opinion that DM'ing, or at least great DM'ing has natural talent as a prerequisite alongside learning and practice? Frankly, I'm not sure where I stand.
Generally, I agree that the most important aspects of GMing aren't game or mechanic specific. Likewise, the social environment of an evening with friends or strangers; being capable of hosting that environment and dealing with flawed human beings is equally important in every campaign... eventually. The social end of what it means to be a GM, and to be a player will be covered in the guide a reasonable amount. I imagine everything you said will be covered as well. I do definitely agree that GMing requires confidence, self-assuredness, talent to a degree, and a willingness to fail. But I can't decide the extent to which those things are teachable.
 

HypthtcllySpkng

*eyeroll*
Squeen's post does illustrate an issue of concern to me, though. I'm not sure you can really have teach GMing in a wholly system agnostic way. There will always be different techniques for different systems, which increases the more divergent the systems become. And this is hardly the crowd to ask for advice on how to run a storygame. For that matter, I doubt squeen's goal makes much sense to a GM who wants to run Paranoia. I think you need to pick a family of systems with broadly similar characteristics, at the least. Which around here means D&D + clones.
Actually, I disagree here. I think enough of the general D&D concepts of gaming overlap with other TTRPG's that starting with D&D, and simply mentioning and clarifying ways other games may differ is enough. Take WoD or CoC. Both use rules and provide opportunity for improv style play acting and so on, same as D&D. The horror aspects benefit D&D DMs to learn to use them effectively. imo if you can play 5e, 1e, Warhammer, CoC, WoD, Shadowrun, and Pathfinder you can probably figure the rest of TTRPG gaming out on your own or in the advanced course.
I think that a narrow focus to start, namely D&D 5e, and then slowly expanding as we cover other games and touch on topics relevant to other games is the way to go since it all comes back to enabling 5e play, and helping people find the game they were born to GM. (Which likely isn't 5e)
 

EOTB

So ... slow work day? Every day?
@EOTB serious question, are you of the persuasion, as many believe, that anyone can be a DM? Or is it your opinion that DM'ing, or at least great DM'ing has natural talent as a prerequisite alongside learning and practice? Frankly, I'm not sure where I stand.
It's entirely a mindset. Example: I've seen many people become great public speakers through training who started out unable to speak publicly with any effectiveness; I've seen some people who needed no training at all. And I've seen many people who convinced themselves that they preferred their comfortable limitations.

No, I don't think anyone can become a great GM. But a lot of that group could become a great GM with a different mindset and a willingness to plow through discomfort to the other side. A great GM is a leader; a servant-leader to be sure, but still a leader. They must inspire trust and admiration, and deliver on the implicit promise.
 

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
I would be inclined to start with running a session.
agreed. For 101 purposes, stick to simple goals.

Which around here means D&D + clones.
also agreed. You could also refer to other games in passing, but stick to the core. Really, you might have to pick a system. Some argue that the redbox included the ultimate how-to guide that few other versions have attempted to do -just assuming the reader has already experienced the system in some way. Part of that was discussing rules mechanics. That's hard to do when you cast your net wide. Maybe pick 5e so you can drop into the nitty-gritty when necessary.

while (b) was/is proving to be much more elusive.
I think that's a lifelong journey we've all embarked on, man!


Hey, add Seth Skorkowski to the list of great video-bloggers! I'm going to be heartbroken if I find out that that amiable nerd is a monster irl.
 
Top