I'm curious to know how many of you here *actively* GM, or haven't and want to?

My thoughts around many of the arguments/debates that have gone on and on and on over the decades has to do with the lack of recognition in what GM's actually do, and the skillset required to be "good" at it. There are many discussions about the trees of the GMing forest but there is very little discussion, at least to me - honest discussion, about GMing in a holistic manner. There *are* levels to it. There *are* best practices.

GM's are the heart of the hobby. And frankly with the implosion of the D&D brand when they go mostly digital, I predict having GM outreach is a massive opportunity for non-D&D gaming in our hobby. And no, I'm not advocating for "The TTRPG Culture" - I don't believe in that *at all*. But I do believe that we need to be bringing up GM's into the hobby, and creating and refining GM's currently in the hobby. GM's are the center and primary consumers of product. I feel GM's are the invisible demographic that has been sorely ignored and taken for granted. And I see very little modern attempts in the D&D brand to nurture new GM's... which means of course it's on us.

Do you just play? Do you GM? Do you want to GM? Are you a GM that is always looking for new tools for you toolbox? Would you consume content concerning structured and expansive guides to GMing from top to bottom? Do you think the hobby at large does this sufficiently well?

I GM far more than I play--probably 95%+ of my gaming time.  I GM regularly in the sense of "steady hours per quarter" though my gaming sessions tend to be long, with several weeks in between.

In general, I find that weeding through GM advice to get the useful bits to be somewhat tedious, because it is difficult to separate advice on practices from advice on style (both for the one giving the advice and the one receiving it).  Not to mention all the GM advice that is misleading or in some cases outright boneheaded. 

While I don't agree with everything in his approach, I think the Angry GM has been doing yeoman work in breaking a lot of bits down to basics, whereas most advice skims over such things.

I GM maybe 25% of the time; I'm not a mainstay GM and I would not say that I'm particularly talented at it. I can do it, but I think I'm incurably mediocre, especially if I'm using a commercial system. One of the key reasons I got into TTRPG design is because I can more reliably fill the holes in my GMing skills from the game designer chair than I can from the GMing chair, because they offer two different toolsets for dealing with the same problems, and I am notably better at the design angle than the GMing angle.

I'm presently GMing a weekly campaign and a bi-weekly one, while playing in a bi-weekly one and either playing or running the occasional pick-up game when some of my busier friends are free.

I generally prefer something of an improv sandbox... the world is open, but not prebuilt per se; though back when I ran Mage, after a decade and a half in the same general location, nearly all the NPCs were just past PCs with their own agendas so that made it a LOT easier to run.

It's also why I prefer more mechanically solid systems where I can quickly judge encounter difficulty as I'm often having to improv said encounters on the fly... knowing what it takes to make a cake walk and what will make a deadly fight reflexively is an important part of keeping the game sessions moving.

What do you mean by "actively?"  Due to my employment, I frequently leave town for a couple of months at a time.  This has the down side of killing long running game.   

However, I tend to spend free time away getting sessions ready to go so that when I get home I can run for my table.  Everyone keeps coming back so I think they like what I'm doing.

I am constantly looking for tools that make my games better.  I read a lot of core books, blogs, and GMing guides.  Oddly, I have found that most of the more well known GM guides are less useful to me than some of the stuff that's off the cuff statements by GM's in chat rooms.

I DM fairly regualarly, but it's slowed down for the summer.  I did run D&D 5e for my daughter and her friends last night.

Out of all my years of gaming, I've probably ran 90% of the games I've been in, which is actually annoying because I like playing, too. But sometimes I want to play something like Rifts or DC Heroes and no one is willing to run it, so I end up doing it myself. Thankfully one of the other guys I play with doesn't mind running AD&D or Gamma World, so at least there's that.

Related to the initial post, I gave my 7 year old daughter a Mentzer Red Box and she likes playing and is interested in running a game sometime. Trying to do my part here.

Have been GM for 70-80% of the time I've played ttrpgs. Right now, I'm on a GM break as one of my players wanted to try running Curse of Strahd and I don't want to start a new group since I may be moving soon.


I'm always looking at new material because I am working on my own system and want to see what I can steal borrow.

I GM a lot, usually several times per week, though on a bit of a break right now/past couple weeks.

I've nearly always been the GM mainly because I've always been the one to put the effort in. To be fair I like running games, you get to be the one making it cooperative and fun.

I GM a lot, probably more than 50% of my game time is GM time.

I read advice here as well as Angry, Johnn Four, and others. I don't always agree but I try to absorb it all.

By far the best learning tool I've found is to play in games run by GMs who have something I'm missing, whether that is more experience, a unique or interesting style, gimmicks, whatever. Eg: All those tips about making combat more interesting by getting inside the mind of the monster and using its special abilities to the maximum — in one ear and out the other, until I witnessed it done expertly by another GM. Now this lesson is seared into my brain.

Quote from: tenbones on July 31, 2023, 11:51:34 AM

GM's are the center and primary consumers of product. I feel GM's are the invisible demographic that has been sorely ignored and taken for granted. And I see very little modern attempts in the D&D brand to nurture new GM's... which means of course it's on us.

Do you just play? Do you GM? Do you want to GM? Are you a GM that is always looking for new tools for you toolbox? Would you consume content concerning structured and expansive guides to GMing from top to bottom? Do you think the hobby at large does this sufficiently well?

I've been GMing consistently 90% of the time since the mid-90s. Almost every week, though I have taken time off when things like kids and night-shifts take up time. It's been every week since 2018.

The "Guides to GMing" that I've read over the years seem to have been, by and large, vanity projects from game designers who wanted to tell everyone just how awesome a GM they were that one time in college.

Most of the good advice about GMing I gleaned from the designer notes and examples of play in various games like Stars Without Number, SWADE, and Twilight:2000 (2nd edition was great for this). Real concrete procedural advice about how to get groups together, how to make an adventure, where to get maps (if any), how to play NPCs... basically just how to make it all work: this can go right in the main rulebook under the "Refereeing the Game" chapter. Additional supplemental advice for GMs can be found implicitly and explicitly in extended examples of specific in-game systems: combat, trade, etc.

I've found some good bits of advice on Youtube, but I find actual plays utterly unwatchable. Which is fine: TTRPGs aren't a performance media, per se, so it's not for general public consumption.

What I think I'm saying is that it's probably better to get the GMs reading actual rulebooks that are complete, and that contain step-by-step instructions for how to run a game, than to get GMs reading a separate book about how to be good at the hobby. They've already paid their money for the main rulebook, and it should be explicit in this regard. Additional specific tools are cool (I like Social Encounters on the Silk Road, for example), but the main goal needs to be helping new GMs in setting up their workshops, as it were.

I amactively 'GM"-ing since April of 2022.

Currently my GURPS Star Trek group tries to do two game sessions a month or something close to a 'onvr every two weeks' rhythm.

The tricky part is scheduling all three of the adult players in my group have active work schedules and thigs come up with their side jobs.

We were lucky to do two game sessions in July, we almost had three.
Unfortubately we might only be able to have ONE game session in August.
The guy who plays the captain in real life is a somewhat popular musician in demand during Renaissance fest season.
Most of August he was asked to be certain events playing guitar or other instruments (all paying gigs)

In September we will have to game on Fiday nights because Ohio Renn Fest starts Labor Day weekend.

-Ed C.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on July 31, 2023, 12:01:45 PM
I GM far more than I play--probably 95%+ of my gaming time.  I GM regularly in the sense of "steady hours per quarter" though my gaming sessions tend to be long, with several weeks in between.

In general, I find that weeding through GM advice to get the useful bits to be somewhat tedious, because it is difficult to separate advice on practices from advice on style (both for the one giving the advice and the one receiving it).  Not to mention all the GM advice that is misleading or in some cases outright boneheaded. 

Understood. If you GM most of the time, and have been doing it for a long time (10+ years) then yeah you're probably going to be particular about the advice they take. My thoughts are crystalizing on something more concrete than just "Hey here's my advice on how to GM better."

I do believe there are stages of development that all GM's go through and there are nested capacities required for each stage to pull off. It's like playing a kazoo vs. being in a band, vs. being a composer and conductor for an orchestra. They're all making music, but the difficulties and understanding of the music required to each thing is vastly different  and increases in complexity. MOST players never get a GM capable of pulling off big multi-year campaigns that take them from 1st level to the pinnacles of power - and do it with fidelity.

So I'm thinking of trying to frame a method of GMing at each stage for people to use and they can rest where they feel most comfortable. But the idea is to give them tools and a direction to work towards, regardless of their experience level. Of course young folks new to the hobby will get the most benefit. The real issue is finding those people that *want* to do it. Not just "I'm a GM because no one else will do it" (but that counts too), but those people that catch the bug and want to really run with it.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on July 31, 2023, 12:01:45 PMWhile I don't agree with everything in his approach, I think the Angry GM has been doing yeoman work in breaking a lot of bits down to basics, whereas most advice skims over such things.

I've seen his videos. He's kind of what I think of when you talk about about "style/advice" and how the two criss-cross one another largely without context. I'm looking at straightforward developmental guides to get people to start small, then work their way up to full blown sandbox affairs, but with plenty of jump-off points where they feel most comfortable.

Quote from: BadApple on July 31, 2023, 01:34:59 PM
What do you mean by "actively?"  Due to my employment, I frequently leave town for a couple of months at a time.  This has the down side of killing long running game.   

However, I tend to spend free time away getting sessions ready to go so that when I get home I can run for my table.  Everyone keeps coming back so I think they like what I'm doing.

I am constantly looking for tools that make my games better.  I read a lot of core books, blogs, and GMing guides.  Oddly, I have found that most of the more well known GM guides are less useful to me than some of the stuff that's off the cuff statements by GM's in chat rooms.

Actively in the sense that when you game - are you the one GMing? In terms of volume of play, that's definitely a consideration in terms of developmental experience, but for the purposes of the thread, I'm just asking in general.