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View Full Version : 'DM Boot Camp': How To Structure?



The Glyphstone
2012-11-16, 05:33 PM
My local game club/community is depressingly devoid of people who are willing to/able to run games - it's the standard situation of everyone in the group wanting to play and no one wanting to DM, multiplied to 20+ people, which makes it really hard to get any game groups going. I want to try and change that by providing a DMing crash course, and since these are college students, structure it into as reasonable a facsimile of a class as I can.

The problem is, I'm not entirely certain what to cover. I know I'm going to divide it across a few different game systems/engines - probably Pathfinder (d20), NWoD (d10), Spirit of the Century (Fudge/Fate), and a D6 system I haven't decided on yet. But the actual information I'd need to include is still kind of fuzzy, so I want to know - if you were going to teach someone how to DM...system-specific or generalizes, or if you were being taught how to DM, what would you consider the most important points to get across?

CarpeGuitarrem
2012-11-16, 05:42 PM
Honestly, I'd probably hybridize the no-holds-barred philosophy of Luke Crane (select bits of Burning Wheel Gold) with a genericized overview stolen directly from Apocalypse World.


Be a fan of the characters
Make situations, not adventures
Know the world
Know how and when to improvise
Push ALL THEIR BUTTONS! (the characters' buttons, that is, not the players' buttons)


Some actual improv instruction would actually be a really good idea, too. Depending on how many people you teach, facilitating a session of Fiasco could be great for teaching that. It helps you get very comfortable with the idea of setting up plans and then having people wreck all over them.

Anxe
2012-11-16, 06:37 PM
Adventure Design: DMs must know how to design adventures that have appropriate risk-to-reward. There can't be dragons guarding toothpicks or Orcs guarding the holy grail.
Creativity: Dungeons must be entertaining. If all the rooms are in a line and each one is a rectangle, the players will get bored.
Genre Coherence: Orcs should not be guarding a tank unless your campaign setting is specifically like that. Neither should the Orcs be armed with rifles. Magic-tech is acceptable (magic missile wands), but actual tech throws the players out of the setting.
Adaptability: DMs should know how to adapt to the players. My personal experience is that most of my players do not like riddles or puzzles. Thus, I keep riddles and puzzles out of most of my adventure. Same for social interactions, gratuitous combat, NPC allies, etc. It all depends on what the players want.
Enjoy Creating: The reason why there's a shortage of DMs is because a lot of people don't enjoy the process of creating a world/adventure/town. It takes a lot of time to make something truly enjoyable. Most of what DMs do is come up with the adventure. The "performance" on game night is only part of it. As long as this part of DMing is seen as a chore, then the person is not going to be the best DM.

As for how to teach these... Creativity can be taught with Paranoia. Genre Coherence should be fairly obvious.
Adventure Design and Adaptability get more complicated. I'd have each of the "students" come up with encounters. Only an encounter instead of an adventure. Then they would play through each others' encounters and critique each encounter after completing it. However, there'd be restrictions on the creation process. All the encounters have to be for the same party level and include a few random elements. For example, a 4th level encounter that includes a cliff, a crossbow, and 5 healing potions. Or a 10th level encounter that includes a troll, sonic magic, and an NPC character.
Final thing to teach is to Enjoy Creation. I don't think this can be taught.

I'd imagine this class as more of a weekend workshop of some kind.

The Glyphstone
2012-11-16, 06:46 PM
Yeah, it'll be more like a weekly gaming session, or weekend workshop style, if only because there will be actual real classes to attend during the week.

SgtCarnage92
2012-11-16, 07:26 PM
It would be interesting to teach organization skills specifically for GMing. GMs have a lot they have to pay attention to during any given session and making this as simple and easy as possible can do wonders. We can only hold so much stuff in our working memory at any one time so learning what they need to have easily at hand (Monster stats, treasure hoards, vital information for plot) and what is best left on the fly.

Also, teach basic storytelling in the context of GMing. Yes, make encounters and situations that are interesting, but be able to have a logical aftermath.

Teach basic situations and how to react to them. If the party wizard is steamrolling all the encounters and nobody is having fun anymore, what are some options for how to counter this. The more situations the GM has to look back on, the more likely they will be able to react to something they weren't prepared for.

Stubbazubba
2012-11-16, 11:31 PM
Much of this is going to be just about being a team leader/organizer more than actually DMing.

Proper DM-Player relationship: What is a DM? DMs and Players both deserve to have fun and enjoy the experience. Everyone is responsible for the fun in the group. Understand that no one will get the perfect game for them, and be ready to throw your support behind whatever the group agrees on.

Clarifying Expectations: You and your players need to be on the same page about the kind of game you're running before you do anything except maybe order pizza; heroic or gritty shades of grey morality? High lethality or low? Combat, puzzles, intrigue; how much of each? What level of optimization? What are the fundamentals of the setting? This will prevent a lot of issues from ever happening. (Possibly combine this with the above)

Preparation Precedes Power: How to prepare for an open-ended play experience. What can you do to help the players make a cohesive party during chargen? What material is going to matter, and how much to prepare for one session? Questions of sandbox vs. railroad, story-craft, designing hooks, storylines and encounters tailored to characters and the party as a whole, etc. This is a big deal.

Logistics: Scheduling, beer & pizza supply chain management, session time management (table-talk vs. play-time), etc., etc. Battle-mat? Minis? This is the session's skin, what holds everything together and gives it a healthy appearance.

The Difference Between a Villain and a Supervillain: How to present a session; music, narration, description of combat, visual aids, all the spice that really makes the theatre of the mind come alive.

Improvising: In music, people improvise by memorizing a wide range of riffs and just transposing them to the key/beat of a given song; in DMing, it's similar, learn some basic plot twists and narrative techniques that you can slot into anything at the drop of a hat.

Dealing with Issues: How to identify and address problem players or uncomfortable players. When is private better, when is public better? How to confront people without attacking them, when is attacking appropriate (if ever)? How to ask for/reach group consensus, etc.

In general, you want each of these to teach some skills/techniques, and then practice them. Teach them to improvise, then give them a minute to create a one-shot idea and then make them improvise on it based on PC actions. Teach them how to lead good chargen and then have them do so. Teach them to confront an uncomfortable player in a helpful way, and have them role-play out that situation. Theory and examples are great and all, but it's almost never internalized until they've done it themselves.

DontEatRawHagis
2012-11-17, 12:02 AM
What I find useful:

Learn to Play to your disadvantage - Some mechanics are never used, because they are easy to avoid. Attacks of Opportunity. So I've learned to make these mistakes with dumber enemies, such as trolls.
Move the Spotlight - Have missions that target specific player backgrounds.
Learn to Reward player actions - I still have problems with this.
Insight player response and action - Having trouble with this right now.
Dealing with Powergamers in a non-powergamer groups.
Creating Balanced Homebrews.

Stubbazubba
2012-11-17, 01:56 AM
What I find useful:

Creating Balanced Homebrews.


Ooh, this one's good, too. Very system-specific, though. I would do a lesson on the ins-and-outs of each major system, and include in that home-brewing tips.

Totally Guy
2012-11-17, 04:08 AM
How about you play some GMless games? You're both playing as you're learning and you can see those skills used in a way in which you are all equals.

For a new GM, just play RPGs as the GM and do what the rules tell you to do. You'll get there.

Amphetryon
2012-11-17, 07:36 AM
Much of this is going to be just about being a team leader/organizer more than actually DMing.

Proper DM-Player relationship: What is a DM? DMs and Players both deserve to have fun and enjoy the experience. Everyone is responsible for the fun in the group. Understand that no one will get the perfect game for them, and be ready to throw your support behind whatever the group agrees on.

Clarifying Expectations: You and your players need to be on the same page about the kind of game you're running before you do anything except maybe order pizza; heroic or gritty shades of grey morality? High lethality or low? Combat, puzzles, intrigue; how much of each? What level of optimization? What are the fundamentals of the setting? This will prevent a lot of issues from ever happening. (Possibly combine this with the above)

Preparation Precedes Power: How to prepare for an open-ended play experience. What can you do to help the players make a cohesive party during chargen? What material is going to matter, and how much to prepare for one session? Questions of sandbox vs. railroad, story-craft, designing hooks, storylines and encounters tailored to characters and the party as a whole, etc. This is a big deal.

Logistics: Scheduling, beer & pizza supply chain management, session time management (table-talk vs. play-time), etc., etc. Battle-mat? Minis? This is the session's skin, what holds everything together and gives it a healthy appearance.

The Difference Between a Villain and a Supervillain: How to present a session; music, narration, description of combat, visual aids, all the spice that really makes the theatre of the mind come alive.

Improvising: In music, people improvise by memorizing a wide range of riffs and just transposing them to the key/beat of a given song; in DMing, it's similar, learn some basic plot twists and narrative techniques that you can slot into anything at the drop of a hat.

Dealing with Issues: How to identify and address problem players or uncomfortable players. When is private better, when is public better? How to confront people without attacking them, when is attacking appropriate (if ever)? How to ask for/reach group consensus, etc.

In general, you want each of these to teach some skills/techniques, and then practice them. Teach them to improvise, then give them a minute to create a one-shot idea and then make them improvise on it based on PC actions. Teach them how to lead good chargen and then have them do so. Teach them to confront an uncomfortable player in a helpful way, and have them role-play out that situation. Theory and examples are great and all, but it's almost never internalized until they've done it themselves.
Careful here; I have known several groups where one or more of the players chafed mightily at the notion that one of the players (the DM is also a player) was "in charge" of out-of-game activities of the group.

For other folks, their stated expectations will be different than their actual approach in the game, like claiming they want a gritty, grey-morality crapsack world and then consistently cracking jokes. Telling said players they're "doing it wrong" is a delicate procedure at best.

SuperPanda
2012-11-17, 07:49 AM
Speaking as a teacher (okay ESL and mostly Kindergarten at that... but I've never ceased to be amazed at how similar DMing is to teaching Kindergarten) my old player group arranged what was possibly the best Pre-post-assessment task you could come up with.

The idea of Pre-post assessment in primary years teaching (teaching for 3-9 years old) is to focus on what the learner's "current level of understanding is. With DMing I find that no one ever knows how to do it perfectly, they are always learning and improving, so it is a model that will likely fit better than just "teaching a class."

What my players did was create what they called "Drunk DnD night" (this is because their version involved alcohol but they normally play on nights that everyone has to drive home directly after the session, alcohol is optional for your version). Each person brings the character they want to play and a short dungeon/adventure. Whoever is the DM has their character mysteriously vanish at the start and then runs their adventure (select the DM randomly). Characters carry over between games, but looting stuff isn't really needed. This is mostly used as a crash course on what to do when the players do something unexpected and learning how to challenge the players without outright killing them.

When our group did this we had a Zombie survival story followed by a mission to reclaim the planateer's rings and revive captian Planet followed by discovering a stargate and taking on a Goa'uld (I was responsible for that last one).

The tone shifts alot with the various DMs and people start getting a sense of how things go. The guy who did the middle story is a relatively new player who had had no idea what could happen as a story-teller. As such, the fights he expected to be hard were just destroyed in one shot, the ones he thought would be social encounters turned into combat (and were harder than the "hard fights") and in general he wound up figuring out alot of how to think on his feet.


From a teaching standpoint, having soemthing like this allows you to outline strengths the perspective DMs already have, and hold up examples of things that worked really well (and get positive feedback from the others to help linking DMs with players who share their play style). You can also open it up to questions and lead the "class" by focusing not on what you decide they need to learn, but on what they want to learn (facilitator, not teacher). They could get engaged, and if they do then they'll start trading ideas and get interested in DMing more because they have that group/network.

who knows, it might not work, but it also might work.

valadil
2012-11-17, 09:51 AM
In my opinion GMing experience trumps knowledge. As much as I like reading about and discussing GMing that's all theory. I've only gotten better through practice.

I think your workshop should reflect this. Break up into groups of four. Give each group a one shot game and start playing. After 30 minutes switch to a new GM. 2 hours later everyone should have had a turn at the GM seat.

I think this will gives your trainees confidence in their improv abilities. None of them will know they're ready to run the game. They won't been mentally prepared. I think a lot of people have put GMing on a grand stage and that intimidates them out of trying it. This should help fix that.

On the other hand it's a safe environment. Everyone playing I'd in the same boat. They all know the adventure was given to the GM five minutes ago and that the GM has no experience running games. Furthermore there's no next session so the GM won't have his feelings hurt of nobody shows up next week.

After this practice game is when I'd go into a more chatty section. Talk about what the GMs went through and ask them what they learned. They'll probably have more relevant things to talk about after being dumped in to 30 minutes of GMing than if they only had their speculation to go on.

I'd save adventure writing for a second day. Running and writing games are two separate skills. All GMs need to be able to run games. Writing them is reserved for those who don't use published adventures. I'm also of the opinion that how you run a game is going to factor into what you write and what notes you take.

scurv
2012-11-17, 11:28 AM
We had alot of the new DM syndrome in the barracks games when I was starting out, What we found was the most useful advice was to keep the game rules simply and keep the campaign moving.

And to agree to settle all player/DM disputes after the session, With a compensation being worked in into the next session if it was warranted.

But if they are all experanced players then they should know enough of the rules to fudge it.

Anxe
2012-11-17, 12:19 PM
Snip

Yeah, experience definitely trumps knowledge. Reading the DMG is super helpful, but only after you get the basics down through experience. And I agree that running and designing adventures are two different skills, but only 30 minutes each? My group spends the first 2 hours just chatting and deciding what to do! One encounter can take an hour or two! I don't think 30 minutes is enough time. I do like the rotation structure though, but it should be more like an hour and a half or two hours for each rotation.

I think running a module and a homemade adventure are very different things. With a module you have to try to understand what the writer was trying to make. There's a lot more prep work with a module for me because I have to read through it about 3 times before it all makes sense. There's so many notes in it. I have to look up what happens when they do A. If I improved it then B wouldn't happen or C wouldn't make sense. I'm generally not a fan of modules.
With a homemade adventure I don't have to write all the stuff down like I would have to read in a module. Instead I can store information in my head or just make stuff up. I don't have to worry about my improv contradicting another part of the adventure.
Inevitably modules would be necessary for a DMing workshop. I'd spend the first session going over theory and getting to know the other students. Then send them home with a module to read and play it at the next session.

valadil
2012-11-17, 12:23 PM
Anxe, I agree that 30 minutes each isn't ideal but I think it can work. I wouldn't do this with any D&D but with something rules light like Risus.

DaTedinator
2012-11-17, 02:42 PM
I don't really know how to structure it, but, in my opinion the golden rule of DMing, regardless of system, is:

Make sure the players have fun.

That's the rule that every rule of the game system, every element of the campaign world, and every houserule and piece of homebrew needs to be measured by: Does it make the game more fun for the players you have?

Now of course, as a DM, you're trying to have fun too, but it's pretty stinkin' hard to have any fun as a DM unless the players are having fun (and if the players are having fun, most of the time, you'll end up having fun, too).

You could probably find a better way to phrase it, and there's probably some debate as to whether that's really the *most* important rule, but that's how I function, and it's served me pretty well.

Man on Fire
2012-11-17, 06:07 PM
Use this book: Play Dirty (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10381952-play-dirty) by John Wick. You may need to expand on some of his subjects, like that you don't need to make every PC death into LARP funeral like he did, but it should be useful.

Jerthanis
2012-11-17, 06:10 PM
I'd definitely run mostly hands-on, rather than mostly lecture/Theorycraft.

To start, you could give them a quick rundown on the basic tasks of DMing, attention, description, taking the role of NPCs... so on. Just to give some criteria for the next section.

Then you could divide them into groups of 4, and each group collaboratively design a short module for an hour, intending to be played in 30 minutes. Then, each following session, someone runs the module they've made for members of each other group while the whole class watches, and provides feedback.

It would help to have feedback cards with various prompts for the peanut gallery, but have the players give verbal feedback.

The Grue
2012-11-18, 12:42 AM
Some actual improv instruction would actually be a really good idea, too

Cannot emphasize enough. My regular GM is an actor with a local improv performance troupe, and he's literally the greatest GM I've ever had.

The smallest bit of improv instruction goes miles for GMing. The only bad campaigns I've ever had were ones where the GM didn't know what to do when the party did something unexpected, or responded by throwing up walls and "get back to the railroad" signs.

Coidzor
2012-11-18, 01:03 AM
Pre-game Prepwork and notes.

Developing Plots and plans for how the characters can proceed through them as well as the importance of impromptu thinking for when something unexpected happens.

Characters and making them feel round. Engaging with your players.

Time management & keeping players on task, knowing when to take a break or call it quits or that it's time to refill the gas tank as it were.

TheThan
2012-11-18, 09:22 PM
Ok I don’t see how you can possibly teach anyone how to be a DM at all inside of a whole day of work. I believe that DMing is a skill that must be learned through practice and experience (remember even the best artists were once novices).

Now that being said, there is a lot of information and techniques a prospective Dm (heck, even experience dms) can use and learn. So what I would do is break this boot camp up into two types of courses. The first is a lecture course where you talk about any given topic, such as interparty conflict or conflict between two players. Another is a work shop class where you show and teach fundamental dming skills (encounter design, combat sessions, etc). Anyway here’s a list of common areas where Dms tend to struggle. (Pulled from my memory of threads on this very board, and my own experience). i think they will make good subjects to lecture on. also i've included some ideas for workshops that hopefully will teach fundamental dming skills everyone needs to know.

Lectures:
What is a DM? (And what his responsibilities are)
Player types and how to handle them
Dealing with problem players
Dealing with Interparty conflict
Dealing with out of game conflict (something bad has happened in real life)
Dealing with Late and no show players
When bad things happen to good PCs (or TPKs)
Railroading, what it is, how to conceal it and how to avoid it
Knowing your group and it’s playstyle.
Dm organization and planning skills
Handling unbalanced parties

Workshops
How to build encounters
How to build dungeons
How to design adventures
How to design campaigns
How to build campaign worlds
How to make exciting and interesting NPCs