Path of the Game Master
The goal of this pathway is to assist game masters of all levels. For novices, it will help you build out your first GM experience. For intermediate game masters, it will help you with structuring your game planning and push you to try different ways of running your games. And for more experienced GMs, we hope it will provide you with an opportunity to rethink and reinspire the way you run your games and see if even after potentially decades of experience, you can inject new ideas into your sessions for your players.
Path of the Game Master 1: Setting Your Campaign's Foundation
This project will introduce the "why" of your GM goals.
Purpose: The purpose of this speech is to give direction for your GM Path and define what it is you are trying to accomplish as a GM and what your motivations are.
Overview: You want to get started on the path to being a GM. Or maybe you want to be a better GM. What is it that you enjoy as a game master? What would you like to improve upon? What makes you excited about being a GM? Share with the guild what motivates you and what your goals are as a GM.
This project includes:
- Novice – What inspires you to be a GM? What type of GM are you hoping to be?
- Intermediate – What has your experience been as a GM? What are you hoping to focus on improving?
- Advanced – Is there a new module you would like to try out? What new GM style are you hoping to incorporate in future games?
Introducing the world that you will be sharing with your players
Purpose: This project should help you imagine and build the world you wish to share with your players.
Overview: Whether you are interested in picking up pre-made materials or creating homebrew, introduce the world your campaign will be taking place in. What module is it and what sets it apart? What is the breakdown of the population? Where will the characters start? What is the goal? Share what world you are creating with the guild and an overview of how you’re going to introduce their characters to the world.
This project includes:
- Setting the scene for where your campaign will take place. What sets it apart from other worlds/environments. How will you drop your players into this setting? By taking on this project you should be able to start creating structure for your players’ environment and how they will interact with it.
Plan your Session 0. Share your plans with the guild.
Purpose: Running games requires structure and establishing of expectations. Are you asking the right questions and are you prepared for what your players want to do?
Overview: Go over your agenda for your players’ Session Zero. What are some custom mechanics you’d like to introduce? How do the players connect with each other? Are players building their characters during this session? How comfortable is the group with PvP? Are there concerns with themes that might not work for the group? Review with the guild and during your evaluation, you can update those plans and present the agenda second time before meeting with your players.
This project includes:
- Planning a TTRPG game. Establishing the culture and environment of the game. Creating structure for the players. Creating opportunity for feedback for your players. Knowing how to lead and coordinate your games all starts with establishing expectations.
Create a plan for your first game.
Purpose: To think about and create structure, themes, encounters, etc. for your first game of a campaign.
Overview: Write a speech explaining what your players will experience once they dive into their first adventure. What characters will they be introduced to? How will you create a story hook? What will the combat encounters look like? How many sessions and levels will the players go through for their first arc? Maybe act out a few encounters and a round of combat. Really build the energy for when you are going behind the GM screen!
This project includes:
- Creating encounters. Imagining NPC personalities. Structuring a game for players.
Path of the Game Master 2: Developing your GM Style
Comparing your leadership style to your GM style.
Purpose: Understanding your inherent GM nature and how this knowledge can help you be a better GM.
Overview: Take the leadership quiz. What type of leader are you? How does that translate to your GM style? Now that you have begun planning out your own sessions, what game elements do you enjoy the most? How does your leadership style coalesce with your preferred GM activities? Lastly, how do you think your experience planning your game translates to things outside of TTRPG?
This project includes:
- Discovering your leadership style and translating it into how you GM. Identifying the benefits and challenges of your style. How does GMing help you beyond the table top?
A post-session zero reflection.
Purpose: Understanding your players preferences and how it impacts your plan.
Overview: Run your Session Zero with your players using what you learned in level one. Ask for feedback at the end of the session. See what they enjoyed and didn’t enjoy. Provide a summary of how your Session Zero went, what the players enjoyed, and how they thought you could improve the game. How do you feel about their response? How does this change what your game is going to look like?
This project includes:
- Self-reflection. Understanding that your goals may not align perfectly with what the players are interested in. Identifying ways to be flexible. Planning out your changes.
Growth through experience. Playing from a GM's perspective.
Purpose: Learning how to look at your player experience through a GM lens.
Overview: Play in another GM’s game. Or co-GM a game with another GM. Take notes on what you liked and disliked about the experience. Set up time to discuss their game with them and get feedback. Walk through an encounter or two with them from your planned game. Share a speech about what you noticed while playing now that you’re working towards becoming a GM. What will you be stealing for your own GM style? How did playing/collaborating in someone else’s game change what you were planning? What feedback did they provide you on your original ideas?
This project includes:
- Implementing new ideas from other people. Changing your perspective when playing in a game.
Path of the Game Master 3: Increasing Knowledge
This project with provide an opportunity to reflect on your first game.
Purpose: This gives you a chance to review what you wanted to happen in your first game against what actually happened. What did you do well? What could you improve upon? How will you get better next time?
Overview: You’ve run your Session Zero. You’ve sat in on a game. It’s time to run your first game for your players. Run the game! Share the experience with the group:
- What did you enjoy the most? The least?
- What was easier than you expected? More challenging?
- What was your favorite moment? Was there a funny interaction?
You’ve run your first game. What’s next? Did they accomplish as much as you expected? What do you need to change for the next session?
This project includes:
- Reviewing your first game goals and outcomes.
- Reflecting on the experience.
- How you plan to be better next time.
Path of the GM Electives 3 (choose 2)
The goal is to improve your use of descriptive language in a TTRPG setting.
Purpose: Using words that capture our senses, take what happened on the table and turn it into a story. Captivate us. Put us IN the game.
Overview: Take your previously run session and put it into a narrative story. Think about how to connect what happened in your game into descriptive language that evokes an individual’s senses. How do you find an emotional connection with the characters in the story? What is the setting? Was it funny, scary, thrilling? Take what happened on your table top and turn into a tale!
This project includes:
- Using words that inspire what players see, feel, hear, smell, and taste to help those who didn’t play in the game get a sense of the experience. This will build your skills when next you need to introduce a new encounter to your players.
Sharing tools that you use to help make your games more engaging.
Purpose: Share your technological expertise with the rest of the guild. Regardless of the tool, anything that helps enhance your games could potentially make another person a better GM.
Overview: Pick an interesting piece of technology you think can help you manage your games. Do you need more visuals to add pop to your encounters? Find an AI image creator. Looking to create more interesting maps? Find a map/terrain creator online. Want to run your entire game on a virtual tabletop? Test out Roll20 or one of its competitors. Once you’ve created your materials, share the process and “how to” with the group.
This project includes:
- Picking a tool that helps you be a better GM and showing the guild how you use it so they can add it to their toolkit for running their own games.
Creating a special experience for your players.
Purpose: Knowing your players' characters and giving them a personalized loot item can often make them feel more engaged with the game. Random rewards are nice but helping players get to where they want to be as characters will keep them invested.
Overview: Review who is in your party and what their objectives will be. Do some research on different loot items available in 5E (or whatever system you’re running) and create a presentation that describes the players in your game and what loot you think would make sense to reward them along the way. How does it create balance for the player, group, and game?
This project includes:
- Researching available and appropriate loot items for your players and sharing why you felt that they would help enhance their experience in your game.
This will help you create fun NPCs with different personalities.
Purpose: Utilizing NPCs that are interesting will help your players dive deeper in to the world you're creating. So have fun! Take inspiration wherever you can find it!
Overview: A huge part of TTRPG is the characters that players will encounter within the game. Whether you use an NPC from your source material or you’re creating a character from scratch give a speech working through the building of the characters look, feel, and personality. What did you use for inspiration? How do you think they would dress? What are their motivations? Any actors or characters that you feel represent the NPC well? Lastly, as a close to your speech, act out your character for the club. Bonus points for cosplay and accents!
This project includes:
- Building a collection of NPCs with unique personalities and sharing them with the guild.