I've written about the mythical professional game master before, but for the first time I got an opportunity to interview one at length. Meet Timothy James Woods (Timm) who currently has a Master's degree in English literature and is working towards his PhD in the same (with a focus on games and learning). 2017 is the first year that he will be relying on RPGs for his income full-time, having locked down four regular games and two afterschool programs.
Michael Tresca (MT): What's your gaming background?
Timm Woods (TW): I'd say my gaming background is simultaneously considered thorough to some, and sparse to others. I first discovered D&D when I was around 10 or 11 (when Magic the Gathering and Warcraft were fresh to me), and played with my siblings, but never really got to play all that much through high school and college. Being "inside" the hobby in terms of following it (I received Dungeon magazine and read every rulebook cover to cover from 2nd edition onward) while being "outside" the hobby in terms of playtime (I don't think I ever properly finished an adventure as a GM until I was in my 20s) had a weird result. I felt that it equipped me to see another side of the hobby: the "lost players". A large part of going into this business, for me, hinged on the idea that there are a great number of D&D enthusiasts who are still under-served by the volunteer GMing available amongst their friend circles and in their area, and that these individuals are happy to pay a professional as a way to reengage their lost hobby in a comfortable way.
MT: What are you working on currently?
TW: At the moment, I'm still working out the details of my dissertation and publication, although I do have a chapter available for viewing in the collection The Role-Playing Society (you can check out details here). That chapter covers a lot of the same ideas I have about gaming (albeit dated now).
MT: What's your dissertation about?
TW: My dissertation is about the potential importance of games to the learning process, particularly in the context of the language-learning and writing classroom. I'm detailing the ludic and pedagogical history of TRPGs (which, I argue, were historically almost always considered as educational tools FIRST and leisure activities SECOND), investigating potential uses for TRPGs as learning tools, and designing concepts for what a TRPG-based curriculum would look like.
MT: What gaming activities have you participated in?
TW: I've run university courses with game-based mechanics, including one first-year writing course in which I used The Quiet Year to encourage motivational roleplaying and in-character collaborative writing. In my after-school programs aimed at younger students, I use TRPGs like D&D as a tool for facilitating social interactions between students (some of whom are on the special needs spectrum). Even in the ordinary adult games I run, I use my classroom tactics as a way to keep the play flowing, and to bring new players quickly up to speed.
MT: How did you become a professional game master?
TW: I definitely stumbled into this career, in a sense, and it's primarily my background in education and English language that has allowed me to pursue it this way. I was originally looking for opportunities in the RPG industry when I started working retail at a large Manhattan comic book shop, basically selling the boxed sets and books for D&D 4e and Pathfinder and meeting people within the hobby. The most common response I got from customers regarding TRPGs was "huh, D&D, I always wanted to try that game," to the point where I was receiving that answer roughly once a day. It put into perspective how much of the hobby is transferred on a very personal level. For so many of us, the story is the same: we played their first RPG by some fluke or accident, at a young age, and now either play regularly or, more likely, currently have no point of access to the hobby. I started handing out business cards, then started working with a local gaming cafe, organizing and running D&D Encounters and my own games. Since early last summer, I've moved on to running my own freelance games and afterschool programs through a variety of Manhattan learning institutions like Winston Prep and the Quad Prep.
MT: What tips do you have for other aspiring professional GMs?
TW: A lot of what I feel a professional GM, and any GM, needs is less about running the game and more about setting the context for the game. I try to bring to the game-table what I bring to my classroom: a sense of fair play, of making sure everyone gets equal attention, of getting everyone comfortable in their roles. A GM is always part referee and part narrator, but a professional is also part host, part businessperson, part teacher, and part paid performer. You're creating an experience, and you're responsible for that experience in a sense that really transcends the game rules. If a player is a jerk in my game, it's at least partly my responsibility to handle the situation. In a sense, this is unlike a regular GM, although I argue that a big issue with TRPGs is that almost all GMs end up getting saddled with this role of "meta-facilitator" whether they realize it or not; essentially a human-resources role that GMs are not always prepared to tackle. Even just classic Dungeons & Dragons means so many different things to so many different people, and with a paying group you want to ensure that you run the game they had in mind (while still surprising them), which is not necessarily the game you learned to play. It's made me think of RPGs differently, and in some ways allowed me to more fully adopt the role of "showrunner"-- albeit with the knowledge that, like a showrunner, my "ratings" pay my rent. TL;DR, Recognize what makes your sessions fun, and focus and highlight those elements while clearly communicating with the group and basing the campaign around them.
You can follow Timm on Twitter.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
Michael Tresca (MT): What's your gaming background?
Timm Woods (TW): I'd say my gaming background is simultaneously considered thorough to some, and sparse to others. I first discovered D&D when I was around 10 or 11 (when Magic the Gathering and Warcraft were fresh to me), and played with my siblings, but never really got to play all that much through high school and college. Being "inside" the hobby in terms of following it (I received Dungeon magazine and read every rulebook cover to cover from 2nd edition onward) while being "outside" the hobby in terms of playtime (I don't think I ever properly finished an adventure as a GM until I was in my 20s) had a weird result. I felt that it equipped me to see another side of the hobby: the "lost players". A large part of going into this business, for me, hinged on the idea that there are a great number of D&D enthusiasts who are still under-served by the volunteer GMing available amongst their friend circles and in their area, and that these individuals are happy to pay a professional as a way to reengage their lost hobby in a comfortable way.
MT: What are you working on currently?
TW: At the moment, I'm still working out the details of my dissertation and publication, although I do have a chapter available for viewing in the collection The Role-Playing Society (you can check out details here). That chapter covers a lot of the same ideas I have about gaming (albeit dated now).
MT: What's your dissertation about?
TW: My dissertation is about the potential importance of games to the learning process, particularly in the context of the language-learning and writing classroom. I'm detailing the ludic and pedagogical history of TRPGs (which, I argue, were historically almost always considered as educational tools FIRST and leisure activities SECOND), investigating potential uses for TRPGs as learning tools, and designing concepts for what a TRPG-based curriculum would look like.
MT: What gaming activities have you participated in?
TW: I've run university courses with game-based mechanics, including one first-year writing course in which I used The Quiet Year to encourage motivational roleplaying and in-character collaborative writing. In my after-school programs aimed at younger students, I use TRPGs like D&D as a tool for facilitating social interactions between students (some of whom are on the special needs spectrum). Even in the ordinary adult games I run, I use my classroom tactics as a way to keep the play flowing, and to bring new players quickly up to speed.
MT: How did you become a professional game master?
TW: I definitely stumbled into this career, in a sense, and it's primarily my background in education and English language that has allowed me to pursue it this way. I was originally looking for opportunities in the RPG industry when I started working retail at a large Manhattan comic book shop, basically selling the boxed sets and books for D&D 4e and Pathfinder and meeting people within the hobby. The most common response I got from customers regarding TRPGs was "huh, D&D, I always wanted to try that game," to the point where I was receiving that answer roughly once a day. It put into perspective how much of the hobby is transferred on a very personal level. For so many of us, the story is the same: we played their first RPG by some fluke or accident, at a young age, and now either play regularly or, more likely, currently have no point of access to the hobby. I started handing out business cards, then started working with a local gaming cafe, organizing and running D&D Encounters and my own games. Since early last summer, I've moved on to running my own freelance games and afterschool programs through a variety of Manhattan learning institutions like Winston Prep and the Quad Prep.
MT: What tips do you have for other aspiring professional GMs?
TW: A lot of what I feel a professional GM, and any GM, needs is less about running the game and more about setting the context for the game. I try to bring to the game-table what I bring to my classroom: a sense of fair play, of making sure everyone gets equal attention, of getting everyone comfortable in their roles. A GM is always part referee and part narrator, but a professional is also part host, part businessperson, part teacher, and part paid performer. You're creating an experience, and you're responsible for that experience in a sense that really transcends the game rules. If a player is a jerk in my game, it's at least partly my responsibility to handle the situation. In a sense, this is unlike a regular GM, although I argue that a big issue with TRPGs is that almost all GMs end up getting saddled with this role of "meta-facilitator" whether they realize it or not; essentially a human-resources role that GMs are not always prepared to tackle. Even just classic Dungeons & Dragons means so many different things to so many different people, and with a paying group you want to ensure that you run the game they had in mind (while still surprising them), which is not necessarily the game you learned to play. It's made me think of RPGs differently, and in some ways allowed me to more fully adopt the role of "showrunner"-- albeit with the knowledge that, like a showrunner, my "ratings" pay my rent. TL;DR, Recognize what makes your sessions fun, and focus and highlight those elements while clearly communicating with the group and basing the campaign around them.
You can follow Timm on Twitter.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
