Weirdly, I was primarily thinking about my experience teaching D&D (5e) to kids in this thread as well. . . . And that's why I keep saying that we overlook this, and overlook how games improve over time as we learn more ... techniques. Performance
techniques. Dramatic and narrative techniques.
I think you mentioned teaching to kids before; I have trouble keeping track of all the different elements of this mongo thread! But, I'm glad you're bringing the next generation up to speed too.
I agree that all of this is part of it, and I've included similar language in my pitches and budget requests at school. But there are pitfalls if I focus too heavily on performance/dramatic/narrative techniques with students. More on this below.
"But I'm largely sold on the premise that if I'm helping to train up new GMs, I should focus my energy on their fictional situations rather than on teaching them more evocative vocabulary."
But ... this is the issue I keep coming back to. It's not about an evocative vocabulary.
Yeah, it was a weak example. I agree with you that there is a lot more to "literary" (or "theatrical") technique than vocabulary. Sorry to trot that out here again.
I used to give new players the same advice that I received as a beginning gamer: model your stories on fiction that you love (whether books, TV shows, movies, plays, etc.). This is not always terrible advice: I still get inspiration from all sorts of fiction. But there are many pitfalls for GMs: railroading, too much exposition, resistance to improvisation, plot armor for antagonists who are "supposed" to show up later, feeling that the players are "messing up" the story . . . and I'm sure everyone on the forum could add many more examples. So I've slowly migrated to mainly teaching RPGs as their own thing, related to other art, but with different aesthetic sensibilities. A primary difference is the collaborative nature of authorship and the dynamic, improvisational element.
I'll admit, though, that I haven't teased all of this out, and I'm developing my thinking partly from this thread. (Gaming club is over for the year, so I won't be back in the "lab" until next year to try out some new ideas.)
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