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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 9818799" data-attributes="member: 54840">I've been poking at this huge thread and only today, while waiting to get a filling put into my tooth, did I bother to read some of it – maybe three or four of the 33 pages.Anyway, some initial thoughts.We can offer GM advice without telling GM's that it's too hard. Instead, it's about building out toolkits to help GMs run great game. It's about improvement, not saying one can do it or not. I had presumed with both of the two Lazy DM books, that the readers already had been playing RPGs. I was wrong in many cases. Brand new GMs found these books because they offer a clear system.That's something I think is missing: having a clear system for prep – even one you might not agree with. I've read a ton of GM guides and books and few of them offer any sort of clear system for how to do prep. It's a vast sea of potential with no raft, life preserver, or even a plank of wood. Most advice is too general to be useful.People resonate with the eight steps because it offers a system – one refined from the experiences of thousands of GMs (yes, I surveyed the hell out of a lot of GMs when I wrote it and continue to do so).I can tell you where GMing is hard from those I've talked to about it:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Finding the right players for your game.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scheduling and maintaining consistent attendance at those games.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Having enough time to prep and knowing what to prep.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Handling things when the game goes in directions you're not prepared for.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Knowing how to manage timing and pacing.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Managing people. Handling all the tricky bits of ensuring a number of high-energy people don't clash at the table and how to handle it when they do.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Learning how to prepare to improvise.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Learning how to improvise at the table.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Learning how to keep the game on track and still ensure eveyrone's having a good time.</li> </ul>There are lots of tricky bits to GMing. It's not for everyone. That's why, since the dawn of the game, there have almost always been more players seeking a game than GMs with a seat avalable. It takes work to GM. It takes effort. Time, creative energy, often money, a lack of self-doubt, some showmanship – lots of other traits.I think anyone probably can GM if they put in the effort but it does take effort. The new D&D Starter Set does a good job making it bite-size and manageable, but it still takes someone buying the box, getting friends over, reading enough to understand, and be willing to do it.Someone here asked how people become GMs. I ran a poll on it but I can't find the results but the majority was "because no one else would". I think that's pretty telling.Anyway, those are some thoughts for now.</blockquote>

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