How are teaching and running a game similar?

[BookTenTiger]

Hey teachers of ENWorld! I'm having a great time in another thread comparing running a game to teaching, so I thought I'd invite others to this conversation.

I've been teaching 3rd Grade for 8+ years. I get excited whenever I have a student teacher who plays D&D because there are so many similarities between teaching and running a game.

I'll just post one here for now:

As both a teacher and a DM, I plan out my adventures / lessons with multiple "entry points." The paladin will want to enter the dungeon because the orcs there are his sworn enemy, the wizard will find out about a lost spellbook in the dungeon, etc. In class, I plan out lessons so students who like to learn through reading, or hands-on experiences, or conversation, all have a way to access the curriculum.

And, of course, since I spend so much time planning paths A, B, and C, I can always rely on the players / students to choose paths X, Y, or Z!

 

[Voadam]

I always found a lot of overlap in explaining things to a class or a single student and explaining things to a group of players or to a single player.

Breaking things down step by step, trying to present a clear mental image, being interactive and responsive.

 

[Umbran]

My teaching experience is more on the high school and college level.

I don't think of it in terms of "games and teaching are similar". I think of it in terms of "skills developed while teaching are applicable in gaming".

For example: pacing. Having a sense of when your audience is drifting into boredom or getting distracted is a teaching skill that applies to the gaming table. But what you do about it is apt to be different.

 

[univoxs]

Having never been a teacher I couldn't say but I know I have to do it depending on the game. If it is a game rooted in real world history and you have a table of people who don't know how one would behave in that time then you will have to do some teaching. But that is going to be true with any setting the players don't know. This is the strength of the D&D settings, specifically ones that have their roots somewhere in Tolkien. You don't have to do a lot of explaining to get people behind Greyhawk, or Forgotten realms. The players get the gist.

 

[pogre]

Teaching is my second career - I am also an attorney. I think the training for both careers influence how I run games.

I teach high school, coach American football and track & field. My students used to get a big kick out of the fact that the Head Football Coach and the guy who is in the weight room all the time also ran the gaming club and was a D&D DM.

I agree with Umbran that a lot of essential skills for teaching transfer well to running a game. Teachers are usually pretty good about reading a room for engagement and veterans like me are flexible enough to change midstream in a session/lesson.

 

[BookTenTiger]

For example: pacing. Having a sense of when your audience is drifting into boredom or getting distracted is a teaching skill that applies to the gaming table. But what you do about it is apt to be different.

Yes, this!

Pacing is one of those things that is toughest to teach my Student Teachers, it just requires experience. Same in D&D! Figuring out while running a game what to keep or drop for this session is a really tricky skill, but I do the same when teaching a math or writing lesson to my little 3rd Graders!

 

[BookTenTiger]

Something I see in both my teaching and GM'ing is a joy in creating systems. I love, love, love the feeling of creating a system to generate, say, random books, and then have the characters find a stash of books and have the players roll on that system.

I do a lot of my own lesson design, and I get the same joy of creation from creating and seeing the students interact with the systems and lessons I have created. For example, right now we are studying life cycles, and I created a bunch of "life cycle cards" with labeled pictures of animals and plants at different stages of development for the students to cut out and play with at home (we are still on Zoom). I cannot wait to see what connections and lessons students draw from arranging and rearranging these cards!

 

[BookTenTiger]

Having never been a teacher I couldn't say but I know I have to do it depending on the game. If it is a game rooted in real world history and you have a table of people who don't know how one would behave in that time then you will have to do some teaching. But that is going to be true with any setting the players don't know. This is the strength of the D&D settings, specifically ones that have their roots somewhere in Tolkien. You don't have to do a lot of explaining to get people behind Greyhawk, or Forgotten realms. The players get the gist.

So this one brings up an interesting idea. I believe that the Environment is also a tool to teach Behavior in my classroom. That is, if I put a labeled bucket of markers in reach of the students, I am communicating that "You Can Use These Markers." If I put, say, my laminator within reach of students, and don't explicitly tell them not to, they will probably assume they can use the laminator (my students are 8, this would be a bad idea).

So how do we do this in a fantasy setting in which the norms of society may be different than ours?

In my campaign, the characters will soon be entering a very Victorian town in the middle of a swamp. Though the town is surrounding by muck and mud and stinging insects, the town itself is paved over with cobblestones, the buildings are scrubbed clean, and there are barrels of flowers everywhere. Everyone is walking around in pristine, beautiful clothing. The norm here is that you dress to impress, and I'm hoping it will make the dirty characters a little uncomfortable. Of course, they can spend some serious cash to buy brand new clothes and fit in around town!

 

[Scott Christian]

I have taught for twenty years. K-3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th-12th. The majority of my career has been with young adults, not children. But I did have a good run of seven years with elementary! From my experience, there are definitely similarities:

• As said earlier - pacing! The ability to set the pace, start and move the story, and even see the pace prior to running the lesson (oops, I mean game), is now intuitive. It is one of the most frequent comments I get as GM, my players are happy with how much of the story they get through in a four hour period.
• Tied to pacing - reading the audience. Knowing when to stop, even if it is early, or when to speed it up. Understanding people have bad days. Understanding people have different experiences. And congealing that into a symphony in class (oops, I mean game) can go a long way.
• Clear and concise. These lend themselves to good teaching, especially when something is convoluted. Distilling it down to its essence is an artform. I don't have it mastered by any means, but I have twenty years of practice. It helps when describing settings, teaching rules to new players, and describing actions.
• Performance. Teachers wear the mask for sure. There are days you are not tired, but close to death from tiredness. Yet, the second you see the first student, you smile and energize with reserves (most of the time you didn't even know you had). I assume the same is true for good parenting. But acting like you love it, even if at the time you are not feeling it, goes a long way. It even makes you like it more in the end, at least from my experience.
• Prep. I prep my lessons. Repeatedly write curriculum. Prep. Prep. Prep. I am prepared. This carries over to my RP games when GM'ing. Yes, impromptu is a much needed skill for teachers and GM's alike. It is equally important. But, if players want the story to move forward, you need to know the avenues they can take.

 

[uzirath]

I came to teaching in my thirties as a second career. As a lifelong tabletop RPG fan, I was surprised at how similar gaming and teaching were. I got stage fright for both, often feeling like I wasn't prepared enough. (Usually, however, that wasn't the case.) Moreover, no matter how prepared I was, I had to be ready to improvise and adjust on the fly. Stubbornly sticking to the lesson plan (or the plot railroad) was never a good strategy.

Another common element that struck me, particularly with English and history classes, was the importance of good framing. middle schoolers don't inherently find a new poem or historical incident interesting. They've got other things on their minds. Spending some time thinking about how to present the content to connect with them and get them engaged almost always pays off. It's similar in RPGs. Sometimes the difference between a compelling encounter and a dud doesn't have as much to do with the mechanics as it does with the framing. Why should the PCs (and the players) care about this scene? How does it connect to their goals and aspirations? What's at stake? If I can't answer those questions, it's not likely to be a memorable episode.