How did you learn to GM?

[MonsterMash]

Oh, my indoctrination was January 1982. 6th grade. Age 11.

DM

My god you remember the first time! I probably DM'd first time in about 1979 after a couple of years playing - I would have been thirteen at the time I started.

Got to admit back then you learned either by watching other DMs, stuff from the books or by trial and error. Since coming back to RPGs in 2003 I've really noticed the difference of being in the online world.

 

[haiiro]

I'm still learning.

No disagreement -- so am I! -- but does this mean you don't consider yourself a GM? Because for me there was a dividing line between when I stopped learning to GM and when I started improving on what I knew. Before that line, I was learning how to GM; after that line, I was a GM learning new ways to be a better GM.

Or did you literally mean that you only recently started GMing, and are still figuring things out?

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm still learning

Good point Doug. Same here. It bears repeating.

Fair enough. Let me do that:

fusangite is still learning.

 

[buzz]

I learned to GM by observing others, reading game material, and flying by the seat of my pants. And, yes, I continue to learn more each time I play and each new game I read. Burning Wheel is currently schooling me big-time.

I had been watching some kids play AD&D at my summer camp. I was totally obsessed with knights at the time, so the game hooked me long before I even understood what was going on.

The first time I actually played, I DM'ed Keep on the Borderlands with blue-book BD&D for myself and my buddy Hassan. I think it was 1980. We both had characters (elven f/m-u's, even though we didn't know you couldn't do that with Basic), and I was pretty "active", e.g., "The minotaur is in room 34. We should go there!" I had no clue how the rules worked.

Anyway, buying other RPGs (Runequest, Champions, and Traveller were among the first) provided me with a lot of insight. You read mutiple "What is a Roleplaying game?" and GM advice chapters (from different authors) and the skills start to sink in. Subscribing to Dragon was also critical.

But, most of all, in the pre-Net era, observing other GMs was the most useful for me, and has generally provided all of my RPG epiphanies. In junior high and high school, my friends Evan and Dave were my teachers; from them I learned a lot of the basics. In college, it was Mike C. and my roomate Fred. Mike C.'s Call of Cthulhu sessions were like being taken out of the cave and into the light, GM-wise. Then, more recently, it's been the GMs in my current groups. My Champions GM, Mike L., blows me away pretty mcuh every session; he doesn't even bring any written notes! There have also been some great GMs at ENWorld Gamedays (CMG Mark and msasso, I'm looking at you) that have knocked my socks off.

Online communities have also taught me a lot. Being able to pool the collective knowledge of thousands of gamers all over the world is just... I really can't remember how it is I survived before the 'Net.

Whether all this has produce, in me, a good GM, I dunno. I'd like to thinkk so, but you'd have to ask my players.

 

[was]

Trial and error

 

[el-remmen]

Duh!

The same way you get to Carnagie Hall. . .

 

[MaxKaladin]

It was the summer of 1983 or 1984 and I learned by trial and error. I was 12 or 13.

 

[jtone]

I taught myself. I live out in the boonies - outside of a town with a population of 600. I bought a D&D boxed set a long time back, but never actually played it. In high school, I ran a oneshot each of Cyberpunk 2020 and another RPG for a friend, but it fell pretty flat. About two years ago, I bought the 3.5 books and Arcana Unearthed, read them through, and started a game a few months later with my wife and another couple. After a few months, one of my players ran one session, but I prefer GMing to playing so I run the games.

I've read all the articles I can find online on how to be a good GM. That's been a lot of help. The boards here at ENWorld are a great resource. I started a subscription to Dungeon, which has also given me some ideas.

 

[solomanii]

I was about 10 or 11 when I first started playing D&D. I can’t recall how it actually happened to be honest. My earliest memories were of playing Red Box D&D with two of my friends and his older brother and I was a 15th level magic-user. How I got there from level 1 is all too blurry to actually pinpoint exactly.

I then ended up making a whole batch of different friends because of D&D. These guys all played 1e which I devoured quickly and then ended up spending all my money on it. I knew from the very first 1e game I played that I wanted to be the DM. The material had my creative juices on overload and I started writing ideas down, forming a campaign in my mind and specific adventures and encounters. I kept thinking “I can do better then this” (perhaps somewhat arrogantly). From game 2 I started badgering the other DM(s) and players to play in my game but I was rebuffed for maybe a year. This just made me work even harder on my game.

When the various other campaigns all fell over for one reason or another I finally got my chance. My campaign was so different to the others that from that point on I was the only DM for my group and the only person to run a campaign from start to finish. My friends still talk about them today and I still run a D&D campaign some 23 years later.

So how did I learn to DM? No specific method. Our group had so many different DM’s at the time with campaigns lasting only 3 or 4 modules before falling over I got exposed to a lot of different styles. It wasn’t conscious but I recall thinking that the good stuff I would keep and the bad stuff I would dispense with.

I never have an urge to play as a player unless I am not DM’ing then I am happy to get my fix by playing. I much prefer to DM exclusively. And on the few occasions where I was a player I go through the same cylcle. The act of playing (or reading) DnD material always sparks off dozens of campaign ideas for my own game and a new campaign slowly forms in my mind. For example I have the next 3 campaigns planned out in my head (and on paper) to varying degrees plus the one I am actually running. All linked one way or another.

And that’s how I became a DM/GM.

 

[an_idol_mind]

I bought the D&D basic set with Zanzer Tem's dungeon in it. There was a solo adventure, and then a first-timer adventure. Got some feedback from my players and have been tweaking my game ever since.