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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8239433" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I don't disagree with the whole of this.&nbsp; Just a couple thoughts though:1)&nbsp; I want to make it clear (and to [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] ) that what I have in mind isn't some kind of Rocky montage of a 12 week fight camp with absolutely no actual &quot;at-the-table&quot; GMing.&nbsp; I don't mean that at all.&nbsp; What I'm talking about is (a) having a structured plan to both understand what you're doing and hone your craft, (b) work at those fundamentals a bit before you GM (even if its just a session of picking discrete scenes/conflicts, practicing framing, practicing handling action resolution, practicing figuring out complications/fallouts at both the action resolution and scene level, and integrating the whole process), (c) running a game with actual confidence (because of (a) and (b) ), (d) then understanding how to reflect and humbly perform a post-mortem of your GMing, (e) then continuing to practice honing your craft.2)&nbsp; I don't know how many comedians you know.&nbsp; I don't know a ton, but the ones I'm familiar with (I know 2 in real life) actually describe a structured process that hews very closely to what I'm talking about.&nbsp; Anecdotes of professional comics and guys I know make the tradecraft part of it look like this:* Always be switched on.&nbsp; Always have a pen ready to write new material.&nbsp; You're constantly practicing the cognitive framework.* Understand your shtick, develop it (these things don't accidentally come together), stick to it.* Be around other comics as much as possible so you're always bouncing material off of each other.&nbsp; This is practice.* Practice your material and delivery in small clubs (even HUGE comics do this regularly) so you're constantly sharping your iron and trying out material with considerably reduced stakes.That looks exactly like what I'm talking about.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 8239433, member: 6696971"] I don't disagree with the whole of this. Just a couple thoughts though: 1) I want to make it clear (and to [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] ) that what I have in mind isn't some kind of Rocky montage of a 12 week fight camp with absolutely no actual "at-the-table" GMing. I don't mean that at all. What I'm talking about is (a) having a structured plan to both understand what you're doing and hone your craft, (b) work at those fundamentals a bit before you GM (even if its just a session of picking discrete scenes/conflicts, practicing framing, practicing handling action resolution, practicing figuring out complications/fallouts at both the action resolution and scene level, and integrating the whole process), (c) running a game with actual confidence (because of (a) and (b) ), (d) then understanding how to reflect and humbly perform a post-mortem of your GMing, (e) then continuing to practice honing your craft. 2) I don't know how many comedians you know. I don't know a ton, but the ones I'm familiar with (I know 2 in real life) actually describe a structured process that hews very closely to what I'm talking about. Anecdotes of professional comics and guys I know make the tradecraft part of it look like this: * Always be switched on. Always have a pen ready to write new material. You're constantly practicing the cognitive framework. * Understand your shtick, develop it (these things don't accidentally come together), stick to it. * Be around other comics as much as possible so you're always bouncing material off of each other. This is practice. * Practice your material and delivery in small clubs (even HUGE comics do this regularly) so you're constantly sharping your iron and trying out material with considerably reduced stakes. That looks exactly like what I'm talking about. [/QUOTE]

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