Long time, no post. In the six months that have gone by since my last post, I have learned much about being a DM*. I think I find I learned the most, and became the most grounded, when I DMed for people I've never played with before. DMing for strangers is very intimidating for me, but I've found it to be incredibly expanding and illuminating.
Over the summer, a coworker approached me about D&D. Now to preface this, I work for a relatively conservative financial corporation with 200+ employees just in my building. Recently, I moved cubicles to the one directly next to the hallway with the bathroom. This is not a good seat to get work done; it's fabulous if you want anyone from the mail guy to the managers of the company stopping to say hello. I generally keep my Beholder Ultimate Tyrant on top of my computer tower (recently replaced with assorted goblins fighting each other as my home campaign fought a Runescribed Beholder Eye Tyrant), and my desktop background varies from comic book stills to Wizard's D&D desktop backgrounds to other sci-fi loves.
Because of this, it has become known throughout the office that I play D&D. It started with a guy I barely know stopping by and saying, "Hey, that's a Beholder... I used to play second ed, when I was in high school..." to which I responded with, "I play the new 4th ed, and I have a ton of fun every Thursday running a game." I don't hide my nerdiness at all; I am both a professional call-center Team Captain (read: Miniboss) and a huge nerd. This has inspired other nerds to come out of the woodworks, and one co-worker started her own game, which now has 4 other co-workers in it.
The DM of this game was not well versed in 4th ed, and so one week in July my co-worker approached me and asked me to run a game for them, because I was a 4th edition expert and a pro-DM. My brain went, "Aaaahhh hahahahahahha- me? Pro?," but my mouth went, "I'd love to."
I learned more from running a level 5 one shot adventure than the previous year of gaming. Mostly because it taught me that I learned how to DM. At first, I thought, "Wait, when did this happen?" See, being immersed in a weekly ongoing game, where they've gone from level 1 to 15 (and maybe eventually to 30), I don't see the small changes. I've learned to react more to players decisions, I've tried many different ways of keeping track of initiative, a variety of different markings for status effects; how I run the game has consistently evolved both in the visual mechanics and in my thought processes. But to me, it was still, "Thursday night; oh god, I hope I don't screw up and no one will want to play with me anymore..." I still have trouble finding confidence in running games for my regular crew, though that has significantly improved over time.
But playing with others showed me, while I do make mistakes and have room for improvement, that I can do things I never realized:
- I can spout rules off the top of my head
- I can offer strategy and mechanic suggestions to help players with their battles
- I can create "realistic" battles; the players fill in the blanks of why these monsters are there, and it makes sense to them
- I can create NPCs that make them laugh, or make them go "Oh shit!"
- I can design and utilize interesting terrain features
- I can tell a decent story
- I can create a dynamic game that make players go, "Wow, that was fun, I can't wait to play again."
Some of the tools I've used to gain my skills, other than trial and error, are through websites and podcasts. I picked up a print copy of the Sly Flourish book.I've read the DMG 1& 2 cover to cover multiple times, and I pick up things every time I read them.
My troop of coworkers have asked me repeatedly to come back and run more games. Hopefully, I will again soon.
Next up: running games at NYCC for Wizards of the Coast.
*DM stands for Dungeon Mistress. It could stand for Dungeon Master, but that implies boys- ewww, gross.
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