In previous articles I’ve talked about the importance of practice as well as my favorite podcasts & blogs for GMs. But there are still countless other ways we can improve as GMs:
- Read adventures & sourcebooks. Even if you don’t plan on running a certain adventure, there are tons of ideas you can lift from it. If you’re running a homebrew campaign, it’s particularly useful to see how experienced designers create an adventure.
- Design homebrew. Through the process of creating homebrew materials (magic items, monsters, spells, etc.) you will better understand how those things work mechanically.
- Watch / listen to actual plays. Each GM has their own techniques they bring to the game. Leverage their experience and ideas to make your game even better.
- Play in games as a character. As a player, you can pick up on what makes a game fun and what might not.
- Check out different TTRPG systems. Each system has its own way of doing things, and a lot of those cool ideas can be adapted for whatever system you’re running.
- Consume fiction. TV shows, movies, and fantasy novels are all great sources of inspiration for plot points, cool locations, NPCs, etc. “We’re only as good as the obscurity of the references we steal from.” –Matt Colville
Let me know other ways you work to improve!
I like all of these, with one exception; I *hate* watching actual plays. They bore me to death for some reason!
ReplyDeleteI'd strongly argue that hitting 5/6 of these is good enough if someone has a similar bugbear with one of the others, even though I think everything apart from number three is bang on the money. Playing other systems especially stands out to me - there's a tremendous amount to be learned from experiencing different designs and mechanics!
Definitely a good point! We don't need to seek perfection in our learning. Even if someone just started doing one of these that'll help them a lot. Each person should definitely find what works for them.
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