GM Journeys

calendar Oct 29, 2025 · 2 min read · Prattle
  1. The most important things you should do to improve your GMing skills depend on you: they are unique or rare.
  2. Generic 'how to GM' articles and books will not help with anything unique to you.
  3. So generic 'how to GM' writing do not contain the most important advice.

If I could go back in time and give younger self only one piece of GMing advice, it would be 'control your stutter'. It takes some effort, but it's possible for me to remove most of my natural stutter. I won't read about stutters in any on-line advice; a stutter works differently for lots of people, and many people with a stutter will find it becomes worse when they try to kill the habit.

But now I'm going too far. This advice isn't useless, it's just 'not actually advice'. It was part of my growth, and other people's journeys can be useful. If we had more articles on how people's GM habits changed over the years, people will find something useful in there.

I have no evidence, but I'm certain.

So if you have a blog, consider this an invitation to think about what you've tried to change, and how well you succeeded. Here's my list:

  • Cut the pronouns. Introduce the NPC with their full name or description repeatedly, because replying to five minutes of player-chat with 'okay, so he says he agrees, and goes out' feels hollow. "Warden Costel says he agrees, and goes out the manor door, and towards the goblin-hills."
  • SPEAK UP! I still struggle with this, but I'm louder now than I was. I found the biggest help was to focus on pronouncing the 's' sound sharply.
  • Stop imagining players will read the rules.
  • I used to think I did GMing after everyone sat down, but that's wrong. Now I am a pre-game seat-dictator. "YOU CAN'T SIT THERE, YOU HAVE NO ROOM FOR YOUR CHARACTER SHEET. CAN YOU GET OUT EASILY? IS YOUR ASS COMFORTABLE?"

And here's what I'm working on improving now:

  • No more printing the day before. I'm aiming to print a week ahead of time, wherever possible.
  • Trying to make prep more like a very fast run-through of what the characters do, like a rapper shouting an adventure module at someone, rather than studying for a medical exam.