How did you learn to GM?

[droog]

'From the age of six I had a penchant for copying the form of things, and from about fifty, my pictures were frequently published; but until the age of seventy, nothing that I drew was worthy of notice. At seventy-three years, I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees; and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reached eighty years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at ninety to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at one hundred years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at one hundred and ten, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.'

Hokusai, Preface to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji

[Damballa]

A Games Master's Learning Curve

"What comes easiest to you is hardest to describe and write about"

Thinking back, I've learnt as much from playing in other GM's games as I have from running my own...

Learnt what?
+ How to hold the attention of listeners.
+ How to moderate tests of free-will.
+ How to hold an idea of a story, imaginary character or a physical space within the mind but keeping it malleable enough to change as play develops new possibilities.
+ Acting skills - like improvisation and devising; adaptation and dramatic flow; knowing when not to ham or hog the limelight.
+ Creating and deploying interesting props cheaply (handouts, models, costumes etc).
+ To explain a fictional or historical world to others who know nothing of it in an interactive, open-ended system way.
+ Arbitration, negotiation, interpretation and judgement of using the rules set.
+ The ability to convey atmosphere using certain language, the voice, body language, music, images, sounds, smells, installations etc.
+ To be authoritative, to communicate a sense of direction to what might seem unstructured make-believe.
+ To think up and run narrative forms (like dramatic situations, action sequences, encounters or mysteries) that are authentic and not too derivative.
+ To believe in Roleplaying as a medium as critically legitimate as any other of the Art forms currently respected.

There's the Machine-Shop mechanical aspect of GMing:
-Fixing systems...
-Ignoring systems...
-Designing new systems...
-Knowing what works and what doesn't...

Also – I've spent many years not roleplaying but wanting to, surrounded by friends who didn't want to game for any number of reasons...  That makes you consider how to streamline your style, how to sell the game to strangers, and how to get up and go at a moment's notice. 

Some published milestones marking progress in my own fool's journey:

* "Ghostbusters" took me through the hazing ritual of confusion, dice and characters; the adventure-seed book was most useful, I recall.  Those equipment cards were perfect beginner player-hand-outs.

* "Judge Dredd" showed me the power of using homebrew maps and floorplans made on a big scale with marker pens.

* "Warhammer Fantasy" campaign explored the heartbreaker sides of over-arching meta-narratives.

* "Call of Cthulhu" let me in on the 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' tradition of cosmic horror storytelling; also encouraged the simulationalist drive towards world immersion – "I'm actually stood on Arkham highstreet".

* "Paranoia" began to make explicit that the GM as UV clearance  power arrangement – the GM ~was~ the world in which the PCs wandered.

* "Chill" made me think really hard about exploring the nuances of the whole horror genre, how to extract atmosphere from literature and film for my own games, including collecting soundtracks.

* "Cyberpunk 2020" made the process of GMing dynamic enough alongside the PC design to allow for continuous inspiration; also the power of fluid graphic design in explaining ideas.

* "Vampire: The Masquerade" made me realise the tool bag of storytelling techniques could be used to break up the continuous flow of the narrative; especially the embedding of live action within a tabletop context.

* "Over the Edge" let me see that the whole medium was more flexible and responsive to artistic endeavour; that metaphor and mood might play a role.

* "The 7th Sea" provided the idea of the GM as a Villain 'meta-character' who was manipulating and being an arch-nemesis; the GM going toe-to-toe with their player's imaginations.

* "Sorcerer & Sword" mined (or decloaked) a whole slew of techniques and ideas that were unconscious during games.