Had a conversation a short while ago about people being Gamemasters. The guy I was talking to declared that not just anyone can be a GM. That it takes a special mix of intelligence, imagination, and organizational skills to even begin to learn the art of GMing.

My own thoughts are that his opinion is self-aggrandizing bullshit.

Anyone can be a GM, anyone can learn how if they apply themselves. In the beginning, you will suck at it - just like all of us did at the start. Given time and effort, anybody can become a good GM.

What are your thoughts? Am I wrong?

Fundamentally, I agree with you. Logic tells me that being a DM is a skill that anyone can learn. Some are more natural at it than others.

Well, there are certain skills which are critical to being a DM that may not be so essential as a player. If a person has little imagination, it's hard for him to come up with ideas for adventures. If a person is really shy, it's hard for him to be assertive enough to run a table. If a person can't think quickly, it's hard for him to adapt to situations when running a game. If a person isn't very organized, it's hard for them to juggle the details needed to maintain a campaign. I know a lot of folks who totally freeze up when they try to DM a group.

Sometimes I'm a poor player because I keep thinking to myself "no, I would have run this encounter this way..." and I know that it's time to dust off the screen and DM again. I think I'm a better DM than I am a player.

Quote from: jeff37923;1023019. Given time and effort, anybody can become a good GM.

What are your thoughts? Am I wrong?

I think you are mostly but not entirely right. As you say, with time and effort most GMs can improve. Anyone who puts their mind to it and listens to advice can improve their GM skills. But not everyone is cut out to be a good GM, some people can't or won't listen to advice and remain "non-optimal" GMs. Then there are those people who you think would be natural GMs who just don't have the patience or confidence to do it.

Someone might be a great GM at one system that they know and love, but really suck at another. And the reason they're good at one system _is_ the reason they suck at the other. If I'm playing in middle Earth, I want my GM to know the difference between the Noldor and Sindar - if I'm playing in Lankhmar and the GM keeps mentioning how much cooler it would be if there were Silmarils ... not so much. Do they count as a Good GM?

Hell, if *I* can become a halfway decent DM, I figure pretty much anyone can.

I believe that some people just do not have the spark to be a DM. Or lack the urge. Or both. Some people just can not GM NPCs. Some utterly suck at strategy. Some just want to be players. No amount of teaching or trying will chance that for some. Others might improve a little. But its never going to be a good experience simply because its not in them.

I do though think that about anyone can GM a well set up module or a combat heavy adventure. And it is fairly easy to GM any RPG with a built in random gen system. The more robust the better.

I also believe that some people can at the very least improve or have a try at being a GM at all. But only if they want to. You can not force people into it. Ive seen a few tries at this and sooner or later someones going to resent it or the experience for the players is just plain bad.

And same applies to players. Some just do not click to playing a PC. But may excel at GMing. Or maybee they fail both?

I believe illiteracy is a major barrier to becoming a decent DM.  I'm not saying it's impossible but if you never read anything and never read the rules, you probably shouldn't be running games.

Anyone imo. Though not all should be running a rpg.

Anybody. Being a referee isn't difficult. Being a good referee isn't difficult. It just requires people to do it.

One of the things I hate about "modern" gaming is the emphasis on being a good GM. I put a lot of the blame on the movement away from the "dungeon" being a core part of the game.

Anyone can if they put in the amount of work necessary. It's largely a technical skill IMO. The biggest hurdle, I think, is that there are...less useful...bits of advice floating around that might lead people into GMing cul-de-sacs.

If anything it's harder to be a "good player." It sure as hell is for me, so I stick with what I enjoy, GMing.

And that tells me the two roles come at the game from fundamentally different angles. Anyone can be a GM but it means playing a different game essentially than being a player.

I think some people are more able to hit the ground running than others, from experience. With enough practice, I can imagine someone might get good eventually, but the trouble will be finding others who are willing to spend their time in a bad game.

In my limited experience, that hasn't been the case. For example, in college, one guy volunteered to GM for a group. He pretty much sucked, and people lost interest. Some of the "diaspora" ended up in a vampire game with a guy who was pretty good.

I really wanted to give the other dude a chance, but no one else did.

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;1023058I think some people are more able to hit the ground running than others, from experience. With enough practice, I can imagine someone might get good eventually, but the trouble will be finding someone who is willing to spend their time in a bad game.

In my limited experience, that hasn't been the case. For example, in college, one guy volunteered to GM for a group. He pretty much sucked, and people lost interest. Some of the "diaspora" ended up in a vampire game with a guy who was pretty good.

I really wanted to give the other dude a chance, but no one else did.

This anecdote furthers my belief that one of the biggest impediments to getting new players is the RPG "community". Before I deleted my Twitter account and Facebook accounts I cannot count high enough the times I read a post from somebody that was terrified to GM a session based on stories like yours or what they see on Twitch.

And again, I think when I got started GMing, the game was very focused on the "dungeon" and buying a module that was focused on the dungeon or building a dungeon was a way for new players to all learn the game together. Now that we are focused on "story telling" and too many of the gaming intelligentsia believe that the dungeon is "outdated" it makes it a lot harder for new players both behind and in front of the GM shield.

I think the easiest way to learn and teach the game is with a dungeon crawl.

Anyone can, but (after having played with, talked with, and heard about many problematic GMs who don't improve their wacky behavior very quickly at all) I don't really want to play with just any GM, and not even with many experienced ones. There are many GM behaviors that I don't want to play under, and in recent decades some of them have become typical and supported.

It's not as hard as some people make it out to be. Most people who play RPGs can GM.

However, some people aren't cut out for it simply because of their temperament. They're the people who can't even speak up to suggest a restaurant for lunch. Who won't initiate or organize something as simple as going to a movie. Who play boardgames all the time but would never buy a new game, learn it, and teach it to others. Some people are just really, really passive - too passive to run a game session.

Quote from: jeff37923;1023019Had a conversation a short while ago about people being Gamemasters. The guy I was talking to declared that not just anyone can be a GM. That it takes a special mix of intelligence, imagination, and organizational skills to even begin to learn the art of GMing.

My own thoughts are that his opinion is self-aggrandizing bullshit.

Anyone can be a GM, anyone can learn how if they apply themselves. In the beginning, you will suck at it - just like all of us did at the start. Given time and effort, anybody can become a good GM.

What are your thoughts? Am I wrong?

Well, you are right.
But so is the guy you were talking to.

Technically, anyone can do it, and even if they are downright bad at it, they can learn.
However.
Doing it is not automatically the same as doing it well.
It is not even the same as doing it "ok" or "good enough".
And really, some may be so total crap at it, that they really shouldn't do it .... at least not with a huge amount of help and/or preparation.
And many really don't have that help nor preparation!

There is also the simple difference in claiming:
"Everyone can do it"
and
"Everyone can learn how to do it".

If i say it like this:
Can anyone build a house?
The situation becomes so much clearer(at least to some).
A lot also depends on how you define a "house", but the same holds true for "GM".