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Hey Everyone,
I am beginning to get games set up here in Sacramento, and would love to hear thoughts from organizers that get to work with GMs on a frequent basis on what works (and doesn't work) for building and maintaining a healthy GM pool.
Does anyone have any top-secret advice on what works to keep their PFS scene from sputtering due to lack of GMs? (I guess it's okay to post stuff that's not top-secret as well.) :-)
Thanks for the help!
Brent Holtsberry (Daerthon)
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A positive environment is pretty key. Having players willing to accept someone giving GMing a try will make more of them try their hand at it.
Other than that, keep an eye open on people. Good GMs come in as many stripes at Good Players. There really isn't any one thing to look for.
At the same time, trust your instinct about people. I have one person I don't allow to judge that the first time I met (way before I was judging anything locally) I could instantly tell was not the kind of person I wanted to work with. Time has proven me right. He's welcome to play at any table I organize, but I don't ask him to judge.
I haven't played Top Secret in over 25 years, so I can't give you much advice. ;-)
"how to groom GMs"
First you have to look real close so you can find all the lice to pick out of their hair.
After you eat the lice...
erm... maybe that's not what you meant.
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I recommend asking. And not being shy about it.
Also, what Clint said:
A positive environment is pretty key. Having players willing to accept someone giving GMing a try will make more of them try their hand at it.
Other than that, keep an eye open on people. Good GMs come in as many stripes at Good Players. There really isn't any one thing to look for.
-Pain
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Find people who want to play, first. Once you have a decent player base, be honest and say you *need* more GM's. Usually, you'll get a GM or two to step up. That's how I got started. And, since its the Sacramento area, go ahead and put me down as a GM. I should be good most days of the week!
Thanks! If you haven't seen it yet, go over to www.pathfinderfan.com to see what we've got up so far.
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One thing I realized, is that when you get a pool of players (from Meetup.com site or some other social networking site or your own private site or whatever) and you send out a spam mail asking for GM help for the upcoming game day, you actually get better results if you send a private email to specific people you'd like to ask to GM for that week.
That way they aren't just thinking, "oh, someone else will do it."
Also, if you know you are running 2 or 3 tables, and you have 4 to 6 GM's, stagger them. That way they get to play like 2 or 3 game days in a row, and GM the next one. So they won't burn out on just GM'ing.
There are a few though, who like to just GM. Snag them up as quickly as you can.
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As far as teaching a new person how to play, Kyle & Nanni Pratt co-V-C's of Georgia, have put together a GM 101 class. You might try to email them for some specifics. Additionally, if you make Paizo Con or Gen Con they will actually be running GM 101 classes there, so you could participate and see how the teaching is done. I'm going to at least observe one at Paizo Con and teach a couple at Gen Con.
I have 26 years of GM'ing experience, and I'm still really looking forward to taking that class, because it sounds like fun!
Best way I've seen to teach someone how to GM, though, is to first watch them play closely, and determine how much of the rules set they understand, or can at least look up quickly.
Then toss them in the deep end and say, "Swim!"
Seriously, the best way to learn is to do it in this case. Just be very supportive and such, and you can even have them meet you an hour before the game day, to go over intricacies of the scenarios and give them hints on how to work certain situations and such.
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Brent,
There is a combination of recruiting existing GMs, getting people to GM for the first time, converting them to GMing regularly, and then keeping them coming.
For recruiting GMs, you've done a good job of getting the word out. Now ask, beg, and plead for existing GMs to run. Signing up for all of the judging slots yourself may make people think no one is needed. Combine it with a straight message that you're willing to step aside if someone else is available.
For getting people to GM for the first time, the key is giving them a safe environment. Usually this is best with easier to run mods, people they know, people willing to help, and lots of time.
For converting them to GMing regularly, make sure you can communicate with them via a mailing list, yahoo group, or email, and ask them if there is something they want to run. Put that on schedule.
Keeping them coming is a combination of preventing them from getting burned out and honoring their preferences on level they run, recognizing that everyone will have players, playing styles, table sizes, etc. that they prefer or would like to avoid. If you have a large enough pool, the burnout situation can be avoided. Personality preferences are touchy and a bit tough to deal with. The first step is knowing preferences. After that, keep your eye out for problematic players and attempt to communicate the issue (either regarding modification of play style or a gentle statement that effectively steers them to other tables). Some don't like to run 7 player tables. Honor those preferences and don't push.
I'll help GM your new games when able, but week nights will be a bit of a problem other than during summer. I'm more available for Saturdays when those get going. But, it's probably a good idea to stagger the Saturdays with the other games that are already established and/or starting up, whether in Stockton, Concord, or Vacaville. I'm also looking to help Venus get the Solano/Yolo group restarted by judging there when possible, and that will be one Saturday/month. People will travel for a 2-3 slot Saturday; fewer players have the option to travel to Sac on a weeknight game that starts at 6pm, so those aren't as much of an issue.
Some potential GMs will have financial problems with getting mods. $4.99 sounds like a small number to many people, but when added to printing costs, costs for minis, mats, gas, additional GMing tools, etc. it can easily run $10-15 for a GM to run. Starting to accumulate a library of games and/or asking for donations to then gift GMs with mods via the Paizo store is a way to offset/eliminate that for students or others for whom the cost is a barrier to entry.
Try to identify those golden individuals who are willing to hop out of being signed up to play to run an extra table if your numbers need it. Encourage your back-pocket GMs to bring a few mods with them that they are willing to run with little prep due to simplicity and/or familiarity. On the flip side, players who can jump in to replay responsibly to get a table launched, but are willing to just socialize to make a seat for a walk-in are gold as well.
My experience running a weekly game of LG for 18 months or so was that it took a critical mass of about 35 players to be able to offer a weekly game. The dynamics of PFS are a bit different (more games, cost for getting mods, limited replay, 3 player options, GM certs, GM can play after running), so the critical mass is probably smaller.
Hope those ideas help.
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Painlord has a lot of good ideas on getting people to Judge, and I highly recommend that you check out that link in his post. There's a lot of good ideas around here on , so I'm going to focus more on supporting the GMs after you've got them.
What's that, you say? Painlord has also written a big post on that too? Man, that guy's got nothing BUT free time. :)
Anyway, I've got a document here that you might find useful; it's still a work in progress so I haven't posted it generally, but the first page is pretty useful. I tried to distill much of Painlord's most relevant advice for new GMs into a single page. (As great as that post it, I found it really intimidating the first time I read it.)
For the record, Painlord, I always send my GMs to that post of yours after they've got a game or two under their belt. :)
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When you get a good GM, don't burn them out because you don't have a large pool of judges yet. You are better off running fewer games, but keeping a good GM happy long term.
Make certain that your GMs get to play once in a while.
Make it easy for them to run for you (share minis, lend books, offer advice, print chronicle sheets) and report their sessions promptly.
Back them up if they have to make a tough ruling or have a difficult player. Disagree with or coach them privately but be sure to have their back at the table.
Recognize the good ones. Privately and publicly.
Also, I have shamelessly ripped off Jeff's GM Checklilst in the past and it is enormously popular within our PFS community. I highly recommend it.
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For the record, Painlord, I always send my GMs to that post of yours after they've got a game or two under their belt. :)
Wow. That's a good checklist.
Duly added to my alias of PFS Links.
Thanks for the kind words too, Jeff.
-Pain