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I'm totally on board with the "you don't need to know the rules and setting lore perfectly to GM" vibe in this thread. I will push back a tad and say we do need to be frank with people that a good GM actually takes time to read a scenario carefully and prepare for a session, otherwise there's a good chance of a problem arising. The more you've prepared, the easier improv will be when it's necessary. If you're trying to do things like apply templates, make four-player adjustments, and use complicated NPC builds on the fly in the middle of a session with no prep, it will only add to the stress and the likelihood of making a mistake. No GM wants the guilt of having TPK'd a party because they used the wrong subtier, and on the flip side, I've seen lazy GMs essentially hand-wave every obstacle and challenge in a scenario because they just couldn't be bothered to run it as intended. In other words, a rules-lite system like Savage Worlds is perfectly doable for GMs who don't like a lot of reading and rules, but that's not the experience Paizo Organized Play offers, so we shouldn't sugarcoat things too much.
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Post-Pandemic, we are still rebuilding our community. Minnesota used to have gaming days on every single day of the week, and gaming in most areas of the Twin Cities Metro. Now we have games on four days of the week, and only in a handful of locations. One of my goals is to see that expand, both in terms of number of gamedays available, and in terms of geography.
Most of post-pandemic games in my region are still in Roll20 and my local lodge struggles to organize even one monthly table. So you're very lucky to have as many as four weekly games.
As for other barriers, I agree what you said about having multiple systems of play, which is why I limit my GM duties to, and prefer to play, standard 1e and Starfinder. To have a chance to play more with these systems, I have become regular player on Pbp games, which currently drain lot of my spare time.
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Yeah, I know we are lucky in Minnesota to be where we are. Part of it is that we have a large network of game stores, and part of it was that we were so strong before the pandemic that we were able to retain some of our GMs and store organizers.
Every area suffered losses to in-person gaming during the Pandemic, but I have found that there is an absolute thirst for in-person playing post pandemic among the player base. The challenging thing is providing a consistent set of gamedays to build from.
A weekly gameday is more likely to attract regular players than a monthly one, but that can be hard for organizers to maintain. We started with two strong weekly gamedays that just kept going, and that has allowed us to build more locations.
Still, I find that having a vision (with action steps) of how I want our local game scene to grow helps. If you have a strong vision of where you are going, you are more likely to acheive the end results that you want. My twin goals for my area are: 1) building out more consistent gamedays and locations, and 2) getting more Starfinder going locally because I love Starfinder.
To help these two longterm goals, I have an ongoing third one, which is recognizing and fostering local talent. Recruiting other people to organize and recognizing them. Sometimes it is easy to miss such talent unless you are looking for it, and unless you actively create opportunities for other people to try out GMing.
But training new folks takes so much time and energy! Still, I find that the energy we put in to do it now pays off as these new volunteers spread their wings and help us carry the workload.
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Personally, it's been a struggle since I came down with a significant world-altering illness in March to focus even on playing much less GMing.
Some venues lax response to that world-altering illness likewise have kept me away from in-person participation.
The tremors I picked up as an added bonus from that illness aren't helping, either.
It is my hope that I'll get some revitalization at a convention later this month, some re-connection as well as some of my focus back.
Not sure how to improve personal health/focus beyond that, time will tell.
EDIT: Part of my focus issue, but not a sole causal unit, is attempting to spread my limited mental bandwidth over three separate and distinct systems.
With the announcement of a *fourth* I've lost some willpower and motivation to continue GMing.
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Encouragement from Hmm is what got me to finally give GMing a try back during the later seasons of 1E. I participated in a PbP GM school and each of us ran one of the Phantom Phenomena quests, with the other GMs-in-training + a couple of experienced GMs/PbP VOs sitting as players. It was fun, it was low-stress, and everyone felt free to ask questions without worrying about messing something up.
I continue to GM because it's fun, especially if I happen to really vibe with a particular scenario or module. It's also a nice feeling to give back and run for new players and for the people who've ran games for me. The old race boons from 1E and now the AcP bonus are certainly nice perks but they're not the primary motivator for me.
The most off-putting thing for me as a GM that doesn't involve player issues is the sheer volume of material (new classes, new ancestries, new mechanics, new/expanded lore) to try and keep up with. I buy the material but I largely don't even try to read through it all until I encounter a situation (whether as a player or as a GM) where I need to know something about it or a particular thing piques my interest. It's also why I basically don't engage with the Starfinder system at this time; between PF 1E & 2E, I've got enough to juggle (and even then, I'm slowly phasing out my 1E participation).
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Oddly, for our Local PFS group which recently ended on short notice. We had 2 GMs and others interested in GMing but not enough players to fill one table most weeks. We never had an SFS that I know of. A few months ago I found enough players to start a local SFS on a local store's discord, but some local GM took 1/2 the players for their home game, and the others lost interest because there wasen't enough left to play a game, so gave up. So I've given up on live play at least for now.
I've GMed one PBP SFS game and had fun doing so. I was also fortunate enough to have Encouragement and help learning from Hmm. One of the things that has kept me from GMing again is not knowing what to run. Twice I've started to read and prep a scenario and then found several others already recruiting for it, and all the tables were not full. Combined with a couple of the SFS PBP games I signed up for got canceled because no one else signed up for them, which made me feel like there was more of a player shortage than GM shortage.
I also tend to prefer to run older scenarios because I tend to over prep. I'll read the scenario once for an overview, then read it a second time take notes, and convert anything I think I'll need to roll into dice expressions. I also like to read all the reviews and advice in the forums for the scenario. Which is kind of funny considering I haven't finished reading the core rule book.
Another thing I'm still figuring out is online conventions and events. These seem to be the easiest way to find a game for me as a player. I've noticed once an event starts it can be hard to find a game until the event is over. So as either playing or GMing I'm curious if there is a yearly calendar for the BPB conventions or events. I've never been to a live gaming convention before so don't even think to look for the online ones. I tend to just find them on accident, knowing about them in advance would help a lot.
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For live games. One thing our local PFS group did that I think could help recruit new GMs was once in a while instead of running a scenario, they would run 2 bounties. I had talked to our VC about running 1 of the 2 bounties to give me a chance to ease back into live GMing. The nice thing about doing it this way is the 2nd MG becomes one of the players while the new GM is MGing so there's someone there to help out if needed. Also, both GMs also get to play as a PC. You could even have 2 new players each running one bounty each, and have an experienced GM play as a PC to better help out if needed. Some people might feel more comfortable trying something new if they their not the only ones new at it. Plus with bounties being shorter it's less work for a new GM to try it out. Another advantage of running 2 bounties is they tend to run shorter than the running a scenario, so a new GM is not under pressure to get through the adventure on time as much. This was a big issue where we played at, because we had a hard stop time when the game store closed.
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The most off-putting thing for me as a GM that doesn't involve player issues is the sheer volume of material (new classes, new ancestries, new mechanics, new/expanded lore) to try and keep up with. I buy the material but I largely don't even try to read through it all until I encounter a situation (whether as a player or as a GM) where I need to know something about it or a particular thing piques my interest.
I think that's a good approach, TBH; there's no need to preemptively 'keep up' with all of the new options to be able to GM well. Learning it on the fly, together with your table, is fine. Learning from your players and trusting them to help figure out how something is supposed to work is a good thing, IMO. I think a culture of 'the GM has to be the absolute rules authority' is a bad thing, and ultimately harmful to org play.
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One simple thing I try to do for every game I play is to thank the GM for running and tell them you enjoyed the game.
When you depend on volunteers to GM is easy for players and/or V.O. to demotivate them with complaints or arguing rules. A "Thank you" or "Good game" goes a long way to help motivate volunteers.
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Another thing I think has been holding me back from GMing PBP again, is that I'm much more likely to GM with a familiar group. Currently, there might be one or two players randomly from the previous game, but the game ends and everyone just looks for a new game on their own. There's no, what scenario do we want to play next, or who wants to GM this time conversation going on.
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Another thing I think has been holding me back from GMing PBP again, is that I'm much more likely to GM with a familiar group. Currently, there might be one or two players randomly from the previous game, but the game ends and everyone just looks for a new game on their own. There's no, what scenario do we want to play next, or who wants to GM this time conversation going on.
There is nothing wrong with asking for expressions of interest to form an ongoing group. Several have done so.
Or if you have particular people you enjoy playing with, reach out and see if they are interested.
One of the issues I've come across is on the road to being an Organized Play Venture Officer. My information may be out of date, but I seem to remember one of the requirements being "Coordinate two sessions a month at the location where you coordinate games. Run one of the sessions, but the other can be ran by any area GM."
It's like, I found running 12 adventures a year to be pretty tough. And I know that not all GMs need to necessarily be part of the volunteer system, but being part of that is an attraction and a goal for many.
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As a former VO who took a break from all things TTRPG due to life, and recently came back. For me the key to getting and keeping GMs for society play was removal of barriers to entry. With that in mind I'll list what I perceive to be some of the major boundaries and how we were able to help.
1. Rules knowledge - We ran GM 101/201 course (we designed) every 6 months or so, also generally encouraged people to try even if they don't know the rules, between player knowledge and AoN usually you can make a ruling on the spot, if you're unconfortable contact one of the VOs tyope conversation.
2. Cost. Honestly GMing is more costly than playing, scenarios, mini's, maps, etc. We had a $2 play fee that got pooled to buy minis, maps, scenarios, etc that could be borrowed for the game. (This was back in the day of retail program, where the store got all scenarios too). Genuinely, allowing access to scenarios instead of making people spend $5 anytime they wanted to GM something new is hugely advantageous. Probably the thing I miss most about being a VO is scenario accessibility. I know sharing scenarios is frowned upon, but honestly I spent more on other supporting products when I got the scenarios for free, and think if there is a way to do it within the rules it's worth exploring. The $2 a week, which eventually went to retail incentive, but meant GMs didn't necessarily have to buy maps and minis was a huge boon too. Now playing in a new area I wonder if I would have ever started GMing without the resources we had.
3. Consistency. Moving locations/dates may be needed due to whatever space you have, but the more consistent the better, it generally gets a number of the same people/characters interested, thus letting the GM feel comfortable with the people as well. Not everyone feels comfortable showing up and running a game for random people.
4. Conventions. Not really a barrier, but the interactive specials can be a big draw both for players and GMs. First special I played in, was the one that made want to GM society. While big cons are fun, it's relatively easy to run a small con and be able to do a special, as well as get con support. 15 tables over 3 days isn't that hard if planned for.
5. Recognition/Burnout. A lot of the GMs I know get stuck being the forever GM, and while most love it sometimes they want to play. We would honestly have conversations with people if they had been GMing a lot to see if they wanted breaks. Also, any star, glyph, nova a GM received was posted to our group page and given a certificate. (5ish years later I still have mine) It was small but it made a difference.
Edit: Looking through earlier replies and it makes me smile to see some of the same people still involved (or even more involved), with more or less the same answer as years ago. Specifically, that Painlord post and PirateRob were a lot of how we attempted to run our lodge.
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To add a bit more, our lodge was blessed by an amazing VC. Who's now a Campaign Coin holder (IMHO should have been well before he became one), contributor, and working with a 3rd party publisher, in Mike Bramnik. He was the the glue that held the lodge GMs and players alike, and has made the experience hard to replace after having left.