I am willing to teach DMing (D&D 4e)

I have been DMing for many years, since 2003 and occasionally play. And I want to play, however there is a significant shortage of DMs therefore I am offering to teach an interested individual(s) how to DM. Coaching on preparation, skill challenges, roleplaying, narration, combat encounters ect. If interested in learning how to DM post here or contact me on Skype. My Skype name is Verbannon.

I am going to bed now. So any further contact requests won't be responded to for a while.

Will send you a PM.

I've been DMing for a few years myself, since 1977, I would consider doing a DM workshop if there's any interest. Something for any DMs or wannabe DMs to discuss different styles, sources, techniques. My preferred game system now is Pathfinder, before that Dungeons and Dragons since it's invention.

This is something I would definitely be interested in. I haven't had much experience playing since it is so hard to find a game or people willing to play. I even reached the point where I jumped past playing and started DMing, but I could only really understand how to create and run combat encounters. It's so difficult to create engaging quests or figure out how to describe an NPC in a few words that creates such a vivid character. I have always been more of a roll-player and lack the charisma for role-playing, but my imagination runs rampant and wild with ideas and concepts that I'd love to be able to jot down and describe properly. I've read plenty of blogs and articles online that have helped me get ready for a session, but nothing is ever specific enough or explains how to flush out ideas or how much detail is needed. Ex: How do you describe a trapped room without giving away the fact that "if you step on square X then you active trap A." I mainly want to learn how to DM on here so that in a few months I will be proficient enough to convince my IRL friends to check it out and see if I can't convince them to play a weekly if not monthly game. I've even started listening to a few D&D podcasts just so I can see how they DM and run their games. Sorry for the long post; It's just late and I've invested a lot of time into learning this art, which I feel that I'm not improving much at.

@Ajax that might be a good thing. Not sure, I have never been to one so I don't know how they work.

check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJN1JvnRGWE" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJN1JvnRGWE</a> , Chris Perkins is a great DM to learn from.

There is so much information over the internet that can be really helpful and getting some advice could help to. But I have the feeling, also important for being a good DM are other qualities to which are hard to "learn". Its more an attitude. - You have to be self-confident - Be prepared on what you planned and don't lose control of the game. - The players and the GM have to respect each other as equal participants and human beings - The players shouldn't be to pushy with a new GM who's is trying his/her best. - Everybody has its own taste, so there is no "one and only way", be flexible and try to play (with) your group. Know what they urge for and try to deliver. If they have fun, you should have fun to. - Never ever stop learning. If you think you know everything, you sure have to learn a lot more! There are some more basics which have to be considered. A good start would be the "Golden Rules" by yourdungeonmaster or "How to DM": <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k28LmRWOoE0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k28LmRWOoE0</a>

Devlin M. said, (. . .) there is a significant shortage of DMs therefore I am offering to teach an interested individual(s) how to DM. Coaching on preparation, skill challenges, roleplaying, narration, combat encounters ect. That is an excellent initiative. Kudos!

@ajax im looking into dming for pathfinder so any help would be great

For a GM Workshop: I think just a time, then a request forum to see who would want to join, it would be for any GM/DM's out there. We would just kind of discuss the way each of us does things, because I can tell you no two GMs are alike, we all have our own styles. But this does little to help totally new GMs, for that I would think a few classes, might just be more beneficial. Say a couple of Experienced GMs hold a two hour class, unrelated, the new GMs get the prospective of more than one GM. This way I would think they would get the best of mulitple worlds. It might not be a bad idea to break it down into Game Systems, Pathfinder and D&D 3.5 are very similar, D&D 4E is quite different, and of course there a number of other systems out there as well. These are just a few thoughts I had.....................

@Jochen/Jeremy,Those are great yes. @Ajax, yeah, that sounds good.

Hell yea. You have to be in control of the game and show self-confidence! I just had a talk with a new GM and the campaign crumbled to dust, because some players kept criticizing him and he couldn't put his foot down to adhere to his opinion. But I'm not sure how to build up somebody's self-confidence in a group of people. Still I would be interested how such a workshop would work, I`m always open to learn something.

Yeah, building self-confidence is more of a 1 on 1 thing.

Hell yea. You have to be in control of the game and show self-confidence! I just had a talk with a new GM and the campaign crumbled to dust, because some players kept criticizing him and he couldn't put his foot down to adhere to his opinion. But I'm not sure how to build up somebody's self-confidence in a group of people. Still I would be interested how such a workshop would work, I`m always open to learn something. I think new GM's need to start with friends or people they are comfortable with. The added pressure of new players can be too much, especially if they end up being unruly or quite a bit of a rules lawayer. Also, have an assistant GM on your side, if you are new, having someone to help look up rules while you guide the game along can be quite beneficial.

I am building a company to make game aides, terrain, maps, tokens, and Adventure modules. We are also working on a free e-zine that will include articles designed to help GMs whether they be experienced or not. If anyone is interested in created content for such an article please contact me and we go from there

I am building a company to make game aides, terrain, maps, tokens, and Adventure modules. If you're open to suggestions, I'd like to see the maps in them "grid-less", I mean, giving users freedom to place in them no grid, a square grid or an hexagonal grid. When the grid is built into the very map drawing, it's extremely difficult to erase it, if it doesn't match the conventions of your RPG system.

We are making everything grid less since roll20 can just slap a grid on if they want it to have one

You can make grid markers on two edges so people can line up the grids if they want.

That is a good idea, Tommy R.

I appreciate the ideas , but this thread is meant more for things to help GMs better themselves, so if anybody has any input on that front be it articles on the subject or an idea that you'd like us to use , let me know. I will be creating an alternate thread soon , where axel and Tommy's type of ideas would be better suited.

I'm a huge fan of western cRPGs. They eventually led me to traditional D&D. I started "studying" the meaning of pen-and-paper RPGs, how they worked, and their flexibility immediately sucked me in. Since I knew finding a group here in Brazil would be practically impossible, I tried starting my own with no previous experience as a DM/player. Needless to say, it ended in total disaster. Now that I found Roll20, I feel more confident in my abilities as a DM. I was planning on doing a Forgotten Realms 4e campaign (Inspired by some of my favorite cRPGs), and it was relatively easy to find a group of people looking for DM'ing in my region whenever I mentioned Roll20. After a week or so of experimentation, I managed to cobble together some nice maps to run my first campaign with a group of 3 people. And I would greatly appreciate any guidance from you guys.

Guidance in the way of what exactly? What do you need help with specifically, that way I can give you better focused advice? If its a common issue we may do an article on it in our e-zine.

Jeremy is correct. To find the answer you seek, first you must ask the question.

Oh, right. Well I had some issues regarding the rules and Roll20. Firstly, could I ignore maybe a table of modifiers or two, such as the table of light/view radius? Or even change some item's weight value? And secondly, how am I supposed to keep track of all the character sheets? I tried using google drive but some people weren't able to download anything.

You are free to do as you want as a GM. You should just question yourself if this is something that is useful to do for your campaign. If you are not certain that it is a useful change, you should give us particular examples. Regarding the character sheets: You can get them from your players via Skype or EMail and save them in a special folder.