[5/2/15] [1:30 PM/5 PM PST] Want to learn how to DM? Sharpen up your existing skills?

We'll discuss this in pm's for now.

I would like to put my name down for session 1. That time slot looks open still..

Pat S. said: We'll discuss this in pm's for now. Sure, no problem. ^.^ Grant said: I would like to put my name down for session 1. That time slot looks open still.. Gotcha, added! If the others before ya don't take the spot, it's all yours.

I wanted to look around and make sure that I liked the place before I started investing into it. I've managed to get in a couple games and I'm pretty happy so far. I have no problem with supporting good things that I use to make sure they keep running. Suggestions for sponsoring? Are there different packages I should be looking at? If so, should I get them before this training starts so I can use them?

Hello Charles, You can find out all the various features for the supporter and mentor level of subscription here . Benson and I are looking at putting together a few things for everyone to practice and experience with through the use of his campaign room and one of mine so don't worry about getting a subscription yet. We are looking at having a mixture of experienced gms and new gm's (this is based on those that join).

Thanks for the link, Pat. Even if I'm not likely to use all the features, I'll likely still support it anyway. I believe in giving back and I'm a team player. I really do appreciate you guys doing this. It will make playing a lot easier and I have DM'd many times over the years so before too long it will help me to get some games started too.

You're welcomed Charles. Benson came up with the idea of offering to help GM's, new and old, get familiar with roll20. I hopped on board and offered to create a board for members to preview and learn the some of the features that supporter and mentor subscription.

Charles S. said: I wanted to look around and make sure that I liked the place before I started investing into it. I've managed to get in a couple games and I'm pretty happy so far. I have no problem with supporting good things that I use to make sure they keep running. Suggestions for sponsoring? Are there different packages I should be looking at? If so, should I get them before this training starts so I can use them? Yeah, totally! I'll show off some of the great features ya can utilize just as a Free member first, such as Fog of War, token UIs, and tons of other great stuff, so yeah, no need to invest in just yet. There's still a lot of cool tricks and secrets with the program you should check out first. Pat S. said: You're welcomed Charles. Benson came up with the idea of offering to help GM's, new and old, get familiar with roll20. I hopped on board and offered to create a board for members to preview and learn the some of the features that supporter and mentor subscription. Yet again Pat, I can't thank ya enough. xD I sure hope we have enough time; we still have a TON to go over, and that's just the basics barring Macros and real in-depth character sheets. If we don't have enough time, I may make the Mentor session after Session 2, or maybe you could take the spotlight on that? You'd probably do it tons better than me.

Benson Y. said: Yet again Pat, I can't thank ya enough. xD I sure hope we have enough time; we still have a TON to go over, and that's just the basics barring Macros and real in-depth character sheets. If we don't have enough time, I may make the Mentor session after Session 2, or maybe you could take the spotlight on that? You'd probably do it tons better than me. This is a community effort. When we reach the stage of playing with the subscription features, I will be making all who join that campaign co-GMs so they can play with various features after the intial session. The way I understood it, we are offering to let various members sample features so they know what there is avaible and help them learn to use those features in order for the new roll20 gm's can hit the ground running. This is just a combined attempt to get more GM's comfortable with the various features roll20 has to be used for their games. You are the main dude for this, I'm just here to assist and help out while picking up tricks of the trade I might have thought of or forgotten.

Hiya everyone! Session 1 will be going up in a few hours, roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes from this post. I'm going to go ahead and shift everyone from the waiting list into the game now; spectating is still an option though! Just join in the game during the session or post here so I can shoot ya an invite! And by the way, we still have open slots! Post up to reserve yours!

I will attend session 1 if their is a spot.

Michael S. said: I will attend session 1 if their is a spot. Yup, added! I'll be back in an hour after lunch, talk to ya guys then!

I'll put my name down for the waiting list or whatever. I can attend both sessions and will fill in any spots as needed.

This sounds great! I would love to be apart of it. Unfortunately I work during your first session.Will you be doing things like this in the future?

Saw your post on reddit. Unfortunately, I cannot attend the sessions today. I'd still love to catch up on what happened though. Could you maybe record the session and post a link when you're finished? I'm starting a new campaign with home brew classes, items, backgrounds, etc. The setting will be sci fi. Do you think that the DM training here will be relevant?

I'm interested in spectating just to catch the gist of this as I'm completely new to all of this (besides what I've caught on Twitch in my free time)

I see that there are a number of interested people who seem to unable to attend some of these sessions, I will run kind of a follow up session tomorrow night (Sunday) I will put up a separate post for this. I know Benson does a lot of "Theater of the Mind" and that's great, but for the DM who wants a bit more detail I will get into the Interactive approach to the game, including use of all the materials available for the plain ordinary DM who merely has a regular subscription to Roll20 and then up through all the more advanced things... I will also make available the Free Tile Sets I created for my Map Building Seminar... -Ajax

Thuzle said: I'll put my name down for the waiting list or whatever. I can attend both sessions and will fill in any spots as needed. Sweet, added! Looks like we'll have room in the 2nd session, so pop in around then! I'll also be posting the live-stream link in a bit hopefully, if I can get it to work. Clamfeelings said: This sounds great! I would love to be apart of it. Unfortunately I work during your first session.Will you be doing things like this in the future? Yup yup, I will. ^.^ Probably the weekend after next weekend, switch between running one-shots and doing more of these sessions. Christopher R. said: Saw your post on reddit. Unfortunately, I cannot attend the sessions today. I'd still love to catch up on what happened though. Could you maybe record the session and post a link when you're finished? I'm starting a new campaign with home brew classes, items, backgrounds, etc. The setting will be sci fi. Do you think that the DM training here will be relevant? Sure, we can record it. ^.^ As long as I can figure it out on this end. We'll also post up a PDF or Google Doc summarizing everything we go over. Matt G. said: I'm interested in spectating just to catch the gist of this as I'm completely new to all of this (besides what I've caught on Twitch in my free time) Sweet, awesome. ^.^ I'll invite ya to the campaign and send a link in a bit. Ajax said: I see that there are a number of interested people who seem to unable to attend some of these sessions, I will run kind of a follow up session tomorrow night (Sunday) I will put up a separate post for this. I know Benson does a lot of "Theater of the Mind" and that's great, but for the DM who wants a bit more detail I will get into the Interactive approach to the game, including use of all the materials available for the plain ordinary DM who merely has a regular subscription to Roll20 and then up through all the more advanced things... I will also make available the Free Tile Sets I created for my Map Building Seminar... -Ajax Thanks Ajax! We could totally use some more people running training sessions, that would be a great help.

<a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/g2jbvn7j3yedhs7" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/g2jbvn7j3yedhs7</a>... Just hop in there and ya can listen and watch along! Be sure to mute your voice and video though if you're not participating. xP

I will attend session 2

I'd like to pop into session 2 if I could. Right now I'm lurking hearing you guys :)

I will be there for session 2 also.

Mac'Greine said: I will attend session 2 Sweet, added!

Pat S. said: I will be there for session 2 also. Also added for Session 2, don't worry. xP

Sorry for bumping, but just finished Session 1! We went through a TON of great stuff, everyone was awesome at improv-ing and bringing in unique DMing techniques and mechanics, it went absolutely perfectly. I didn't manage to get recording, but there will be a PDF/Doc later summarizing everything we go through! We still have Session 2 coming up if you want to hop in and spectate, talk to ya guys then!

Thanks again gentlemen for a very thought provoking and refreshing session. Lots of great ideas and tips on improv DM'ing. Looking forward to the summary :)

I'm getting ready for it now, can't wait!

Benson Y. said: I didn't manage to get recording, but there will be a PDF/Doc later summarizing everything we go through! Maybe for the best. We were quite vocal at some point :D

So, i dont really know how all this works but i would be up for listening on session 2, if that is possible.

is session 2 still available for spectators, and if so how?

Sergio P. said: Thanks again gentlemen for a very thought provoking and refreshing session. Lots of great ideas and tips on improv DM'ing. Looking forward to the summary :) Thanks! I'll be sure to upload it sometime this weekend. Charles S. said: I'm getting ready for it now, can't wait! Awesome! Join in about now, I'm just setting up one last thing. Avarita said: Benson Y. said: I didn't manage to get recording, but there will be a PDF/Doc later summarizing everything we go through! Maybe for the best. We were quite vocal at some point :D XD Maybe, yeah. Balsha B. said: So, i dont really know how all this works but i would be up for listening on session 2, if that is possible. Sweet, I'll upload the link in just a bit!

<a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gwqfg77bbpcpate" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gwqfg77bbpcpate</a>... Go ahead and hop in there guys! Make sure to disable Video and Voice to keep the participants in. I'll also shoot out some invite links to the campaign in a second.

Where is the game to log in?

Charles S. said: Where is the game to log in? Sent ya a link!

Thanks!

Sorry that I couldnt make it. Had something come up all of a sudden. T_T

Bryce M. said: Sorry that I couldnt make it. Had something come up all of a sudden. T_T Np, we still have a slot right now if ya want to join!

Yeah I am currently spectating right now.

Did I miss it?

We just wrapped up Session 2! Thanks everyone for joining, we had an awesome discussion! We talked about improv-ing hooks, settings, descriptions, ambiance, plot, NPCs, as well as various questions from you guys. I'll definately run this again sometime, it was a lot of fun! I learned quite a bit from you guys, as well as how I can run this better next time, maybe in a couple weeks or so. Thanks once again to everyone who showed up! I'll be posting a summary of our efforts in our Group forum as well as here. Post here or PM me if you'd like to be added to it!

Sean T. said: Did I miss it? Yup, sorry bud. I may run this again sometime though, want to be added to the group?

Can you add me too?

Liam S. said: Can you add me too? Sent ya a PM!

Hiya everyone! My good friend Ajax is running another DM training session, this time focusing more on Roll20, map building as well as macros! It's on Sunday, May 3rd at 7:00 PM CDT, and I HIGHLY suggest all of ya to check it out! It's not an official DM League session, but it'll still be an awesome learning experience, as well as probably a ton of fun. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1904976/learn-interactive-dming-with-ajax#post-1906720" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1904976/learn-interactive-dming-with-ajax#post-1906720</a> As for anyone else interested in joining the group, shoot me a PM instead of posting here! This thread served it's purpose, and we already got a TON of reception, so no need to keep bumping this up and stealing space for other games. Thanks for everyone who participated or spectated! You guys really are the best.

Thank you for the plug my friend... -Ajax