I am a college professor in game design and I’ve found a lot of cross over between teaching and GMing! I think that “magician mode” is something I’ve got to read more about too!! Wonderful video!! Cheers!!
Great video! I once did the reverse trick, using TTRPG in my education setting. I'm in university, and we wanted to make a reading club for our classmates to go over things that are not in our classes. I suggested we host a Session Zero to set norms, expectations, and boundaries. Very helpful tools!
This is such a fantastic video - great points approached in a new way, paired with really clean production and fantastic storytelling! I can't wait to see where your channel goes, if this is what you're accomplishing within your first ten uploads 🙌
I've heard said that the Venn diagram of teachers and tabletop gamers in nearly an eclipse 😌 Also THAT NOTE ON "THEY PULL YOUR NOSE BECAUSE THEY'RE BORED" IS TIMELESS.
I am also a teacher and a GM. During the pandemic, I convinced a group of teachers to try D&D. They became instantly obsessed and we have been playing every week for 4 years now :) I used to be the "forever DM" - but no longer :D
Are you KIDDING ME? I JUST came across your video and I have been a teacher for 18 years and one of the few things I have been going for longer than the classroom is Dungeons and Dragons. And I love both. And I have ALWAYS thought there's a huge connection between doing one well and that improving the other! Masterful approach!
I will be using the "what are you thinking as you wake up?" open with my session tonight! I have done in the past a "what are you doing to prepare for the day?" open, but I really love the thoughts/feelings angle...better to get them into RP mode. Thank you!
happy you like it! I feel it also helps for the player, they get more used little by little to really consider the impact that a game event may have on their character
"...people are always going to remember something they experienced or achieved better than something they witnessed" this is phenomenal advice. The challenge of conveying lore and plot effectively is a big one. Putting your players at the center of that experience is such great way to build momentum.
I'm not a GM, but the "kids pulling on your nose because they're bored" concept really resonated with me. It feels analogous to focusing on tasks when you have an attention disorder. So, thank you!
a warmup i use at my table is asking everyone who was the most badass and the bigger loser npc/pc moment from the last session. they always start describing every single detail about hilarious stuff and how cool it was. i also prepare a top 3 "things" and reveal them one by one letting the players guess what's in the first position
I'm a High School teacher in the USA and I run the Tabletop Gaming Club, with a focus on DnD. As far as warm-ups go, having players introduce their characters/what they did last session, take notes about their party mates/their actions, and share out a connection or feeling the characters have about at least 2 of their party mates is a good way to get them into the roleplaying mindset while having them focus on the table in the middle of a loud room. It also leads people to "defending" their character or explaining their actions better, which leads to better characterization.
We found that a chronicle or log helps to maintain continuum. The current team looks up what happened last time and decide what they want to work on from there. The players write what they think was important.
THIS! IS! EPIC! I used to teach. When I got into DMing, it quickly dawned on me how running a table wasn’t much different from teaching! You are absolutely spot on in every aspect of this video. I’ve been out of the classroom for a couple years now, and I would miss it if it weren’t for DMing. This time, there isn’t the pressure of managing a classroom and I get to work and teach (because D&D has many educational benefits, especially social skills) to children and adults alike!
aaah this is so lovely to hear, especially from a teacher! YES! there's so much that feels so similar to running a game, and tbh, I feel like even as a beginner teacher, being a GM gave me a lil bit of a head start on a few things.
@@corkboardsandcuriosities absolutely! And being a teacher taught me skills for running a table. They overlap in group management, communication, planning, multitasking and other skills.
If you master your subject (or your gameworld!), improvisation is key, too. It is vital for a GM, but it also serves me well as a teacher! Makes lessons more lively and students more involved (you're adapting to them). Cheers!
The greatest boon to me as GM, was when I became a flight instructor. Those fundamentals of instruction and how people learn and engage made everything fall into place so I know exactly what you mean and you are exactly correct (in my experience at least)! Literally every beat you touched on here I learned as an instructor and applied in my games to great effect. I also have "the class" open up with a player-led session recap and it sucks us all in every time. I'm loving your videos after just discovering your channel and can't wait to see what you've got coming up. Keep up the great work! P.S. If you ever figure out how to make lesson plans that aren't absolute chaos or absolute inane bullet points please share with the class. Send help.
Hi! I find that people who are professional teachers, have advantage since they know how to prep, and discuss the subject to a classroom of students. You also learned to communicate and explain things better. I find the UA-cam people, that are teachers, are the ones I listen and learn from. Some UA-camrs are selling, and entertaining, but I don't need that. Would you be open to have people, like me, to watch one of your game sections? I would pay for it. I learn from watching and taking notes. I don't need to be a player character. I think you are in France, I would watch it on your schedule. No pressure. Thank you for doing this episode. 😀
haaaa you flatter me so much! I will soon be playing online with a few really cool people to test out a new game called Archeterica, i'll make sure to send you the link! Thank you for all the encouragement!
@@corkboardsandcuriosities I'd also be super interested to watch if that's okay! Your persona here is very fun to just listen to, so I wonder how you are when GM'ing (assuming you are).
me too, if that’s alright! i love playing ttrpgs, but also…i’m a magician myself! i’ve found that there’s lots to learn from any source of drama, be it a performance or a game!
feel like I've stumbled upon most of these things you talk about through happenstance. When I GM, I'm constantly throwing mysteries and whatnot at the party- usually because they see something weird, or something weird happens to the players they can't quite understand yet. Dangle a question in front of your players and watch them tear your world apart trying to find the answer. Very satisfying!
From a writer's perspective, you get the Narrator premise: "Show, don't tell...". If you actually show it properly, you don't need to spoil anything in anticipatìon (unless you want to purposely build anticipation, most commonly to avoid the expected effect in the end... The former is surprise, the later builds suspense...). So, skip the "telling" part right into the "show" one, and your formula simplifies to "Show (don't tell) - Do - Apply". I like your video. Pretty cool content. Keep going!
From a didactical standpoint, I think we need more inventive Teachers just as yourself, integrating more luddism into teaching.Your students are just in the right hands.
I'm also a teacher and a GM! One of my first thoughts when I was being introduced into teaching theory and general lesson structure was "Wait... this is just D&D with less dragons". I love this video - thank you!
I am a public high school teacher/coach with twenty eight years in the books. You did a very good job with your video. I am just getting into TTRG/D&D and, I appreciate you "activating my prior learning"!
High School Game Development Teacher chiming in, 10 years in (7 as a DM). A lot of this is good advice, but in both mentoring new teachers and new GMs. I find the focus on "engagement" to be a bit unhealthy at times. Young teachers really put a lot of pressure on themselves to be the driving force of energy and engagement in a classroom and unfortunately this can lead to a lot of burn out, as you point out, DMs (especially new DMs) feel similar pressure. The hard fought wisdom that is learned over time is that yes, you have an important role to play in engagement, but over the long haul, the teachers/DMs that make it over the long haul are the ones that understand that they cannot be a constant font of learning. As one of my mentors put it "There are classrooms where the math teacher does a lot of math and there are classrooms where the students do a lot of math. Guess which teacher makes it to year 5."
Oh, this is a very good point, and quite reassuring to hear tbh? I do tend to feel that exhaustion, especially since I'm just starting out, and when you're starting out, you can't help but be so aware of all the skills you have yet to build! I think perhaps what also drives me (and likely others, recently I was talking about it with a friend of mine who is a young teacher too) to this kind of pressure is the image of the teacher in media, in movies.. This idea that in every movie the teacher is a life changing figure for their students. People talking of teaching not as a job, but as a vocation, because for a "good teacher, there is no real work/life balance". That's a lot of pressure to put on a person! I know that realistically, this is not the expectation, only the mythology built around teaching, which makes a lot of teachers feel like they are not doing enough, like they could give even more. So these days I'm trying to loosen up. Hearing this from an experienced teacher helps a bunch!
i've taught high school for 10 years and i'm now a first time DM and there's definitely a bunch of things i'm *not* nervous about because of my experience! i've definitely thought about this exact thing a lot - there's absolutely tons of crossover between the two and this video was a delight to watch to hear some of it put into words for the first time.
Sorry if tldr, but I promise it's worth it. My mother was an elementary school teacher, and she taught me a lot: to be a good student, to love to read, and to love to learn. And she taught me a great deal about children, teaching, and behavioral psychology (tho not in that specific sense). I even got my degree in Music Education, tho I knew by the end I did not have the gift for being a proper teacher. You have an excellent understanding of the basics, and I'm sure you'll be a very good teacher too. I would love to spend hours with you talking about teaching and its relationship to gaming. Or to be a member of your gaming group. But I will tell you this little thing about my dear Mom. She was very religious, and when I discovered D&D in high school, she was unconcerned about it at first. But unfortunately, her religiosity made her gullible, and vulnerable to the slander and lies of the "Satanic Panic." So I did not get to play until college, and even then she worried for my soul. She never understood the positivity or the potential developmental benefits of rpg's, and I was never able to talk with her meaningfully about it. One last thing. I was in her class in 3rd grade, and I kept trying to address her like the other kids, "Mrs. H~" but always caught myself, and ending up frequently calling her "Mrs.... Mother." Bless you, dear Val. Good luck in the classroom and at the table. ❤
Great video, excellent channel! (here, have a sub!) I love your passionate and clear delivery, and that you're delivering really interesting insights. Your students are fortunate to have you in their lives, and we are too. Thank you. I'm a huge fan of cross-disciplinary pollenation - unique wisdom and viewpoints are really super-charged by transferring the lessons and approaches from one discipline to another. Long live the polymath and the generalist!
I find your channel to be one of the most interesting and captivating I've seen in many years. The way you think outside the box and connect different content in an entirely new perspective is really something unique. And learning you're a teacher makes perfect sense. I may be a little biased, seeing I'm finishing my master's in education, but I see a lot of bell hooks' and Paulo Freire's teaching as a practice of freedom in what you teach. And seeing you want to keep growing... You seriously inspire me. Thank you so much ❤
I'm a senior IT professional, and I find *loads* of skills which cross the gap between Game Mastery and professional communications. Time management, focusing the spotlight on individuals in measured ways, researching topics, managing expectations, and much more. Practicing GMing in a methodical way makes me a better professional, and vise versa.
I agree with everything after the two minute mark. All the tips were great, and many of them are part of my game already. One of my favorite embodiment techniques is to talk about food routines: whether your character is a "same thing every morning" type, or whether they enjoy variety. With all that said, please please please stop overpreparing. Overpreparing is a guaranteed way you burn yourself out. It becomes a matter of when, not if. Unlike teaching, a game master can not move or reuse unused lesson plans. Some plots are mutually exclusive, and the more you throw out half of that mutually exclusive plot, the more it sucks. As a concrete example of this: one of my tables famously burned an Apparatus of Kwalish. I had fully expected them to steal it. They had three characters with strong motivations for sea travel, including a druid, an aquaric elf, and a wizard who sought out a necklace of adaptation previously. They were primed for it. But the circumstances of the adventure made is so that they needed to burn everything to cover their tracks, when the stealth team messed up. When that happened, I threw away one island. If I had prepared a whole archipelago, I would have been really sad. But I was not overprepared. That meant I was able to quickly pivot and instead we did some swampwalking.
I really like the idea of the video and the execution of it! I agree the most with the magician. Be it as a student, player or GM, this is how you can get my attention. Though as a GM I really like to start my campaigns or one-shots seemingly simple, so the group can assemble and get comfortable with each other enabling also usually some roleplay. Then as soon as they are on their mission, they find more and more hints leading to different background knowledge growing their curiosity into what has been and how this correlates to what or who is still around here awaiting them. With the "Tell, Show, Do, Apply"-method I'd personally narrow it down to things have consequences, be it the things players did or the ones your world does. Also as a student, I had problems with this method, since I didn't learn much of it. Yes, I used it myself a couple of times, but basically I just copied a template and if it didn't work, I still didn't understand how it should work. Finding your own way to the solution is always how I learned the things that works best, especially (returning to GM view) since every single table plays different and has different interests and develop individual dynamics with the flow of the adventure. Thus it's nothing unusual for me to adapt mid-campaign new systems into our rulesets and it be it just for a single character, who wanted to dig in a specialty of theirs more. The warm ups/cold opens are a nice idea to which I can't say not too much, as I'm (no matter the group) always the main notetaker and thus always run around thinking about our campaigns and give most of the time the recap of last session xD And with the warm ups: The first thoughts after a rest is a nice little thing, which again has the potential to create chaos discussions among the players (speaking from experience), but it's still a nice thing to activate the players, if they are fine with revealing their characters true thougths and don't want to keep them a mystery for a later reveal. With the level up at the beginning of a session, I'd actually advice against. This breaks immersion, since everyone speaks out of character and there could be a lot of rule questions coming up and especially spellcasters can potentially need quite a while to do a full level up. Also the mechanical process takes time away from the actual game time, which is a reason, why players could be torn between making it quick and giving things an actual thought, they'll be satisfied with. But what you could do, after you ended last session with a level up, is to give each character a chance to tell how things felt different now with more power or how they reflect things or gained their level up in the first place. For a warlock player of mine always talked with his patron, when leveling up, which we actually played out. These are my personal experiences and thoughts about this. I can't really say in what regard my points are an individual or actually general thing. Either way I thank you for your video and that you decided to share your findings and thoughts. It was especially interesting for me to see, what theory is lying behind the education I went through and what similarities the two POVs actually have!
Fellow teacher and GM here! I love this video! Both the warm up and cold open are great for classroom and table engagement, and I often find myself comparing notes between what I see at the table vs the classroom. I’ve found that both players and students will often default to socializing with their friends unless I take the reigns. It’s the same in kids and adults! Of course it’s less stressful at the game table where the stakes are lower lol. I loved what you said about Doing! Giving your players a more unforgettable experience and I feel silly I didn’t make that connection myself sooner haha. I guess sometimes I’m just too much in my own head. Excellent video with excellent info!
Great approach!!! I am just starting my teaching journey and have been GMing for a while now. Going through my classes I've noticed some connections between how I run my tables and how I'd run my classrooms. I love how you've set up the video and how you've validated this connection. Applying these concepts to my tables immediately!!!!
Lovely video. Love the concept of warmup activities, involving players in recap and checking in with PCs what they are doing/thinking as the game starts. And your voice is Devine.
Im currently writing a paper on how being a gamemaster can make people better teachers through the abilities they learn dm-ing so seeing this video is super funny
@@corkboardsandcuriosities I would have to translate it and its more than 25 pages so I'm sorry I won't be able to do that probably 😅 If you know german I can provide it to you after grading if I'm happy with it :D
If only we were taught pedagogy like that!!! I learnt more useful things in 20 minutes than in a semester at Uni! I am one of those crazy ones who dared to combine DnD and teaching (English), so it was crazy helpful, thank you, will follow you
As both a GM and beginning university professor myself, I appreciated your thoughts. I certainly know the importance of maintaining engagement in both realms, and am far from mastering it in either, but I happened to be working on implementing a lot of these same strategies in the classroom just prior to watching this video. Good luck with your teaching efforts; my command of my students' (or players') attention is tentative at best, but based on how this video held mine, you're already likely to do well in both arenas.
I'm an amateur rules writer for tabletop wargames and finding ways to increase player engagement is something I'm always looking to keep at the top of my list. You've got a load of great stuff in here that I think will be super applicable outside teaching and TTRPGs alone. Thanks!
gosh, you kept me engaged for the whole video, now I even want more! at least for me, you're doing a terrific job at being a teacher/GM :) your voice is soo pleasant, and the light tricks and editing are just chef's kiss, definitely subscribed
This is so cool! I was a TA in college for 2 years before I was a GM. Used to have a brainstorm session with them to give them ideas of what they'd like to go on & major in. Honestly, my students were as chaotic as my table. Their research ideas were nuts!
@QuestingBeast is also a teacher, and has mentioned that there are a lot of people running games who teach. Your video makes it clear why that would be such an asset. Love your videos!
I really enjoy your videos and your perspective. You explain GMing from a point of view that I don't get from other UA-camrs. Thanks for your great content.
Awesome video. I'm a teacher too and I started applying techniques to my players without noticing it. It was until one of them said "He's using his teacher powers against us" when I was like "uh, he is right, it is similar"
Beginner DM and working on my education degree. This was a really insightful look into both worlds and their overlap. I adore this video, thank you for sharing!
I don’t know whether my students are going to ace their upcoming test, but you’ve aced this video. Super-well explained and super-interesting, as ever. Thanks, Val!
You have a great talent and i really appreciate the kind of roleplaying you are putting forward. I subscribed because your view is what we need for the future of roleplay. Keep it up!!!
I just discovered you with this video and I wanted to thank you! You give clear guidelines I'll definitively keep in mind. Plus, I love your tone and your humour
haha, this is so cool, I didn't expect to see so many teachers in the comments, and ngl, being validated by teachers as a beginner teacher makes me real happy
A warm up technique I recently used that yielded good results was getting the player's to share a fun fact about their characters. This video had a ton of good information, surprised i have just happened upon this channel.
Excellent video with great content in a very short space. I'd love to hear your teacher's take on helping the quiet players to engage and teaching the loud ones to take a back seat sometimes.
Yeah, this is great!! Pedagogy fits perfectly with storytelling. I'm not a dm (I might try some day), but as a player, I will still keep these tips and methods in mind. We are all writing the story, after all!
I just wanted to chime in and say that you have an amazing channel and a unique perspective to what goes in to being a DM that I have not seen on other channels. I am so excited for where this channel will go in the future and wish you all the best!
That was the singular most helpful video for me as a dm out of every video I have ever watched, thank you. I have dmed for about 3 months now and something was missing the whole time, I see my sessions looking up now.
I never take notes but this video had me engaged, breaking out the google doc and constantly pausing and rewinding to make sure I got everything down. this is wonderfully done and one of if not the most helpful guide I've seen for helping with player engagement. thank you so much!
this was fascinating, i felt as though I had hit an echo chamber with gming content on yt but this was a way of looking at gming I had not considered, and will now adapt into my way of play
Wow! Just stumbled onto your channel from a UA-cam rabbit hole. Great find and a great video! I love the concept of the funeral body snatching. That is a cool game opener!
I've been GMing since 1977. And I freakin' LOVE: "What is the first thought upon waking" as a question for the players/pc. I am swiping that. Also, not a teacher... (I've dabbled in teaching illustration classes... but that is so much about demonstration and almost going directly to the "Apply stage")... so I had not heard these techniques in these terms. Very cool. I AM going to share this with 2 of my players, one of which, IS a teacher in NYC. I subscribed after this one video and I look forward to sifting through your back catalog and any new videos you end up doing.
Love it. I run a lot of convention games and I’m always terrified of being a “bad teacher” leading to new players having a bad time in my sessions. Thank you for the tips! They inspired a few ideas im going to try out at Adepticon! 😁
Ah! You were looking for becoming a better teacher and found something to become a better GM and now I'm going to use that to become a better game designer. It will be fun re-adapting all these concepts to videogames :)
It is so easy to gloss over those obvious patterns you mentioned, the way teachers try to get the students engagements. Thank you for the reminder. While I'm quite seldom in experiencing Tell Show Do Apply in class, it is a basic in video games. Thus, that is also one more thing to be aware of. Though I find the magician part is quite overlapping with this one. Time to apply these. Thanks, teach!
AAAAAAAAAAA, this actually helps me so much. I feel like this is info that more DMs should know, cause I wish I knew about this when I started. This channel really is helpful, thank youuuuuu.
As a GM one thing I really like to do and received good feedbacks from my players is having a small music like the opening credit of a show. It's a small time during which everyone turn off their mics and at the end of it we directly engage on the game. It gives them a bit of time to put their feet in their character and being a recurring thing help it a lot.
I think this is the most understandably structured, actionable video of player engagement advice I think I've ever seen on youtube. Thank you so much for this!
I've been deep into D&D for about 5 years now and this is genuinely some of the best advice I've heard. Really smart & really well presented, thank you for sharing!
Well, I didn't want to pull on your nose once during this video, so you must be doing something right. More seriously, as a beginner GM, I really appreciate this perspective. It's helping me crystalize and put focus on some stuff I was already instinctively doing. And your presentation is excellent!
I just binged your videos, I'm preparing a campaign of my own and everything you talked about has been tremendous help and inspiration! Definitely one of my favorite channels rn
color coding the teacher perspective and the gm perspective with different color lights is mesmerizing
glad to hear it, because attempting to color grade nearly killed me hahahahah
@@corkboardsandcuriositiesI think you did great! But then teachers often are good at grading ;)
@salmontan or at structuring visuals. @corkboardsandcuriosities You did a good job, which program are you using?
I use colors to highlight important things like loot (magic items), traps, or certain actions the pcs are likely to take.
Ah shit, I just learned I’m colorblind
I am a college professor in game design and I’ve found a lot of cross over between teaching and GMing! I think that “magician mode” is something I’ve got to read more about too!! Wonderful video!! Cheers!!
Great video! I once did the reverse trick, using TTRPG in my education setting. I'm in university, and we wanted to make a reading club for our classmates to go over things that are not in our classes. I suggested we host a Session Zero to set norms, expectations, and boundaries. Very helpful tools!
Love your channel
I teach at a college as well, and I agree. There's so much crossover! I'm finding that teaching is helping my DMing and vice versa.
Greeting professor!
Teaching college is performance art.
This is such a fantastic video - great points approached in a new way, paired with really clean production and fantastic storytelling! I can't wait to see where your channel goes, if this is what you're accomplishing within your first ten uploads 🙌
Seriously. She has fantastic insight, and great presentation
I've heard said that the Venn diagram of teachers and tabletop gamers in nearly an eclipse 😌 Also THAT NOTE ON "THEY PULL YOUR NOSE BECAUSE THEY'RE BORED" IS TIMELESS.
clowns are vessels for all the wisdom in the world !
This is incredibly helpful! Fascinating to learn more about teaching through GMing as well
I love when people make crossovers of... anything really, this is a *Hobby × Profession* crossover
hahaha, i think that's just my impulse to relate literally everything in my life to ttrpg
@@corkboardsandcuriosities That's such a relatable impulse.
I am also a teacher and a GM. During the pandemic, I convinced a group of teachers to try D&D. They became instantly obsessed and we have been playing every week for 4 years now :) I used to be the "forever DM" - but no longer :D
Are you KIDDING ME? I JUST came across your video and I have been a teacher for 18 years and one of the few things I have been going for longer than the classroom is Dungeons and Dragons. And I love both.
And I have ALWAYS thought there's a huge connection between doing one well and that improving the other!
Masterful approach!
aaah amazing! I didn't expect to see so many teachers in the comments, and it is absolutely delightful to hear that this resonates!
I will be using the "what are you thinking as you wake up?" open with my session tonight! I have done in the past a "what are you doing to prepare for the day?" open, but I really love the thoughts/feelings angle...better to get them into RP mode. Thank you!
Me too! I'm really curious to see how it goes.
happy you like it! I feel it also helps for the player, they get more used little by little to really consider the impact that a game event may have on their character
Same, I'm yoinking
I might do "What woke you up?"
oooh that's a cool one @@jamesscullion3034
"...people are always going to remember something they experienced or achieved better than something they witnessed" this is phenomenal advice. The challenge of conveying lore and plot effectively is a big one. Putting your players at the center of that experience is such great way to build momentum.
"Don't comment me, I'm a beginner teacher. Just... pray for my students." That was fantastic!
And thanks for the excellent video!
I'm not a GM, but the "kids pulling on your nose because they're bored" concept really resonated with me. It feels analogous to focusing on tasks when you have an attention disorder. So, thank you!
a warmup i use at my table is asking everyone who was the most badass and the bigger loser npc/pc moment from the last session. they always start describing every single detail about hilarious stuff and how cool it was.
i also prepare a top 3 "things" and reveal them one by one letting the players guess what's in the first position
I'm a High School teacher in the USA and I run the Tabletop Gaming Club, with a focus on DnD. As far as warm-ups go, having players introduce their characters/what they did last session, take notes about their party mates/their actions, and share out a connection or feeling the characters have about at least 2 of their party mates is a good way to get them into the roleplaying mindset while having them focus on the table in the middle of a loud room. It also leads people to "defending" their character or explaining their actions better, which leads to better characterization.
We found that a chronicle or log helps to maintain continuum. The current team looks up what happened last time and decide what they want to work on from there. The players write what they think was important.
So many youtubers seem to be teachers. Must be a natural connection 😊
the real challenge is making sure my high schoolers don't find my youtube channel hahaha
@@corkboardsandcuriosities I'd be psyqued if I knew my teacher plays D&D!
@@danielzarkos I've not yet had a student who was into TTRPG... but it's only a matter of time until they join our ranks!
lmao :D@@corkboardsandcuriosities
I was gonna ask where you're from, but the way you pronounced Dominique's (?) names gave it away!
THIS!
IS!
EPIC!
I used to teach. When I got into DMing, it quickly dawned on me how running a table wasn’t much different from teaching! You are absolutely spot on in every aspect of this video.
I’ve been out of the classroom for a couple years now, and I would miss it if it weren’t for DMing. This time, there isn’t the pressure of managing a classroom and I get to work and teach (because D&D has many educational benefits, especially social skills) to children and adults alike!
aaah this is so lovely to hear, especially from a teacher!
YES! there's so much that feels so similar to running a game, and tbh, I feel like even as a beginner teacher, being a GM gave me a lil bit of a head start on a few things.
@@corkboardsandcuriosities absolutely! And being a teacher taught me skills for running a table. They overlap in group management, communication, planning, multitasking and other skills.
If you master your subject (or your gameworld!), improvisation is key, too. It is vital for a GM, but it also serves me well as a teacher! Makes lessons more lively and students more involved (you're adapting to them). Cheers!
The greatest boon to me as GM, was when I became a flight instructor. Those fundamentals of instruction and how people learn and engage made everything fall into place so I know exactly what you mean and you are exactly correct (in my experience at least)! Literally every beat you touched on here I learned as an instructor and applied in my games to great effect. I also have "the class" open up with a player-led session recap and it sucks us all in every time. I'm loving your videos after just discovering your channel and can't wait to see what you've got coming up. Keep up the great work!
P.S. If you ever figure out how to make lesson plans that aren't absolute chaos or absolute inane bullet points please share with the class. Send help.
Hi! I find that people who are professional teachers, have advantage since they know how to prep, and discuss the subject to a classroom of students. You also learned to communicate and explain things better. I find the UA-cam people, that are teachers, are the ones I listen and learn from. Some UA-camrs are selling, and entertaining, but I don't need that. Would you be open to have people, like me, to watch one of your game sections? I would pay for it. I learn from watching and taking notes. I don't need to be a player character. I think you are in France, I would watch it on your schedule. No pressure. Thank you for doing this episode. 😀
haaaa you flatter me so much! I will soon be playing online with a few really cool people to test out a new game called Archeterica, i'll make sure to send you the link! Thank you for all the encouragement!
@@corkboardsandcuriosities I'd also be super interested to watch if that's okay! Your persona here is very fun to just listen to, so I wonder how you are when GM'ing (assuming you are).
me too, if that’s alright! i love playing ttrpgs, but also…i’m a magician myself! i’ve found that there’s lots to learn from any source of drama, be it a performance or a game!
I'm a teacher myself and have been playing dnd for 30 years and I love your point of view! It's so easy to join the to concepts! Bravo!
feel like I've stumbled upon most of these things you talk about through happenstance. When I GM, I'm constantly throwing mysteries and whatnot at the party- usually because they see something weird, or something weird happens to the players they can't quite understand yet. Dangle a question in front of your players and watch them tear your world apart trying to find the answer. Very satisfying!
From a writer's perspective, you get the Narrator premise: "Show, don't tell...". If you actually show it properly, you don't need to spoil anything in anticipatìon (unless you want to purposely build anticipation, most commonly to avoid the expected effect in the end... The former is surprise, the later builds suspense...). So, skip the "telling" part right into the "show" one, and your formula simplifies to "Show (don't tell) - Do - Apply".
I like your video. Pretty cool content. Keep going!
As a fellow teacher and GM; this was helpful on both sides of the coin! Thank you for this! 😄👍💯
From a didactical standpoint, I think we need more inventive Teachers just as yourself, integrating more luddism into teaching.Your students are just in the right hands.
I'm also a teacher and a GM! One of my first thoughts when I was being introduced into teaching theory and general lesson structure was "Wait... this is just D&D with less dragons". I love this video - thank you!
I am a public high school teacher/coach with twenty eight years in the books. You did a very good job with your video. I am just getting into TTRG/D&D and, I appreciate you "activating my prior learning"!
High School Game Development Teacher chiming in, 10 years in (7 as a DM). A lot of this is good advice, but in both mentoring new teachers and new GMs. I find the focus on "engagement" to be a bit unhealthy at times. Young teachers really put a lot of pressure on themselves to be the driving force of energy and engagement in a classroom and unfortunately this can lead to a lot of burn out, as you point out, DMs (especially new DMs) feel similar pressure. The hard fought wisdom that is learned over time is that yes, you have an important role to play in engagement, but over the long haul, the teachers/DMs that make it over the long haul are the ones that understand that they cannot be a constant font of learning. As one of my mentors put it "There are classrooms where the math teacher does a lot of math and there are classrooms where the students do a lot of math. Guess which teacher makes it to year 5."
Oh, this is a very good point, and quite reassuring to hear tbh? I do tend to feel that exhaustion, especially since I'm just starting out, and when you're starting out, you can't help but be so aware of all the skills you have yet to build! I think perhaps what also drives me (and likely others, recently I was talking about it with a friend of mine who is a young teacher too) to this kind of pressure is the image of the teacher in media, in movies.. This idea that in every movie the teacher is a life changing figure for their students. People talking of teaching not as a job, but as a vocation, because for a "good teacher, there is no real work/life balance". That's a lot of pressure to put on a person! I know that realistically, this is not the expectation, only the mythology built around teaching, which makes a lot of teachers feel like they are not doing enough, like they could give even more. So these days I'm trying to loosen up. Hearing this from an experienced teacher helps a bunch!
i've taught high school for 10 years and i'm now a first time DM and there's definitely a bunch of things i'm *not* nervous about because of my experience! i've definitely thought about this exact thing a lot - there's absolutely tons of crossover between the two and this video was a delight to watch to hear some of it put into words for the first time.
Sorry if tldr, but I promise it's worth it. My mother was an elementary school teacher, and she taught me a lot: to be a good student, to love to read, and to love to learn. And she taught me a great deal about children, teaching, and behavioral psychology (tho not in that specific sense). I even got my degree in Music Education, tho I knew by the end I did not have the gift for being a proper teacher. You have an excellent understanding of the basics, and I'm sure you'll be a very good teacher too. I would love to spend hours with you talking about teaching and its relationship to gaming. Or to be a member of your gaming group. But I will tell you this little thing about my dear Mom. She was very religious, and when I discovered D&D in high school, she was unconcerned about it at first. But unfortunately, her religiosity made her gullible, and vulnerable to the slander and lies of the "Satanic Panic." So I did not get to play until college, and even then she worried for my soul. She never understood the positivity or the potential developmental benefits of rpg's, and I was never able to talk with her meaningfully about it. One last thing. I was in her class in 3rd grade, and I kept trying to address her like the other kids, "Mrs. H~" but always caught myself, and ending up frequently calling her "Mrs.... Mother." Bless you, dear Val. Good luck in the classroom and at the table. ❤
This is a fantastic video! I loved how you correlate being a teacher and game master! Keep putting out more content! I can’t wait to watch it all!🎉
Great video, excellent channel! (here, have a sub!)
I love your passionate and clear delivery, and that you're delivering really interesting insights. Your students are fortunate to have you in their lives, and we are too. Thank you.
I'm a huge fan of cross-disciplinary pollenation - unique wisdom and viewpoints are really super-charged by transferring the lessons and approaches from one discipline to another.
Long live the polymath and the generalist!
I find your channel to be one of the most interesting and captivating I've seen in many years. The way you think outside the box and connect different content in an entirely new perspective is really something unique. And learning you're a teacher makes perfect sense. I may be a little biased, seeing I'm finishing my master's in education, but I see a lot of bell hooks' and Paulo Freire's teaching as a practice of freedom in what you teach. And seeing you want to keep growing... You seriously inspire me. Thank you so much ❤
qsjdhbiqsdjfbqsiudhc aaaaaaaah you're gonna make me cry this is so good to hear
I'm a senior IT professional, and I find *loads* of skills which cross the gap between Game Mastery and professional communications. Time management, focusing the spotlight on individuals in measured ways, researching topics, managing expectations, and much more. Practicing GMing in a methodical way makes me a better professional, and vise versa.
This is also how RPG Elite has framed his "RPG Elite philosophies for your life" series of videos, which are pretty great too.
I agree with everything after the two minute mark. All the tips were great, and many of them are part of my game already. One of my favorite embodiment techniques is to talk about food routines: whether your character is a "same thing every morning" type, or whether they enjoy variety.
With all that said, please please please stop overpreparing. Overpreparing is a guaranteed way you burn yourself out. It becomes a matter of when, not if. Unlike teaching, a game master can not move or reuse unused lesson plans. Some plots are mutually exclusive, and the more you throw out half of that mutually exclusive plot, the more it sucks.
As a concrete example of this: one of my tables famously burned an Apparatus of Kwalish. I had fully expected them to steal it. They had three characters with strong motivations for sea travel, including a druid, an aquaric elf, and a wizard who sought out a necklace of adaptation previously. They were primed for it. But the circumstances of the adventure made is so that they needed to burn everything to cover their tracks, when the stealth team messed up.
When that happened, I threw away one island. If I had prepared a whole archipelago, I would have been really sad. But I was not overprepared. That meant I was able to quickly pivot and instead we did some swampwalking.
As a fellow teacher, you did an awesome job showing how the two practices relate! great video ! :D
I really like the idea of the video and the execution of it! I agree the most with the magician. Be it as a student, player or GM, this is how you can get my attention. Though as a GM I really like to start my campaigns or one-shots seemingly simple, so the group can assemble and get comfortable with each other enabling also usually some roleplay. Then as soon as they are on their mission, they find more and more hints leading to different background knowledge growing their curiosity into what has been and how this correlates to what or who is still around here awaiting them.
With the "Tell, Show, Do, Apply"-method I'd personally narrow it down to things have consequences, be it the things players did or the ones your world does. Also as a student, I had problems with this method, since I didn't learn much of it. Yes, I used it myself a couple of times, but basically I just copied a template and if it didn't work, I still didn't understand how it should work. Finding your own way to the solution is always how I learned the things that works best, especially (returning to GM view) since every single table plays different and has different interests and develop individual dynamics with the flow of the adventure. Thus it's nothing unusual for me to adapt mid-campaign new systems into our rulesets and it be it just for a single character, who wanted to dig in a specialty of theirs more.
The warm ups/cold opens are a nice idea to which I can't say not too much, as I'm (no matter the group) always the main notetaker and thus always run around thinking about our campaigns and give most of the time the recap of last session xD And with the warm ups: The first thoughts after a rest is a nice little thing, which again has the potential to create chaos discussions among the players (speaking from experience), but it's still a nice thing to activate the players, if they are fine with revealing their characters true thougths and don't want to keep them a mystery for a later reveal. With the level up at the beginning of a session, I'd actually advice against. This breaks immersion, since everyone speaks out of character and there could be a lot of rule questions coming up and especially spellcasters can potentially need quite a while to do a full level up. Also the mechanical process takes time away from the actual game time, which is a reason, why players could be torn between making it quick and giving things an actual thought, they'll be satisfied with. But what you could do, after you ended last session with a level up, is to give each character a chance to tell how things felt different now with more power or how they reflect things or gained their level up in the first place. For a warlock player of mine always talked with his patron, when leveling up, which we actually played out.
These are my personal experiences and thoughts about this. I can't really say in what regard my points are an individual or actually general thing. Either way I thank you for your video and that you decided to share your findings and thoughts. It was especially interesting for me to see, what theory is lying behind the education I went through and what similarities the two POVs actually have!
Fellow teacher and GM here! I love this video! Both the warm up and cold open are great for classroom and table engagement, and I often find myself comparing notes between what I see at the table vs the classroom. I’ve found that both players and students will often default to socializing with their friends unless I take the reigns. It’s the same in kids and adults! Of course it’s less stressful at the game table where the stakes are lower lol.
I loved what you said about Doing! Giving your players a more unforgettable experience and I feel silly I didn’t make that connection myself sooner haha. I guess sometimes I’m just too much in my own head. Excellent video with excellent info!
Great approach!!! I am just starting my teaching journey and have been GMing for a while now. Going through my classes I've noticed some connections between how I run my tables and how I'd run my classrooms. I love how you've set up the video and how you've validated this connection. Applying these concepts to my tables immediately!!!!
Brings me back to the time I was a teacher, Great video as always!!
I found there are strong similarities in prepping.
haha, prepping is not my strong suit as a teacher, I just take too long with it, but I'm getting better, finding a method helps!
@@corkboardsandcuriosities well you can go the other way around, just apply your RPG prepping skills on the classroom.
This is some of the most original TTRPG content I have seen in some time. Thank you! I can imagine you are a really good teacher.
Lovely video. Love the concept of warmup activities, involving players in recap and checking in with PCs what they are doing/thinking as the game starts. And your voice is Devine.
thank you so, so much! happy to hear this resonates!
Im currently writing a paper on how being a gamemaster can make people better teachers through the abilities they learn dm-ing so seeing this video is super funny
omg I would be so interested to read that paper
@@corkboardsandcuriosities I would have to translate it and its more than 25 pages so I'm sorry I won't be able to do that probably 😅 If you know german I can provide it to you after grading if I'm happy with it :D
Ive come back to this video because i needed advice for both teaching and dming. Thank you for being a great guide for both
Teacher/GM here, and this is a brilliant video. I learned a little about teaching AND running games! Great video
If only we were taught pedagogy like that!!! I learnt more useful things in 20 minutes than in a semester at Uni! I am one of those crazy ones who dared to combine DnD and teaching (English), so it was crazy helpful, thank you, will follow you
As a fellow teacher (teaching assistant, to be exact) and D&D noob, this video couldn't be more perfect
As both a GM and beginning university professor myself, I appreciated your thoughts. I certainly know the importance of maintaining engagement in both realms, and am far from mastering it in either, but I happened to be working on implementing a lot of these same strategies in the classroom just prior to watching this video.
Good luck with your teaching efforts; my command of my students' (or players') attention is tentative at best, but based on how this video held mine, you're already likely to do well in both arenas.
I'm an amateur rules writer for tabletop wargames and finding ways to increase player engagement is something I'm always looking to keep at the top of my list. You've got a load of great stuff in here that I think will be super applicable outside teaching and TTRPGs alone. Thanks!
gosh, you kept me engaged for the whole video, now I even want more! at least for me, you're doing a terrific job at being a teacher/GM :)
your voice is soo pleasant, and the light tricks and editing are just chef's kiss, definitely subscribed
This is so cool! I was a TA in college for 2 years before I was a GM. Used to have a brainstorm session with them to give them ideas of what they'd like to go on & major in. Honestly, my students were as chaotic as my table. Their research ideas were nuts!
oooh i love that
you didn't choose the chaotic crowd, the chaotic crowd chose you
@QuestingBeast is also a teacher, and has mentioned that there are a lot of people running games who teach. Your video makes it clear why that would be such an asset. Love your videos!
I really enjoy your videos and your perspective. You explain GMing from a point of view that I don't get from other UA-camrs. Thanks for your great content.
English Lit teacherling of 1 month and GM of 18 months. There’s a good bit of crossover for sure. I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while!!
As a new DM and new teacher myself, I found this video very intriguing on both fronts!
Awesome video.
I'm a teacher too and I started applying techniques to my players without noticing it. It was until one of them said "He's using his teacher powers against us" when I was like "uh, he is right, it is similar"
Succinct, quirky and humorous, and insightful and informative! Thank you. Please continue making more content!
This is so neat and a concept I never would've thought of before!
aaaah i'm happy you liked it! I was really worried that this one would only be interesting to teachers hahaha
Beginner DM and working on my education degree. This was a really insightful look into both worlds and their overlap. I adore this video, thank you for sharing!
This is awesome! You gave a lot of great advice that I can start using in my games. Thank you😃
Beginner teacher and GM here, thanks for compiling all this insight to a short video! Also love your hair 😊
I don’t know whether my students are going to ace their upcoming test, but you’ve aced this video. Super-well explained and super-interesting, as ever. Thanks, Val!
You have a great talent and i really appreciate the kind of roleplaying you are putting forward. I subscribed because your view is what we need for the future of roleplay. Keep it up!!!
New C&C video about D&D, gonna get myself some E&E (education & entertainment)!
I just discovered you with this video and I wanted to thank you! You give clear guidelines I'll definitively keep in mind. Plus, I love your tone and your humour
This video is underrated. Amazing new perspective about GMing I've never heard in all my years of enjoying the hobby! Thank you!
Golden content. So much to learn from this academic approach to RPG’s.
Very good video! I totally agree with you, I'm also a DM and teacher and they're both guiding roles.
haha, this is so cool, I didn't expect to see so many teachers in the comments, and ngl, being validated by teachers as a beginner teacher makes me real happy
@@corkboardsandcuriosities Your DnD content inspires so much! Thanks for sharing with us!
A warm up technique I recently used that yielded good results was getting the player's to share a fun fact about their characters. This video had a ton of good information, surprised i have just happened upon this channel.
Excellent video with great content in a very short space.
I'd love to hear your teacher's take on helping the quiet players to engage and teaching the loud ones to take a back seat sometimes.
DMing is teaching. That's why after a long day of class, I can sometimes resent having to DM that night.
Same here. Also why I dread my friends saying, for the umpteenth time, "Can we play on Sunday night?" I go to sleep teaching and wake up teaching lol
Yeah, this is great!! Pedagogy fits perfectly with storytelling. I'm not a dm (I might try some day), but as a player, I will still keep these tips and methods in mind. We are all writing the story, after all!
You are an absolute treasure! Please keep making videos. You're doing great.
I just wanted to chime in and say that you have an amazing channel and a unique perspective to what goes in to being a DM that I have not seen on other channels. I am so excited for where this channel will go in the future and wish you all the best!
That was the singular most helpful video for me as a dm out of every video I have ever watched, thank you.
I have dmed for about 3 months now and something was missing the whole time, I see my sessions looking up now.
I never take notes but this video had me engaged, breaking out the google doc and constantly pausing and rewinding to make sure I got everything down. this is wonderfully done and one of if not the most helpful guide I've seen for helping with player engagement. thank you so much!
Secret? "Keys to player engagement" is on the thumbnail! :)
Great advice!
Man I love the fresh perspective she gives for the gm. Keep up the awesome work ✌🏾
"If they fail in their mission, they both suffer the same dreadful fate... "
Me : "Total Party K..."
"Chaos!"
Me: "Yep... That's what I said"
this was fascinating, i felt as though I had hit an echo chamber with gming content on yt but this was a way of looking at gming I had not considered, and will now adapt into my way of play
I love your videos so much! They help me be a better storyteller, DM, teacher, and friend in my group!
Wow! Just stumbled onto your channel from a UA-cam rabbit hole. Great find and a great video! I love the concept of the funeral body snatching. That is a cool game opener!
With you as my teacher, I think I would continue to have a love for learning.
I've been GMing since 1977. And I freakin' LOVE: "What is the first thought upon waking" as a question for the players/pc. I am swiping that. Also, not a teacher... (I've dabbled in teaching illustration classes... but that is so much about demonstration and almost going directly to the "Apply stage")... so I had not heard these techniques in these terms. Very cool. I AM going to share this with 2 of my players, one of which, IS a teacher in NYC. I subscribed after this one video and I look forward to sifting through your back catalog and any new videos you end up doing.
As a teacher I always felt like DMing felt very natural but I couldn't tell you why. Now the connections are obvious. 👍
As one who uses games to help kids reach their full potential in a safe space, this advices are gold.
Thank you for the beautiful ideas and input!
Love it. I run a lot of convention games and I’m always terrified of being a “bad teacher” leading to new players having a bad time in my sessions. Thank you for the tips! They inspired a few ideas im going to try out at Adepticon! 😁
Ah! You were looking for becoming a better teacher and found something to become a better GM and now I'm going to use that to become a better game designer. It will be fun re-adapting all these concepts to videogames :)
I just found your channel this morning. Thank you so much for your fun and informative content.
Subscribed! Looking forward to watching this channel explode in popularity. Fantastic stuff :)
It is so easy to gloss over those obvious patterns you mentioned, the way teachers try to get the students engagements. Thank you for the reminder.
While I'm quite seldom in experiencing Tell Show Do Apply in class, it is a basic in video games. Thus, that is also one more thing to be aware of. Though I find the magician part is quite overlapping with this one.
Time to apply these. Thanks, teach!
Great ideas to really help immerse the players. You do a wonderful job with these. Thank you
Great stuff ! Love how you presented your ideas. I've been Dming for a few decades, and I find it quite pertinent.
AAAAAAAAAAA, this actually helps me so much. I feel like this is info that more DMs should know, cause I wish I knew about this when I started. This channel really is helpful, thank youuuuuu.
As a GM one thing I really like to do and received good feedbacks from my players is having a small music like the opening credit of a show. It's a small time during which everyone turn off their mics and at the end of it we directly engage on the game. It gives them a bit of time to put their feet in their character and being a recurring thing help it a lot.
I think this is the most understandably structured, actionable video of player engagement advice I think I've ever seen on youtube. Thank you so much for this!
I've been deep into D&D for about 5 years now and this is genuinely some of the best advice I've heard. Really smart & really well presented, thank you for sharing!
DAAAMN! I'm starting my first campaign and this was SO instructive! Thank you so much!
Well, I didn't want to pull on your nose once during this video, so you must be doing something right. More seriously, as a beginner GM, I really appreciate this perspective. It's helping me crystalize and put focus on some stuff I was already instinctively doing. And your presentation is excellent!
Great video, I especially appreciated Tell, Show, Do, Apply way of thinking. I'll try to apply it to my next session.
I just binged your videos, I'm preparing a campaign of my own and everything you talked about has been tremendous help and inspiration!
Definitely one of my favorite channels rn
I cannot thank you enough for this addition to my Kit. Incredible!