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ColumnsGM Tips & Tricks

How GMing made me an Extrovert, kind of – GM Tips & Tricks

Clickbaitey article name? Possibly. However, I wanted to talk about the ways I believe GMing has changed much of my life for the better. I’m pretty sure that if you have been GMing for a while you have also felt this. If you haven’t GMed much, consider this a good reason to jump to the GM seat (that should also always be the most comfortable one in the room).

Group Leader

In order to become a GM you need to get yourself a group of players! You can gather some friends or find people willing to play with you by creating an online group. You can find many tips on how to create your own online group or people willing to try the game out with you in THIS ARTICLE. Creating a group to play with means (if there aren’t enough scheduling problems to destroy the group) that you will be chatting with them very often. Moreover, as you are the one preparing the game, it is you that most of the time schedules when you will be playing. This often means you will be creating a group chat and deciding who brings the snacks!

Do you remember those terrible times you had to cooperate with a group in high school for a group project? As an introvert, I always hated group projects and would do most of the work on my own to make sure the project was done well on time. Unluckily, if you are GMing you will probably be doing a similar job, acting as the group leader and making sure the game ends up being played. The good thing is that your group is surely 4+ people looking forward to playing and having a great time. If you GM long enough, being the group leader becomes less of a chore and more of a rewarding task. Scheduling a comfortable time for everyone to play still sucks, but leading the group to in-game fun experiences feels amazing, and those skills you use to herd the PCs in-game are pretty much the same you use to manage your player group!  

Acting Skills

Theatre and acting were things I always enjoyed but only managed to do during high school. It was a safe space for me to do stupid things, impersonate a character and have others laugh with me. When playing TTRPGs, I feel those same feelings all over again. I practice my NPCs and monsters’ voices while driving and do weird gestures in front of the mirror to practice for my game. In no way do I consider myself a great actor or voice actor, but I can see how someone could benefit in those aspects from gamemastering.

Just like actors become more confident the more they act, GMing and playing dumb with my friends helped me gain confidence. I started to come out of my shell and be more charismatic. The more I played charismatic NPCs (overly charismatic villains are my favorite to roleplay), the more I incorporated those characteristics into my personality. Playing different personas can help you better understand them and learn from their personality by seeing how your players react when confronted with those characters. You can make mistakes during the game and learn from them. It’s your safe space after all, and you can create an ultimate version of yourself by trying personalities out.

Bluffing and Improvising

One of the things GMs do the most is improvising. You can’t plan for everything that is going to happen and your players will surely sidetrack your plan at some point. There are also improvisation-heavy RPGs such as Fiasco that fully depend on that.  Bluffing is another great tool that you start to incorporate by GMing, which in many cases is tied to improvisation. You might find out that for many things in life it becomes crucial to know how to properly bluff and improvise.

Oral exams, seeking a relationship, doing a job interview, doing a presentation, and sometimes even when offering advice. Improvisation I’ve found to be a pivotal tool for my daily life, which I use a lot as an engineer. They help you guide a conversation and reach the results you are looking to achieve. This is very much tied with being a group leader, or even a team leader in your daily full-time job. As a GM you learn how to read your players and give them exactly what they want for their characters. A great leader does just that as well!

Communication skills

Apart from being able to describe in full detail an imaginary landscape, you can use the vocabulary you practice for your GMing in your daily life. You will surely end up using complex words only a few know what they mean, but that just makes you more like an intellectual. Just don’t be an ass trying to use complex words to confuse people. You learn to read people better while GMing, learning when is the best moment to say something to cheer someone up or make their day better. I used to be an introverted person for most of my childhood. Nowadays, I can say without a doubt that I am more of an extroverted person than an introverted one. Just like when I GM, I can borrow some personality traits from NPCs I usually roleplay and start a conversation with a stranger with ease. I still need my alone time after much interaction, but that’s still a significant step forward!


Conclusion

Just like I got to become a new better version of myself by becoming a better GM, which skills did GMing offer you? Is there something you think I missed from all things I describe? I’m pretty sure getting better at GMing can help you be a better parent for example. Share your own life stories on how GMing helped you in your life in the comments below!

If you liked this

You begin GMing and are now looking for ways to help your new players create the perfect character for them. How is it that one can achieve that? Luckily, I have the right article for you! CLICK HERE