Aimee Vaupard’s first event begins this weekend GM festivala showcase (or dance recital as Amy liked to call it) for her alumni GM schoola 10-week program she put together to help budding DMs learn the ropes of creating and running TTRPG games for an audience. For the next three days, her students will be livestreaming on Twitch with the help of: Alchemy RPG and Chepek. Dan caught up with Amy earlier this week to learn more about the school’s founding and how she put this event together.
Dan Arndt: Tell us a little bit about the origins of GM School and why you decided to start a more formal program or bootcamp for GMs.
amy four pearls: I’ve been in the TTRPG industry for a long time, so I’ve seen how structured and “Wild West” it is. Everyone’s out there, it’s an art form based on improvisation and a business based on improvisation. Even though I’m a professional, there’s a lot to know about being a Dungeon Master, TTRPG adventure writer or game designer. I learned that after I started working. And once I learned some of these things, I thought, This is a place where women especially should know that everyone is kind of pretending until it works out, or until we all figure it out.
Dan: Can you tell us more about the school’s target audience?
amy: There are some things I wish I had learned before taking these gigs, so I basically built a GM school for my past self in the beginning. Before I was thrown into the fray, there were people who wanted a hand, who wanted to guide me, who just gave me a gold star or an A+ and said, “Yeah, you’re doing it right.” That’s what it is. There are no secrets. We hold nothing back. The best way to get better at something is to practice it, and right now the only real way to practice GMing is to get six adults together, somehow arrange their schedules, and spend four to five hours there together. You’ve been a GM once. And I thought, “That can’t be true. There has to be a way.”
I’ve taken a lot of improv classes and done a lot of improv training, so I thought I’d reflect that. You could do something like do a 10- to 15-minute scene instead of a four-hour scene. Because the preparation you do for a 10- to 15-minute scene impacts a four-hour scene. I think school is mostly preparation and performance, and the other 30% is actual knowledge, reading, rules and structure. And it changed people’s lives.
I know there have been a lot of women who have come up to me and said, “I’ve never DMed in my life” (of course there are all genders in the class). And before school even ended, they got their first paid gig as a DM and many of them went on to start the actual play podcast they wanted to do anyway. Do you think there was a knowledge barrier about what was actually required or if you could do it? The school itself is only 10 weeks long. Honestly, it’s a pretty good change of direction.
Dan: How do you approach multiple systems and think about multiple ways to approach the game? Some games have been played, but they are a little different from others. dagger heart vs.D&D
amy: At the DM school where I teach. Dungeons & Dragonsbut I would like to do a cohort that teaches different systems. Call of Cthulhu and dagger heart Probably at the top of the list there Blaze in the Dark Too. I teach them in much the same way. The core essence of all TTRPGs is that your best ideas are no match for the players’ ideas. Plan everything you need, but be prepared to throw everything away. That’s why so many GM schools are based on improvisation and don’t see any value in it.
Dan: Could you tell us more about the improvisational part? It’s improvised, but there are some guardrails. How do you approach that balance? Would coloring these lines make it easier for some GMs to improve?
amy: I think most people will find this structure useful. Many improv classes that you just take on a daily basis are not really useful. That’s because in many improvisational classes, you bring building blocks to the site, and the other person brings building blocks to the site, too, and teaches you how to put them together. In an RPG setup, the DM brings all the components to the scene. They’re creating a playground where they can play, socialize, and do things, and it’s the DM who provides that structure. So I say it’s improvisation, but it’s not improvisation as we know it. Having the confidence to roll with the punches helps. There is also a lot of preparation and composition. I think improvisational training is the biggest reason why I am confident as a Dungeon Master.
Dan: Students, you have a class. What made you decide to launch GMFest and start it as an event?
amy: I knew I had always wanted to do a showcase for my students, but I also knew that performing the actual play and running the stream was a bigger commitment than hosting a stand-up showcase where everyone was in the same room for five minutes. The actual play requires at least two hours of playing the game, playing with the characters, and presenting the story you’ve written. To achieve this, I felt that I needed to collaborate with someone. The first outreach I’ve done a lot of work on. alchemy And we worked a lot with Čepek, an iconic digital theater company, and they immediately understood the vision. They said to me, “If we can get GM to use our tools, let’s do it!” And they have always produced partners.
I would like to congratulate these new GMs. Of course, there are classic GMs who are well known at this point, but what about someone who wants to do this but isn’t famous? That’s a valuable factor. Can we only celebrate those who have already put in 10,000 hours, or can we celebrate those who are new but are making progress? I think all my players are already like that. At the same time, I still need to grow.
Many of these people don’t want to be famous. They don’t want to be the next Brennan Lee Mulligan. they don’t want that. But I believe there’s a lot of value out there in having a showcase and showing what they’re capable of and showing off their art outwardly, no matter their level of talent. They may not have reached the final evolution of their Pokemon in terms of who they are as a Dungeon Master, but you may be able to discover it by doing so.
Dan: Why did you have to prepare them now? Did knowing this was coming change the way you approached the class?
amy: We started working in February and gave them full options to run the adventures they wanted to run, the game systems they wanted to run. I have since coached them both in the creative elements and the VTT Alchemy technology streaming that is part of it all. So they’re definitely telling the story they want to tell.
Dan: I know the schedule here is a mix of Daggerheart and D&D.
Amy Vaupard: dagger heart Now that it’s fully playable and character building can be done entirely in Alchemy, we thought, “Let’s show it off!”
Dan: How do you feel about Daggerheart as a GM versus D&D?
amy: I think the biggest difference is the lack of spotlight functionality and initiative structure. New players and I found myself a new GM. dagger heart It spotlights specific players, giving them freedom but also the immediacy of knowing it’s their turn to take action. It also makes collaboration and improvisation simpler and more elegant. Dungeons & Dragons Apparently DM is the leader.
Dan: How did you assemble the cast and players for your team and what is the preparation like for GMF Fest?
amy: The GMs all ran session 0 with their players and gave me feedback on all of those sessions. And I have a suggestion. In terms of casting, we had several GMs come up with casting suggestions. I also give them access to my impromptu friends. Therefore, everyone who plays these games will have experience with improvisational games and RPGs. They’ve all been vetted by me (this is how you know I’m a bit of a control freak). Dan Arndt: It has to be the GM.
Amy: You like me as a control freak! You won’t like me if I’m always just standing there asking for complete freedom!
Dan: That’s what you have to do to get everyone in line.
amy:I’m a mom!
Dan: This is the first in an annual series, right?
amy: know. That’s what we’ve all been good to, Alchemy and Chepekians all, let’s call this the first year because this is already so great, and we’re already planning a post-mortem for this year so we can make next year even better. We hope that this event will become an annual event, and we will do our best to keep it going. There is so much value in that. I’m just one of those people who not only holds the door open behind me, but drags people out the door when they find someone they think deserves it.
I like to put my money where my mouth is. I want to give people the opportunity to access platforms that they don’t have access to yet. And this is just one of the actions that I felt aligned with my values. I’m really excited to get it out there.
Be sure to tune in all weekend to GM Fest on Twitch, where Amy’s students show off new skills every day. It all culminates in the final game dagger heart Amy herself is the GM.
You can also catch amy When she’s touring with a one-woman musical She has NPC energy, It debuted in March and has been on the concert circuit all year, and will be featured at both Gen Con and Origins.
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