"So You Want to Be a GM" seminar at MIT

[Short version: game-writing how-to seminar this Saturday from 1-8p at MIT which Ariel Segall and I (Kevin Riggle) are running. If you're interested, e-mail us at sywtbatm@mit.edu so we include you on the e-mail about which room it will be in, and so we get a rough headcount on food. I'll try to announce the room here as well, but things are a bit crazy this week and I may forget. E-mail is best. If you didn't RSVP, come anyway! E-mail us for the room location.



You do not need to be affiliated with MIT in any way to attend! But, do note that this session is primarily focused on writing games in the Guild style, so if you're primarily interested in writing games for eg. Intercon or boffer campaigns this is not necessarily going to be useful to you. Then again, it won't necessarily be unuseful either -- we don't know enough to speak directly to those audiences, although we have some experience, but much of the advice is generally true. Do be aware that you will have to take many of the details (and some big ideas) on the understanding that they won't necessarily apply to your audience.



Also note that this session is intended partly as preparation for people interested in doing Guild Camp at MIT beginning the weekend after. Guild Camp (boot, not summer) is an intensive game-writing workshop in which people form up into 3-5 person teams and write a Guild game in two weeks. It's a ton of fun -- I wrote my first game a year ago as part of it -- but light on theory or general advice, so we'll be speaking directly to that experience. Again, most things will be generally true if you're not doing Guild Camp, but take that under advisement. -ed.]

Full blurb under the cut.



So You Want to Be a GM is a seminar designed to teach new and inexperienced GMs key skills for writing Guild games, aimed at people who like to have some idea of what they're doing before they dive in. There is no One Right Way to write a game, so we won't be teaching one, and since this is an overview class, we will only have a short time to talk about some very complicated topics. However, we aim to provide enough of a toolbox for new GMs to feel comfortable writing even complicated and unusual games, and to know where to find more help if they want it. The focus will be on basics, including how to get started writing a game, how to create and balance plots, selection and design of mechanics, and balancing of economies, along with practical topics such as how to sanity check your game, how to run a mechanics test, and things you'll want to keep in mind when preparing to run. This class should be equally useful to people who want to go off and write a game independently, and people who plan to participate in more organized activities such as Guild Camp (coming in just a few weeks!)

This class is not intended for experienced GMs, unless there's an area of gamewriting you're not comfortable with; while you're welcome to attend, we will be limiting the kibbitzing to breaks in order to keep the lectures focused. We do explicitly invite those who we've heard say things like "Well, I'm a character GM; I don't know how to write mechanics, although I wish I did" or "I wish I knew how to create economies, they scare me and I know mine are unbalanced"; however, our schedule is not precise enough to let you reliably show up only for the relevant subset of the class, sorry.

SYWtBaGM will start at 1 pm on Saturday, July 14, in a room TBD*. Based on feedback from the last class, our current plan is to run until 7 or 8, with a dinner break in the middle. However, exact length and schedule will depend on audience interest and engagement. We'll have snacks and drinks. If you know you'll be coming, we'd love it if you'd drop us a line [at sywtbagm@mit.edu -ed.] so we know how much food to bring.

Also: We'd like to do something a little different for the shameless plugs. Instead of (or in addition to) games that will be running soon, we'd like to invite GM teams looking for new members, or people who have an idea for a game and who want a team, to come and plug their games. If you've got an idea or team that you want to plug but won't be able to make it, please feel free to e-mail us your blurb and contact information, and we'll plug it for you. We hope that many of our audience will come out of the class excited to write, and want to give them as many chances as possible to do so.

* Sorry, we were lame. We'll be sending out a second reminder e-mail later this week which will include the room info. E-mail us for the room if you're not on the list.