RPG Professional Game Master Coaching

by Hawke Robinson published 2019/01/02 19:44:02 GMT-8, last modified 2022-11-12T08:45:29-08:00
A question posted that I stumbled across brought this to mind about professional Dungeons Masters (DM), and coaching to help those wanting to become better game masters (GM).

https://www.quora.com/Are-there-coaches-that-professionally-train-Dungeon-Master-skills

 

My response:

The non-profit RPG Research has been providing training since 2004 (that would be us, nearly 50 dedicated volunteers across North & South America, EU, and even Saudi Arabia).
Through Therapeutic Recreation, individual GM training was available in Washington state for professionals in various educational and healthcare facilities between 2006 through 2014 for organizations (and a few rare individuals) for $120/hr before incorporating as the for-profit organization RPG Therapeutics LLC began offering paid GM services and training in 2014.

Work began on creating certification programs in 2015, the certification undergoes a number of changes but is currently the Certified RPG Professional (CRPGP) attempting to establish minimum professional standards, codes of conduct, etc, similar to tech certs, but still a bit of a moving target.
The Role-play Workshop, established in late 1980s and still going strong in Oakland California has provided training to game masters for years, and has hired those sufficiently trained to run their custom system and setting.
The online learning Rpg.Education website offers online courses starting around 25 USD per course with 6 months access.
A number of organizations in the last few years have begun paying to train people to run their programs, and other clients are increasingly offering to pay professionals to train them.
An increasing number of Baby Boomers that were gamers in the 70s and 80s, and hadn’t picked it up since, are now aging into retirement and long term care communities and demanding services be provided to help them relive the RPG experience.
With the introduction of other professions into the RPG industry, the potential is growing far beyond what it once was in the “Golden Age”. :0)

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