10,000 hours

This has become a very popular plumb line for judging mastery. Studies showed 10,000 hours was the average practice time to reach this level in musicianship and it seems to have been applied to multiple skills since. I look at this and think, how long have I been in the GM seat?

Adding up my weekly gaming for the past 8 years I fall short…by a lot! Including conventions, and other pick-up games, my time has only reached around 1400 hours (at this rate, I’ll reach mastery when I’m 80). When I say that I am no expert, it’s true, but I am by no means cutting my teeth on the game master’s guides.

I am in a position, when someone asks for my advice or opinion on running a game, I can share with confidence. Let me tell you, it feels good to be asked. This means others see that I have experience enough to have an intelligent opinion. They want to know how I handle social encounters, combat, player antics, homebrewing, and even tips for adjusting a pre-written campaign.

Most importantly, I do not expect others to do what I do. Everyone has their own play style and that spills into how they run a game too. I only offer what I do in hopes that it inspires ideas for their own games.