The DM Course
Stop over-prepping
You’ve watched the streams and read the books. But when your players look at you expecting a world to unfold, you freeze. This 5-session course teaches the frameworks professional DMs use to prep in 30 minutes, improvise with confidence, and design encounters that feel alive.
You won’t be perfect. You’ll be ready.
- Per session
- $10 ×5
- Class size
- 6 max
The problem
Sound familiar?
- 01
You prep for 3 hours…
…and your players veer off the track in 20 minutes. Everything you planned is useless, and now you’re improvising desperately.
- 02
You think you’re not “naturally talented”
Other DMs make it look easy. It isn’t a gift: every one of them learned frameworks. Talent is frameworks turned into muscle memory.
- 03
Your sessions feel flat
Encounters, not worlds. No stakes, no tension, combat as maths, NPCs as voices you do badly. It’s draining for everyone.
What you’ll learn
Five sessions, start to table
Each session is 2–3 hours: 60–90 minutes of teaching with real examples, then 30–60 minutes applying it with live feedback.
- Session 1
The GM’s role & fundamentals
What a Game Master really is: facilitator, storyteller and referee, and a designer of conflict rather than a narrator. Design for feelings, player archetypes, and your first Session Zero: social contract, safety tools and campaign pitch.
- Session 2
Running games the right way
Stop spending 3 hours on prep: Sly Flourish’s eight-step Lazy DM method takes 30 minutes. Abstract secrets instead of railroads, strong scene intros, pacing and pressure, fail-forward design, and the Yes/And, Yes/But, No/But toolkit.
- Session 3
Story design & adventure architecture
Node-based scenarios that let players drive, top-down world design, five-act structure, the five-room dungeon and the Three Clue Rule for mysteries. Hands-on: design a mini-campaign arc with real player agency.
- Session 4
Encounter design & mechanics
Timers, threats and treats; action-oriented bosses and villain actions; difficulty without the maths; compound encounters that mix combat with puzzles and social stakes. Hands-on: build a boss fight with complications.
- Session 5
Roleplaying, NPCs, improv & live practicum
NPC frameworks (OGAS, two adjectives, three lines), voices that work without accents, villains with understandable goals, sensory narration and improv tricks. Then you run a 30-minute trial game for the cohort and get live feedback.
Who it’s for
Your seat behind the screen
- 01
New Dungeon Masters
Never sat in the GM chair? Build up from the ground with frameworks you can rely on instead of winging it.
- 02
Players ready to GM
You know the game from the player’s side and think you could do it. Here are the tools to actually succeed.
- 03
Struggling DMs
Sessions falling flat, prep burning you out, players on their phones? Learn to run better games and enjoy them again.
Your teacher
Gerry Ong
Founder of GuildHall, with 4+ years running professional D&D sessions and the creator of the Ankarae living world, where several campaigns run in parallel with shared lore and consequences. Gerry has trained the DMs who now run many of the regular sessions on our schedule.
Every framework in this course has been tested with real players in real sessions with real stakes: the eight-step prep runs every week, the Three Clue Rule designs our mysteries, and the NPC techniques are what players remember. This is learning from someone in the trenches, not someone selling a certificate.
Next cohort
Dates
The next cohort’s dates are being set. WhatsApp us to be first in line.
Questions
FAQ
Do I need to have played D&D before?
No. We teach 5e basics in Session One. If you’ve played but never run a game, you’re exactly who this is for.
Do I need to memorise the rulebooks?
No. The books are tools, not textbooks. You’ll learn decision-making frameworks that sit on top of the rules.
How much work is there between sessions?
Almost none: one or two optional articles. No homework, no assignments. It’s designed to fit around real life.
Will I actually run a game in front of people?
Yes. Session Five is a live practicum: you (or a pair) run a 30-minute trial game while the cohort watches, then everyone gives supportive feedback.
Can I attend just one or two sessions?
No. The curriculum builds session by session, so you need all five. If you miss a cohort’s start, join the next one.
Why is it only $10 a session?
It’s a community builder, not a profit centre. Singapore needs more trained DMs, and GuildHall wins when you run games with us afterwards.
Can I DM at GuildHall afterwards?
That’s the pathway. Graduates get priority for GuildHall DM slots, and your practicum is your audition.
Six seats per cohort
The frameworks work. The sessions are tight. Either way, let’s find out.