5 Questions to Ask to Avoid GM Coaching Scams
- Dec 10, 2025
- 4 min read
Image from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
I'm pretty big about always continuing to educate myself and further refining my skills.
I’m one of those women that once I dedicate myself to something, I am all-in on committing to become the best in that field.
This has led to some very neurotic, tutorial-hell phases of mine, where I kept myself tuned in to those who were not as experienced as I was, just holding out for a nugget of wisdom they might have had that I did not.
So, when I made the jump from a hobbyist game master to a professional one, I took advantage of the free seminar programs that StartPlaying offers to their game masters. In the beginning of my career, these webinars helped me and taught me so much. I signed up for every one that I possibly could in the pursuit of knowledge.
Each StartPlaying webinar would be about a different topic with a different game master. Some of the information in these webinars were undoubtedly more valuable than information found in others. Some game masters really knew what they were talking about! But, over time, it also became very clear that many were having ChatGPT write their presentations.
I began to seek out professional game masters independently, asking them how much it would be to book an hour of their time and pick their brains for advice. Some of the most valuable conversations I’ve ever had with my colleagues were through these types of booked conversations!
Other times I would get lucky and the game master would be offering their own webinar independently. These have been some of my favorites to join because the game master is often talking about their own knowledge and expertise, and I feel good about directly supporting them when I can.
However, undoubtedly the worst experiences I have had were through direct, so-called “coaching programs” offered by game masters.
Ultimately, I’ve been pretty burned by these so-called coaching programs with their lack of syllabi, curriculum, and intentionality. It seems that mostly these programs were set in place to not actually help game masters succeed. These programs always seemed specifically designed to bring in as much money as possible for the host by providing as little value as possible.
Generally, these programs provide a community Discord space to ask questions. Unless your community is actually active and enjoyable to interact with, this is just more noise in a sea of Discord servers with channels for RPG questions.
Occasionally there might be a scheduled co-working channel. This one is more rare, but it's appreciated when I see it. Too bad I know it will only really be used if co-working sessions are intentionally scheduled by program's instructor.
And, of course, there's typically a once-a-month video call for 1 hour that was never really about anything specific. There’s typically no topic, no plan, and no curriculum. You’ll log on to a, “Hey guys! Does anyone have any questions for me or issues they want to discuss? You’ve got me for a whole hour!” Then, once the call was up, it was like they would forget about their coaching program until they could collect for the following month. If you’re lucky, you might even get a 1-v-1 meeting at some point in the month for 15 to 30 minutes. But don't count on your coach reaching out to check in with you and make sure you book this spot; they will expect you to reach out and guide yourself through this process, even though you might be paying them close to $100/month for them to.... [checks notes]... COACH YOU.
Honestly, what the hell is even that?
After experiencing a build-up of frustration in these programs, I sent the following questions the various coaches.
You would be surprised by how many of them never responded to my messages, never attempted to answer my questions, and who shut down their “program” within 10 business days after I sent the following questions.
I’d like to share these questions with you for you to ask the next time someone tries to sell you their GM program:
1. What concrete skills or outcomes should I expect to gain as a GM by participating in your coaching?
2. Is there a structured progression or curriculum for meetings? Or is the value you’re providing more about open Q&A discussion?
3. What would you say makes your program distinct from the free resources and groups already available, like the general SPG Discord server, or other private Discord servers of pro GM cohorts and colleague groups?
4. How long would you anticipate it taking a GM to complete or graduate from your program, or is there no intended end point?
5. How would you define what a successful GM student will look like at the end of your coaching program?
What sort of instructor can’t provide a syllabus? If your program host can’t answer these questions, don’t sign up for it!
If it’s obvious there’s no intended endpoint for you as a consumer (i.e. a “graduation” of sorts), then the host is likely trying to just keep you there indefinitely so they can make some additional “passive” income.
And oh baby, as a former student, I can say confidently that you really feel how passively most of them treat it.
I hope these questions will be helpful to anyone out there exploring a potential coaching program who isn’t entirely clear on what exactly they will be getting.
If you do find a coach who CAN answer the questions above, and you like what you're hearing from them, you've probably found a trustworthy mentor and instructor!
And when you find them, shoot me a link. Ya girl wants more learn.
