This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about hosting a webinar on StartPlaying Games. Whether you're sharing expertise on safety tools, worldbuilding, VTT setup, or game prep, this FAQ covers how to structure, list, and deliver a great session.
⚠️ Note: This event is a trial run! We're excited to be formally supporting and promoting GM webinars as a program on SPG. Your feedback will help shape how this initiative grows.
Table of Contents
1. What is a GM Webinar on SPG?
A GM Webinar is a ticketed, live online class where you teach Game Masters of all experience levels about skills, tools, and other topics relevant to running TTRPGs. Think of it less like a game session and more like a workshop. You're the expert, and your participants are there to level up their craft as Game Masters.
Our Game Masters have been running webinars on StartPlaying for a while now, and this guide is here to help you make the most of the format. Because these are teaching sessions rather than games, there are a few differences in how you set things up, and this guide walks you through all of it.
2. What Kinds of Webinars Can I Run?
You can teach almost any skill that makes someone a more confident, prepared, or creative Game Master. Here are some suggested categories and topic ideas to get you started:
Safety
Safety
How to utilize safety tools at your table
How to run a good Session 0
How to provide content warnings without spoiling your story
How to handle a problem player
How to manage party conflict
Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding
Creating a framework for your world
How to use environmental storytelling
An exploration of map design
Weaving character backstory into the world
Gameplay
Gameplay
How to keep combat interesting
How to start a campaign well
The difference between planning and railroading
Prep Work
Prep Work
How to plan a campaign
How to plan a one-shot
How to prep for a session
Prioritizing your prep work
Game Master Skills & Tools
Game Master Skills & Tools
How to use Roll20/Foundry/Other VTT
How to set up a Discord server for your games
How to keep your community engaged between games
How to handle character sheets online
A guide to using character voices
Using improv at the table
Music and ambiance in your games
This list is a starting point, not a ceiling. If you have expertise in a related area, pitch your own topic.
3. How Do I Set Up My Webinar on StartPlaying?
Since Game Templates are required in order to list an Adventure, you'll be using the existing Game Template system to provide customers the information about your Webinar. Here's how to make it work:
Title: Use a clear, descriptive title that reflects your topic (e.g., "Session 0 Mastery: Building Trust Before the Game Begins").
Format: One-Shot
Game System: Game Master Workshop
Description: Clearly state that this is a webinar or class, not a game session. Describe what GMs will learn, who the session is for (brand-new Game Masters, experienced Game Masters refining a specific skill, etc.), and anything they should prepare or bring.
How should your players prepare: Go over the expectations you have for your attendees. Do they need to have specific things downloaded, or accounts on a specific website? Do you have a form they will need to fill out ahead of time? Are there required readings or tasks they will need to complete?
What will you provide your players: Speak on your expertise, what you will be covering in the webinar, and how the webinar will be formatted.
Content Warnings: List the “Seminar” Content Warning.
⚠️ Most important: Make it obvious in both your title and description that this is a teaching session, not a game. This sets the right expectations and avoids confusion at booking.
Game Masters who have been through this process had some practical advice on navigating the listing template:
Question: How do you set up your webinar templates on SPG? What might people need to do differently, since this isn’t a game?
Question: How do you set up your webinar templates on SPG? What might people need to do differently, since this isn’t a game?
“Set them up as simple one-shots. I don't think there's anything meaningfully different between a game listing and webinar listing, the ad copy structure should be roughly the same.”
“You should have your audience determined (beginning GMs, intermediate, or experienced GMs? Or everyone?) before you set up your listing. Put the audience type in the beginning, middle, and end, and add it to the Details on the Character or Party Description field. The listing should tell the audience what they'll learn or take away from the webinar.”
“Consider how many people you are opening this up to. Bigger is not always better. If your webinar has workshop components, err on the side of smaller so people can get more one on one attention.“
“Be as specific as you intend to be. There are hundreds of game systems, run in hundreds of languages, among hundreds and thousands of cultures. Is your webinar about Pathfinder 2nd ed? or does it apply to any game system? Either is fine - just communicate that in your listing.”
“Game listings often have a bit of mystery; the webinar should be perfectly clear what attendees will have by the end.”
4. How Do I Structure My Webinar?
Most webinars run between 60 and 90 minutes. Shorter sessions (around 45 min) work well for tightly focused topics; longer sessions (up to 2 hrs) suit complex or multi-part subjects.
A tried-and-true structure:
Introduction (5–10 min): Who you are, what the session covers, housekeeping
Core content (40–60 min): Your teaching, broken into digestible segments
Activities & interaction (10–15 min): Exercises, discussion, breakout moments
Q&A (10–15 min): Open floor for questions
Wrap-up (5 min): Key takeaways, next steps, resources
Of course, structure isn't one-size-fits-all. We asked experienced SPG webinar hosts how they approach pacing and organization in their own sessions:
Question: How do you structure a webinar? How long do you spend on each section?
Question: How do you structure a webinar? How long do you spend on each section?
“I generally aim for 5-7 minutes pers section to keep attention, using a Me/We/Principle/You/We structure per point: Me: What I find to be a challenge. We: How we all face this challenge and its effect. Principle: The solution or principle. You: How might following this principle look for the attendees? We: What are the ways every GM should probably be applying this principle?”
“Typically I structure it into two or three parts, with intermissions in between for Q&As and/or breakout rooms. Each section typically takes 15-25 minutes, with the intermissions taking 10. At the end I like to reserve a good 15 minutes for discussion and debriefing.”
“Take your total time, remove a short time for arrivals/introductions, then allocate the rest of the time based on areas which are simple or complex to communicate. Allow more time for complex and/or important sections, breaking down the complex areas into chunks.”
“I used to certify student employees as Climbing Wall Instructors, and have found the model I used to teach that coursework can be applied to these webinars as well. The model is: SELL it, SHOW it, DO it, USE it, WRAP it. I'll briefly describe that flow below:
SELL it: Introduce yourself and humbly share your accolades. Why should the audience put their confidence in what you have to say? Convince the audience they were right to have signed up for this within 2 minutes of starting the webinar.
SHOW it: Present your topic sections. This is lecture, powerpoint, discussion, dissemination of information. Use visual aids like video, images, etc.
DO it: Let the audience try what you presented somehow. This might not feel possible, but you can always do a case study and ask for answers in the chat to give the audience a chance to flex what they've just been exposed to. Get creative here. How can you snap the audience out of "listening to a lecture" mode and get them re-engaged enough to solidify a takeaway in their brains?
USE it: Partner up, breakout rooms, open up for questions. Somehow we need to go from trying the concept to actually applying it.
WRAP it: Go back over the main points of the topic sections you presented. Test your audience's knowledge. A Kahoot quiz is a fantastic way to do this."
5. How Do I Prepare My Curriculum?
Start with your learning objective. Ask yourself: What should someone be able to do or understand after this webinar that they couldn't before? Let that answer drive every decision about content.
From there:
Identify 3–5 core takeaways. Don't try to cover every single thing, instead focusing your class on teaching a few things really well.
Consider your audience's starting point. Are they brand-new Game Masters running their first campaign, or seasoned Game Masters looking to refine a specific skill?
Prepare concrete examples, real scenarios, or stories from your own table. These make abstract concepts stick.
Build your structure first, then fill in content. Outline before you start building out all the details.
Plan a moment of interaction for every 10–15 minutes of talking.
Gathering information ahead of time can also strengthen your session significantly. Consider sending a short pre-webinar form asking about experience level, what questions participants hope to have answered, or situations they've struggled with. This lets you tailor your content and makes attendees feel heard before the session even begins.
Curious how other Game Masters approach building their content? Here's how experienced SPG hosts decide what goes into their curriculum, and how they use pre-webinar information to shape it:
Question: How do you prep for your webinar? How do you decide what goes into your curriculum?
Question: How do you prep for your webinar? How do you decide what goes into your curriculum?
“I start by surveying members of the community on what they would be interested in learning about the topic, or what their answers are to certain questions. Sometimes I will collect in-depth responses in a google form, and use that to guide my lesson and create infographics. I also read primary texts by subject experts, so I can draw specific quotations and exercises. If I can find a video or other media to present, structuring part of my webinar around that is helpful, both to break up the lecture time and as a guide for the lesson plan.”
“Gut feelings and anecdotal "This is what I do" approaches are fine, but those personal experiences need to be supported by something substantial/ data-driven. The audience is looking for something that will improve their understanding of a topic, and there's a whole website they can go to if they want another opinion video - Youtube. Your prep should involve reading a book on the topic, executing a small-scale survey or study, or organizing your subject matter expertise in order to present it in a way that can be supported by references.”
“Ask yourself what a potential attendee saw in your title, description, topic, and made them decide to register. What might they want to know more about that they can't already find on Youtube or Reddit?”
“Write everything I know down, and cut out anything that attendees can’t apply in 24 hours. Record myself running it, highlighting the biggest deals, and cut the rest down to 30-45 minutes, depending on webinar length.”
“I choose a subject I know intimately and use frequently, so I am confident in answering questions. I set up an outline, edit for pace and logical progression, flesh it out with bullet points or statements as reminders of things I don't want to forget. I set up a Poll for participants to get pre- and post-seminar responses to see if I made any impact. I chose one or two take-away PDFs or links that the audience could reference later. On the day before the event I set up my camera and test my video, add lights, ensure my account for Zoom/Discord or other tech is ready, then log in early for the webinar.”
Question: Do you gather any questions or information from participants before the webinar? If yes, what do you do with that information?
Question: Do you gather any questions or information from participants before the webinar? If yes, what do you do with that information?
“I send out a google form to everyone who has signed up, as well as several "experienced" professionals, to gather information about personal preferences, and their answers to problems related to the webinar topic. I then use this information to make various figures (word clouds, pie charts, bar charts) to convey some hypotheses, and will display insightful quotes from veteran GMs. Usually these are great at prompting discussion and speculation from participants.”
“I have sent polls out to the initial pool of registrants to capture what they expect to find out more about during the webinar. This is a great way to gather specific info from your audience about your topic (definitely subject to the topic), and I have absolutely adjusted my planned content based on those polls in order to align to the audience's expectations and desires.”
“Depending on the webinar, I ask them to send me what they most want to know or be able to do by the end of the webinar. I use that information to also go more in-depth in some sections of my webinar and delete others.”
6. How Do I Keep Participants Engaged?
A webinar is not a lecture; or at least, the best ones aren't. Here are ways to keep energy and attention high throughout:
Live demonstrations: Walk through a real scenario, share your screen, or show a tool in action.
Chat prompts: Ask attendees to type a one-word answer, share a quick story from their table, or drop a question in the chat.
Structured Q&A: Build in Q&A windows throughout rather than saving it all for the end.
Breakout rooms: For larger groups, short breakout discussions give Game Masters a chance to process ideas and connect with each other.
The goal is to make participants feel like contributors, not just an audience. We asked experienced hosts what techniques they rely on to keep their sessions lively:
Question: How do you keep people engaged during your webinars? Do you use polls, audience participation, breakout groups, etc.?
Question: How do you keep people engaged during your webinars? Do you use polls, audience participation, breakout groups, etc.?
“I use a mixture of infographics, question prompting ("Does anybody know what that is?"), humor, my whiteboard, and variations in structure. Thankfully, I can rely on a lot of my training as a stage performer to keep things engaging.”
“I have used polls, breakout rooms, scenario exercises with audience members, etc. I also invited a smaller Youtuber to co-host with me for one of them and that brought in folks who wouldn't have otherwise registered. My co-host and I also gave away Foundry VTT licenses to audience members who were present during the webinar once.
“I keep a chat going and allow questions, so it can be more of. a conversation and I can personalize the content to the group that has shown up.”
7. What Tools and Platforms Should I Use?
Pick tools that feel comfortable to you first. A confident presenter using simple tools beats a nervous one wrestling with a complex setup. Keep in mind that some tools may have a time limit on how long meetings can be with free accounts.
Video Platforms:
Zoom: the most full-featured option for webinars; supports polls, breakout rooms, screen sharing, and recording
Google Meet: simple and accessible
Discord (Stage Channels or Video): familiar to the TTRPG community; great for a more casual, community feel
StreamYard: useful if you want a more polished, broadcast-style presentation
Presentation & Visual Aids:
Google Slides or PowerPoint: clean, easy to follow, shareable with attendees afterward
Canva: visually rich and easy to design and present in
Screen sharing a VTT: ideal for tool-specific webinars (Roll20, Foundry, etc.)
Notion or Google Docs: works well for collaborative, workshop-style sessions
Google Forms: useful for creating a way for your attendees to share feedback, questions, or specific areas of interest, prior to the actual class taking place
Every Game Master has their own preferred setup. Here's how some of our most experienced webinar hosts put their webinars together:
Question: What tools or platforms do you use? (Slides vs screenshare, video/voice platform, etc.)
Question: What tools or platforms do you use? (Slides vs screenshare, video/voice platform, etc.)
“I use Discord, with the Stages function to facilitate the lecture/discussion portions, and separate channels for breakout rooms. For my slideshow, I use Google Slides.”
“I used Zoom on my laptop with an external monitor for video/voice, and there was a chat running, as well as an in-app Poll. Microsoft Word for the outline/ script. High-speed internet connection. I have a professional microphone on an arm, an external camera, and a ring light.”
“Google Meet & a VTT primarily. Slides can be screenshared.”
“Discord meetings, make a slide in Keynote, then share screen. Use free images from unsplash.com for the slides, and make the slides available after webinar.”
8. Tips, Pitfalls, and Best Practices
Do:
Test your audio, video, and screen share before the session; ideally giving yourself enough time to fix things if they don’t work, not five minutes before your students are supposed to arrive
Use the Prep Materials to provide any links they need, any pre-work, and a brief overview of what they need to do
Start and end on time. Respecting the schedule signals professionalism
Teach topics you are proficient in; attendees should leave your class feeling prepared to take on your topic on their own
Avoid:
Reading directly from your slides; use them as a guide, not a script
Trying to cover too much; depth beats breadth for retention
Ignoring the chat; a backlog of unanswered questions kills engagement fast
Going in without structure; even a rough outline keeps you from losing the thread
Skipping the framing at the start; participants should know the format, pace, and expectations within the first two minutes
Nobody learns these lessons faster than someone who's already been through it. We asked our experienced hosts what they wish they'd known sooner, and what they'd tell a first-time webinar host today:
Question: What pitfalls or things should people avoid when running a webinar?
Question: What pitfalls or things should people avoid when running a webinar?
“Avoid letting too much time pass before engaging the audience somehow. During Climbing Wall Instructor Courses, my goal was to get something into my students' hands within 2 minutes of starting a course. For climbers, that was rope, harnesses, carabiners, etc - for TTRPG webinar attendees that might be a website to visit, a song to play, a video to watch, a question to answer in the chat, a chat emoji reaction to an idea, etc.”
“Don’t spend too much time on your introduction, who you are and the things you've done. Instead, have a short intro which establishes your credibility and move into the meat of the material.”
“Avoid the following: Lecturing for longer than 15 minutes straight. Talking about yourself for longer than 3 minutes overall. Getting bogged down in tangential questions, especially if they are all from the same person. Giving information in an "authoritative" voice when it's your personal opinion. Making fun of any question asked (there are no dumb questions). Getting bogged down in arguing with an attendee. Coming with only a page of bullet point notes and thinking you can just vamp your way through it.”
“Don’t Forget to define your audience prior to writing or creating the material. Don’t try to target everyone, as it rarely helps.
“Avoid assuming your audience shares your political or social beliefs. Comments that might fly with your groups or other community members in your circle may alienate or come across as disparaging to attendees at your webinar. Be professional and welcoming to people of all viewpoints.”
“As the webinar progresses, KEEP engaging the audience at least every ten minutes.”
“Don’t have too broad a topic to be covered in any depth in the time allotted (this has been my biggest disappointment when I attended GM webinars).
Question: What advice do you have for someone running a webinar for the first time?
Question: What advice do you have for someone running a webinar for the first time?
“Be honest about your skill level, expertise level etc. Don’t present anything you can’t personally verify and stake your reputation on.”
“Keep your eyebrows up, smile, and be enthusiastic to teach. If you can do that, you're already 50% of the way there. 2. As a rule of thumb [for free webinars], whatever number of attendees you book, 8-10 will not show up.”
“After the webinar, take the feedback you get to heart. The instinct is to defend yourself, but that isn't a helpful instinct. Introspect and consider how you could adjust for next time. There is always an adjustment that could be made.”
“Present 2-3 times to just you, record it, and watch it each time, evaluating it from the attendees' point of view”
“You don't need to have an answer to every question. Throw away the self-imposed expectation that you need to know it all. If you don't know, it's fine to say, "That's a fantastic question! Does anyone in the chat have experience with that before I share my two cents?" The TTRPG community love to share their knowledge, and it can lead to some fantastic discussions. Not only that, but it gives you time to gather your thoughts. If all else fails, a simple, "I don't have an answer for you, but I'm going to write that down and see if I can answer for you after the webinar." - If you do this, though, make sure you follow through!”
“Focus. Try to dig into the topic in a focused way that brings GMs usable and reproduceable tips or learnings.”
Have questions about running your webinar that aren't covered here? Reach out to the StartPlaying team by emailing support@startplayinggames.com. We're here to help make your session a success!