Monte Cook along with Monte Cook Are Teaching Workshops at Dungeon Master University

Beginning in 2018, Tabletop Vacations has been hosting deeply engaging experiences where experienced game masters lead fantasy roleplaying games in ancient fortresses in England and at a U.S. castle resort. These all-inclusive trips are highly favored among career game masters who infrequently find the moment to join in the game themselves, and they often ask for tips from the pros on topics ranging from improv and crafting riddles to handling difficult situations at the table.

In response, the coordinators began developing a organized method to address these questions, which led to the establishment of the Dungeon Master Academy. The debut workshop is planned for the start of 2026 at a university in Atlanta.

“There are numerous digital guides on any topic and acquire valuable insights, but the philosophy was that nothing compares to an in-person experience alongside peers in game mastering, where there’s live engagement with faculty instructors and your peers likely in comparable situations and seek to level up their game,” stated the dean of Dungeon Master University.

Course Offerings and Pricing Tiers

Game masters can opt for tiers ranging from nearly a thousand dollars to two thousand five hundred dollars, depending on the amount of contact they desire with the professionals. The base tier includes a choice of four workshops:

• Skill Building: Focuses on the fundamentals of leading a game.
• Long-Term Game Planning: Focuses around building persistent adventures.
• Worldbuilding: Concentrates on the development of worlds.
• Career Building: Aimed at DMs who seek to understand more about the gaming industry.

Every class includes eight hours of classwork spread over two days.

“The courses are structured so that you leave with usable skills, probably greater confidence, and a lot of usable tools,” Carl explained. “It's more than presentations and they exceed pre-recorded material. These classes that you can join, gain knowledge from, and then return to your group the week after and apply in your regular session.”

Professional Teachers

Many sessions are taught by a pair of experts. Worldbuilding is taught by an industry veteran and a renowned campaign designer, together instructing the art of worldbuilding.

Career building includes multiple instructors, such as a puzzle design specialist, Clint McElroy, and an early professional game master. The extra instructors is intended to deliver focused advice to students with particular aims.

“Certain participants want to launch their own D&D actual play and present their narratives with the world, others aim to release and write original content,” Carl explained. “Others simply wish to ask, What's the path to be a DM at something like D&D in a Castle? What capabilities that I need? Is this achievable?”

Premium Packages

A fifteen hundred dollar gold tier includes access to a opening gathering, a welcome gift pack, and a 30-minute office hour appointment with one of the faculty. This constitutes the debut of the program, though the organizers has previously run comparable workshops during breaks between campaigns at their castle events.

“One could practically host an entire weekend just on one-on-one meetings for career game masters,” Carl observed. “It's unclear if that’s the best use of all participants' schedule – I think the formal instruction and the practical exercises is extremely important – but I suspect it’s going to be a highly favored parts of the program.”

The $2,500 platinum tier provides an hour of one-on-one time and the opportunity to manage an adventure for five players plus one of the faculty members, who will then give comments and coaching.

“The goal is for the teacher to assess whichever aspect is interested in: I struggle with improv or I get blocked in certain battle scenarios. Can I run a situation for you and get feedback on my areas of proficiency and challenge?” Carl detailed. “Alternatively they want to obtain critique and advice on a particular setting that they’ve been building.”

Coming Developments

Feedback from the debut workshop will help determine upcoming academy workshops. Carl said that potential adjustments could include increasing consultation time, making it longer to three days, or experimenting with alternative workshop formats.

“I anticipate that we host such events very often,” Carl stated. “I would love to see multiple Dungeon Master Universities in a calendar year, in various locations, and in multiple countries. The feedback has been overwhelmingly favorable. We're quite pleased with the results so far and I believe it would be fantastic to be able to conduct this in conjunction with big conventions.”