Newest Tutorial Brochures

As students for my online tutorial classes have approached me and gone through the courses - happily, I'd like to add, writing very positively that the courses are worth the money - I have become increasingly clear about how the content of those classes ought to be described.  As well, I'd like to have a post where all four of the classes are in one place.  It is my plan to promote the classes at the Edmonton Expo next weekend, to encourage people to consider the possibility of jumping in.  Here are updated examples of the brochures.  Read them, I think these are undoubtedly better descriptions of what's going on with these classes.

Strategy & The Long Game

The DM Tutorial classes have been such a success.  As of late I have been thinking and blocking out a book I could be writing in six months to a year - and the basis of that book has already given me enough insight to add another class to the three I have already launched.

Those who have already taken the class may be interested in taking one more lesson from me; others may feel that a sequence of four gives them more bang for their campaigns than three might have.  We'll just have to see.

The above class is on strategy: digging in and having a go at making your world more than a some-time thing, something that will sustain itself and help individuals become better persons as well as better dungeon masters.  Being able to devise a strategy, having that ability in one's toolbox, goes a lot farther than just making a long-lasting RPG.  It can be the tool that sets you, the individual, up for life.

The class runs 60-90 minutes, as all the classes have.  I'm confident that I can immerse the student in what one needs to know about strategy making.  It ought to be a great course - and quite possibly the one that someone might want to take in order to test the water with me as a tutor.

Still Running Classes

For those who are interested, yes, I am still running classes online as the opportunity arises.  I've accumulated four students now and I can say without reservation that the classes thus far have been a roaring success.

These classes have distinctly featured original content for each of the participants thus far.  That is because people and campaigns are wildly different in both their purposes and their weaknesses.  While one person may need to communicate their difficulties surrounding the management of data and information during a session, another is more concerned with how to communicate more effectively with the players.  While this person may want to focus on presenting a game that is more fluid and less mechanical, another who manages this without any difficulty needs work on setting up the game to better empower the characters.

The classes, as I conceive them, must be tailored - and because I don't know what the players' issues or weak points are at the start of the first session, I have to diagnose those issues in the first twenty minutes and then get started, at once, with offering strategies and insight on what's not working and how it is possible to make it work.  To do this, I have to think fast on my feet - which is precisely the concern I had before launching the class.  Would I be able to provide the tutoring necessary without hesitating.

Yes.  Yes I can.  That's no longer a concern.  In fact, I am now thinking about adding 'tutor" to my resume.

I strongly encourage people who feel that they are wallowing in their game design or their DM thinking process to buy in, or at the very least write to me at alexiss1@telus.net to work out some kind of arrangement where we calculate for half an hour or some preview experience, so that you can try me for fifteen or twenty minutes for free to see if I'm comfortable to talk to and if I can't give a strong sense of just how powerful it can be to talk to someone who is interested in making you into a stronger DM and not either puffing you up or missing your point completely.

I am going to be at the Edmonton Expo come the end of September, all paid in advance nine months ago; I want to communicate the strength of the classes there, so if you will be there and you have the time, maybe we can arrange a sit-down for fifteen-twenty minutes (though I am pretty busy at these things, my daughter and I sell steady and we're almost always talking to someone).  It might be enough to settle your concerns about what a class with me might play like.

I'm going to write some posts addressing content/issues that came out of yesterday's class, which ran about 88 minutes (because hey, I have time to let these things run long).  These are general issues that I think a lot of people are feeling about their games.

This Fine Evening in June

This is how to move a set of encyclopedias.  I could put them into boxes - but the genius of milk crates is that, even as these are laying down or stacked, I can still access them.

These are the encyclopedias that I picked up for $25 in 1986, that I've been using for my trade system ever since.  There are things that I'm putting into deep storage; but not these books.  I don't refer to them all that often: but when I need them, I need them.

I know things are tough everywhere.  Let me say to the fellow who had to pull back out of my Patreon, as I'm sure he's reading the blog and not Patreon's message system.  It's all right, my friend. Thank you for all that you were able to do for me.  I hope it goes better for you in the future, too.

For a couple of weeks now, I have backed off from asking for donations.  I've been concentrating on passing along some of the content that inspired people to donate to me in the first place.  As I've been saying for eight years (and yes, my blog passed its 8th anniversary, unnoticed, about two weeks ago), I have no plans for going anywhere.  Part of the process this month has been watching others bend over backwards to ensure that I have complete and comfortable access to my D&D work and my blog.  I may be surrendering my own place for a time, but it is a place that understands me.  So come the end of the month, I'll still be here, I'll still be writing.

This June evening, I'm just thinking over the changes of the past couple of weeks.  I have now taught three classes for the How to DM Courses, for two students over two weeks.  All have gone remarkably well - and as I expected, the content has virtually nothing in common between the two DMs I'm coaching.  I'm sorry that I didn't think to call it "coaching" from the beginning, since it is much more that than "teaching."  The students have come to me with an impressive concept of the game, so it is clearly my role here to make connections for them, those that they haven't happened to make themselves.

There's no question that the content is deep and abundant.  Conversations are spirited, fast-paced . . . I have to deliberately pick moments when I ask the DM to pause and consider the wave of material that has just come out of me or come out of a quick back and forth between us.  There's no point to conveying material if there's no time taken to absorb it.  Classes are definitely running 75-90 minutes, because there's lots to get through - moreover, I'm finding the interaction so positive that there's no sense of exhaustion or pushing to find material.  It may get to be hard at some point in the future to cut the classes off at 90 minutes.

$50-$60 a class (depending on whether one buys all three or one at a time) may be steep at present. Still, I feel better about settling on that as a price, since during the time I can pin-point issues the DM is struggling with.  It isn't a cookie-cutter course, far from it!  I have an agenda of things that need to be addressed, but since there are many personal ways to address those subjects, I'm obligated to produce meaningful, concrete strategies to manage these things.  This is what concerned me the most, before I started on this idea:  it doesn't concern me any more.  I have been steeped in this subject for so long . . . and trained by answering a ten thousand questions on the blog now . . . that I'm ready. The DMs are leaving happy and with heads reeling from new thoughts bobbing around in their brains.  Makes me feel damn proud.

This post is a bit of a pitch, I admit.  In a greater sense, however, having written this blog so long - and wearing my life on my sleeve, as it were - when I announced my plan to do this there were many who cared about me who took the time to come forward and counsel me both for and against the project.  I know that those people, regular readers on this blog, took the side they did with my welfare in their minds.  I want those people who were worried to feel comforted: something may happen with a new student in the future, but you know we get better at these things as we do them.  All jobs have their unpleasant aspects.

This continues to be my job for the present: the blog, the book, the podcasts (those are all over the place, a mess that is made messier by present circumstances) and whatever else I can do to earn attention, gratitude and respect.

That's the crux of all this.  You, gentle reader, you noticed me.  You've proved to me in concrete terms that I've given you something.  And - the one thing that seems most difficult to imagine - you respect me.

Hey, thank you for that.  It wasn't expected.

I've never had employers that made me feel this good about the things I love.

Twitter

Just thinking, people should know that if they want to talk to me about any of the things I've got going: Ternketh Keep, Jumpstart Proposal, any of my books, the Wiki, Patreon or the Podcasts, as well as the DMing Tutorials, there's always the option of talking to me direct on twitter, @Tao_of_DnD.

Seems the best way to find out if I can help you is to talk to me.

Validation

Those people at reddit are crazy.

Yesterday a fellow posted a link to my DM Tutorial page on reddit, unquestionably to help me.  Back in 2014, I tried the same thing myself, believing that it might be a good way to promote myself and my book - only to discover that a great many people who regularly contribute to reddit are . . . well, let's just say exceptional.

I think my favorite comment was the fellow who wrote,

"IMO any DM who thinks campaigns can be derailed is a bad DM."

There must be something inherent in human biology that compels this sort of absolutism.  This, therefore that.  On one level it is an ad hominem attack, which redirects the subject by attacking the character, motive or other attribute of the person (in this case, the DM's ability).

On a completely different level it results from the participant having adopted a false dilemma as the way in which things are measured: there are only two possible ways to view any statement or belief: that the person who believes this is a totally bad person or a totally good person.

Obviously, it's not the sort of message I embrace.  There is an excellent book on this subject, An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi and Alejandro Giraldo.

Look!  Someone used the word 'derailed' in a discussion
about role-playing: they must be referring to sandbox
vs. railroading.

The hardest thing to realize about 'arguments' is that most statements that human make - including most of the statements I make - are not remotely arguments at all.  They're opinions, largely based on emotional responses expressed in words . . . and as such, they have as much application to problem solving as "This ice cream tastes good."  While difficult to dispute, it is largely irrelevant to how we are going to make this particular apparatus work.

In response, there are plenty who will 'argue' from their premise that since the ice cream really does taste good, this is essentially "accurate" - and being accurate, it cannot be dismissed but must be taken into account.  Unfortunately, the assertion that something is accurate does not make it accurate.  Arguments are not based upon apparent statements of accuracy, but upon validation.  You say the ice cream tastes good.  I have no way of confirming that it does.  You may be lying.  You may have no reference for what 'good' is.  You may have been conditioned as a young boy to make positive associations with ice cream that now compels you to register ice cream as good even though essentially you're so used to the actual taste that your hormonal response is "meh."  None of which matters, because I cannot taste with your mouth and therefore I have no means of validating it's accuracy.  This explodes the 'argument' by positively defining it as not an argument.

That is largely lost on most people.  Where I make statements on this blog regarding the value of, say, the practicality of sandboxing over railroading, I am for the most part proposing a very poor argument.  I can try to give my statements clarity and scope.  I can point out similarities between my statements and other situations that the reader will probably agree with.  I can pull several examples and attempt to build a syllogism out of them.  Chances are, however, that I will not persuade the reader because I cannot positively validate my argument by any provable means.  This means that, except where I am citing verified evidence (the heart pumps blood that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, enabling us to function biologically), I'm only speaking opinion.

I realized several centuries ago never to expect to change someone's mind on a dime.  At best, we can make an argument so passionate that the listener will remember the discussion - which is the biggest victory one can hope for.  Then, at some future point, the listener will be living their ordinary life and, without warning, find themselves faced with a personal experience that validates that argument that they still remember.  My whole life, since long before the internet (since before home computers became a 'thing'), has been people coming up to me months later and saying, "You remember that time we talked about such-and-such?  Well, I get it now!"

If you read something on this blog that you agree with as you read it, that's because you already have that validation in your mind.  Chances are, you have already validated that thing, long past, by whatever standard you use to believe things.

Not to disparage the reader, but for a writer seeking to make a change in the room, this is low hanging fruit.  I appreciate that I have people who agree with me and all, but given that there are hundreds of thousands of people reading the internet who are also into D&D, that was inevitable.  I measure my success as a writer by those whose minds I can change - and those that I value most of all are those who are willing and able to change my mind.  I'm not looking for people who can validate what I write to make me feel better.  That is a matter of complete indifference for me.  I'm looking for people who can validate for me where I'm wrong.

For most making arguments on the internet, the low-hanging fruit is all they need to validate themselves and no one else.  This is easiest when everything in their world fits the black-and-white model, and it's best when the dividing line is so close to the middle that the answer will never, ever be resolved (at least, not in their lifetime).  They write something about the Oxford comma and instantly they command half the English speakers of the world as their allies.  They write something about guns, about religion, about republicans vs. democrats and in minutes they feel part of the grand human experiment, exactly as their distant ancestors felt all heaped together for warmth.

It doesn't get better than this.  I'm that one on the left thinking, "Fuck
warmth.  What are those hulking, apparently harmless things?"

If something isn't black-and-white, they'll make it so.  That makes it comprehensible and, in response, tells them instantly which side they're meant to stand on.  "I'm against anti-derailing observations; vote Proposition 907 come November."

These same people have a view of Education that must fit their model.  A teacher tells the student the answer and the student remembers it; when the answer is asked for, the student provides it.  This is education.

There are no 'answers,' not as this philosophy understands them.  What we have is opinion and a seeking for validation.  A student comes to me who expresses difficulty in controlling their group.  I offer some possible explanations, dredged up from my experience.  The student answers that maybe A. might be true, B. definitely isn't, C. has some merit but this part of the explanation doesn't fit and so on.  In response, once again from my experience, I fine-tune the parts of explanation C. that more likely fit this specific case . . . and step by step, we look together for a potential set of circumstances that are contributing to the general problem.

In this conversation, as the teacher I bring insight and a lifetime spent running and designing the game.  Students bring personal evidence and judgment that they've gained in actually meeting the player-participants.  I'm not emotionally involved so I bring dispassion and perspective.  Students are deeply emotionally involved so they bring their instincts that serve to detect or discard the validity of what they hear.  This symbiosis between mentor and disciple has been used for millennia to determine the probable issue that is to be solved and then to work together to compose a strategy for solving that issue.  The validation of the teaching is not the "answer," but the validation of the strategy: Did it improve the situation?

The market value of my teaching is based upon one simple reality:  if a DM seeks out everyday people in their community for insight, experience, dispassion and perspective, do they find it?  If they find it, I have nothing to sell.  If they can't obtain this, they must needs seek someone who has it and willingly meet that price.

But of course there will be a vast number of persons who are utterly, implacably convinced that no problem exists, no problem can exist, those that believe a problem can exist must be deluded and so on.  Because that belief validates them.

There's nothing I can offer to these people because they need for nothing.

A Windmill

On Monday, after some weeks of discussion and investigation, I announced my readiness to teach DMing online.  For that I owe an apology.  I must admit, I was so involved in my own concerns about having the wherewithal to teach the subject, to effectively live up to promises I would be making and giving value for value received, I completely failed to consider other people.

Let me be forthcoming.  These past three days, no one has come forward to take a class.  My gentle readers can imagine, I'm sure, the complexion of my thoughts through this time, as I re-examine all the decisions I made, from the price to the choice of content to the possible hubris of presuming that it's a possibility I should have suggested in the first place.  My best thinking - the only condition that wasn't exhaustively considered - is that others would feel as uncomfortable with the prospect of facing me on camera, and all that would imply - as I feel with living up to the expectations of willing and highly challenging students.

I am a bear, I don't deny it.  I did, however, discount it.  I've been thinking all of myself and for that I do apologize.  I should have planned this better.

One question I can answer, as a step towards encouraging people to believe that I'm an ordinary person and that I don't bite, is to explain why I feel I could be a good teacher, offering genuine insight for your campaign.

There are a number of ways I could come at that explanation.  I've acted in many capacities in my life; something of a jack-of-all-trades.  I've worked as a cook, moved furniture, acted on a stage, handled accounts payable, managed databases, sold magazine subscriptions, published research that has appeared in libraries, organized events, sold my own book at trade shows, worked in construction, worked in landscaping, worked as a janitor, been a manager, worked white collar jobs, worked blue collar jobs.  Sometimes for years at a time, sometimes for a few months.  Through this process I have learned to communicate with vastly different types of people and learned to communicate with them according to their perspective.  I have trained people in virtually every occupation I have taken - and more importantly, been trained by wise persons of every stripe in how to get along in the world.  I grant that I'm a tiger in text, but I also know how to put that on a shelf.  I know the difference between what is important and what is really important.

Atop that, I love this game.  I love every part of it: playing the game, drawing people into the game, talking about what the game deserves and the impact of the game on our world, the details of the game and the philosophy that underlies the game.  I don't write this blog as someone who does the game in my spare time or ever considers setting the game aside to do something else.  I don't consider other things "more important" - partly because I've done those things, side-by-side with company vice-presidents and convicted criminals.  Chasing "Importance" is a fool's game.  Importance is what we love.

The sidebar includes a description of me that I garnered from others' comments about me in the early days of this blog.  I still smile at being described as gonzo or grouchy.  There's something bemusing at being described as an old man shouting at kids to get off my lawn - as I have been on many sites.  And nothing is more definitively accurate as the label, 'Quixotic bastard.'

I'm sure it was pejorative.  I've been described as Quixotic in one way or another since before high school . . . it is what people always say when we try to take arms against anything that seems impossible to beat.  We're told how trying is such a waste, we're told that the surest course is the best course - and all too often we listen.  What we forget is that Cervantes' hero was not a 'loser.'  It is only that he defined 'winning' by different standards than those used by others.  Even in the 17th century, 411 years ago, this was the trial that every person faced: do I resign myself to a life of complacency or do I keep fighting?

That is why I am the right person to teach Dungeon Mastering.  I'm not here to teach you or anyone how to understand the game as you're "meant" to understand it.  I'm here to teach how to live and breathe the game as you, and only you, can.  Personally.  Not the right way.  Your right way.

You're not getting there on your own.  We both know that.

I'm just a windmill.  I look big and scary, I creak and groan and move my arms around, but if you look in your hands you'll see that you have a lance.

Come on and tilt with me.

The Tutorials Are Available Now

We're Live.

Here are descriptions of the three classes I'm offering on how to be a better Dungeon Master.

I have no idea what the demand might be.  For anyone who wishes to buy in, I'm prepared to begin arranging classes for Thursday or Friday - as I feel some preliminary communication and sorting out will be needed on the internet (we can communicate through Twitter or Facebook), to ensure we feel comfortable and it's not a mental shock when we get started.  My first few classes in each subject will undoubtedly be a steep learning curve, so I'll be motivated to ensuring that those who step up will get their money's worth. 

Brochure Preview

As I said on the podcast, I like to play Show and Tell.

Someone properly in business would wait until all three outlines for the classes were completed, but I feel that in a world full of internet it is silly not to get feedback.  It is equally silly not to recognize that I rely on the good wishes of others and as such, it serves us both to be forthcoming and direct, rather than push to be as impressive as possible.  If I am impressive, that happens because I am flexible and vulnerable, as well as dedicated and passionate.

So, here is the first "brochure" for the first class that I proposed last week.  What do people think?

Too bright, too flashy, there's a spelling mistake in the second column, a word is missing (there probably is but the grammar check doesn't catch it and I can't see it).  Perhaps it is too icy cold, perhaps too wordy, perhaps not clear enough.

I think it is encouraging.  But I can always stand a little criticism (after all, the content provides that a DM should promote trust and enable the players).

Now, there should be a podcast today but we're having a few technical problems.  My Soundcloud account is, apparently, limited in minutes.  I would never have started in Soundcloud if I'd known - I presumed that because it was Google-run, it would work like Youtube.  Nope.

So we're adapting the fifth podcast to run on Youtube.  I hope.  I'm told we should have it up tomorrow.

UPDATE:

Following the discussion in the comments below, I'd like to suggest this as an alternative:

Fees

And so we come to the least pleasant element of the subject: how much will it cost?

I'd like to keep the costs low.  I'd like to ensure that the fee covers my rent.  Between these two points we're just guessing.

Having discussed it with my people, we agree that the price should be a flat rate per class and 10-15% off for all three classes if bought together.  I'm also told that because these tutorials will feature personal one-on-one time for people to ask direct questions and get direct answers, I shouldn't undervalue myself.

Using this as a guideline, then, I've decided to price each individual class at $60.  All three classes, which would likely come out as 3.5 - 4.5 hours of discussion (as I don't intend to wrap things up in a flat hour).  Together, I will price these at $150.

Too expensive for some, I know.  I feel confident, however, that my experience and wherewithal will make these tutorials worth the investment.

I will take money through donations to paypal on the blog or as pledges to Patreon, to be honored after the first of the month for as long as the reader chooses to leave up their pledge.  I promise to work on more classes, so that I should have more to offer those who have enjoyed three classes and are still looking for more.  I'm sure that some will make proposals; I'm equally sure I can develop a way to rise up and meet those proposals when the time comes.

Am I offering a guarantee?  I guarantee that the student will have to become unconscionably abusive before I will disconnect the call.  I would rather have it out rather than quit; it's the reader's world, the reader's dime.  Sometimes we just need to vent.

All tutorials will be made through appointment, so there will probably be some difficulty there.  I'm a homebody, however, not prone to going out of the house or caring much what goes on more than ten meters from my computer, so I think we'll be able to work something out.

One small point.  I'm not quite launching yet.  I mean to outline the tutorials in greater depth, then begin on Monday.

Questions?

Proposal for DMing Tutorials

After much discussion, advice, research, devil's advocacy and contemplation, I feel that I will be ready to offer one-on-one classes in How to DM starting no later than a week today.  I feel that there is a marketable demand for this service.  I feel that I am up to the task and that I'm perfectly capable of teaching such a course.  And I feel that a reasonable price for such a course would be somewhere between $45 and $60 per class (three classes would be three times that amount).

Sessions would be enabled through Skype.  I've used Skype before, though not for a long time, so part of my task this week will be to take a refresher course.  I foresee sessions would run between 60 and 90 minutes, in order to allow flexibility regarding the end of a session.  At this point I'm going to offer three classes (and undoubtedly with some sort of deal if the DM wants to buy three sessions in advance).  For the moment I want to concentrate on three things: presentation, communication and adventure planning.  I'll be more specific about these in a moment.

I could talk about other things, but for the moment I feel these are universal and don't require any discussion of rule systems or specific character design.  Like the book I wrote, I would rather approach the material from a genre-free perspective, since how the DM acts, speaks or creates drama is a universal condition based upon our being human beings, not based on what system we play.

For the moment, I feel it would be wisest for me to offer a few well-considered subjects until I get my legs under me.  This is a learning curve for me as well, for while I have given advice now on the blog for 8 years, I have answered hundreds of direct questions about games and I have been there to counsel other players and DMs in role-playing games for more than three decades, I need to integrate these skills into a lengthy, personal approach that will work with people through the internet who are unfamiliar to me.  I am glad that I had the experiences I've had with fans of RPGs in Toronto and Edmonton recently.  I do believe, from talking to literally hundreds of strangers at those events, that the chances of meeting someone toxic (and willing to pay money upfront for the privilege of being such) is virtually zero.

There are some who will be against this; and some who will feel that I'm not the person they'd want to get advice from.  However, the response and the numbers of people who have expressed interest has been very encouraging.  The rest is up to me.  As I said before the weekend, I have a firm belief that the solution is not to preach an ideal but to promote investigation into each DM's individual challenges and to find solutions that will work for them.  To this, I'll add that a very strong part of the lesson plan will be to help create confidence and assurance in the DM, to encourage a greater willingness to run and to run well.

I feel I am able to teach DMs how to turn left when they say right.

Here is a breakdown of the three classes:

Class 1: Presentation:

Many will feel that this is their biggest hurdle, for many DMs are over-aware of their own failings where it comes to engaging their players, gaining their focus, delivering descriptions and ideas that are compelling, creating a positive impression and worst of all, learning to "think on our feet."  Obviously, no one should expect miracles after an hour or so of evaluation.  However, having a voice that can deconstruct what we're doing, encourage our ability to speak more passionately and with greater energy, while enabling us to "hear" how we sound from another person's perspective can put us on the right path in finding out what we need to do in the future.  It isn't that we can solve problems overnight, but we can gain insight into how to solve those problems.  We are each one of us different - but an ear other than our own, unafraid to give us real perspective and offer real direction, that is something everyone can gain from.

Class 2: Communication:

The way that DMs and Players interact is so often presented in the worst possible light in our hobby, with one side claiming that DMs are absolute rulers and the other that DMs take the game way too seriously.  It's very important that we understand that it is not the DM's role to impose our will upon the players or to use our title as DM to win an argument.  At the same time, Players must be guided to understand that we have limitations, that we are operating within those limitations and that the underlying principles of a successful role-playing game demands that we are all on the same page.  This class wants to help DMs better connect with their players, producing a symbiosis in the game that enables both DM and Players together to move towards a common goal: DM as facilitator and Players as participants.  A substantial part of this class would revolve around the student "running their world," supported by propositions on how we, together, feel that we could improve the message that has been given.

Class 3: Adventure Building:

Here we are speaking of creating the adventure that the players will run on, not the world that Players will run in.  First and foremost, I will focus on the DM's role in these adventures: how the DM 'fits' into what's happening, what elements we will want to include - and most important, how we should not be bullied by the expectations of the Players and ourselves to make bigger, better, greater, more imaginative games.  All too often, we bite off more than we can choose, trying to 'impress' in order not to fail, only to build adventures that fail catastrophically.  Here I can offer considerable insight on what Players really want from a campaign, what they can expect and how we can train ourselves to start easy and build confidence and ability before asking ourselves to build the moon.

--

Let me say as a placeholder that the exact means of how payment is delivered will be left for the next post that I right.  For this post, it is best that we limit any consideration to content alone.

Comments, please.  I strongly recommend that readers ask me to better explain any element in the above three classes that seems doubtful - not only for me, but for everyone else who might be reading who may not think to ask such a question.  I have no doubts whatsoever about my ability to deliver on these three tutorials - the more I talk about them, the stronger I will be on how to communicate the prospects that others will gain from each tutorial.

I think this is going to be a lot of fun, that it will be powerfully enlightening and that it could be the start that brings an end to many a new DM's frustrations.