The one thing out of all of this which I felt was lacking in the Game Master’s Guide was story. While there is mention of story, the tale and the motivations and all the rest of the elaborate plotting that I tend to think is the heart and soul of Game Mastering and adventure design is almost entirely glossed over in this book. It is present, but it is not accorded all that important a status. I am not sure why this is so and it may be that the authors are just trying to keep a young reader from being overwhelmed. It may be that their thought was “teach the mechanics with a nod to a plot, and the story will sort itself out in time.” After all, most young players will have played many RPG flavoured video games where the story elements are well underscored.
Perhaps this choice was a correct one to make; I am not sure. Whatever the case, it certainly does seem that the role of the story and individual plot elements were deliberately de-emphasized in favour of having the book teach mechanics. This potential “plot hole” aside, the book otherwise achieves mostly all of what it sets out to do rather admirably.