This is the first of a series of planned essays on D&D. It is a rough draft, but I kind of like it so I thought I'd share. I welcome your thoughts.
The Imbalance of Power in Dungeons and Dragons
In traditional games, ranging from chess to Monopoly to Half-Life: Deathmatch, there is an assumed parity between the players of the game, an even footing. Victory comes from varying degrees of the combination of skill and luck. there is what is often referred to as an inherent “balance” in game-play. These games all have victory conditions, winners and losers, so parity and balance are necessary for an entertaining and rewarding play experience. Any attempt to circumvent this aspect of play is, quite rightly, called cheating.
In other kinds of games, parity and balance are not guaranteed. In Magic: The Gathering, for example, parity is not a foregone conclusion between players. While the rules are the same for every player, each player constructs their own deck to play. Were deck construction limited to the same pool of cards for every player – and in some methods of play, it is – parity would be preserved and imbalance between decks would fall solidly in the area of “player skill.” But Magic: The gathering is a collectible card game and as such it introduces an inherent imbalance between players by rewarding those with more resources at their disposal to hunt down rare and powerful cards. Certainly skill – the choice of cards which to include in ones deck – and luck – the cards procured in any pack purchased – still play a part, but balance between players is no longer an inevitable aspect of play.
Dungeons and Dragons is also a game in which parity and balance between those playing the game is not automatic. In fact, it is designed in such a way that an imbalance of power is both inevitable and necessary for successful play. Since D&D's evolution from miniatures battle game to role-playing game, even in the early days when the word “referee” was still used, parity and balance between all players was eschewed in favor of granting one player, the Dungeon Master, unequally power in the game.
One Player to Rule Them All
The position of Dungeon Master (or Game Master) is, in traditional role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, a function of the nature of the game. D&D, unlike traditional games or its precursor wargames, does not have inherent victory conditions. While victory and loss, success and failure, are a part of the game, there are no winners or losers as such and the game is, by its nature, cooperative. Moreover, its structure is such that players engage not in the same basic contest each time the game is played. The game is instead designed in such a way that each outing, or adventure, is unique and builds upon the last to some degree, depending on the nature of the game. In some methods of play, it is only characters that possess continuity from one game to the next – such as in sanctioned, organized play. In most games, however, the setting and the characters enjoy continuity in an ongoing process. Also different from traditional games is the fact that characters do not remain static throughout play – they grow and change in ability. it is interesting to note that from when computer games first began to emulate table-top RPGs in form and function, through to the newest games on the market, the element that denotes a game as an RPG is a representation of character growth in relationship to the games rules and environment. Contrary to what may be mor eintuitive, it isn't storytelling or immersion that makes a game an RPG, but gaining experience and increasing abilities.
Continuity in serial entertainment such as comics requires an editor or producer to keep things in order. D&D is much the same, with the Dungeon Master in that role. New adventures, growing characters and accumulated continuity all necessitate a player (or players, in some groups) on whom the bulk of maintaining some semblance of order rests. This task – among many others, as will be discussed following – falls to the Dungeon Master. As each treasure or ability acquired in one adventure has an impact on those that follow, the Dungeon master must maintain not only a watch over those character changes, but be responsible for their allowance and distribution in the first place.
Continuity is hardly the only reason why a Dungeon Master is necessary to D&D play, however. If Monopoly were to be played as an ongoing game, wherein the properties and wealth of each evening's play remained for each player on the next such event, no Dungeon Master would be necessary. A simple pad of paper with all the appropriate information written on it, stored in the box with the board and dice, would suffice. This is because the process of play and the events therein for any given game of Monopoly is the same. Not so with Dungeons and Dragons.
With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power
As stated above, generally speaking each session's play of D&D is different than the last, regardless of how many events carry over. One evening, the goal might be to storm the castle of a vile necromancer and the next day's might be to release a lycanthropic bishop from his curse. there is literally no end to the possible scenarios, and therefore goals, of a Dungeons and Dragons adventure. In fact, it is possible to play the game with no goals in mind other than “adventure”, in which the players seek out whatever fortune and glory they might happen across without nary a “plot” to be found. Regardless of whether play is centered around a tightly constructed series of events or the unfettered meanderings of the players, one player, the Dungeon Master, is responsible for conducting the game – and is thereby largely responsible for the every player's entertainment, even his or her own.
In some cases, an adventure is pre-packaged – that is, published in one form or another. the Dungeon Master uses the adventure as a sort of script to determine what motivation drives the players and what strange creatures, locations and treasures they encounter during play. In other cases, the adventure is entirely of the Dungeon Master's own design, but serves much the same purpose. Adventures of either kind may be tightly scripted or very loose, and often range somewhere between, and may provide for a short excursion or a long term journey. While the subject of the differences between pre-packaged and home-brewed, tightly scripted and loosely defined adventures is of great import to playing D&D in general, it is a discussion for another time. Here the subject is the power of the Dungeon Master.
Regardless of the exact form of the adventure, adventures themselves invariably provide the Dungeon Master with greater power than the players. There is the issue of adventure selection, often left up to the DM (though it isn't uncommon for a group of players to decide on a certain module). Pre-packaged adventures mitigate some of the DM's power because in each adventure there will be series of events, locations, encounters with good and evil creatures and characters, treasure to be given out and any number of other elements that can be predetermined. In adventures designed specifically by the DM, the DM utilizes a high degree of his or her inherent power merely in the act of deciding what the players will encounter, and when, how and where.
Even if the Dungeon Master runs a pre-packaged adventure perfectly as scripted – and few adventures are fully scripted in this manner – the DM still remains greatly empowered by the simple virtue of being responsible for the five (at least) sense of the players as they engage in the adventure. What the DM says and doesn't say, and how the DM adjudicates what the players can sense, if supremely powerful in a game played largely in the imaginations of its participants. By emphasizing one element and de-emphasizing another, the DM exercises power over the game and the players, for their decisions will be based on what information the DM provides. because there is no board and, even in pre-packaged scenarios, every possible aspect of an adventure element cannot be scripted for the DM, this use of power is inevitable.
It isn't merely the descriptions of the games events that are the responsibility of the Dungeon Master. Once the players choose to act on the information provided by the Dungeon Master, the Dungeon Master is then required to adjudicate the results of the players responses, provide more description as a result and repeat the process ad infinitum until the conclusion of the adventure. The DM must play the role of every person and creature encountered by the players, whether the goal of said persons or creatures is to help the players or to harm them. Since much of the fun to be had in Dungeons and Dragons is through conflict, more often than not is it the responsibility of the Dunegon master to play adversary to the players, even while he is responsible for their enjoyment of the game. This is often where the true disparity between DM and players becomes apparent.
Because D&D is a game, and because games tend to engender a certain degree of competitiveness in the participants, both players and DMs can momentarily forget the cooperative nature of D&D play and indulge an adversarial instinct. This is particularly problematic because the DM holds so much sway over the game. It is a simple matter for the DM to “win” given the nature and structure of play. In addition, even if the DM doesn't indulge himself so, there can be a perception on the part of the players that he or she is doing so if things go against them. Trust is of supreme importance in D&D on account of the power granted the DM.
The Source of Ultimate Power
Where does the DM's power come from, aside from being responsible for the players' in-game perceptions and the adventure that occur? There are two additional sources of power for the DM inherent in the D&D game.
The first is rules adjudication. Dungeons and Dragons is a complex game with many rules, yet, ironically, many missing rules. No game designed for continuous, open play could possibly provide rules for every eventuality and D&D is no different in this regard. Eventually a player will decide to do a certain thing, or a certain thing will happen as a natural outgrowth of some event or action, that is not covered by the written rules. In these cases, the DM is responsible for determining the chance of success, outcome and/or consequences of such. Even with those rules that do exist serving as examples, adjudicating the game in this way can be difficult at times and not always to the satisfaction of the players.
The other aspect is that the DM is largely responsible for the milieu in which the game occurs – how the world is put together from physical, social and fantastical perspectives. While play groups will often agree on the general themes and elements of the milieu, and in some cases decide as a group to use a pre-packaged milieu, the ultimate decider of what exists and, again, where, how and why is the Dungeon Master. Even pre-packed milieus -- “campaign settings” -- suffer from this problem as, like adventures and rules, they can hardly predetermine every aspect of the world in which the game takes place. In many cases, everything from the price of a pound of venison to the location of the High King's castle are subject to the desires – whims, even – of the DM. And while for those unfamiliar with role-playing games in general and D&D in particular this may seems like a small thing, it is not: if the players need to travel 1,000 miles through monster infested wilderness to reach their goal, it has a great deal of impact upon them.
All things taken together, the DM bears a heavy burden. His or her reward is a great deal of power, which in turn serves to increase the burden.
Delegating Authority
It is possible for the Dungeon Master to reduce this burden in two ways: one is through the rules of the game, and the other is through the players.
D&D has changed over its various incarnations and one of the most pronounced and consistent changes has been an increased detailing in the rules of the game. More specific and varied rules release the DM of some of his or her burden in that, as detailed above, rules arbitration is one of the DM's primary responsibilities. If one edition of the game lacked rules for how far a man could jump, and the next includes them, the DM's burden is lessened by the fact that the DM is no longer asked to arbitrate how far a man can jump. Any number of examples can be used to illustrate this point, but the intent should be clear: more rules ask the DM to engage in less arbitration.
Another way DMs can, and often do, reduce their burden is by shifting some of the work on to the players. For example, in detailing the milieu, some DMs will ask the player to come up with the name, location and general description of where that player's character was born and raised. By doing so, the player takes on some of the responsibilities of the DM, thereby reducing the DM's burden and increasing his own, and at the same time doing equivalent with the DM's power. Dungeon Masters are known to produce what are called “house rules”, which are rules added to, subtracted from or modified from the rules as they are written. The process of house ruling is a method by which the DM can take back some of the lost responsibility and power from the written rules.
This is the consequence and danger of the delegation of authority by the Dungeon Master. Wherever the DM's responsibility is reduced, his or her power is reduced in kind. Rules, as in the example above, that codify certain actions prohibit the DM from adjudicating the action as he or she sees fit (at least without the permission of the players; see below). Equally so, by requesting the players to describe some of the milieu, the DM essentially hands over the reigns of his world or some portion of it to the players. It doesn't matter whether the player comes up with a creative, entertaining setting element or merely regurgitates some pastiche of popular entertainment, the result is the same: a piece of the world now belongs wholly to that player, and exists so long as that player does. Here, negotiation is a key method by which the DM can maintain some level of power (and associated responsibility) over the milieu.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
The last, but perhaps most important, aspect regarding the imbalance of power between players and Dungeon Masters in the D&D game is this: a Dungeon Master's authority exists only at the pleasure of his or her players. There is an inherent social contract in D&D play that states, put simply, that the DM will not abuse the authority granted him or her by the nature of the game. Like the autocrats of old, the Dungeon Master is only as powerful as those that choose to follow him. A DM that abuses the authority granted to him, or shirks the associated responsibility, will soon find a revolt not unlike King John at the signing of the Magna Carta. The Dungeon Master may be usurped by another, more benevolent autocrat, or simply exiled.
And it is this that is the ultimate redistribution of power between players and Dungeon Masters. Ultimately, players choose to grant the DM his or her authority at the same time that DMs choose to accept the responsibility of accepting such a gift.
The Imbalance of Power in Dungeons and Dragons
In traditional games, ranging from chess to Monopoly to Half-Life: Deathmatch, there is an assumed parity between the players of the game, an even footing. Victory comes from varying degrees of the combination of skill and luck. there is what is often referred to as an inherent “balance” in game-play. These games all have victory conditions, winners and losers, so parity and balance are necessary for an entertaining and rewarding play experience. Any attempt to circumvent this aspect of play is, quite rightly, called cheating.
In other kinds of games, parity and balance are not guaranteed. In Magic: The Gathering, for example, parity is not a foregone conclusion between players. While the rules are the same for every player, each player constructs their own deck to play. Were deck construction limited to the same pool of cards for every player – and in some methods of play, it is – parity would be preserved and imbalance between decks would fall solidly in the area of “player skill.” But Magic: The gathering is a collectible card game and as such it introduces an inherent imbalance between players by rewarding those with more resources at their disposal to hunt down rare and powerful cards. Certainly skill – the choice of cards which to include in ones deck – and luck – the cards procured in any pack purchased – still play a part, but balance between players is no longer an inevitable aspect of play.
Dungeons and Dragons is also a game in which parity and balance between those playing the game is not automatic. In fact, it is designed in such a way that an imbalance of power is both inevitable and necessary for successful play. Since D&D's evolution from miniatures battle game to role-playing game, even in the early days when the word “referee” was still used, parity and balance between all players was eschewed in favor of granting one player, the Dungeon Master, unequally power in the game.
One Player to Rule Them All
The position of Dungeon Master (or Game Master) is, in traditional role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, a function of the nature of the game. D&D, unlike traditional games or its precursor wargames, does not have inherent victory conditions. While victory and loss, success and failure, are a part of the game, there are no winners or losers as such and the game is, by its nature, cooperative. Moreover, its structure is such that players engage not in the same basic contest each time the game is played. The game is instead designed in such a way that each outing, or adventure, is unique and builds upon the last to some degree, depending on the nature of the game. In some methods of play, it is only characters that possess continuity from one game to the next – such as in sanctioned, organized play. In most games, however, the setting and the characters enjoy continuity in an ongoing process. Also different from traditional games is the fact that characters do not remain static throughout play – they grow and change in ability. it is interesting to note that from when computer games first began to emulate table-top RPGs in form and function, through to the newest games on the market, the element that denotes a game as an RPG is a representation of character growth in relationship to the games rules and environment. Contrary to what may be mor eintuitive, it isn't storytelling or immersion that makes a game an RPG, but gaining experience and increasing abilities.
Continuity in serial entertainment such as comics requires an editor or producer to keep things in order. D&D is much the same, with the Dungeon Master in that role. New adventures, growing characters and accumulated continuity all necessitate a player (or players, in some groups) on whom the bulk of maintaining some semblance of order rests. This task – among many others, as will be discussed following – falls to the Dungeon Master. As each treasure or ability acquired in one adventure has an impact on those that follow, the Dungeon master must maintain not only a watch over those character changes, but be responsible for their allowance and distribution in the first place.
Continuity is hardly the only reason why a Dungeon Master is necessary to D&D play, however. If Monopoly were to be played as an ongoing game, wherein the properties and wealth of each evening's play remained for each player on the next such event, no Dungeon Master would be necessary. A simple pad of paper with all the appropriate information written on it, stored in the box with the board and dice, would suffice. This is because the process of play and the events therein for any given game of Monopoly is the same. Not so with Dungeons and Dragons.
With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power
As stated above, generally speaking each session's play of D&D is different than the last, regardless of how many events carry over. One evening, the goal might be to storm the castle of a vile necromancer and the next day's might be to release a lycanthropic bishop from his curse. there is literally no end to the possible scenarios, and therefore goals, of a Dungeons and Dragons adventure. In fact, it is possible to play the game with no goals in mind other than “adventure”, in which the players seek out whatever fortune and glory they might happen across without nary a “plot” to be found. Regardless of whether play is centered around a tightly constructed series of events or the unfettered meanderings of the players, one player, the Dungeon Master, is responsible for conducting the game – and is thereby largely responsible for the every player's entertainment, even his or her own.
In some cases, an adventure is pre-packaged – that is, published in one form or another. the Dungeon Master uses the adventure as a sort of script to determine what motivation drives the players and what strange creatures, locations and treasures they encounter during play. In other cases, the adventure is entirely of the Dungeon Master's own design, but serves much the same purpose. Adventures of either kind may be tightly scripted or very loose, and often range somewhere between, and may provide for a short excursion or a long term journey. While the subject of the differences between pre-packaged and home-brewed, tightly scripted and loosely defined adventures is of great import to playing D&D in general, it is a discussion for another time. Here the subject is the power of the Dungeon Master.
Regardless of the exact form of the adventure, adventures themselves invariably provide the Dungeon Master with greater power than the players. There is the issue of adventure selection, often left up to the DM (though it isn't uncommon for a group of players to decide on a certain module). Pre-packaged adventures mitigate some of the DM's power because in each adventure there will be series of events, locations, encounters with good and evil creatures and characters, treasure to be given out and any number of other elements that can be predetermined. In adventures designed specifically by the DM, the DM utilizes a high degree of his or her inherent power merely in the act of deciding what the players will encounter, and when, how and where.
Even if the Dungeon Master runs a pre-packaged adventure perfectly as scripted – and few adventures are fully scripted in this manner – the DM still remains greatly empowered by the simple virtue of being responsible for the five (at least) sense of the players as they engage in the adventure. What the DM says and doesn't say, and how the DM adjudicates what the players can sense, if supremely powerful in a game played largely in the imaginations of its participants. By emphasizing one element and de-emphasizing another, the DM exercises power over the game and the players, for their decisions will be based on what information the DM provides. because there is no board and, even in pre-packaged scenarios, every possible aspect of an adventure element cannot be scripted for the DM, this use of power is inevitable.
It isn't merely the descriptions of the games events that are the responsibility of the Dungeon Master. Once the players choose to act on the information provided by the Dungeon Master, the Dungeon Master is then required to adjudicate the results of the players responses, provide more description as a result and repeat the process ad infinitum until the conclusion of the adventure. The DM must play the role of every person and creature encountered by the players, whether the goal of said persons or creatures is to help the players or to harm them. Since much of the fun to be had in Dungeons and Dragons is through conflict, more often than not is it the responsibility of the Dunegon master to play adversary to the players, even while he is responsible for their enjoyment of the game. This is often where the true disparity between DM and players becomes apparent.
Because D&D is a game, and because games tend to engender a certain degree of competitiveness in the participants, both players and DMs can momentarily forget the cooperative nature of D&D play and indulge an adversarial instinct. This is particularly problematic because the DM holds so much sway over the game. It is a simple matter for the DM to “win” given the nature and structure of play. In addition, even if the DM doesn't indulge himself so, there can be a perception on the part of the players that he or she is doing so if things go against them. Trust is of supreme importance in D&D on account of the power granted the DM.
The Source of Ultimate Power
Where does the DM's power come from, aside from being responsible for the players' in-game perceptions and the adventure that occur? There are two additional sources of power for the DM inherent in the D&D game.
The first is rules adjudication. Dungeons and Dragons is a complex game with many rules, yet, ironically, many missing rules. No game designed for continuous, open play could possibly provide rules for every eventuality and D&D is no different in this regard. Eventually a player will decide to do a certain thing, or a certain thing will happen as a natural outgrowth of some event or action, that is not covered by the written rules. In these cases, the DM is responsible for determining the chance of success, outcome and/or consequences of such. Even with those rules that do exist serving as examples, adjudicating the game in this way can be difficult at times and not always to the satisfaction of the players.
The other aspect is that the DM is largely responsible for the milieu in which the game occurs – how the world is put together from physical, social and fantastical perspectives. While play groups will often agree on the general themes and elements of the milieu, and in some cases decide as a group to use a pre-packaged milieu, the ultimate decider of what exists and, again, where, how and why is the Dungeon Master. Even pre-packed milieus -- “campaign settings” -- suffer from this problem as, like adventures and rules, they can hardly predetermine every aspect of the world in which the game takes place. In many cases, everything from the price of a pound of venison to the location of the High King's castle are subject to the desires – whims, even – of the DM. And while for those unfamiliar with role-playing games in general and D&D in particular this may seems like a small thing, it is not: if the players need to travel 1,000 miles through monster infested wilderness to reach their goal, it has a great deal of impact upon them.
All things taken together, the DM bears a heavy burden. His or her reward is a great deal of power, which in turn serves to increase the burden.
Delegating Authority
It is possible for the Dungeon Master to reduce this burden in two ways: one is through the rules of the game, and the other is through the players.
D&D has changed over its various incarnations and one of the most pronounced and consistent changes has been an increased detailing in the rules of the game. More specific and varied rules release the DM of some of his or her burden in that, as detailed above, rules arbitration is one of the DM's primary responsibilities. If one edition of the game lacked rules for how far a man could jump, and the next includes them, the DM's burden is lessened by the fact that the DM is no longer asked to arbitrate how far a man can jump. Any number of examples can be used to illustrate this point, but the intent should be clear: more rules ask the DM to engage in less arbitration.
Another way DMs can, and often do, reduce their burden is by shifting some of the work on to the players. For example, in detailing the milieu, some DMs will ask the player to come up with the name, location and general description of where that player's character was born and raised. By doing so, the player takes on some of the responsibilities of the DM, thereby reducing the DM's burden and increasing his own, and at the same time doing equivalent with the DM's power. Dungeon Masters are known to produce what are called “house rules”, which are rules added to, subtracted from or modified from the rules as they are written. The process of house ruling is a method by which the DM can take back some of the lost responsibility and power from the written rules.
This is the consequence and danger of the delegation of authority by the Dungeon Master. Wherever the DM's responsibility is reduced, his or her power is reduced in kind. Rules, as in the example above, that codify certain actions prohibit the DM from adjudicating the action as he or she sees fit (at least without the permission of the players; see below). Equally so, by requesting the players to describe some of the milieu, the DM essentially hands over the reigns of his world or some portion of it to the players. It doesn't matter whether the player comes up with a creative, entertaining setting element or merely regurgitates some pastiche of popular entertainment, the result is the same: a piece of the world now belongs wholly to that player, and exists so long as that player does. Here, negotiation is a key method by which the DM can maintain some level of power (and associated responsibility) over the milieu.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
The last, but perhaps most important, aspect regarding the imbalance of power between players and Dungeon Masters in the D&D game is this: a Dungeon Master's authority exists only at the pleasure of his or her players. There is an inherent social contract in D&D play that states, put simply, that the DM will not abuse the authority granted him or her by the nature of the game. Like the autocrats of old, the Dungeon Master is only as powerful as those that choose to follow him. A DM that abuses the authority granted to him, or shirks the associated responsibility, will soon find a revolt not unlike King John at the signing of the Magna Carta. The Dungeon Master may be usurped by another, more benevolent autocrat, or simply exiled.
And it is this that is the ultimate redistribution of power between players and Dungeon Masters. Ultimately, players choose to grant the DM his or her authority at the same time that DMs choose to accept the responsibility of accepting such a gift.
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