The Tenets of GM Mastery

[riprock]

(And I don't know what "Straussian" means in this context.)

I think he's referring to a trend in American political philosophy that has been popular for the last five or six years. It revolves around Leo Strauss, a neoconservative icon whose doctrines are much esteemed by the American head of state and his ministers.

Strauss takes Plato's notion of a "noble lie" and spins it far out of its original context. Critics who decry "Straussian neoconservatism" generally mean to decry disproportionate use of deception for political ends.

So perhaps, possibly, what the poster meant was that by taking a few sayings, possibly far out of context, you're deceiving yourself and your followers. I don't know, that's just my impression.

 

[Quasqueton]

So perhaps, possibly, what the poster meant was that by taking a few sayings, possibly far out of context, you're deceiving yourself and your followers. I don't know, that's just my impression.

So, it's *not* a reference to the composer.

I don't know what is more confusing -- that my posting of this could be read as deceptive or that I might have followers. :-o

Quasqueton

 

[Hussar]

The creative interpretation of a campaign must remain within the scope and spirit of the game.

This one I would actually appreciate more information on. I'm not sure if I understand. Is this saying that I shouldn't suddenly invade my Greyhawk campaign with a Far Realms incursion because it's out of the spirit of the game? I should stick to a fixed set of genre conventions in a given campaign and I should set out those conventions at the outset?

Color me confused.

 

[Jdvn1]

So, it's *not* a reference to the composer.

That's what I was thinking too.

Oh, and everyone here is playing D&D wrong.

 

[sniffles]

I've never read either of the books referred to in this thread. I find it Tenet #5 rather interesting in light of my impression that Mr. Gygax was a proponent of the adversarial GM mode. Reading his 'Up on a Soapbox' column in Dragon always gave me that impression, anyway.

Off topic, but riprock's comments about World of Warcraft drawing away all of his potential players interested me. I've never had any desire to spend hours on an online game. The thought of playing with total strangers in such a limited environment is not appealing to me. But I can see that for many people the limited amount of preparation necessary would be appealing; they only have to buy the software and pay a monthly fee, not read (potentially) numerous manuals and supplements or buy accessories such as dice and miniatures. It's also convenient for them to play at home and be able to participate in a game whenever their personal scheduling allows. And they don't have to interact socially with the other players, which can be stressful.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

Oh come on Quasqueton. You new the followers would be along after you took leadership last level.

And while I find most of the tenets to be self evident, I think it's nice to see them spelled out for folks to actually read and discuss in a concrete fashion.

-Ashrum

 

[Umbran]

Gygax has changed his views on many aspects of gaming over the years. I'd be curious as to how we would comment on this passage now.

Good point. Mr Gygax, at the time of that writing, does not seem to have had the appreciation for one-shots that many now seem to have.

Woah, that sentence is starting to get ugly.

I think the tenets also seem to lack a clear notion of the difference between a game and a setting. They might do well with a bit of expansion in that regard.

Other than that, the only other one with meat here does seem to be #5 - I'd suggest that the priority isn't set in stone, but rather depends upon the priorities of the people and what they want to get out of the thing.

For example - If you're talking about a game which has a large (and possibly rotating) player-pool, duty to the campaign might be paramount for the GM. If you're talking about a small group of friends playing as a major part of their social activity, perhaps duty to the players would be better taken first.

 

[Kunimatyu]

It's also convenient for them to play at home and be able to participate in a game whenever their personal scheduling allows. And they don't have to interact socially with the other players, which can be stressful.

At least, until they reach the endgame and have to work as a team with 39 other people and play at several specified times a week or lose their chance at accessing the rest of the endgame content.

It's like D&D from hell. Not that it can't be enjoyable, I'm sure, but I'm pretty sure it requires less effort to DM a decent game than to just be a player in some of the decent raiding guilds.

 

[Aikuchi]

Riprock

me shares your pain.
free mmo's and paying mmo's are flooding the local market here in south east asia. I've lost a few good players ... okay more than a few and not all good to ... WoW and others over the last 5 years.

 

[riprock]

I've never read either of the books referred to in this thread. I find it Tenet #5 rather interesting in light of my impression that Mr. Gygax was a proponent of the adversarial GM mode. Reading his 'Up on a Soapbox' column in Dragon always gave me that impression, anyway.

I think Gygax is one of those rare, lucky souls who can break the conventional way of doing things and get it right. Such folks were often captains of industry during the Industrial Revolution. They were just extremely self-confident, to the point where they seemed highly adversarial.

Some day, I might ask him about this. He reminds me of some of my students -- the highly independent ones who go into business.

Off topic, but riprock's comments about World of Warcraft drawing away all of his potential players interested me. I've never had any desire to spend hours on an online game. The thought of playing with total strangers in such a limited environment is not appealing to me. But I can see that for many people the limited amount of preparation necessary would be appealing; they only have to buy the software and pay a monthly fee, not read (potentially) numerous manuals and supplements or buy accessories such as dice and miniatures. It's also convenient for them to play at home and be able to participate in a game whenever their personal scheduling allows. And they don't have to interact socially with the other players, which can be stressful.

Years ago ... back around 1990 or 1995 or so, online RP gaming was done in MUDs. I enjoyed that thoroughly for a while. Old-school MUDding can be a great tension-buster.

However, text-based games stimulated my imagination at the time. WoW seems to require very little. I don't know, I might try it if I get real-life friends who are willing to go to Internet cafes with me and sit next to me. All the servers close to me are in Chinese or Japanese characters. I would need a human translator sitting next to me if I intended to understand anything non-trivial.

I went to an Internet cafe alone. After pestering the staff, I managed to play a little Counterstrike and some single-player Warcraft. All the instructions were in some incomprehensible language. I could have done a lot more with a fluent translator sitting next to me...

Internet cafes can be very sociable, but I wouldn't play WoW from home.