Is the DM the most important person at the table

[Lanefan]

That one seems rather easy IMO. If you want to advance the scene you say something like, "You utterly confound the guards with your pranks, leading them on a wild goose chase for hours. The next day..." Sum up and move to the next scene. The DM has that power.

And the player has the power to say "Hold on a minute - don't jump ahead on me, I'm not done yet and I want to play it out in detail!"

 

[Fanaelialae]

And the player has the power to say "Hold on a minute - don't jump ahead on me, I'm not done yet and I want to play it out in detail!"

And the GM has the authority to say "Nope, we're done with this scene". Maybe the GM elaborates that they don't want to RP out the PC bargaining with the shopkeeper or whatever. I've made use of this myself when a PC seduces someone. I don't care whether or not the player wants to play out the bedroom scene because that ain't happening.

 

[CleverNickName]

And I said five players is not manifestly different than one player, so, while trying not to appear ill mannered, I'll just throw the question back at you: with one player and one GM, which can you not do without? Pick one.

Unpopular answer: you can do without the Dungeon Master.

 

[Fenris-77]

Unpopular answer: you can do without the Dungeon Master.

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Solo play actually doesn't make the grade as roleplaying by a lot of measures. I probably agree with that (fun as it might be). You can play an RPG with multiple players and no GM though, for sure. There are a near limitless number of ways you can share authority at the table.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Unpopular answer: you can do without the Dungeon Master.

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I'm unfamiliar with that particular module, but I am inclined to disagree. There was still someone who acted in the role of GM and prepped the adventure. Additionally, those types of solo adventures tend to be very limited in terms of an RPG. For example, if I decide to go off the map or spend several months tunneling through a portion of a dungeon wall, can that module adapt? Because a real GM could.

There are ways to play that are technically GM-less, such as Mythic, although in that case the player really assumes the role of both GM and player, with the dice taking up a greater portion of the role of arbiter.

Also, as @Fenris-77 states, GM-less systems do exist where GMing authority is shared by all the players. In a system with no GM, the GM cannot possibly be more "important" than anyone else. Although I'm not convinced that it says anything pertinent about games that do have a distinct GM.

 

[CleverNickName]

Solo play actually doesn't make the grade as roleplaying by a lot of measures. I probably agree with that (fun as it might be). You can play an RPG with multiple players and no GM though, for sure. There are a near limitless number of ways you can share authority at the table.

I don't disagree. Whether or not it makes the grade is kind of irrelevant, since this is a licensed D&D product and D&D is a role-playing game. There were several of them, I think. And there was a blurb in the Basic Boxed Set rules that says a Dungeon Master is only necessary if you intend to play in a group:

Of course, I'm not advocating that we get rid of Dungeon Masters and go back to B/X rules. But the question you asked was "with one player and one GM, which can you not do without? Pick one." Well, according to at least one D&D Rulebook, the answer is "the Dungeon Master."

 

[FrogReaver]

I also feel as though you've missed my point, which was that you had the authority to advance the scene the entire time, you simply did not exercise it.

I somewhat disagree, but assume that you are correct. So what? On the gaming night in question - given how the game progressed - the most important thing that happened all night was the player intervening to help move the story forward.

You may have had good reasons for doing so, but that is quite distinct from lacking the authority. Players don't typically have such authority.

So I see the issue, you are defining importance as "possessing the most authority. No one disagrees that the DM has the most authority. Instead, I counter that importance is based on what is actually done - not what one is empowered to do but remains undone.

 

[Fenris-77]

@CleverNickName
"Whether or not it makes the grade is kind of irrelevant, since this is a licensed D&D product and D&D is a role-playing game. "

I'm really not sure what you think it proves that it's a licensed D&D product. They had lunchboxes too. It's still not role playing based on several different critical measures. Feel free to disagree with that if you want to, but that would involve taking on the definition, not posting a pic of a solo module and saying 'gotcha'. Feel free to address the Forge definition, the Meilahti School definition, or any other critical definition you like.

 

[FrogReaver]

"Whether or not it makes the grade is kind of irrelevant, since this is a licensed D&D product and D&D is a role-playing game. "

I'm really not sure what you think it proves that it's a licensed D&D product. They had lunchboxes too. It's still not role playing based on several different critical measures. Feel free to disagree with that if you want to, but that would involve taking on the definition, not posting a pic of a solo module and saying 'gotcha'. Feel free to address the Forge definition, the Meilahti School definition, or any other critical definition you like.

Perhaps it's best to avoid the "what is roleplaying" discussion

 

[Fenris-77]

Perhaps it's best to avoid the "what is roleplaying" discussion

Why? It's pretty central to the point of the thread in this case and a very reasonable example to bring up on CNN's part. Does solo count is an important question, because if it does count then we need to account for it in any review of authority and importance at the table.