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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9518685" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well we don't have to try and guess the sense in which I used the term, because I explained in - in the original thread, upthread in this thread when I re-posted some of that original thread, and then in my reply to you. Here it is again:In the Apocalypse World rulebook, Vincent Baker calls the GM the MC. I think there's an obvious overlap there with my use of "facilitation". I've seen some rulebooks that render GM as "game moderator" rather than "game master" - again, I think that fits with "facilitation".And in his wonderful <a href="https://playsorcerer.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/the-interactive-toolkit-an-introduction/" target="_blank">Interactive Toolkit essays</a>, Christopher Kubasik draws on European operatic tradition to call the GM the Fifth Business. Which is also a facilitating role (I'm quoting from <a href="https://playsorcerer.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/the-interactive-toolkit-part-two-why-do-modules-suck/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://playsorcerer.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/the-interactive-toolkit-part-four-running-story-entertainments/" target="_blank">here</a>):Let’s start with roleplaying’s GM (referee, Storyteller or whatever). This is usually the person who works out the plot, the world and everything that isn’t the players’. To a greater or lesser degree, she is above the other players in importance, depending on the group’s temperament. In a Story Entertainment, she is just another player. Distinctly different, but no more and no less than any other player. The terms GM and referee fail to convey this spirit of equality. The term Storyteller suggests that the players are passive listeners of her tale. So here’s another term for this participant – one that invokes the spirit of Story Entertainments – Fifth Business. Fifth Business is a term that originates from European opera companies. A character from Robertson Davies’ novel Fifth Business describes the term this way: You cannot make a plot work without another man, and he is usually a baritone, and he is called in the profession Fifth Business. You must have a Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero’s birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody’s death, if that is part of the plot. The prima donna and the tenor, the contralto and the basso, get all the best music and do all the spectacular things, but you cannot manage the plot without the Fifth Business! This certainly sounds a lot like a GM, but it also makes it clear that he’s part of the show, not the show itself. Let’s call the players the Leads. They’re not players in the GM’s game. They’re participants in a story. The Fifth Business has a lot more work to do than do the Leads, changing costumes and shaping the story while it’s in progress. But the Leads are equal to the Fifth Business. The Leads must react to the characters, incidents and information that the Fifth Business offers, just as players must react to what the GM offers in a roleplaying game. But the Fifth Business must always be on his toes and react to what the Leads offer. . . . Like a gamemaster, you, as Fifth Business, play the roles of everyone but the Lead characters. Like a gamemaster, you prepare notes ahead of time. Unlike a gamemaster, you are not the master of the game. You are on equal footing with the Leads. Everyone is there to make a story that night, and you’re just one of the gang. Also unlike a gamemaster, you does not come up with “adventures.”‘ You don’t arrive with a scenario to “run” because the Leads have created goals for their characters. What you do is provide opportunities for the Lead characters to achieve those Goals and obstacles to prevent the attainment of those goals. Of course, as discussed last issue, the other members of the group will help you in creating opportunities and obstacles.It's not coincidence that Kubasik's description of the job of the Fifth Business overlaps to a high degree with my advice to the new "story now" GM - I read what he wrote before I wrote what I posted!</blockquote>

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