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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yair" data-source="post: 1183795" data-attributes="member: 10913">The DM is not a referee. Nor is he just a player. The DM is a player, but he plays a different game. It is the DM's goal to have fun while playing his game, just as it is for any other player. This can come from building up worlds, plots, NPCs, or watching how the PCs creatively destroy all his carefully-wrought plans depeding on the DM (the latter works for me). But it doesn't come from identifying with his character the way it is for the other players. (Well, mostly; and DMs that do that I think fall into traps of making stars of their favorite NPCs or railroading to maintain their beloved plots.)The DM can sometimes serve as referee, but this isn't his position. His position is to do what it takes to keep the game moving. Sometimes this means refereeing, sometimes it means just the opposite (such as fudging dice to save the necks of the PCs, changing something on the fly, and so on). The goal is to keep the game moving, fun, and fair - not to be a rules lawyer, which is what a referee is.The godhood of the DM depends on the chosen style of play of the group. Some games do work as freeform games, where the DM makes the rules on the fly, but that's not d20. Most games agree to a set of rules, and the DM is expected to largely abide by it - making exceptions, for him or the players, only when sticking to the rules will distract from the fun of the game. It is part of the "contract" between DM and players, much like the players expect the world in a Scarred Lands campaign to be fairly close to the official setting, at least in atmosphere and main points, and not to have the plot centered, say, on Star Wars.That's my view of the DM's role, anyways.</blockquote>

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