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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8341857" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Sure, this one is an area I figured might see some disagreement. There are plenty of folks who would say no this idea and would maintain that the DM must be a neutral arbiter and should remain impartial at all times. I disagree with that. I think the game must be about the PCs; without them there is no game, so they are the protagonists and that should be acknowledged. They are more important than the NPCs or lore that I craft as a DM. I don't think that idea needs to conflict with your idea of the players being a fan of the DM, although that's hard to have in place at the start of a new game with new people. A player can keep that in mind....and I think that's what I was kind of getting at with players being willing to engage with the GM's ideas.....but being a fan of the GM or trusting the GM is something that may need some time to develop. I think it may be a best practice to suggest to players "Trust that your GM will try and enable fun and engaging play, and accept their rulings with that in mind"; that's likely a good default position for a player to take until they see evidence that they should not do so.I think that's a bit different than the GM being a fan of the PCs.....those are the characters in the game. All the participants getting along is more of a social matter. A GM being a fan of the characters is about the fiction of the game, not the social dynamic of the table.I think you're breaking it out in a way that does make sense, but I don't think that we need to hold back at any stage. We can offer best practices.....or rather our take on best practices...at any level of your hierarchy. I would agree that the further you move along what you've laid out, the more specific things will get. And sure, at the top level, something like "Decide what style you want to play" is probably a good suggestion for a best practice. However, my concern would be in establishing all those different tiers and styles and so forth. I mean, as a group we can't agree on any terms, and even just the idea of best practices has been met with resistance. The level and scope of definition that you're describing would take a miracle.</blockquote>

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