DM's are Producers, Players are Consumers

[Ulrick]

Here's something from Game Mastery 101, a presentation I did not too long ago for my local gaming club:

A Dungeon Master is in business, the entertainment business. The players are the clientele and they expect to be entertained. Like a business, a Dungeon Master has competition: movies, TV, books, sports, significant others...other DMs! If a DM fails to entertain, he is out of business.

A Dungeon Master has to give the players a reason to spend an afternoon or evening playing a game when there is so much out there competing with the players' time. A player has to be entertained. A DM must know how to entertain. More importantly, a DM must know WHY he is willing to entertain. The WHY is far more important than the HOW. Each DM has his or her own WHY that motivates them to entertain and allow them to push through the crap that inevitably comes up.

What makes RPGs so different than many other forms of entertainment, is that RPGs are collaborative. A wise DM enables the players to take part in the entertainment process.

 

[Fenes]

I would say the DM runs the world, the players run the central characters, but both "sides" predominantly play characters in the game, interacting with each other in numerous ways.

If those ways are mostly limited to "try to kill the other", and effectively end up "DM brings monsters, players kill" then of course there can be the impression that the DM mainly prepares lambs for the slaughter for the PCs, who just wait for the next course.

 

[Ongorth]

Is there anything the system itself (and I don't just mean any particular edition or even game really) that can help engage players in the game? What can the game designers do to try to spread things about a little more evenly?

Game designers can do lots of things, but it isn't going to help when I don't listen to them.

Seriously, for some god-awful reason people always pick me to DM everything. In my own passive-agressive rebeliousness, I agree to do it, but refuse to put any work into it, forcing the players to handle all the heavy lifting. And, apparently, they like it because they keep asking me to DM.

It really doesn't matter how the book approaches the division of creative labor, people are going to chose the games they play based on the theme and mechanics of the game, not how the book dictates how they should behave socially. Really, books shouldn't even address those kinds of issues? Should they need to state things like "don't threated physical harm upon other players for taking actions in the game to which you are opposed?" Whatever division the group likes, they'll do.

 

[buzz]

In the podcast, they were saying that because the DM does all this work, and is responsible for the table and the game and everyone's enjoyment, the DM's are producers and the players are consumers. In other words, and I'm roughly quoting here, the DM prepares the banquet, serves the food and then cleans up the mess afterward.

I think this is a commonly accepted view of the GM/player dynamic. I don't find it a particularly conducive-to-fun attitude, and that FtB would espouse such a perspective is one of the many reasons I don't listen to FtB.

 

[Storminator]

Heh, let's hear it for awsome players. :thumbup:

OTOH, isn't this just the opposite side of the Oberoni fallacy? That a good DM can make any game good; good players can do the same?

I think good players are more important than a good GM. There's more of them, so they collectively set the tone for the table. More importantly, they play all the meaningful characters.

PS

 

[roguerouge]

Well, clearly DMs deserve a tax break and the players deserve easy credit.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I think the point would be better made if the "cleans up the mess afterward" part were not included. Yes, I think it's a good comparison to a dinner party. (My players help pick up afterward, by the way.) Comparisons are just comparisons though. Some dinner parties the people never leave the table. At others, it's a buffet and everyone is standing up moving around. D&D has a social setting (and usually food) and takes place around the table. Once the host gets it going though, it is up to everyone there to have a good time. Strangely, a good DM picks their players like a thoughtful dinner party host makes sure everyone there gets along.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Not in the slightest.

In my experience, DMs are more "team leads." They are where the buck stops, and who gives direction to the overall process, but they are not, nor really should they be, the sole producers of content.