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Is the DM the most important person at the table
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7923062" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>I'd say it is systemic, but may not be a bad thing. Again, gatekeeping is not always a negative, although it quite often is. In this case, there's a balancing factor between the cost of printing, change of sale, amount of material to digest, etc., that may justify making the DMG a separate purchase expected of GMs but not of players. Still an artificial barrier to entry if owning a DMG is expected of being a GM, although a small and justifiable one. It, by itself, may not rise to gatekeeping, but it does add to the systemic costs of other things that erects the gate.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Exactly. If that person is GMing, then the actual tasks of GMing aren't as hard as presented, but rather our preferences that add the difficulty.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Perfection is not a requirement of any of my positions. I don't think 'mistakes' attribute to the duties of a GM. Mistakes tend to cut both ways, and tend to be obvious.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But, here's the rub, you're choosing to accept those questions. [USER=97077]@iserith[/USER] has a great read on not playing questions in a game, because it's the player's job to declare actions, not ask questions. If you accept players asking "can I" to get likelihoods, then that's your choice, not required by the rules. You could say, "you have to declare an action" and have them then try things in character to find out what they can do.</p><p></p><p>Now, if they're asking a rules question, as in 'do the rules allow..." then I think it's fair to have them read it and present a case to the table. You can make a ruling if there's a legitimate question. This isn't any different than if playing Monopoly, though -- it's handled however the social contract sets it up. If you've set up your social contract that you, the GM, are the sole source, then that's on you. Having the rulebook say you're the final authority on the rules doesn't mean that you can't delegate, or that you must know the rules. Heck, if you make stuff up, that's by the rules, right? How much easier can you get than 'make stuff up?'</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which means that the difficulty of what material is run is a choice by the GM, and not a requirement? Rhetorical, my answer is 'yes.'</p><p></p><p></p><p>I think GMing is different from playing, and is a different challenge, but I'm not convinced it's "hard". "Harder" is, well, not terribly helpful, because that may mean a little bit harder or lots harder and opinions in this thread have differed. I think the players actually have more rules to follow than the GM. Being the final authority doesn't mean more work, it just means you have control over it. However much work you want to put into that control is up to you -- you can farm it out to the table or a specific player, you can make stuff up on the fly, you can study and consider and write up papers... lots of options, but all up to the GM. If we're including the things that we choose to pick up as adding to the core difficulty of the task, then I think we're making a error. But, it's the collection of theses we pick up on our own and attribute to the actual task that build the myth that GMing is hard work and players don't have much to do, and so on that creates a systemic and structural, but unintentional, barrier to entry to the GM club.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 7923062, member: 16814"] I'd say it is systemic, but may not be a bad thing. Again, gatekeeping is not always a negative, although it quite often is. In this case, there's a balancing factor between the cost of printing, change of sale, amount of material to digest, etc., that may justify making the DMG a separate purchase expected of GMs but not of players. Still an artificial barrier to entry if owning a DMG is expected of being a GM, although a small and justifiable one. It, by itself, may not rise to gatekeeping, but it does add to the systemic costs of other things that erects the gate. Exactly. If that person is GMing, then the actual tasks of GMing aren't as hard as presented, but rather our preferences that add the difficulty. Perfection is not a requirement of any of my positions. I don't think 'mistakes' attribute to the duties of a GM. Mistakes tend to cut both ways, and tend to be obvious. But, here's the rub, you're choosing to accept those questions. [USER=97077]@iserith[/USER] has a great read on not playing questions in a game, because it's the player's job to declare actions, not ask questions. If you accept players asking "can I" to get likelihoods, then that's your choice, not required by the rules. You could say, "you have to declare an action" and have them then try things in character to find out what they can do. Now, if they're asking a rules question, as in 'do the rules allow..." then I think it's fair to have them read it and present a case to the table. You can make a ruling if there's a legitimate question. This isn't any different than if playing Monopoly, though -- it's handled however the social contract sets it up. If you've set up your social contract that you, the GM, are the sole source, then that's on you. Having the rulebook say you're the final authority on the rules doesn't mean that you can't delegate, or that you must know the rules. Heck, if you make stuff up, that's by the rules, right? How much easier can you get than 'make stuff up?' Which means that the difficulty of what material is run is a choice by the GM, and not a requirement? Rhetorical, my answer is 'yes.' I think GMing is different from playing, and is a different challenge, but I'm not convinced it's "hard". "Harder" is, well, not terribly helpful, because that may mean a little bit harder or lots harder and opinions in this thread have differed. I think the players actually have more rules to follow than the GM. Being the final authority doesn't mean more work, it just means you have control over it. However much work you want to put into that control is up to you -- you can farm it out to the table or a specific player, you can make stuff up on the fly, you can study and consider and write up papers... lots of options, but all up to the GM. If we're including the things that we choose to pick up as adding to the core difficulty of the task, then I think we're making a error. But, it's the collection of theses we pick up on our own and attribute to the actual task that build the myth that GMing is hard work and players don't have much to do, and so on that creates a systemic and structural, but unintentional, barrier to entry to the GM club. [/QUOTE]
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