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<blockquote data-quote="Heathen72" data-source="post: 5126938" data-attributes="member: 7029">There seems to have been a paradigm shift in the DM/PC dynamic over the years. From my vantage point, the DM's role seems to have moved back and forth from that of impartial 'referee', to omniscient world creator; periods where the DM was the omniscient storyteller and the PC's merely characters in his grand narrative, backlashing into more adversarial periods, albeit ones where the powers of DM's were hobbled to create a balance between PC's and DMs. I have been lucky in that while our gaming group has floated on the surface of the sea of these trends, we have generally moved away from the idea that the GM does all the work, and that he is the one who has total responsibility for the session. And while our DMs still feel at some level that &quot;the buck stops with me if the session isn't fun&quot; these days they are handing over more and more creative power to the players. Instead of the experience being adversarial, with the roles of PC's and DM's rigidly defined, our games are more cooperative, with the PC's given licence to create elements of the world themselves; to jump in and play NPC's if they aren't involved in a passage of play. It is all subject to the direction of the DM, but unless the PCNPC's are ruining the story, our DM's will generally embrace it, and reincorporate the characters or ideas into the game later.Unfortunately for the Original Poster above, his gaming group sounds like it is one where the DM has had to do most of the work, but also one where the PC's don't have a lot of freedom to co-create. It has turned into a competition, but it is one that all the participants are losing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Heathen72, post: 5126938, member: 7029"] There seems to have been a paradigm shift in the DM/PC dynamic over the years. From my vantage point, the DM's role seems to have moved back and forth from that of impartial 'referee', to omniscient world creator; periods where the DM was the omniscient storyteller and the PC's merely characters in his grand narrative, backlashing into more adversarial periods, albeit ones where the powers of DM's were hobbled to create a balance between PC's and DMs. I have been lucky in that while our gaming group has floated on the surface of the sea of these trends, we have generally moved away from the idea that the GM does all the work, and that he is the one who has total responsibility for the session. And while our DMs still feel at some level that "the buck stops with me if the session isn't fun" these days they are handing over more and more creative power to the players. Instead of the experience being adversarial, with the roles of PC's and DM's rigidly defined, our games are more cooperative, with the PC's given licence to create elements of the world themselves; to jump in and play NPC's if they aren't involved in a passage of play. It is all subject to the direction of the DM, but unless the PCNPC's are ruining the story, our DM's will generally embrace it, and reincorporate the characters or ideas into the game later. Unfortunately for the Original Poster above, his gaming group sounds like it is one where the DM has had to do most of the work, but also one where the PC's don't have a lot of freedom to co-create. It has turned into a competition, but it is one that all the participants are losing. [/QUOTE]

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