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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8665836" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think the OP was written in view of how what your saying is true for SOME RPGs, and entirely not true for others. There are many RPGs which eschew something like 'rule 0', and many do not assign exactly the same role to a GM which D&D does (and there are a small minority which don't even have roles like 'GM', though we don't tend to wander that far afield most of the time). Beyond that, games like Apocalypse World or Dungeon World actually do EXPLICITLY state an agenda, principles, and even 'moves' which the GM is intended to abide by, though in AW and Powered by the Apocalypse type games generally the GM is usually still given a huge amount of leeway.So, you CAN start, you can talk about the differences in authority between, say 5e D&D and Dungeon World (which is built to replicate basically the D&D genre with Tolkienesque races and D&D-esque classes and levels). For instance Dungeon World tells the GM that their job is to Describe the situation, Follow the rules, Make moves, and Exploit your prep (which is supposed to be more 'loose' than it would be in classic D&D). The GM is further told they have an agenda; Portray a fantastic world, Fill the character's lives with adventure, and Play to find out what happens. I won't list all the principles, but there's about a dozen of those too, which are said to be 'guides'.So, DW has a pretty interesting sort of relationship of players to authority. The rules tell the GM to make moves (this is a rule). The GM must make a soft move whenever the players say basically 'what next'? (it could be a hard move, like an attack, also in some specific cases). Generally the GM Describes a situation. In accordance with the principles and such, it must fill the PCs lives with adventure, portray a fantastic world, etc. The PCs have what are called 'bonds', statements that relate them to other characters (usually the other PCs). The GM can make moves based on these, or the PCs alignments, or any other part of their backstory, etc. She can also introduce some of her prep.The interesting part is, while the GM's prep can provide story elements, it is not supposed to BE a story, the game is 'Play to find out what happens', not 'go through the adventure module'. So, the GM can make up a lot of stuff, but one of the principles is 'ask questions, use the answers', so you're supposed to ask the PLAYERS things, 'what do you think is over that next hill?'. The players also can make moves (as their characters, they are always in character, technically). Those could be things like 'Spout Lore', the GM must tell the player something about the topic named, and depending on how the dice come up it may need to be useful, and/or interesting. So, while fictionally said lore could be most anything, the GM has to abide by interesting/useful, as well as the agenda, principles, and other rules! The upshot is, Dungeon World DOES actually effectively give the GM a bit less total authority over the fiction than in D&D. The game also plays rather differently, the focus is on the characters, not on pre-written or GM authored material nearly so much.</blockquote>

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