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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6302957" data-attributes="member: 27160">Ahnehnois has, in my view, been doing a bang-up job of arguing that there are always decisions in RPG adjudication that have not been settled up-front, and that therefore someone's judgement must be invoked during the game upon them. But this statement, in particular, has been bugging me nevertheless. I just don't agree with it. I think that I have realised why.This is a vision of GMing that I, personally, have come to abhor.The idea of GM as Meister; as Artiste and Heirophant, administering Good Gaming (TM) to the unwashed and ignorant masses is something that at one time I accepted as received wisdom, but now I just feel faintly repulsed by. But, if I put my own current biases aside for just a moment, I think it is just an aspect of a much older debate.Ahnehnois says that it's quite possible to be a bad DM - to make bad judgements as a DM - but to still be a DM. The question I would ask is: can this not apply just as much to the players? As a motional system, consider one in which the characters have a 50% chance to succeed at anything they attempt. That is the entirety of the "system". Sure, some players might attempt ludicrous stuff. They might simply drive the game to get dominance for their character. But that will ruin the game for them as well as everyone else; why should this not be "their mistake to make"?It seems to me that this is just the old "Forms of Government" argument about Benevolent Dictators and Democracies. One side says that any Dictatorship is bad, because power corrupts; the other side says Democracy cannot work well because, in the words of Winston Churchill, "the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter".In other words, is a game best formed and directed by a single creative vision, or is collaboration and consensus best? That, it seems to me, is ultimately a matter of taste. I am, however, still forcibly reminded of Churchill's other famous saying about democracy: "it's the worst system of government there is - apart from all the others that we have tried, from time to time".Aside: There are exceptional cases, of course. I think [MENTION=3192]howandwhy99[/MENTION] may have a good case for GM dictatorship with a "puzzle-setter" paradigm, if I can ascertain from him exacly how it can work in a functional manner.</blockquote>

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