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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9302391" data-attributes="member: 4937">Abuse is a triggering word that conjures up images of some of the worst of human behavior.The sort of misuses of power that GMs are normally capable of don't rise to the level of the first things you'd think about in the context of the word &quot;abuse&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; It happens.&nbsp; We've heard the horror stories from female gamers who encountered actual examples of abuse, but I don't think that's the sort of thing being discussed here.None of that changes the fact that GMs are in a position of relative authority over the players and that GMs can in fact misuse their power by being a jerk or by simply not knowing better how to handle common table problems.&nbsp; Your pointy haired boss doesn't actually have to &quot;abuse&quot; you to make working for him nightmarish, and likewise your dysfunctional Game Master doesn't have to &quot;abuse&quot; you to create dysfunctional games that color how you perceive the GM/Player relationship.&nbsp; I know as a matter of experience that there are players who come to my table from other tables where they have learned to expect GMs to mishandle their power and mistreat them as players in some fashion whether metagaming against them or robbing them of agency or deprotagonizing them or enjoying their failure and so always setting them up for failure or taking a &quot;GM is Satan&quot; approach where any attempt to be good and heroic is met with derision and the universe conspiring to show good is impotent and stupid or any number of other common tropes some of which have been humorously explored in the pages of &quot;The Knights of the Dinner Table&quot; (where B.A. is presented a relatively good hearted and functional game master despite his occasional literary pretentiousness and attempts to railroad the game and the other Muncie tables as generally but not always dysfunctional but still being a &quot;a game is better than no game&quot; situation).&nbsp; And if you have been mistreated, even if it isn't anything we want to call &quot;abuse&quot;, then it does tend to create mental habits and expectations that color how you play RPGs.&nbsp; And sometimes this leads to self-reinforcing cycles where past injustices committed against you lead you to adopt dysfunctional play as a player, creating your own problems.&nbsp; Again, this is humorously explored in the pages of &quot;The Knights of the Dinner Table&quot; or movies like &quot;The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising&quot;, and none of this should be I think controversial but a well understood aspect of our hobby commented on by many people.As a GM there have been times I mishandled table situations and treated players unjustly.&nbsp; I try to acknowledge and learn from my mistakes and not repeat them, but they happen.&nbsp; I don't think any GM should be defensive about the idea that they've at times misused their authority, mishandled situations, or mistreated players.&nbsp; If you don't think you've done that, I don't see how you can improve your game mastery.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9302391, member: 4937"] Abuse is a triggering word that conjures up images of some of the worst of human behavior. The sort of misuses of power that GMs are normally capable of don't rise to the level of the first things you'd think about in the context of the word "abuse". It happens. We've heard the horror stories from female gamers who encountered actual examples of abuse, but I don't think that's the sort of thing being discussed here. None of that changes the fact that GMs are in a position of relative authority over the players and that GMs can in fact misuse their power by being a jerk or by simply not knowing better how to handle common table problems. Your pointy haired boss doesn't actually have to "abuse" you to make working for him nightmarish, and likewise your dysfunctional Game Master doesn't have to "abuse" you to create dysfunctional games that color how you perceive the GM/Player relationship. I know as a matter of experience that there are players who come to my table from other tables where they have learned to expect GMs to mishandle their power and mistreat them as players in some fashion whether metagaming against them or robbing them of agency or deprotagonizing them or enjoying their failure and so always setting them up for failure or taking a "GM is Satan" approach where any attempt to be good and heroic is met with derision and the universe conspiring to show good is impotent and stupid or any number of other common tropes some of which have been humorously explored in the pages of "The Knights of the Dinner Table" (where B.A. is presented a relatively good hearted and functional game master despite his occasional literary pretentiousness and attempts to railroad the game and the other Muncie tables as generally but not always dysfunctional but still being a "a game is better than no game" situation). And if you have been mistreated, even if it isn't anything we want to call "abuse", then it does tend to create mental habits and expectations that color how you play RPGs. And sometimes this leads to self-reinforcing cycles where past injustices committed against you lead you to adopt dysfunctional play as a player, creating your own problems. Again, this is humorously explored in the pages of "The Knights of the Dinner Table" or movies like "The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising", and none of this should be I think controversial but a well understood aspect of our hobby commented on by many people. As a GM there have been times I mishandled table situations and treated players unjustly. I try to acknowledge and learn from my mistakes and not repeat them, but they happen. I don't think any GM should be defensive about the idea that they've at times misused their authority, mishandled situations, or mistreated players. If you don't think you've done that, I don't see how you can improve your game mastery. [/QUOTE]

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