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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bendris Noulg" data-source="post: 1317052" data-attributes="member: 6398">It's also a question of terminology.  For instance, what does "storyteller" mean?  For some, it's a GM that weaves campaigns around a plot.  For others, its a GM that tosses out mountains of "fluff", making the Players fall asleep until the next encounter occurs.  It's also the name for GMs in the WoD games, which aren't exactly non-rules content. In this instance, I refer to myself as a "storyteller" (I develop the campaign, the flavor, the history, the cultures, the races, classes, prestige classes, etc.), our game is focused more on interaction and investigation than on dukin' it out (run those averages at about 50%/45%/5%), I establish the obstacles (which can be from a puzzle, a diplomatic encounter with a rickety old hermit with a chip on his shoulder and information the PCs need, or a powerful wyrm bent on ravaging the country side), and I am constantly improvising around the (usually unpredictable) choices of the Players.  So, by your definitions, I'm all four types you briefly describe, 2 of which you are fine with, 2 of which you have problems with. So, am I a good GM or a poor one?  Lukewarm, maybe?  Or just a bad GM to those that don't like what I present at the table and a great GM to those that do? To point, I don't think the problem is the GM with a story (I wouldn't want to play in a game if the GM doesn't have one), it's the GM that has already imagined how the story will play out before ever putting the Players into it.  Such GMs are either going to be mad at the Players (who are making decisions completely opposite of the "script" regardless or in spite of all the "go this way" signs he put up) or end up with Players mad at him (for being railroaded and thus realizing that their decisions don't really mean squat). What these GMs have to realize is that, while they do come up with 99.9% of the game elements, they do not create nor do they control the most important element of any story that is to be told.  That is, in short, the main characters (known in RPGs as "The Player Characters").  RPGs also provide one element that no author in the world ever provides: Random chance.  A writer (teller of tales, director, etc.) already knows what will happen and when (and even if making the tale up on the spot, how many do you think are flipping a coin to make a decision about plot twists?).  Even if the GM knows his Players so well that he can predict their decisions without fail, the roll of the dice can (and thus will!) change the direction of a game in a heartbeat.  In that regard, any GM with such a "vision" shouldn't be GMing (or, more specifically, shouldn't be GMing that "vision" but writing it down instead.  It isn't a game being invisioned (where authorship would be primarily on the GM but *must* include everyone at the table) but a story from a single author that is complete beginning to end.</blockquote>

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