The Tenets of GM Mastery

[riprock]

I have both of those books by Gygax, Roleplaying Mastery and Master of the Game.At the time I bought them, I found them to be very dry reads. This is ironic, given the author. But as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate them more.

I don't have Master of the Game. I *do* have Roleplaying Mastery and recently I've started reading it again.

Unfortunately, my lack of common sense and somewhat slanted sense of appropriateness means that I am probably still missing many of the points therein...

To return to the quote in the original post:

Player characters are not created so they can live through one or two brief episodes, and a campaign world is not designed for the sake of a few isolated hours of activity. If the effort that goes into playing is not to be wasted, the play must extend over a long period of time so that the effort invested can realize a return.

You know, it's really beautiful when it works that way, but in my experience, it's very hard to keep a campaign together with exactly the same people for a long time. The most resilient campaigns I've seen had one referee and a variable pool of players. Very few players really got the long-term enjoyment.

D&D really does have *excellent* game balance *if* you have about four players, one DM, and a year of steady gaming sessions. I suspect that in the 1970's, Western society was more stable and sociable; nowadays America has books like "Bowling Alone" which document the disintegration of community, Europe has tensions with immigration (involving economic and religious conflicts), and Asia is mostly playing World of Warcraft. I came to Asia in 2004, from Europe, and the language barrier is small compared to the difference in sociability.

IMHO this is a problem with the notion of progress in role-playing games. Building up a character by slow, steady accumulation of points is not always practical. Nowadays, millions of people are willing to have a long-term commitment to World of Warcraft but not to a gaming group.

I personally find World of Warcraft to be a game-killing competitor. I'm stuck playing or running one-shots or war games or board games because all the people who really like fantasy are playing WoW, except me! If this gets any worse I'll have to give up my *interesting* hobby -- RPGs -- and start playing cards and MahJong, just to have players.

 

[riprock]

The Tenets of GM Mastery

From Role-Playing Mastery, by Gary Gygax

....

Quasqueton

Tenet #2
Quote:

The individual campaign is an interpretative extension of the game it is based on, aimed at activity by a small group.

Tenet #3
Quote:

The creative interpretation of a campaign must remain within the scope and spirit of the game.

Both of these are points I wish I had known fifteen years ago (along with the vital principle of coming to a consensus about what the mood of the game should be *before* the game starts).

Over the years, I've had too many arguments that cut into precious gaming time -- participants did not agree on rules, on theme, on party balance, etc. If we had read that book,we would have at least had a starting point and the arguments would have taken less time.

 

[Akrasia]

The Tenets of GM Mastery

From Role-Playing Mastery, by Gary Gygax

Tenet #2Tenet #3Tenet #4Tenet #5Tenet #6Tenet #7

Quasqueton

Is there some kind of esoteric meaning that you're expecting us to glean from these exoteric passages?

If so, that's just too Straussian for me. :\

 

[grodog]

I periodically pull out RPM and MotG from time-to-time and find that their advice still holds water today. Good books, for sure. It would have been nice if Gygax had included in MotG (or in the AD&D DMG) a bit more advice on constructing dungeons: I'd love to see a definitive essay from him on the subject (rather than merely the various snippets of advice scattered in the DMG, PHB, OD&D books, etc.).

 

[Quasqueton]

Not seeing the riveting discussion & controversial topics, here. Quas, are you feeling OK?

I'm feeling fine, thank you. Riveting discussion? I thought the tenets were insightful and wise, and possibly helpful to folks reading this forum. At the time I posted it, there was a thread asking for GM code of ethics, so I thought listing these tenets were appropo for the current mood of the board. Controversial topic? Wasn't shooting for controversial. But if you want . . . ;-)

Is there some kind of esoteric meaning that you're expecting us to glean from these exoteric passages?

If so, that's just too Straussian for me.:-\

I have no idea why anyone would be perplexed over these tenets. Maybe I should have included the fuller explanations with 2-7?

(And I don't know what "Straussian" means in this context.)

Quasqueton

 

[I'm A Banana]

The role of game master is that of an active neutral with duty first to the campaign, then the group, and then the game.

I'll disagree with this order. The first is to the group (because without a group, you have no game or campaign). The second is to the campaign (because without a group and a campaign, you have no game), and the third is to the game (because the game is only one consideration in how to express the campaign or have fun as a group).

Pretty much everything else makes some good sense. Though I think "total mastery" is slightly overrated and something no one who has ever played D&D has ever entirely recieved. In the simpler future, perhaps that will change.

 

[LostSoul]

Tenant #5 - that could be controversial. It looks like crazy talk to me.

 

[Psion]

You know, I can't see this being a long thread, since that's pretty non-controversial

I dunno. I think some rules-lite fans would be aghast as tenet #7, and would insist that any game that benefits from an investment of effort into learning it is bad.

 

[the Jester]

Yup,

I survived Call of Cthulhu.

You need a t-shirt for that.

 

[Particle_Man]

It would have been nice if Gygax had included in MotG (or in the AD&D DMG) a bit more advice on constructing dungeons: I'd love to see a definitive essay from him on the subject (rather than merely the various snippets of advice scattered in the DMG, PHB, OD&D books, etc.).

Well, there was the random dungeon generator in the DMG for 1st ed. What more could one possibly need?