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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 3690525" data-attributes="member: 1003">Ahem. Back on topic....A further thought has occurred to me about the evolution of the game from OD&D to the present.  It's about the perceived role of the DM, and vacillation between his role as "Neutral arbiter" and "Storyteller."Pre-D&D was the wargame. You either had no GM at all (just players, like in Chess or Monopoly) or you had a Referee whose only job was to handle disputes.  Since the point of the game was well defined, and the "allowed interactions" between players was very narrow, the Referee's job was simple. Also, since the players were playing against each other, it was understood that the Referee would be neutral. (interestingly, there's a similarity with our earlier discussion here about whether or not in more-than-two-player Monopoly or war games you can strike an alliance between players; are the rules the limits of the permitted, or boundaries of what is forbidden? ... but that's a tangeant)Coming from wargames, I think the presumption in OD&D was that the DM was supposed to be Neutral Arbiter ... but something odd happened when the players stopped fighting each other add started fighting imaginary orcs instead.  The DM was suddenly expected to be both Neutral Arbiter and Determined Opponent at the same time.  On the one hand the GM's job was simply to roll the Random Encounters and let the chips land where they may; but on the other, he was expected to play these monsters as enemies to the limit of their intelligence.  As long as you limited adventures to Searching the Unknown, and clearing certain Caves, you were fine.But then Plot appeared, and developed further with AD&D, and the War of the Lance and Time of Troubles events occurring in a given world.  The role of the DM shifted again to that of Storyteller.  Only, he was telling the story to the Players, not letting them tell the story to each other interactively.  It was bad enough that all the corners of the map were filled in; now you didn't even have any control over how the story ended.  And TSR lost customers in droves.I think the publishers of the 3e adventures realized this had become a problem, and the worst of the rail-roading has receded.  Even the novels have changed from "world shaking events" to "stuff that's happening to individuals, in the next town over."  However, the "feel" of those old adventures has not returned, and I think it's because of CR.  You see, the GM's role has shifted again from Storyteller to Provider-of-CR-Appropriate-Encounters.  He still hasn't gotten back to being a Neutral Arbiter (and I'm not saying he needs to be for people to have fun - I'm just observing here).So, the Evolution of DM's/Adventures might look like this:OD&D - The world is big, and dangerous, and kind of random. You can get killed really easy. Smart tactics will not help if I roll 18+ on this table. Be afraid.AD&D - There is a PLOT, and you will advance the PLOT.D&D 3 - The world is big, and dangerous, and CR appropriate. You can get killed, but only if you're stupid. Use smart tactics and you'll always be OK though.</blockquote>

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