What is a GM/ST/DM/etc?

[shadzar]

1. Obstacle/situation/encounter generator
2. A person and a player like everyone else in the game
3. Overworked and underpaid
4. All of the above

With recent talks it has gotten me to wonder, how do we view and treat our GMs. Do we view them as the same way we treat them?

Myself, I was always taught the GM is a player like everyone else. They aren't paid, normally, and not a fair wage by any standards. They are there to have fun as well as everyone else in making a game work. They just happen to have more to do to make sure the game works for everyone, than the rest of the people do. Missing player the game can continue, but a missing DM and you lost a night of gaming.

So how do you view your GM, how do you treat them, and has this changed as your gaming years have progressed? If yes, why do you think so?

 

[DumbPaladin]

#1, usually. At least, in my opinion.

I think good GMs also fit into #2.

I'm willing to go with the "overworked" part of #3, but if they think they're being "underpaid", they must not be enjoying their own campaign at all, nor the positives of bringing tons of enjoyment to other people ... and that suggests that person should probably not be a GM.

In my opinion, even if the GM is only #1 of your options, he/she needs to be respected and listened to (at least in terms of making game rulings), and thanked for having put all the work into running the game. The GM isn't just "another player", as you pointed out yourself, because the game can't continue without a GM, but can continue with anyone else not showing up.

But there's nothing wrong with a GM that fits only into option #1. It is certainly preferable if the GM is an obstacle generator, and not an obstacle himself/herself.

 

[Coldwyn]

Besides that #2 is always the correct answer, I think you´re missing:

5) The player who volunteered for the role that no-one else wanted to take.

 

[Nagol]

GMs are also a part of the game group like everyone else. They have a different role during play.

In general, there are two distinct roles in my mind:

Situation generator/designer: this is the role that creates/chooses the environment the PCs will find themsleves. This role has been partially commercialised by adventure paths/modules.

Adjudicator: this is the role of adjudicating PC interactions with the above situations.

The adjudication role takes about as much time as the other players give to the game. The designer role adds to the burden of the GM role making it generally greater than that of a player. This is the reason the role has been successfully commercialised and why different RPG product/table strategies exist to share the burden around the table.

 

[kitsune9]

Besides that #2 is always the correct answer, I think you´re missing:

5) The player who volunteered for the role that no-one else wanted to take.

I think a lot of DM's find themselves in this situation. For me though, it's something that I love to do so I guess #1 and 2 apply to me.

 

[kitsune9]

I'm willing to go with the "overworked" part of #3, but if they think they're being "underpaid", they must not be enjoying their own campaign at all, nor the positives of bringing tons of enjoyment to other people ... and that suggests that person should probably not be a GM.

I agree. I think once a DM feels #3, the game will suffer. There has to be an intrinsic reward for the DM to keep on going. For me, I have an easy and enthusiastic bunch of players. They work together, they don't engage in boorish behavior, and they don't fight my rule calls (often). Also, they play their characters and "buy in" the campaign. It makes my DMing job so much easy and fun to do, because I know the gang will really enjoy the next session that I'll have planned.

 

[howandwhy99]

The referee is often the puzzle designer, but more often simply the referee at the table. He's a player in the same respect an umpire in baseball is a player. She could be overworked, but there is a lot of commercial and fan created support. And I'm not really sure any have ever been paid, internet anecdotes notwithstanding.

 

[Mark CMG]

A DM/GM/Referee is a facilitator who acts as the players' senses/conduit to a game world and describes for them the consequences of their actions within that world.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

1. Obstacle/situation/encounter generator
2. A person and a player like everyone else in the game
3. Overworked and underpaid
4. All of the above

With recent talks it has gotten me to wonder, how do we view and treat our GMs. Do we view them as the same way we treat them?

I am the GM.* I could stand to work out more often, and drink less soda, but on the whole I treat myself pretty well.

GMs are absolutely players, just like everyone else. More importantly, they are friends. All interaction with the GM, from either side of the table, flows from that simple fact.

GMs have a different role at the table (and away from it!) which oftentimes requires a lot more paperwork. However, the ideal GM is someone who does that paperwork because it's fun for them; elsewise, they should find ways around doing that paperwork (run an adventure path, use pregens, crowdsource it to ENWorld / WotC / whatever forums, foist some of it off on the other players, etc.).

GMs are the adjudicators of the rules, usually - but even much of that work can be handed over to someone else at the table (see numerous discussions over the years about Rules Lawyers / Rules Assistants / Rules Gurus).

* Or, at least, I was until my 2+ year campaign ended just pre-Christmas; now, I'm a player in a friend's campaign (playtesting the PF Magus; see my thread in the Pathfinder forum! [/self promotion]).

 

[steeldragons]

I'll say 4: All of the above + Adjudicator.

Which, to me, sounds like what everyone is saying. The "underpaid" thing notwithstanding...it's a turn-of-phrase. I don't know of any GM's getting "paid" other than, as someone noted, from personal satisfaction...which also should beat a smallllll ratio (the "underpaid" sense, I mean) to the enjoyment they get as "players" of a sort in the game.

They are the situations, the monsters, the NPCs, the locales, the tree and the rock, the wind, the sea, the rope by the barrel and the sword in the goblin's hand. EDIT: And every so often, they coalesce into a personification of omniscience at the table to act as judge for a ruling. They are, in a sense, the rules, too.

They are...the "GM"-Game Master (a more all encompassing term than "DM" or "ST"-which, I don't even know what that means).

And they are there to have fun...as much as any "Player."

When that diverges...as, again, someone else mentioned, they either a) Aren't the kind of person who should be GMing or b) Has a problem in the players' ranks that needs attending.

Ideally! Of course.

It is also a well taken point, that the GM is a PERSON AT THE TABLE, same as anyone else...with personality, ego, likes/dislikes all included free of charge.

They are, quite frankly, "All of the above, below, in between and not mentioned." That's a GM/DM.

--SD