What is the GM's Most Important Job?

[MNblockhead]

30 posts in and I'm rather surprised nobody's hit the real #1 GM's job yet:

Commitment to doing that job.

If you're not committed, week in and week out for however long the campaign runs, to doing whatever a GM has to do in whatever system or style you're running in order to keep the game going, you might as well not bother.

I feel like I understand where you are coming from, but I worry that attitude would put off a lot of potential new GMs. It is a game, not a job. I think it is okay to jump in and give it a try and if it isn't working for you, its okay to walk away.

Also, not all GMs run campaigns. I would actually encourage more DMs to run one shots. I think that there would be more GMs, and more opportunities for me to not be a forever GM, if more people would run the occasional one shot rather than feeling like that have to run a long adventure or campaign.

 

[Reynard]

When you say "pacing", I was reading that in the context of story telling.

I almost never mean that, simply because I don't generally do "story telling" in that way when I run games (except when I do, usually at cons).

But this style generally only works if all players have bought into a player-driven, sandbox-style campaign.

No argument there. And even if you happen to have a group mostly good for player driven sandboxing, there is always that player or two that doesn't gel with the style.