What is the GM's Most Important Job?

[payn]

Enthusiasm. If the GM isn't excited, the players won't be.

Thats a great one!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Thats a great one!

True. On the other hand, I once was in an awesome game run by a doppelgänger of Stephen Wright.

 

[bloodtide]

For the most important job, I'd have to go with the outside the game that the DM must be an adult tough stance Master of Ceremonies with a backbone.

Nearly always the DM must set up the game, find players, approve players, approve characters, and set up the time and place to play. And once the game starts, the DM must maintain firm social control over things.

 

[TheSword]

Plans are over rated.

I read today four essential pieces of advice about plans

1/ Always have a plan
2/ Always be willing to change your plan
3/ Never assume you know everything about your plan
4/ Never wait to know everything.

I thought they were wise pieces of advice.

 

[payn]

I read today four essential pieces of advice about plans

1/ Always have a plan
2/ Always be willing to change your plan
3/ Never assume you know everything about your plan
4/ Never wait to know everything.

I thought they were wise pieces of advice.

 

[SlyFlourish]

At a high level I'd say...

The GM's job is facilitating a fun and creative game for our friends.

Not super helpful at a practical level but I think its important to keep the high level goal in mind.

I had an opportunity to ask David Christ of Baldman Games who has managed like a hundred thousand D&D games and gotten surveys and feedback from those games. He said that, among the feedback he received, the GMs who ran the highest-scoring games had these traits in this order:

• Preparedness
• Being friendly
• Facilitating the fun
• Knowing the rules

He said the GMs who smiled, laughed, and enjoyed the games with their players did better than the ones who took it too seriously.

You can see my whole interview with him from a while back here:

DM's Deep Dive with David Christ

In July 2019 I had the pleasure of speaking with David Chris on the DM's Deep Dive. David Christ is the owner of Baldman Games, the company that runs D&D organized play events at a half-dozen of conve...

slyflourish.com

On the topic of pacing, Monte Cook agrees and wrote about it in one or two of his intros to Numenera products. I've found an understanding of upward and downward story beats as written by Robin Laws in Hamlet's Hit Points to be really helpful in understanding beats.

But when I think about the root of the question, I see the role of the GM really about facilitating a fun game for our friends. Staying flexible, letting the story go where it goes, keeping the pacing going in the right directions for the moment – these are all vital to a great game.

Fun question!!

 

[TheSword]

Almost the quote but a plan that adapts hasn’t failed.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

For the most important job, I'd have to go with the outside the game that the DM must be an adult tough stance Master of Ceremonies with a backbone.

Nearly always the DM must set up the game, find players, approve players, approve characters, and set up the time and place to play. And once the game starts, the DM must maintain firm social control over things.

Agreed! Scheduling and logistics are the biggest part of the meta-game and if the GM doesn't do it, someone else has to or nothing happens.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Plans are over rated.

Plans are worthless, but planning is essential.

 

[MNblockhead]

I want to push back against an idea upthread that suggested that the GM's job of pacing was not important if the game was player led, such as in a sandbox.

The GM is still responsible for session pacing, even if the PCs are the ones making all the decisions and driving all the action. It is still the GM's responsibility to cut short long stretches of flipping pages for rules, to shift the spotlight between the PCs, and to speed up and slow down time as is appropriate to the events going on in the game. Those are all pacing and they matter even if the PCs are wandering through the Bleak Bog in search of random encounters for those last few XP to level.

Fair enough. But I see your examples as being more about keeping everyone focused on the game. When you say "pacing", I was reading that in the context of story telling. There are some campaigns where I put a lot of effort into esuring good narrative pacing. But there are others where I am almost completely hands off. Aside from things that take focus off the game (page flipping through rules, out-of-game conversations, mobile-device distractions), I let the players control the pacing--even when I find myself wanting to pull my hair out. Switching the spot light, which you brought up in your post, is one example where I will intervene in these kinds of campaigns. If two players are really into something, say planning, shopping, etc., and if other players seem to be zoning out, I'll certainly ask the players who seem to be zoning out on what they are doing. I certainly want everyone engaged in the game.

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