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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9263936" data-attributes="member: 42582">To whom?To Hickman, in writing the DL modules? No.To Baker, in setting out his idea quoted in the OP? Yes:The part below the &quot;snip&quot; is tautology too. It doesn't tell us anything about GMing principles, either in general, or in the context of any particular RPG.For instance, the original Traveller rulebooks (1977) label the GM as a referee. They also tell us (Book 3, p 19) thatThe referee is always free to impose encounters to further the cause of the adventure being played; in many cases, he actually has a responsibility to do so.That is not an instruction to be &quot;impartial&quot; in relation to the unfolding of the shared fiction. It is an instruction to take an active &quot;side&quot; in that respect.The Classic Traveller approach to GMing (or, better, that family of approaches - as there are multiple ways to understand the referee's responsibility described on p 19) is (obviously) not the only possible one. But it is one way of setting up a RPG: one participant has a (voluntary, self-imposed) responsibility to establish fiction in accordance with certain parameters that will further a particular cause. That appears to be an instance of playing a game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9263936, member: 42582"] To whom? To Hickman, in writing the DL modules? No. To Baker, in setting out his idea quoted in the OP? Yes: [indent][/indent] The part below the "snip" is tautology too. It doesn't tell us anything about GMing principles, either in general, or in the context of any particular RPG. For instance, the original Traveller rulebooks (1977) label the GM as a referee. They also tell us (Book 3, p 19) that [indent]The referee is always free to impose encounters to further the cause of the adventure being played; in many cases, he actually has a responsibility to do so.[/indent] That is not an instruction to be "impartial" in relation to the unfolding of the shared fiction. It is an instruction to take an active "side" in that respect. The Classic Traveller approach to GMing (or, better, that family of approaches - as there are multiple ways to understand the referee's responsibility described on p 19) is (obviously) not the only possible one. But it is one way of setting up a RPG: one participant has a (voluntary, self-imposed) responsibility to establish fiction in accordance with certain parameters that will [I]further a particular cause[/I]. That appears to be an instance of playing a game. [/QUOTE]

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