What is the Role of the GM? · Game Master's Laboratory

What is the Role of the GM?

A little more vague than I usually talk about, but I've been reading a lot of Jon Peterson's historical D&D books (Matt Colville has this great video about "The Elusive Shift") and there more I read, and then talk with people about it, the more I feel that no one has an identical opinion on what a role playing game is, or many of the subjects that go along with it are. I'm pretty in favor of that---it's part of what makes the hobby so unique---but I do think it's interesting to compare notes.

My favorite might be "what is the role of the GM?" I've seen (and participated in) a ton of discussions about it, and my opinion has changed a ton over the years, so I'm excited to hear what people's takes are. The GM has plenty of jobs---when I was younger, I was a big fan of Matt Colville's "the GM needs to make the players believe in the world" refrain I heard in a lot of his videos. I still do like that a lot, but as I've played and run more games, I mostly think about how a GM can facilitate the fun for the group. In my favorite way to play (although it isn't the preference of every group I run for) the GM's primary job is to create fun situations for a story that surprise everyone, including themself. But there's lots of little things I could add on to that! There's probably never going to be a perfect summary, and it's totally different depending on the type of game you want to run. What do you feel like your primary job is when you're running? Do you think that's different from what "the GM's" job should be, more broadly?

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