The Game Master

In virtually all role playing games there is a Game Master, while s/he may go by a different name such as Dungeon Master, Storyteller, etc.  The Game Master's job is simply to be the buffer between the rules and the players, while guiding them on their adventure.  It seems that many Game Masters tend to forget that they are there to help the players not to play against them.

I'm only going to discuss two of the extremes today, the Adversarial GM and the Helpful GM, both are not much fun to game with.

The Adversarial GM.

This is the kind of GM that thinks of the game as "Me versus the party."  They will throw all sorts of crazy player killing traps and inescapable encounters.  If at least one party member doesn't die per game session they feel cheated.  I've played with several of this kind of GM, especially early in my gaming career, while it wasn't always the most fun, it did teach me a lot about gaming.  It made me think outside the box a lot more on how to at least try to get out of these situations.  It made our party try and work together more.  However, I'm not sure if these lessons wouldn't have been learned as well if the difficulty were scaled down to a challenging level as opposed to an impossible level.  Though I have also seen many gamers faced with these types of GMs become the dreaded power gaming, min-maxing, controlling player we all hate to play with.

The Helpful GM.

This is the kind of GM who gives everyone magic items, allows all sorts of stat rerolling and will sometimes nerf the encounters if it looks like the party may be on the ropes.  This is sort of like the over-protective parents that shield their child from the world, while also spoiling them rotten.  It will result in gamers who end up much like the children would end up; naive, spoiled and with a sense of entitlement.

Being a Game Master is a responsibility that runs far deeper than the game session your running, the campaign or story arc or even the duration of your gaming group.  The Game Master helps mold the players into who they become for the entirety of their gaming career.  So please, if you are going to run a game, ask yourself frequently if you are starting to wander toward one of these extremes.  Because, as a Game Master, I hate retraining gamers.