• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 440 0

a novel and I hear back from readers, they are all going to have had the same experience, because the story was the same, but when I hear back from players, their experiences are all going to be different.” Cook does not expect his materials to be used in one way by DMs but notes that a good DM will really make a module his or her own. Similarly, Gygax maintained the importance of the DM in having final say over what was in the rule books or modules. In an interview with Fine (1983), he said that when he would DM, he would not allow players to argue a ruling with him by pointing to a rule in the book: “I say, “Who cares? I just told you otherwise. It doesn’t make any difference what the book says’” (as cited in Fine, 1983, p. 111). Even the writer of the original rules acknowledges that the DM needs to adapt them based on the individual game and situation.

As someone who both writes text and changes existing texts, the DM straddles the line between author and reader, and between primary and secondary author, frequently shifting between multiple roles. According to Fine (1983), the DM is often considered “God,” “storyteller” or “playwright” (p. 73), all of which convey that authorship is a role of the DM. One of the participants in my survey writes, “I have found tabletop games to be better for intimate storytelling. I enjoy playing games that offer a great deal of player authorship. I like to simultaneously be actor, director, and author.” Mackay (2001) also adds actor, director, even editor to the list of DM roles (p. 6). DMs may indeed begin their own stories and worlds, although these worlds will shift based on the players’ actions. Although DMs cannot possibly plan for all possible actions that players may take, they can certainly anticipate those that are most likely. Fine (1983) notes that the DM accepts decisions made by the players, but will also shape them in the direction of the story he or she wants to tell (p. 88). In this way, the DM often acts as a director. Mackay (2001) refers to the DM’s role as a continuity editor. The DM is the one who determines whether character suggestions become a part of the world and is the one who is responsible for maintaining the consistency of that world (Mackay, 2001, p. 30).

The DM must manage these multiple roles and balance the rule books and pre-written modules along with player needs. DMs often do extensive planning for gaming sessions, but everything is subject to change at a moment’s notice depending on what the players do. Scott had several different plans laid out for the Blaze Arrow adventure (see appendix). Although we ended up following one fairly closely, the group could easily have abandoned the mission all together and instead sought after the strange cloaked assailants who threatened the group at the very beginning of the session. Fine (1983) also commented that DMs could not plan too much in advance because they needed to continually change the story and the world in response to the characters’ actions (p. 194). The DM occupies a middle position between game designer and player and is called on to collaborate with both primary and tertiary authors.

The participants as well as the DM, then, do have a measure of authorial control over the narrative. However, in the majority of instances it is the exchange between the participants and the DM (not one or the other) that causes the “collective creation of a story” (Mackay, 2001, p. 7). The DM may have final authorial say, but the participants are hardly a passive audience. They actively shape what happens next. At points where the players take over the position of author, the DM could be considered another member of the audience; for, while he or she has control over the stories being produced, he or she is often the one addressed by players’ contributions to the stories. Fine (1983) observed that the DM accepts decisions made by the players but “shapes them in directions that he believes are profitable and constructs a good ‘story’ which he can control” (p. 88). Yet, the DM’s control is never absolute as he or