The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games - Michael J. Tresca [47]
There is some level of overlap between the role of player and Dungeon Master. A Dungeon Master’s responsibility includes the same details every player provides for their individual character. One of the daunting challenges in playing Dungeons & Dragons is that a Dungeon Master is a “player plus,” required to know all the rules as a player would and also the rules for monsters, world development, and narrative. The difference is in specialization; players can focus on a single character’s details in a way that a Dungeon Master cannot.
Game Master
The term “game master” was originally applied to play-by-mail games. It was used in Guidon Games’s rules set Don’t Give Up the Ship! which ported many of the attributes to role-playing games we know today. Tunnels & Trolls by Flying Buffalo used the phrase in the first role-playing game context (McGonigal 2007:253). Gygax broke down the game master’s seven principal functions as moving force, creator, designer, arbiter, overseer, director, and referee (1989:14).
As a moving force the game master is responsible for getting players together. In addition to running the game, the game master must also deal with external factors that are beyond the scope of the game’s rules, such as new players joining, missing players, or the group’s overall wishes. A successful game is a constant a negotiation between the players and game master (Fine 1983:90).
Mackay (2001:118) posits that the difference between player and game master is illusory. In the role-playing game experience, it is more the combination of all participants’ roles in the overall ensemble of the role-playing game performance rather than their individual contributions. A game master cannot successfully run a game without players willing to participate, and players cannot play without a game master.
As creator the game master is responsible for the formation of the game universe in which play takes place. Beyond the rules themselves, game masters interpret the world and share it with the players. In this regard the game master is a parser for the universe (Hindmarch 2007:55). That’s not to say that the game master can create any world he wants. It must accommodate the players and, if it is it to be an effective participatory experience for the players, will cater to their interests through military tactics, intergroup relations, or interpersonal behavior (Fine 1983:89).
As designer the game master delves into territory not covered by the core rules system. In a sense, the game master is designing his own rules on the fly—few games adhere so closely to the rules as written that no interpretation will be necessary. In this respect, the game master shapes the game as much as he implements its rules.
As arbiter the game master interprets the written rules of the core game. In a sense, the game master is also the most experienced player. It’s his job to know the rules at least as well as the other players in order to effectively adjudicate the game. Failure to know the rules well can lead to mistakes that impair game play. In that sense, the game master role takes on both the burden of functioning as all the other roles in the game as well as a rules compendium of sorts.
As the overseer the game master helps craft the narrative of a long-term role-playing campaign (or “milieu,” as Gygax is fond of calling it). As he oversees the world and controls everything that is not controlled by a player, he is sometimes considered godlike, if not God. Less dramatically, the game master role is often likened to a storyteller or