RPGaDay 2019 Day #11 Guide

Today’s theme is "Guide."

Some games describe the Game Master as a Guide, which is partly accurate, but not really. You want to make sure that the players know the rules of the game and you do have some responsibility to teach them. But taking a hand in guiding your players through the story is considered bad form. Even if you are the most railroading GM out there, you don’t spend time telling your players what their characters are supposed to be doing in any given scene. (In that case, you probably tell your players “No” a lot until they do what you had scripted.)

This also open the door to the GMC, the Game Master Character: A member of the party who is played by the GM. This may be done with the best of intentions, such as giving the party a clue when they need one or allowing the GM to have the fun of playing a character, it is very easy to screw up. Being able to play both sides of the screen is an advanced technique that not everyone can pull off.

My advice to that sort of GM is to say “The story that comes out of the game is more important than the story that you wrote going into the game. If the players don’t have information, make sure that they’re still moving and still acting. Even if it’s wrong and stupid action. It’s theirs and that’s the important thing. Also, if you want to have a character, do that and let someone else run the game. If you want to be the GM, understand that you are approaching the game from a different angle than anyone else at the table and you should be having fun doing that.”