The role of the GM
 

On another forum someone made a thread conjecturing that unclear rules are 'unfair' to players and empower 'tyrannical' DMs to abuse their players. You can probably tell by my use of quotations that I don't share that persons opinion, but I'm curious what other people think of the idea of GMs as neutral interpreters of a 'complete' rules system rather than arbiters of rules in their own right. Something the person said to me (before getting increasingly hostile that I don't share his opinion) stuck out as just flat out wrong:

emphasis theirs.

Re: The role of the GM
 

some facts:

• The GM's job is to do everything that absolutely requires a neutral third party on site. Everything else is ideally handed off to someone else.
• The world is not ideal and the GM may end up doing more than that. This is not a terrible problem if you have a good GM.
• Good GM's are precious and requires someone who enjoys the process of facilitating play.

Re: The role of the GM
 

What a GM does has changed over the years in subtle ways. With the initial release of D&D the game had almost no rules on purpose, because the GM was expected to use the principle of Free Kriegsspiel: he rules everything by deciding what should happen, dispassionately and according to his expert knowledge of the realities of the game world (which he made up).

As time went on and more and more rules got added to games, the GM started to become a mere rules-engine, applying published rules with little of his own judgment in use. Oh, these rule books told the GM to change rules they didn't like, but it was implicit that once changed, the GM would follow those rules.

A game like GURPS favors the GM-as-game-engine mode. It's got rules for everything, and the players have access to all the rules. The GM need merely apply them. You CAN insert GM judgment in what happens, but you typically have to remove pieces of the rules to do it. GURPS is very forgiving of this; there are few rules that can't be replaced with GM rulings. Some other games make this more difficult.

Re: The role of the GM
 

I would argue that GURPS doesn't relegate the GM to being a simple "game engine" due to the number of abilities that are explicitly dependent on the GM's judgement, or at the very least, GM-player negotiation.

Re: The role of the GM
 

It looks to me that the person who was quoted in the original post wants a set of rules applied exactly and consistently, as if a computer was running the game. To that, I'll offer a misquote: Any GM that can be replaced by a machine, should be!

The GM isn't there only to apply the rules. She's also there to referee, to keep the plot moving, to present challenges that test the PCs without being insurmountable, and - most importantly, IMHO - to make sure that everybody (including the GM) is having fun. Sometimes that means adhering strictly to the rules, sometimes that means chucking the rules out the window and winging it. The trick is knowing which of those applies at any given time, and a computer can't do that (yet).

Re: The role of the GM
 

You could probably just search for banned forum poster Peter Kneutson (um...spelling?). That was his mantra and you can read a lot of countervailing opinions. He was pretty much the only person who was so absolutist about it - so much so that I wonder if your mystery poster is him.

Re: The role of the GM
 

I do recall Peter Knuetson (and his oft-referenced RPG Sagatfl, I think it was?), but I don't quite believe these are the same people... could be, but who knows

Re: The role of the GM
 

Peter Knutsen

Re: The role of the GM
 

Reality in detail is extremely complex. GURPS may have a lot of rules, but it doesn't come near to covering everything. Any system is going to need a lot of GM adjudication to cover those holes in the rules. And any system -- or players -- that pretend that rules don't have those flaws, and can simply be unthinkingly and mechanically applied by rote, is just setting themselves up for trouble.

If you can't trust your GM, you need to find another one. If you can't trust any GM, you need to find another hobby.

Re: The role of the GM
 

Whether it's DM or GM, the big M stands for "Master". I don't think it's a terribly difficult concept...