The role of the GM

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by trooper6

I appreciate Rule 0 for two reasons.
1) there are people who won't break rules at all (including house rules) unless given permission, Rule 0 gives them permission.
2) There are rules lawyer players who will harass you and say you aren't allowed the house rule or make different decisions and will make your life miserable, and being able to point to Rule 0 will usually get them off your back.

So I appreciate the presence of the rules.

I detest it because, in a great many cases, all it does is encourage (to use Bill's IMNSHO mediocre taxonomy) mediocre GM's to become bad ones.

It's absence isn't the same as its existence. Competent GMs will make changes as need be with or without it, and inform players of them. Bad GM's won't inform players until "gotcha" time. It's the Mediocre GM's who will take it as given that they can change the rules on the fly, and become bad GMs in the process.

Rules are best when presented as a social contract, and Rule 0 being included in that actually removes the contract nature of them, dumping all the authority on the GM and making the contract simply to "whatever the GM feels like using"...

And that's before the absolutely toxic advice Gygax wrapped around it...