The role of the GM

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Do you actually believe that all GMs are either outright abusive, or excellent?

I don't think I'm offering anything as sophisticated as a "taxonomy." I'm simply noting that it's possible for a GM to have faults, and not do a first rate job, without being so dreadful that it's better to go without gaming than to game with them. That is, I'm rejecting what I see as a false dichotomy.

All? no. Most? Yes. The midpoint is pretty thin, and I see a bimodal distribution.

My experience is that the types of people drawn to GMing tend to fit those two categories, and seem to fill between them about 90% of all GM's. And bad outnumber good. And the few truly mediocre... It feels like a 6:1:3::Bad:mediocre:good. And one of those 6 bad shouldn't even be allowed at the table as a player...