thread: 2010-06-14 : A Bit of Hardcore
On 2010-06-25, Vincent wrote:
When you design a game, you do it because you have insights you want to express. Insights into the game's subject matter, like "oh hey did you notice this about adventure fiction?" or "horror means this!" or whatever. Insights into real live human nature or behavior, like "I think that people under stress act like this" or "a person can do this alone, but to do this she really needs the help of her friends" or whatever. And insights into roleplaying as a practice, like "whoa, I bet that dice can be used for this" or "players can do this and a game can still be fun!" or whatever.
A well-designed game coordinates all of your insights, and here's the crucial point: some games demand that you have a GM, and some games demand that you don't.
First of all, some insights into roleplaying as a practice call for games with GMs—"if the GM does this, then this happens"—and others call for games without GMs—"you can have no GM if all the players do this." But it's not only that straightforward, that 1-to-1. Some insights in combination demand GMs and others demand none. "If this player does this, and that player does that, it gets exactly at what I mean to say about people under stress, and coincidentally there's nothing left for a GM to do, so no need to have one."
Compare, for instance, Emily's game Shooting the Moon with my game Rock of Tahamaat, Space Tyrant. In Shooting the Moon, one player plays a character called the beloved*, and in Rock of Tahamaat, one player plays Rock of Tahamaat, and they're broadly similar roles. They provide adversity, direction, and enticement to the other players and their characters. However, because of the details of the interactions between the beloved's player and the other players, versus the details of the interactions between Rock of Tahamaat's player and the other players, Shooting the Moon can't accommodate a GM, and Rock of Tahamaat demands one.
The question of "why have a GM? Why not have a GM?" isn't even a whole question, absent a game in development and its specific, particular design goals. It's a question for every game to answer individually, not a question with one answer in general or in theory.
*I think the character's called "the beloved." It might be "the intended" or something else like that.
