Games - Gamemaster

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	Games - Gamemaster

A Gamemaster or Game Master (often abbreviated as GM) is a player in a multiplayer game who acts as organizer, arbitrator, and officiant in rules situations.

The term gamemaster and the role associated with it originated in the postal gaming hobby. In typical play-by-mail games, players control armies or civilizations and mail their chosen actions to the GM. The GM then mails the updated game state to all players on a regular basis.

Today, gamemaster is nearly always associated with role-playing games. In a role-playing game the Gamemaster's purpose is to weave the other participants' player-character stories together, control the non-player aspects of the game, and create environments in which the players can interact.

Roles of Game Master in popular games

Each gaming system has its own name for the role of the gamemaster, such as "judge", "narrator", "referee", "Games Operation Designate" (G.O.D.) or "storyteller", and these terms not only describe the role of the gamemaster in general but also help define how the game is intended to be run. For example, the Storyteller System used in White Wolf Game Studio's storytelling games calls its GM the "storyteller", while the rules- and setting-focused Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game calls its GM the "judge". The cartoon inspired roleplaying game Toon calls its GM the "animator." A few games apply system- or setting-specific flavorful names to the GM, such as the Hollyhock God (Nobilis), or the oldest "Dungeon Master" (or "DM") in Dungeons & Dragons
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Being the GM requires extra commitment and responsibility than simply playing the game. While the basic roles of Game Masters - rules help, moderation, and storytelling - are the same across any platform, differing rule sets make the specific duties of the GM unique to that system.

Tabletop role-playing

In a Tabletop role-playing game, the gamemaster prepares the game session for the players and the characters they play (known as player characters or PCs). The GM describes the events and decides on the outcomes of players' decisions. The gamemaster also keeps track of non-player characters (NPCs) and random encounters, as well as of the general state of the game world.

The game session (or "adventure") can be metaphorically described as a play, in which the players are the lead actors, and the GM provides the stage, the scenery, the basic plot on which the improvisational script is built, as well as all the bit parts and supporting characters.

GMs may choose to run a game based on a published game world, with the maps and history already in place; such game worlds often have pre-written adventures. Alternately, the GM may build their own world and script their own adventures.

GMs may run their game as frequently or infrequently as they wish; some gamers meet once a week or once a month, others only two or three times a year. A GM can easily run one-shot, unconnected adventures each time their gaming group convenes; in this case there is no connected plot, and the players can choose to play different characters in each session. However, a devoted gamemaster can string many such adventures into a campaign, in which the same heroes fight many different monsters and a few recurring villains, gaining treasure, reputation and power as they go. Such campaigns can last for years, even decades, earning a great deal of loyalty from their players, even as some players join or leave the game along the way.

A good gamemaster draws the players into the adventure, making it enjoyable for everyone. Good gamemasters have quick minds, sharp wits, and rich imaginations. Gamemasters must also maintain game balance: hideously overpowered monsters or players are no fun.

Just as there are good GMs, bad GMs also exist. One of these is the rare but well-known type known as the "killer GM". This type of gamemaster enjoys killing the PCs, meaning that the imaginary character "dies" in the same way a character in a novel might -- they cannot go forward in the story, short of in-game mechanics like magical resurrection. The GM might get satisfaction out of creating monsters with very powerful game statistics, or designing fiendish traps that are virtually impossible for the characters to escape, but such a GM is likely to have trouble keeping players coming back for more adventures.

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