Hip Hop and Techno DJs are doing exactly that. Even moreso, they use other people´s recordings as their building blocks.
It´s a PERFECT analogy!

DJ analogy isn't perfect - the GM usually queues in a lot of their own content, at least an equal share relative to the players - but it does feel right; it encompasses a lot of what good GMing can be. You're at the table to bring the other players' creative tracks into a consistent thread that fits together. You're there, in part, to facilitate everyone else's rocking.

I wonder what kind of DJs you guys know.

"You gonna say WHAT to the wizard?"


"Anybody wanna try my new adventure?"

Quote from: SettembriniI wonder what kind of DJs you guys know.

Goth-Techno weenies who used to play Vampire a lot.

Quote from: SettembriniI wonder what kind of DJs you guys know.

Dirty, stinky and stupid. And that's the ones I like.

QuoteI wonder what kind of DJs you guys know.

Myself! But that's cheating/inaccurate.

At this moment I am super tempted to switch avatars to a pic of Wolfman Jack.

I also create my own rules.

I think more appropriate analogy might we are musicians. Sure we do covers from time to time, using other peoples creative work, other peoples instruments.

But the final creation, is often, uniquely our own. Even if its a cover, but especially if we wrote the song.

A lot of it depends on the game group and how much they do too.

A GM with rulebook+module+premade PC's=DJ

A GM with rulebook+own work+PC's made by players=Musician.
Using others musical instruments, and technology, to make music.


But the whole idea of gaming as ART is kinda in that big bad territory that Pundit rails against. I think its more like a garage band, than "art", we create stuff we love and is cool, for us. Sometimes we share it. It isn't something you'll sell platinum records off of--but it is something you have fun just doing.

Eh, I think GMs are really just GMs.  There's not really a neat analogy that captures what the job is all about.

A GM doesn't just control game pacing, or act using a loose script/key/guideline, or act as armchair psychologist/babysitter, or play the opposing side, or improv dialogue, or provide snacks, etc.  He or she does all of these things and more!  I'm not sure why we need a metaphor to describe what a GM does; metaphors tend to obscure nuance and the knotty bits that make the thing being described unique.

Don't make GMing a metaphor; embrace the role in all of its complexity!

If by "DJ," you mean someone like The Avalanches or AK 1200, or even some lamers like DJ Icey, than yeah, I think it's a comparison with a lot of merit. You start out with some cuts that you like and splice in your own stuff (or vice versa), then you use your tools and try to finesse a good smooth mix out of it. It's something that can take a lot of work or a little, depending on what you're shooting for.

If you're talking about the guy spinning Top 40s at your sister's graduation, not so much. Or maybe that's just a super-shitty GM.

Beat Poets?  Avante Garde Artists?  Revolutionaries?  

Quote from: StuartBeat Poets?  Avante Garde Artists?  Revolutionaries?  

Like this guy?

In the summer of 1984 and 1985 I made $150 ($75 each time) teaching a class on how to play D&D at the YWCA in my town. I had two repeats and when I asked why they came it was because they enjoyed the game I ran in last year's session. The class was was divided into two parts. The first was going through the rules in detail and the second was me GMing a series of adventures.

For what it worth a NERO style Boffer LARP Event is very much a getting a paid for Gamemasting type of thing especially when you are the owner and the guy running the event.

Rob Conley

Quote from: estarIn the summer of 1984 and 1985 I made $150 ($75 each time) teaching a class on how to play D&D at the YWCA in my town.

Rob Conley

God, I want a job like that...

I am now officially envious of you.