I'd rather have everyone at the table working to make the game fun, than pass the buck to one person and give the other people the impression they only have to worry about themselves.

The GM is the player in charge of the game world, the monsters, NPCs, and make calls on things not covered by the rules.

The other players are in charge of their characters, what they do, and a bunch of other stuff (not to derail lets leave it at that for now).

So the GM is "the boss" of some parts of the game.  But not all of it.  And everyone is responsible for making the game fun.

Quote from: RPGPunditOr to put it another way, if you REALLY believe that the GM is the Boss, what possible reason could you have to NOT want it to be explicitly stated in the rules? Eh?

It depends on the game I'm playing.

But as my GM'ing has evolved, I rely less and less on my own authority and more and more on player input.  Sometimes, I find the players rely too much on my authority and it makes them overly passive.

I generally play with the GM having final authority, but I don't see games that don't have that built in as threatening to my or my group's fun at the table.  I am no longer the guy in grade 7 who banned another player for a month for secretly buying the DMG!

Quote from: RPGPundit...really? That's the best you've got for rebuttal?

RPGPundit

Huh? It's not a rebutal. Your raving madness pretty much handles defeating itself. Though I do see others here piling on, I feel no need to join that party.

Quote from: RPGPunditAh, and meanwhile, here's someone who makes Blakkie's pathetic attack look good. At least when he said it, it was momentarily original. You're so devoid of ideas you have to imitate him.

RPGPundit

Thanks! I didn't actually expect you to answer the question, since I'm sure you know the answer and are afraid to admit how much your self esteem is tied to rpg.net. But it was fun to ask!

Quote from: RPGPunditThat's a nice bit of pap sentiment, that covers up the practical fact that a ruleset that doesn't explicitly state that (much less one that states the opposite: that the GM is NOT the boss) is a ruleset that will make the GM's job of putting a stop to the rulesraping asswipe much, much harder.

Why are you gaming with a rulesraping asswipe if you don't dig that style?

Quote from: Blackhand"I am GOD here."

Nah... gods are just some of my little NPCs.

(so this somewhere, not my original idea)

Quote from: James McMurrayWhy are you gaming with a rulesraping asswipe if you don't dig that style?

Excellent point.  I haven't gamed with such a person in my adult life and the closest another player ever got to that point earned a "dude?" and a look from me and that nipped it in the bud.  I've done this as a player too.

Quote from: ZulgyanNah... gods are just some of my little NPCs.

(so this somewhere, not my original idea)

That's S. John Ross.  "The GM isn't God.  God is one of his little NPCs."

Quote from: AnthrobotI've seen a few games turn to shit because the GM let some rulesraping arsewipe of a player lord it over them and the rest of the players. If these GMs had been confident to believe in the fact that they were running the game and that the buck stopped with them, then the games would not have gone downhill.

It raises an interesting point in my mind about what the nature of the Power we're talking about here is.

When we used to play in David's world everyone wanted to play in *his* world because it was great.  He had an amazing imagination.  Because we wanted to play in his world, he had the Power.  It was real power, not some arbitrary rules statement about who has "authority" or whatever.  It was the real power of being the one who had the service that we wanted.   What created his power?   His great imagination, that's what.   We all loved this world because it was fascinating.   That's real power.

Now take another GM, Rob.   He had no imagination but just played modules out of the book and was an arbitrator of rules and little else.   He had no world to speak of, and though his Role Playing of NPCs wasn't terrible, it wasn't entirely compelling either.   He had little power because no one really cared about his world.

Now take another GM, Tod.   Tod wanted players to love his world and coveted a reputation as a great and mighty GM like David.   He fawned over the players and bought them pizza and gave them magic items at the drop of a dime.   He had no power.   In fact he gave all his power to the Players who then had all the Power.  They dictated to him what the world would be like, how great and lordly their Characters were and so on.   His world rapidly escalated in terms of Levels and Powers but the game was completely unfocused and he had no World to speak of.   The game shrivelled up and died a quick but agonizing death over a year.

Now take a rules book that says "The GM has the Power."  That's, to be frank, meaningless.  Real power comes from the Desire of the Players and GM... whoever holds the most desire has the greater power.   What creates Desire is the question.   And my answer to that is

1.  Having A Great World.  
2.  Role Playing with Greatness (the NPCs are believable).
3.  Adjudicating the Rules effectively (know thy system).

Nuff said, I think.

Great GMs don't play "you can look, but you can't touch" with their players.

Quote from: JongWKGreat GMs don't play "you can look, but you can't touch" with their players.

I agree, usually. Its more fun when they do get to "touch" and then have to deal with the consequences. Erick Wujcik taught me that.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditI agree, usually. Its more fun when they do get to "touch" and then have to deal with the consequences. Erick Wujcik taught me that.

The other side of the coin is that if players find that everything they can touch burns them, they eventually lose interest in doing anything ("Why bother?").

Quote from: James McMurrayWhy are you gaming with a rulesraping asswipe if you don't dig that style?

As a player in certain games I don't have any say as to who the other players are. If you don't know that one of the players is going to try to steal the game from both the GM and non rulesraping players then you may end up in this situation.
Which is why you need a confident GM, that can keep a handle on a player that is trying to quote rules at the person responsible for handling the rules in the first place, the GM.
If a game system doesn't specifically mention that the GM should be firm but fair, or if it actually tells the GM that they should let the players walk all over their game doing whatever game destroying actions they like, then it ain't much of a decent rpg. Which is why authority should be firmly in the camp of the GM. So the game doesn't degenerate into an argument over some minor rule due to some big headed player thinking that they can be a "back seat GM" and turn the game into their personal ego paradise.

Quote from: VBWyrdeIt raises an interesting point in my mind about what the nature of the Power we're talking about here is.

Now take another GM, Tod.   Tod wanted players to love his world and coveted a reputation as a great and mighty GM like David.   He fawned over the players and bought them pizza and gave them magic items at the drop of a dime.   He had no power.   In fact he gave all his power to the Players who then had all the Power.  They dictated to him what the world would be like, how great and lordly their Characters were and so on.   His world rapidly escalated in terms of Levels and Powers but the game was completely unfocused and he had no World to speak of.   The game shrivelled up and died a quick but agonizing death over a year.

Now take a rules book that says "The GM has the Power."  That's, to be frank, meaningless.  Real power comes from the Desire of the Players and GM... whoever holds the most desire has the greater power.   What creates Desire is the question.   And my answer to that is

1.  Having A Great World.  
2.  Role Playing with Greatness (the NPCs are believable).
3.  Adjudicating the Rules effectively (know thy system).

Nuff said, I think.

I think this talk of desire is edging into airy fairy territory.
Authority for the GM isn't the be all and end all of being a GM, certainly. But it is a definite requirement if a GM wants to run more than 4 scenarios before the players get bored.

Quote from: VBWyrdeNow take a rules book that says "The GM has the Power."  That's, to be frank, meaningless.  Real power comes from the Desire of the Players and GM... whoever holds the most desire has the greater power.   What creates Desire is the question.   And my answer to that is

1.  Having A Great World.  
2.  Role Playing with Greatness (the NPCs are believable).
3.  Adjudicating the Rules effectively (know thy system).

Nuff said, I think.

A GM needs:

Confidence
Humour
Authority
Organization
Swiftness

Confidence to run a game, which comes from either past experience or a love for the genre being run.
Humour, since it is just a game, played for FUN.
Authority given by both the gamesystem and honoured by the players, otherwise the game won't last long.
Organization or else the game slows and players get bored and leave.
Swiftness as it keeps the players pulses racing and the excitement keeps the players interested.

...and most importantly needs one of the following:

Safety helmet: To shield the game from his fool ideas.
Viking hat: To rule with an iron fist of awesome.