The GM is not a player, or is he?

You know the drill. A group of gamers get together. One is the GM, and the rest of us are players.

• The GM makes the monsters. We kill them.
• He makes the NPCs. We steal from them.
• He makes the traps. We get trapped by them.
• He designs the adventures. We get railroaded by him.
• Him against us, us against him, so on and so on, forever and ever.

When your group comes up with a plan, do you make it in front of the GM? Does he or she wander off to the fridge, so they’re only half listening? Or do you make the GM leave the room, convinced that if he knew your plan, he’d have time to prepare a heart-sinking thwarting?

We did exactly that the other day. We had something to get done and started planning at the table. The GM began to ask us a question, and that’s when we decided to send him out. We wanted to surprise him with our “great plan.” We wanted to crush him. No, demolish his adventure halfway through. We wanted to beat him. He agreed to leave (seemingly happily) and went to watch TV in the living room.

Ten minutes later we called him back and the game resumed. As you can imagine, our great plan backfired atomic-style because of something stupid we’d overlooked. It ruined our fun and nearly ruined the whole session.

Later that night I talked with the GM. He told me:

1. He was going to point out our mistake during planning, but we had cut him off.
2. He enjoyed the ten-minute break at first.
3. He felt bad for the rest of the night that we weren’t enjoying ourselves, and he didn’t like sitting at the end of the table while everyone else had zero fun.

Then he asked me flat out, “Why do you feel you have to beat me?”

That got me thinking. Why do I, as a player, feel it’s him against us? Probably because I’m trying to beat his monsters’ defenses, I guess.

The GM’s job is to challenge and reward us. It’s not to throw monsters and encounters our way to see which side wins. It’s to give us something to do and accomplish, and to help shape a story. That practically guarantees fun’ness.

Put yourself in the GM’s shoes. Do you have more fun when the players lose to you, or when they beat the challenges you set and move the story along, along with their own stories? You, as the GM, know you can kill the characters by throwing the book at them. You also know that’s no fun for anyone. For a fun group, you’re giving them chances to accomplish things, not chances to die.

To all of us players: don’t gloat about “winning” until you’ve walked a mile in the GM’s shoes. That way, when you do win, you’re a mile away, and you’ve got new shoes. (Wait, I think I messed that joke up. Oh well.)

To GMs: it isn’t your job to make things hard for the players every single time. Give them something easy now and then, to show you’re not against them and to help them shine. When they pull off something great after a lot of hard work, congratulate them. Remember that you’re directing a story in which the players win, succeed, or get their stories told. When that happens, everyone has won.

Players, when you win or finish the adventure, thank the GM for a good game. They put in a lot more work getting you there than you did, all so everyone could have fun. A gaming group is a handful of people getting together to have fun, not a group of 4+1.

Good game, everyone!