by David Neuschulz
Introduction: A Different Approach
The World Wide Web is littered with "How to be a great GM/DM/StoryLord/Whatever" guides. Almost universally, the approach these primers take is to offer corrective measures via altering the game mechanics or plot. They will suggest a plot device, or a rules variant that will punish/coerce the problematic player (or alleviate the problematic situation). I don't mean to completely dismiss the guides; much of what they offer is helpful, especially to the beginning GM. Nor do I mean to denigrate the spinning of yarns; fleshing out a list of do's and don'ts with anecdotal examples is a time honored tradition, and more to the point: gaming stories are just plain fun to read. But I have to confess that the redundancy of the information has led me to propose an alternate (not better) set of guidelines.
The guide I am about to put forth comes from taking a step back from gaming and examining our hobby from a more objective viewpoint. . . and applying the guidelines of "Role Play Therapy" (formally "Psychodrama Groups") to the task of GMing. A few years back, I came to the conclusion that this branch of Group Psychology had much to offer an aspiring GM. How and why I came to this conclusion is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that RPGs are, in some ways, merely Role Play Therapy turned inside-out: one's purpose (psychological awareness and improved social skills) is the other . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 11, 2000
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