The Role of the Game Master

The Game Master’s job is to control everything in the world that is beyond the control of the players, and implement the rules. As the GM, you play all of the monsters and non-player characters, and your goal is to make the gaming session as fun for everyone as you can. This involves two sorts of activities: planning for the game sessions before they begin, and running the sessions of the game.

As a game master, you should have some materials ready for the game. Ideally ten or so six-sided dice, for making the rolls that frequently come up, and maybe a coin to flip in the rare cases where that would be recommended by the rules. In addition, you’ll want some way to make notes and reference the things in this book. 

The central thing to remember when being a game master is to avoid the temptation to over-prepare for the game. Over-preparation can lead to frustration when the players, inevitably, go off course and turn your best laid plans to waste. They may choose to ignore or kill an NPC you hoped would guide the entire plot of the game, and the fact that they may choose to do that is a big part of what makes tabletop RPGs exciting and unique. Your task is to make it such that, whatever choices the players make, their lives are filled with adventure and excitement, and because preparing for every contingency is a fool’s errand, the goal of preparation is to enhance your ability to improvise. Furthermore, you are there to have fun too! Don’t make too much work for yourself.