GM, DM, referee, storyteller, storyguide, etc., etc.

[Jack Aidley]

I've been thinking lately about what to call the GM in my games, as you can guess from the prior sentence I've always tended to use GM. But I'm wondering what term is 'best', or indeed if it really makes any diference at all.

Here's a few random thought on a few terms:

Game Master: I like GM it's simple and concise, but it is a 'master' position with all the implications that has.

Dungeon Master: Rather too focused for my liking. Oh, so I'll be running a dungeon then, huh?

Story Teller: Impossible thing before breakfast, methinks.

Storyguide: This I like. It does kind of fit with the role I take as GM. But then it also implies Story Is The Important Thing, which I don't think I agree with.

Referee: Referee's are only supposed to apply and enforce the rules given to them already. I think that is rather less than what a GM does.

What do you think? Does it matter? What is your favourite? And why?

[pete_darby]

My preferred term is GM standing for Genius Mundi (spirit of the world).

I think it neatly sums up the role of the GM in conventional RPG's: the Players play a single character, the GM plays everyone and everything else, including physics.

edit: Of course, it's up there with Hollyhock God as a signal to call me pretentious right NOW!

Other than that, I'm just hitting the thesaurus now...

Chair (man/woman/person/just damn CHAIR!)
administrator
captain (oh, I'd like that!)
official
counsellor
Mediator
Big Brother
President
Organizer
Director
The Authority...

edit: Organizer.... growing on me....

For the TV game, I'm circling around "Producer," though the job's more like the Exec Producer or Script Editor on most TV series.

Or, we could go into DeGaulle mode... "Je suis le Jou! Le Jou, c'est moi!"

[Cadriel]

From Over the Edge, Game Moderator.  It's not "Master," but it has the familiar RPG "GM" sound to it, and it's neither pretentious nor goofy.  I think it would make a good standard.

-Wayne

[Ben Morgan]

IMO, Game Moderator is probably the best one I've heard so far, but I'm biased, having grown up on Cyberpunk, so Referee (or just Ref) is still common parlance.

-- Ben

[Bob McNamee]

Somewhere there is a huge thread of all the various names that have been used in games for GMs etc.

But it must not be named convieniently since I couldn't find it in a quick search.

I seem to recall the subject being phrased as a question.
What you you call the fifth wall? or something like that.

[jdagna]

I stuck with Gamemaster in my own book.  It's a good term and has history on its side.

DM and Ref are far too narrowly focused to describe the job and Storytellers have no use for players to muck things up so it's an innappropriate title.

Game Moderator is not bad at all - if you don't want the usual GM, I'd go with it over the the others you mention.  

Consider Game Manager also - it gets at the authority somewhat like Master, but not as strongly.

Game Director is a term I've considered, drawing on a movie director's control over everything but the actors, who often improv (always improv in the case of RPGs).  I know of one game that called him GOD (Game Operations Director).

I don't want to derail the thread... but why does everyone seek to redefine the GM's name, but almost every game is happy to use the term players for the other folks?

[Marco]

Good point on the players. We've started saying 'participants' when we're not specifically refering to players (i.e. "The participants should discuss this before the game starts.")

I'm partial to Game Master, myself but Moderator or Manager is fine too.

-Marco

[Jack Aidley]

don't want to derail the thread... but why does everyone seek to redefine the GM's name, but almost every game is happy to use the term players for the other folks?

I don't think that's derailing the thread at all. Hmm. I think because the term player does not have any great conotations, other than that one is partaking of the game. The distinction of players, and those that run or maintain a game is well established in all (or at least most) other games (the ref in football, umpire in cricket or tennis, etc.). Thus the first RPGs sought only to establish a term for the distinct role of the GM. Does that make any sense?

[Ian Charvill]

The previous thread was What "that guy" is called

HTH

[Jack Aidley]

Does anyone think that different terms are appropriate for different games? That perhaps Dunjon, for example, could use DM? Or that a Wild West game maybe use Sheriff?

[pete_darby]

Does anyone think that different terms are appropriate for different games? That perhaps Dunjon, for example, could use DM? Or that a Wild West game maybe use Sheriff?

The problem then can be attribution: If I say I want to talk to the sheriff, do I mean the town sheriff or The Sheriff?

I know context will usually eliminate ambuguity, but I'd rather not have the ambiguity there...

[efindel]

Call of Cthulhu uses Keeper, which I've always liked in conjunction with it.

Many games based on TV shows, movies, or on ideas from them use Director.  I kind of like that one... note in particular that the Director is not the Scriptwriter.  :-)

The original poster mentions liking StoryGuide, but not the Story part of it -- so why not just Guide?

--Travis

[John Kim]

Does anyone think that different terms are appropriate for different games? That perhaps Dunjon, for example, could use DM? Or that a Wild West game maybe use Sheriff?

Well, no.  I always thought that Deadlands was dumb for using "Marshall" for GM and "Posse" for the group of PCs.  Since both marshalls and posses are bound to come up in-game, I think this is just making a hash of terminology.  Of course, the same game decided to name certain die roll results as "aces" -- when playing cards are also frequently used.

[Blake Hutchins]

I dunno.  I like genre-specific terms for added flavor, and I even like Hollyhock God.  (I mean, what's not to like about being a God, eh?)  Ordinarily, I use the term GM without really thinking about what it stands for.  It's just common parlance understood as default.  Genius Mundi is a pretty cool term, if you ask me.

Best,

Blake

[Matt Wilson]

I nearly stove my head in trying to think of alternative names for the non-GM players in PTA, especially as the "GM" role has less specific areas of control. I went with Producer for "that guy's" job, but the rest of the players are actors and camera crew and screenwriter and director and key grip all rolled into one. Not really a handy term for that lying around.