The GM's Experience

To carry forward from the player's experience, the GM's experience is completely different. The game master is the author of the story, and is very much the true god of the world. If you are a regular reader, you will know that this is exactly how I describe being an author of any story. You need to know everything that's in your world, all the people, all their back stories, even if most of it never comes up, it affects things in one subtle way or another. The more deeply you understand your world, the richer the experience of exploring that world is.

I want to first say that what I am talking about here is from first-hand experience. I could parrot what other authorities have said on the subject and probably sound really convincing, but no amount of words can describe the experience of DMing your own game. I started role playing as a player. My friend is the GM of our Dungeons & Dragons game and he and I discuss the game and the experiences regularly. But it wasn't until I ran a game of Call of Cthulhu that I truly understood all the things he and others would talk about.

The GM knows more than just the people and places in their setting; they know every possible future that could happen within that setting. For example, let's imagine that a small party is on an adventure, seeking a kidnapped child. They find themselves in a small town, which it seems the child had been through. There are a few houses there, an inn/pub in the center of town, and a smattering of shops. What will the players do? Most players would try to talk with the townsfolk and find clues that would lead them to the next step. Some players may think the town is insignificant and walk right through it. Others may think the town would be a good place to do some looting.

In this case, the GM can never be certain what to expect from their players, both in the broad sense like I mentioned above and in more specific cases as well. A GM could make it unavoidable that the party runs into the local authority, but even then, there is no guessing what the players would do in that encounter. The players might be civil or they might have a chip on their shoulder. The GM might figure that the authority figure would show up, say just enough to make the party start asking for more information, which would lead to a shocking reveal, but just because the GM thinks it is obvious doesn't mean the players find it equally obvious.

Players might think that the authority figure is a bumbling hick instead of a concerned person. They might also assume that he's actually part of the problems in the area or is hiding something sinister (paranoia is a troublesome occurrence in role playing games). So in trying to "outsmart" the GM, or in simply misreading a situation, they can make very unexpected decisions.

This does not mean that the GM is unprepared. That is what makes tabletop gaming so much more exciting than a linear story. When you are writing a story, you have to figure out which thing you want to happen. In tabletop gaming, you have to be aware of every possible thing that could happen because one of them will happen. However, as a GM, you see paths shut down as new ones open up. It is very much like looking at a tree, never knowing which branch will keep on going and which will peter out.

It is a surreal experience when it happens to you. Personally, I felt like a 5-dimensional being, simultaneously seeing all the possibilities of a situation, but never knowing which one is actually going to happen until the dice stop spinning. What is most beautiful about it, though, is that as the GM, you come to understand that there is no right or wrong path in life. Some paths are more common than others, and some simply don't turn out the way we hoped they would, but no matter what happens, as long as you're still breathing, the story keeps going on.