And the winner is….
Drum roll, please…
You guessed it: Dungeon Master is just fine with me. Randy and Kimmie hit the nail on the head: the title, in so many respects, typifies what it is that we do. We put in the extra time to create the game (and are grateful for the audience), we make the big decisions about who lives and who dies, and, generally speaking, we are the one person without whom the game will not go on. We set the house rules. We approve or disapprove character concepts. So, yeah, the title works. We are the masters of the game. Let’s hope we’re all benevolent masters, at least…
Some further, random-ish thoughts on the other titles:
Game Master – This one is, probably the right title. However, like Randy said, it is Dungeons and Dragons. Let the other games figure out how to title their own guy. Ours is a Dungeon Master.
Referee – I’ve said it before: any DM who claims to be impartial is a liar. Every DM fudges roles, adjusts encounters, pulls punches, etc. With rare exception, though, we do it so that everyone will have a good time, not so that we can beat down the characters. After all, we’re already gods, if we wanted to crush characters we could do it at any time. We don’t need a fudged die roll to do it.
Storyteller – The biggest reason I don’t like this one is that, ideally, I’m only telling half of the story. The players are telling the other half. I’d go with Story Facilitator, but it sounds too much like a middle management title.
So, there you have it: DM stays.
