GM Styles and Game Descriptions

     This blog's purpose is to explore GM styles and game descriptions, in part to just prattle on about different parts and aspects of TTRPGs (because it's fun), but most importantly to help solidify and clarify certain terms so that we can better communicate to our players what we're doing and they can better understand what they're in for. I was inspired by Matt Colville's video about DM styles.

    It can be really hard for people to align on what a game and game group will actually be like, without just joining the group and playing awhile. That can be really scary, often for social reasons--personality clashes, odd group dynamics, and just general social anxiety.

    But it can also be tricky for game reasons--some of which we could bypass if we had better language to talk about what kind of games we like and what games we like to run.

    In indie spaces, the games or gaming engines themselves often become a shorthand for their dominant styles of play, which is a useful enough method lacking anything better. But one table's Apocalypse World game could be vastly different than another's, in ways that matter to the people playing in it. There could be things in your game that some player out there desperately wants, but does not have the language to articulate. Unless we develop that language a bit together, they will not find your table.

    And a lot of the language does exist, but often in deep, esoteric corners of the blogosphere where few players ever go. A little bit of work translating those deeply debated topics into a few keywords--though of course something will be missing--would be immensely useful in these circumstances. 

    I don't expect the players who don't go to the blogosphere to somehow magically find their way to this corner, however. More likely, if some GMs find something here that resonates with their play style, they link the players to that. 

    Keep in mind these are intentionally discussions of the most generally understood aspects of these keywords, and not attempting to be definitive from a theoretical side. OSR as a term will still be long debated after it gets discussed here, for example. But giving a few short sentences to break it down here might help some folks find OSR tables they fit well with. This is the goal of this blog--nothing else.

    Maybe, if something here pushes the discourse online at all, some of these terms will get revitalized or reconsidered. Specific posts will be edited and updated to reflect changes, as time and energy permit. Speaking of which, this is likely something that will advance in fits and starts as my hyperfocus zooms in here or looks off somewhere else.

    I'll usually keep to a 3-part structure: (1) TL;DR, a couple-sentence or short paragraph starter of just the basics, for quick reference; (2) the Post, a longer blog-style discussion of the discourse around the term and some nuances; and (3) the Deep Theory, where I let me academic brain go wild and dive into like Genre Theory and shit. This last section is explicitly only meant for academic theory sickos like me, so feel free to skip it if that's not your bag.

    I might try and start wikifying parts of it to more easily cross-reference. (If something like this already exists that this could contribute to, rather than begin from scratch, please tell me!) If it gets to a nice shape, covering most of the things I think it should cover, I might stop. This is not meant to be an endless project.

Speaking of that scope, here's a loose brainstormed list of topics I will probably eventually get into:

Worldbuilding

• (GNS theory precis and discussion of drawbacks and limitations)
• Simulationist vs. 
• Gygaxian naturalism
• No quantum ogres
• Combat as war
• Gamist vs.
• World as fun house
• Combat as sport
• Narrativist / Storyteller
• World is centered around the central narrative (usually the players’ stories)
• Things are only defined as much as they matter to that core
• Improv (worldbuilding)
• Make it up together at the table
• "Play to find out"

High prep vs. improv (game scenarios)

Style

• Serious vs. silly
• Edgy vs. All-ages
• Theatrical vs. 3rd person
• Flowery vs. plain language
• Collaborative vs. novelistic
• Rule of cool vs. faithful to the dice

Following specific credos / game traditions:

• OSR GM
• “Trad” GM
• Storygames GM
• West Marches GM
• Smaller traditions
• GLOG GM
• Lazy GM

Homebrew vs RAW

Physical / combat presention:

• Crafting GM
• Terrain
• Props
• Minis GM
• Theater of the mind

Experimenter vs. steady / unchanging

Genres

• Horror
• Subgenres like folk horror, cosmic horror, body horror, gothic horror
• Fantasy
• High fantasy
• Low fantasy
• Urban fantasy
• Scifi
• Space Opera
• Hard sci-fi
• Cyberpunk
• Science fantasy
• Post-apocalyptic
• Specific external settings
• Tolkien
• 40k
• Fallout
• Etc
• Specific RPG worlds
• World of Darkness
• Cthulhu Mythos
• Numenera
• Shadowrun
• D&D settings
• Glorantha
• Minor / older favorites
• Harn
• Rifts
• Etc.

Re: Players

• Nemesis vs. advocate
• Challenge players vs. challenge characters
• Audience vs. collaborators
• Referee vs. mid-game creator 
• i.e. only adjudicating rules and setting as established vs. tuning and reactively creating on the fly

Types of challenges

• Puzzle GMs
• Tactical GMs
• Social intrigue GMs
• Mystery GMs
• Cozy GMs

Setting preferences

• Type
• Dungeons
• Underworld / Hell / Shadow world
• Stone age / dinosaur world
• Island archipelago
• Biomes
• Jungle
• Desert
• Arctic, etc
• Space scale
• Planet
• Solar System
• Galaxy Sector
• Fantasy scale
• City
• Kingdom
• Continent
• World
• Multiverse / planes-hopping
• Points of light
• Factions
• High / low magic
• Sandbox vs. railroad
• Blorbiness
• “Takes” on various genre tropes
• Eberron (or later Tal’Dorei), with monstrous cities
• Marvel Zombies
• etc.

Comment if there's anything not in there you'd like to discuss!