A couple of years ago, I wrote a post in which I briefly touched on the variety of names by which the Game Master or referee is known in older roleplaying games. Since I'm currently knee-deep in revising Thousand Suns, which uses the term GM, I found my mind wandering a bit back to this topic, trying to remember what alternate terms the RPGs of my youth employed.
A quick check through my library revealed the following, but, as ever, I am certain I missed some important ones. Feel free to fill in any obvious blanks in the comments. I have intentionally not included games whose term is Dungeon Master, Game Master, or referee, since these aren't especially noteworthy.
- Ars Magica: Storyguide
- Call of Cthulhu: Keeper of Arcane Lore
- Chill: Chill Master
- Ghostbusters: Ghostmaster
- Golden Heroes: Script Supervisor
- Marvel Super Heroes: Judge
- Skyrealms of Jorune: Sholari
- Space Opera: StarMaster
- Star Ace: Campaign Master
- Starfaring: Galaxy Master
- Star Trek (Heritage): Mission Master
- The Fantasy Trip: Fantasy Master
- The Morrow Project: Project Director
- Timemaster: Continuum Master
- Toon: Animator
- Top Secret: Administrator
As I'm said, I'm sure there are others, especially after 1990 or thereabouts. Still, I must confess I was a bit surprised by how few I could identify. My recollection was that, back in the day, every roleplaying game had its own unique name for the referee, but I suppose I was mistaken.
The term in Nobilis is Hollyhock God.
ReplyDeleteIs... is this real?
DeleteWikipedia: "Flowers have great significance to the Nobilis and their Imperators; earthly flowers are reflections of their heavenly counterparts and each has a meaning. For example, the gamemaster is known as the Hollyhock God because, in the world of Nobilis, hollyhocks represent vanity and ambition. This is because, according to the in-game story, the angels used flowers as a tool to control and direct the brunt of their powers when they created Reality. Each Nobilis and Imperator has a flower that represents them, and flowers are often used in their magical rites."
DeleteIn Advanced Fighting Fantasy, either edition, they're called Directors.
ReplyDeleteTraveller used "Referee", which you have surprisingly overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI mention that "referee" isn't noteworthy in this context, since it's not unique to a single game.
DeleteI suppose, though I can't think of another roleplaying/adventure game that uses that term for the player taking that role, except occasionally to define the term actually used in that game - such as with statements of the form, "The referee or judge is called the Greeble Master".
DeleteAdvanced Fighting Fantasy uses a film metaphor to explain role-playing so the GM there is called the "Director".
ReplyDeleteOddly, the non-advanced version (which came out first) doesn't use the same metaphor, and uses a generic "GamesMaster" for the player running the game.
(Dragon Warriors and WFRP both use "GamesMaster" so I wonder if that's a more popular UK term.)
The 1998 Marvel rpg uses "Narrator" (as does the Dragonlance version of the rules), while the 2012 flavour uses the much more evocative "Watcher"
I, too, was under the impression that almost every rpg had its own term for a referee. Today, my collection is much diminished but I can offer you Deadlands : Marshal
ReplyDeleteThe One Ring: Loremaster
ReplyDeleteTo counter a bit of D&Defaultism I'd argue "Dungeon Master" is only 'not noteworthy' on the grounds of it being the first system published.
ReplyDeleteIn and of itself the term is rather idiosyncratic - like a lot of D&Disms that are somehow regarded as 'generic fantasy' by people, but in fact pretty specific to a a small number of systems at best (like, say the arrays of dragon colours or alignments).
I think that you're right there. GM or Referee is far more prevalent - and now I can't think of another game which explicitly uses DM.
DeleteDragonlance Fifth Age: Narrator
ReplyDeleteIn DCC Dungeons & Dragons (which I've become addicted to), the game master is called the Judge instead of the DM.
ReplyDeleteI recollect (maybe incorrectly) that Dave Arneson referred to his role as "Judge" when running the original Blackmoor campaign. The term was also used by "Judges Guild", a company publishing support for early role-playing games.
Delete- krhysd.
Normally im slightly annoyed when its called anything besides GM/DM because why create another term just to be clever.
ReplyDeleteBut I cant stay mad at Chill Master.
I feel the same way, most of these are a tad too precious, but "Animator" for Toon just makes perfect sense. "Mission Master" for ST is maybe the worst, I think; two innocuous words, but the strained alliteration does it for me. Why not Game Guru, or Lore Leader, or Sacrifice Supervisor (looking at you, Carcosa!)... I need to stop.
DeleteChill Master is a supervillain name. Literally. I had a Chill Master in my old V&V campaign. He wasn't even inspired by the Rankin Bass Heat/Snow Miser brothers.
DeleteThis is my unreliable memory, so take it with a grain of salt:
ReplyDeleteI believe (or at least misperceived) a game called Mothership whose referee was called a Warden. I was briefly intrigued because I thought it had something to do with Metamorphosis Alpha. I think it was actually a space prison game of some sort.
There is also a foreign game I can't remember that had a "Puppet Master" (in Italian or French or whatever). I just thought that was a very defining referee name - you probably knew what you were in for once you heard it. Again, no real idea. I never played.
I thought it was silly that Paranoia used GM for a game when pretty much every GM played the role of Friend Computer 100% of the time. Drove my players crazy, but I think they secretly loved it. Besides, my players said "FC!" enough during the meatgrinder that it would have been funny for the metagame.
One more thing I can't remember accurately: wasn't Delta Green's technically a "Handler?" I never "Handled" Delta Green and only played it a few times, but even though we called it DM (we called EVERY referee for every game a DM - are you DMing CoC this weekend? are you DMing Rolemaster? Are you DMing Advanced Squad Leader? (which doesn't even have a referee). I think it got so bad back then that DM became a sometime filler word for "having anything to do with any game that wasn't video or traditional board")
Alien calls it GM but that's for "Game Mother" which is pretty epic.
I also didn't remember Judge from Marvel Superheroes. Never used that term (for that game at least) to my knowledge.
I also vaguely (and probably incorrectly) recall games that used MC (Master of Ceremonies) and Marshall (maybe I saw this in Savage Worlds? I never played, but have the core rule book andI think it had something cool like that.). and is there a game with an Innkeeper? Shopkeeper? Barkeep? Cryptkeeper? Something keeper or maybe tender.
Good grief, I really forgot to bring my rememberer with me today, huh? All I know is I love these names. They are really fun.
Well remembered!
DeleteDelta Green (at least the second standalone edition) uses "Handler" and Deadlands (Savage Worlds related) uses "Marshal".
(Standard SW uses "Game Master".)
'Storyteller' for the White Wolf games (at least in the 90s)
ReplyDeleteIt's still called the Storyteller System. Don't think it's changed.
DeleteI know Star Trek Adventures calls it the Narrator and the upcoming Smurfs RPG has Storyteller Smurf.
ReplyDeleteA few of my groups' own inventions are Director, used for most games based on film or TV franchises such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, ALIEN, etc., and Editor-in-Chief for Superhero RPGs.
I personally like game specific names. The crazier the better. The Sky Realms of Journe made up nonsense world; Sholari is quite perfect!
ReplyDeleteDragonslayer — Maze Controller (Clearly borrowed from the salacious anti RPG novel Mazes & Monsters)
ReplyDeleteCastles & Crusades — Castle Keeper
ReplyDeleteALIEN RPG — Game Mother
Lex Arcana — Demiurge
Electric Bastionland — Conductor
Blue Planet — Moderator
Kobolds Ate My Baby! — Mayor
No Thank You, Evil! — Guide
Exodus — Overseer
Tales of the Harrowed Land — Overseer
Tales from the Wood — Gamekeeper
OneDice — Gamekeeper
Mazes & Minotaurs — Maze Master
Dread — Host
Saloons & Outlaws — Arbiter
It's funny, but in the gaming groups I was in during the 80's and 90's, it was almost always "DM" or "GM", regardless of the game being played or the nomenclature of the rulebook. During a multi-year Ars Magica campaign that included one of the supplement writers, I can't remember anyone ever saying "storyguide" except maybe ironically. It was always, "who's GM'ing next week?"
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the name "host" (Castle Falkenstein, Demon City, Dread) since it implies a focus on hospitality, facilitation, and managing the social experience rather than just enforcing rules.
ReplyDeleteFifth business was one that Maelstrom used, and maybe a few games based on it
ReplyDeleteThere was a very weird sci-fi RPG named S.H.A.L.T. that came out in the 90s; the authors never explained what the acronym stood for. But the referee was called the G.O.D.--the Game Operations Director. They must have had fun with that one.
DeleteThere was a time when TSR trademarked Dungeon Master and DM, so it was DM (TM). And since a trademark had to be an adjective modifier, it was DM (TM) GM.
ReplyDeleteI'll just see myself out, now. :)
Gary Gygax used Lejend Master in Lejendary Adventures. Spiritual Warfare: The RPG uses Game Shepherd. Boot Hill also used Judge; might have originated it. But Fantasy Trip didn't use "Fantasy Master." It was always Game Master (GM), even back in the Metagaming era.
ReplyDeleteIn the Cortex Plus family of games, _Smallville_ has the Watchtower, _Leverage_ has the Fixer, and _Marvel Heroic_ has the Watcher.
ReplyDelete