Okay, so I'm working on the 6th version of Stained Glass, a TTRPG I've been carving away at for almost a year now, been playtesting here and there, and have kinda pulled it in a direction that I really like.
Essentially, the mechanics are really gunned toward reinforcing lore in the setting, the world I made called Cignet, so there's mechanics revolving around Duty and Desire, critical successes and failures are centered around narrative control and character growth respectively, and a lot more emphasis on resolving conflict without violence.
But as I'm figuring out the mechanics and tools for the person running the game-- called the Conductor-- I stuck in this place of like, "There's a lot of mechanics that make the game easier to run for the Conductor. But also, it feels like, mechanically, the Conductor is only a handful of steps away from not being necessary." For context, because Stained Glass-- and Cignet at large-- takes a lot of inspiration from stories like Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, and especially the Phantom Tollbooth, there's a mechanic that the Conductor uses to keep track of character's growth and the overarching plot of the adventure, as well as keeping track of any important relationships. Additionally, I'm planning on making a few more resources to help the Conductor make NPCs, locations, and obstacles.
And all of that really just got me thinking, giving the GM more resources makes them feel more like a player at the table, at least in my own experience. Like, am I just so used to games prioritizing resources and tools to make games easier for players that the idea of giving similar tools to a GM makes them feel obsolete? And to that extent, I feel like a lot of culture in the tabletop space is about making the GM feel like this immutable being who's got control of everything, but is pulling a full Wizard of Oz where they're just a lil guy scrambling to get their shit together. And like, is that just because we don't get much priority over resources? That we have to come up with our own methods and trackers for how to run games?
I know a lot of PbtA games and narratively driven games in general have more GM tools and resources, but they also require a shit ton more reading and research. And like, as a neurodivergent person, reading can be rough, especially when they're paragraphs upon paragraphs of information. I dunno, it could just be that my autistic ass just wants more tables and charts to look over, or just more examples of how to do or make a thing.
And you know, sometimes the answer really just be "Play a game that doesn't need a GM if the GM wants to be a player." Except the GM already is a player. By being at the table and running the game, they are playing the game. It's just that it isn't referred to that way or talked about in that way. And sometimes the GM still wants to run the game. I like running games. I find it fun. But I still want to feel like I'm actively participating at the table, and part of that is having the right amount of resources to help run the games.
