Another thing I noticed is getting more common among RPG Horror Stories. When once it was common to see entitled players complaining the GM is not running the game like Matt Mercer runs on Critical Role, I have lately seen quite few stories where problem GM tries to use that to deflect criticism. It’s usually the type to be acting creepily towards women, both in and out of game, enjoying juvenile, overtly edgy humor and/or insisting of all kinds of bigotry for “historical accurracy”. And when the players confront him (as it’s almost always a guy) about it, he’s going to say something like “Stop sucking Mercer off, this is real D&D!” or “Go play at Matt Mercer’s table, if you don’t like it!”.
While, as usual, there is possibility these stories are fake, I can see these being true - the kind to engage in those specific behaviors is also the kind to grab on buzzwords or try to twist real problems to deflect criticism.
Used to be, gm rule 1 was “everyone should be having fun”
I, and it’s been awhile, have changed my personal rule 1 to “every player has autonomy”
Nobody came to watch your one person play, it’s a group storytelling game, if it’s not collaborative you’re doing it wrong.
I’ve been edging away from the “storytelling game” (group or otherwise) framing of things for a while now. It’s… well, it’s not wrong, but I’ve found that the framing centres things like plot and even performance in everybody’s mind, and that has had some perverse side effects. It negates the collaborative effort in peoples minds, linearising the game, and shifting agency away from the PCs and the table, and to the GM during prep.
It’s the connotational difference between “telling a story” and “running an adventure”, and it’s mostly invisible.
Does that mean Rule Zero comes before Rule One?