Ensuring fun isn't the GM's job

If you’ve ever looked up GM advice, you’ve probably heard the saying: "The GM’s job is to make sure people have fun." But honestly? That’s a load of rubbish.

As a GM, your role is not to ensure everyone has fun. The idea that a GM fails if a player doesn’t have fun causes more stress than it’s worth. You can be the best GM in the world, but players might still have a bad time because of things beyond your control: Did they have a rough day at work? Are they rolling poorly? Did they have a fight with their partner? You can’t control these factors, so don’t feel responsible for them.

Instead, focus on creating an environment where fun is possible. Think of it like throwing a party: your job is to set up the right atmosphere, with good food, drinks, and a fun crowd. It’s not your job to entertain everyone just because someone had a bad day. Keep this perspective, and you’ll save yourself a lot of unnecessary stress.

Agency

So, how do you create an environment where everyone can have fun? It’s all about "agency."

In philosophy, agency is the ability to make choices and influence the world. It’s a crucial psychological need. Yet, in modern life, we often feel we lack real choices. Our daily routines and limited opportunities make most of our decisions feel meaningless. To compensate, we latch onto trivial choices, like which football team to support or what color to dye our hair. When these decisions don’t fulfill our need for agency, we get frustrated.

Tabletop RPGs are great because they give players a sense of agency. When players make a decision in the game and see the results unfold, it feels meaningful. In the context of a game, saving a friend's character isn't just rolling dice; it's making a meaningful choice that has a real impact in the game's world.

The paradox of GM-ing meaningful choices

Imagine a party needs to find an artifact to close a portal to the abyss, but they have limited time and can only search one of two locations: the dark citadel or the lonely mountain. If their choice is real, the artifact will be in one place or the other, making their decision crucial. If it’s a fake choice, the artifact will be where they decide to look, with a pre-scripted encounter waiting for them. Both scenarios can be fun, but only one is genuine.

Many GMs avoid giving real choices because real choices can lead to bad outcomes. In RPGs, this often means losing something unique, like a beloved NPC, a powerful magic item, or even a player character.

A GM can create the illusion of choice for a while, making players feel like their decisions matter. However, eventually, players will see through this if every choice leads to a favorable outcome. A roller coaster may be thrilling, but it’s still on rails. When players realize they're on rails, the magic is lost.

Here’s the paradox: 

to create an environment where everyone can have fun, you need to allow real choices, even if they lead to negative outcomes. 

You can't guarantee fun. If you try to make sure everyone is always having fun, you risk destroying the sense of agency that makes RPGs special in the first place.

Your real job is to provide a sandbox where meaningful choices can happen. It’s about setting the stage, not scripting the play. Trust your players and trust the process. When players feel their choices matter, that's when the magic truly happens. Embrace the uncertainty, and you’ll find that the most memorable games are born not from guaranteeing fun, but from the genuine experiences that emerge from real choices.

To wrap it up: It’s not your job to make sure people have fun. It’s your job to make sure they could. And that, my friends, is where the true joy of being a GM lies.