How Games Are Designed - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 220

Remember that a key to a successful game in the real world in real-time is
flexibility, so you must always be prepared to adjust and even improvise where
needed. This is the job of the Game Master in role-playing tabletop games.

Tabletop Games

Tabletop games are games that are played on tabletops or other flat surfaces. Now there ' sa

difficult definition to remember!

The Teacher as Game Master
You are the Game Master of the class you design as a game.

The first use of the title and role of Game Master was in the play-by-mail version
of Diplomacy , originally a board game designed by Allan B. Calhamer and released
commercially in 1959. It was the first commercial play-by-mail game, chess having
fallen out of copyright sometime previously. In the play-by-mail version, Game
Masters guided the game s negotiation phases where players formed and broke

alliances as they attempted to conquer and control European countries.

'

Here ' s my edit of a useful definition of Game Master from Wikipedia.

Game Master (aka Gamemaster or GM)

A Game Master is a person who acts as an organizer, official source for questions regarding rules,
arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game. The role of a Game Master in a traditional role-
playing game is to weave the other participants

player-character stories together, control the non-
player aspects of the game, create environments in which the players can interact, and solve any
player disputes. The basic role of the Game Master is the same in almost all traditional role-playing
games, although differing rule sets make the specific duties of the Game Master unique to that
system.

'

It is important to understand that Game Master and game designer are not
synonymous. A teacher need not be a game designer to be a Game Master, but,
in most cases, must be the Game Master. Just as you are in charge of the
development, you continue to be in charge in the classroom.

But not everybody has the talent or the skill set to be a game designer. Like any
number of other creative endeavors such as writing, painting, playing a musical