Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Last Visit: 01 Mar 2019 Posts: 224 Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:13 am Post subject: Early use of the term, gamemaster
I was reading Ironclad by Guidon Games(1973) when came across an early paragraph which grabbed my attention.
“To play, three or more people are the ideal number. This allows one person to be the gamemaster. He prepares the situation and referees it, while the others play the game….”
The term is then frequently use when describing the outline of the game.
I do not have any other Guidon Games’ titles and am curious if anyone knows if they or any other early wargames used the term gamemaster in this context.
Wikipedia (as of 2008-Feb-27) indicates that the term gamemaster was coined by Flying Buffalo in Tunnels and Trolls (1975) but likely had earlier use in PBM games.
Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Last Visit: 01 Mar 2019 Posts: 224 Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:35 am Post subject:
PBM definitely had a caretaker role for the game, likely in many cases referred to as a “gamemaster”. However a written rule which implies that one person at the table would build the scenario and referee while not participating in actual round to round play struck me as one of the possible paths which led to gamemaster(dungeon master) / player interaction in role-playing games. While I have played a few early wargames, my experience is not enough to know if this type of role is an anomaly or relatively common. I am particularly curious if a similar rule is mentioned in Chainmail.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum