Fire Your Inner Micromanager

I recently watched an episode of the Food Network series Restaurant Impossible, and I really enjoyed it. The episode focused on a restaurant called Dodge City where the problems seemed to stem mainly from the owner’s reluctance to let anyone else do their job without his micromanaging every detail. By refusing to allow his team to take full ownership of their assigned duties the owner was jeopardizing the entire business.

By trying to control everything the owner was about to lose everything.

A lot of GMs are the same way. These GMs are the owners of their games, and they will not let their players take ownership of anything. The players must build their characters after having their character concept approved by the GM who has limited the players’ options to begin with. The players are not encouraged to try new things in the game, such as pushing the game mechanics with outrageous stunts or challenging the social structure of the game world with intense roleplaying. The gameworld cannot be expanded upon through player input, because the GM has already written a novel’s worth of material for the setting. The GM restricts everyone else by making the majority of the decisions beforehand (and that decision is usually “No, because I did not think of it.”).

What is the result of this intense need to control through restriction?

Restriction is constriction, and constriction kills. If you are a GM who is micromanaging you are forcing your game into a box made out of your imagination’s limited scope (yes, I said that your imagination’s scope is limited), and that means that your game will never grow into its full potential.

Where does that potential lie?

It lies in your players. Their ideas, their input, and their creativity is what makes your game pop! A good GM will not control what the players do, but instead will take what the players offer and build upon it. Good GMing is symbiotic. The GM nourishes the players’ appetites for challenges and story development, and the players respond by taking risks and pushing their PCs to the limit. You cannot achieve that through micromanagement. It only comes from autonomous ownership meeting with shared objectives (“I will run a great game for my group.” and “I am going to play a character that enhances the group’s fun.”).

In other words, fire you inner micromanager and watch your game improve. Control is pointless if control is what kills your game. Plus GMing is just more fun when you are reacting to the players instead of dictating what the players should do in the game. Isn’t having fun the reason for becoming a GM in the first place? Micromanaging is work, and good GMing is playing the game with your players.

Agree? Disagree? Do you micromanage as a GM? Have you played with a micromanaging GM? Share what you think with the rest of us by leaving a comment below.