My Games as a GM

Understanding what my games are about and how they are about that

It is easiest to understand what I am about as a GM by understand what I am not about:

The games I run are not taken whole cloth from pre-written adventures or campaigns. Not because they aren't good, but because I will fuck it up. There's so many details in there to remember and keep track of, not to mention dialogue and read allowed sections of an adventure that turns players passive. There's right and wrong ways to find solutions for the most part and it always feels like the conclusion/high points are all preordained. I like to take inspiration from those sources and create situations that mirror them only with uncertain outcomes to introduce to the players and let them find their way out of the situation.

My games are also not a way for me to tell my own stories. The point of getting together with friends is to tell a story together. Even if I were to try to tell my own stories, none of the protagonists are under my control. I don't have the ability to force the players to give a shit about something and make their character do a thing. This makes telling a story as I want it told difficulty to impossible and I can only imagine frustrating beyond belief. I like to fall in love with the player characters and find ways to challenge them. 

On that same note, my games are not filled with NPC & encounter darlings that can't have any harm come to them. There is no hand of the GM to intervene for anything in my world. There's nothing that the players couldn't intervene with when they are in danger. The fiction leads everything in the game world. If the fiction of the game implies everyone of my carefully crafted NPCs should be zapped out of existence, then I work in that new reality instead of preventing it from happening. 

Finally, my games are not my way to launch a YouTube career, practice voice acting, refine my own game I plan to kickstart, or exist in any real outside of the few players that are experiencing the games I run.

My games as a GM are a way to me and a few people to have some fun working together to tell stories. They are about being open and inclusive and an excuse for my dislike of fascists and bullies to play out in the villains the players get to destroy. They are about being a fan of the characters and wanting to see them succeed in fun and interesting ways. They are also designed to fit into the schedule of being a grown assed adult who has a job and obligations outside of the few hours they have to meet up to game together.