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		TMDanny Brown
		A GM Must Follow the Rules Too OK so you're the GM, the all knowing power behing everything. There is not one thing that can stop your hand, or is there? Well there should be and that power should be yourself. Being the GM does not mean that you are exempt from the rules. It means that you are the mediator of the rules. Let's look at what that means. Lets say that you spent several hours coming up with the perfect story line, making a map, and laying out what possibly could be the coolest villian of all time. But just a little bit into your game that week when the evil villian comes down from the clouds to deliver his awesome monologue, one of the players pulls out his Diamond of instant death to anything under the sun and uses it on your bad guy. Well what do you do? Pride says you claim that your diamond falls to the ground and shatters on the back a passing turtle. Logic says you kill the bad guy. I know that it is so tempting to save your super cool enemy but that is called cheating. DON'T DO IT! Lets look at other options you have as the GM. 1) You are the GM, you are the all knowing power behind everything therefore you should know what you have given your players in prior games. So make sure your bad guy has something on him to resist the power of the diamond of death. This is not cheating, this is your perogative as the GM. 2) Plan out your traps, enemies and other things around your enemies. It should be somewhat challenging for them so plan it to be so. 3) Know that as a GM you are not the enemy. Your goal in playing is for your players to say,"Geez these guys are tougher than snot." But yet your goal is to run a well balanced game. Let your players walk away having fun, not being ticked off. 4) If you know that your players have something amazing that you gave them when you just weren't thinking clearly. Don't be afraid to take it away. People get robbed, enemies steal things, and things get lost. After the unfortunate loss of that great item then have the bad guy pop out, the trap be found, or whatever the scenario is. Well I know that being the GM automatically implies that you can do anything but believe me the game is going to go a lot better if you allow the players to have free will. After all, if someone wanted to be restricted by rules they would play a video game.