Always on the bleeding edge of yesterday, I've decided to write a little reaction to the concept of "GM's Day." Near as I can tell the tradition was born on the EN World forums with this thread. This may seem lazy, but I actually don't have any interest in reading a full 13 pages of a forum thread to make sure my research is exhaustive. Instead, I'm going to presume shock that this day that was potentially invented in 2002 celebrating GM's just so happened, 6 years later, to be the same day Gary Gygax (Co-Creator of the original D&D game) passed away. I don't really know how this is possible as it seems like way too much of a coincidence to me. Even if the day was later changed to 3/4 to honor Gygax, just look at the above-linked thread - 3/4 was one of the days touted from the very get-go. It just seems to be slightly cosmic, that's all I'm saying.
My reaction to GM's day is that it is full of crap. Outside of the respect given to Gary Gygax, it already seems like just a commercialized holiday for rpg websites to push their product at a slight discount to GM's who are already well over-loaded on books and material they'll probably never get to game through in several life times. It just doesn't seem to be the right way to honor GM's.
Now look, I'm a GM through and through. I own way more and way more diverse RPG material by far than anyone else in the group, so I don't need a day where I can buy more of the stuff. Is there stuff I'd buy if I had the money right now? Sure, but the last thing I need is to have even more games to distract me from what I'm actively trying to pull off here.
Here's an idea, why don't we turn GM's day into a day to, I don't know, try to recruit new GM's? Or maybe we should turn GM's day into a day we work all year towards releasing new support materials to make our players better? Personally the greatest gift I could get as a GM would be to have an easier time GM'ing as a result of players who all know the rules. Instead of aiming these deals specifically at GM, poise the deals and the language towards making deals towards players so they have a chance to pick up a set of rules for the hot new game I want to play this week.
Wow, I think I'm sounding incredibly burnt out as a GM, but truth be told I'm pretty excited with where I'm at as a GM. I finally got some Savage Worlds in last week and we're going to be building characters tonight. The Genius game I'm playing in keeps getting steps closer to actually happening (and nothing makes a GM happier than having games to be a player in, ironically enough). I also have a small core group that I'm going to start trying some Warhammer 3rd Edition with. I just think GM's day could be better utilized. I'm Just Sayin'.
/Rant
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