What is Rule Zero?

Do you know rule zero?

First of all, we need to understand what is commonly meant by this expression. Rule zero is a rule — implicit or explicit in the rulebooks of roleplaying games — concerning the game master: they are the final judge in settling any dispute that may arise during play, including disputes about the rules themselves.

If a player wants to exploit their specific personal knowledge, or bugs in the mechanics, to justify actions in the game, what happens?

This is where rule zero steps in, asserting that the game master has the last word on what a player can or cannot do during the session. The bluntest formulation of this rule is: “the game master is always right.”

Usually, players naturally act with respect toward the other members of the group and toward the game master, whom they trust — fully or in part — as a “guide”. When this does not happen, a crisis of the game and of the group may follow, and it should be prevented with due care, above all by the person who observes and manages the dynamics at play: the game master, precisely.

What are the critical issues with this rule?

As in the most classic logics of power, whoever abuses it risks serious consequences for the play group. Players become mere puppets in the hands of a manipulative or tyrannical game master: deprived of free will, they start wondering what would best please the master, instead of living a meaningful play experience. Very often such groups — unless composed of people with highly pathological styles of attachment to their characters or to the other players — “break apart” after a crescendo of tension and resentment. Some games, in stark contrast to rule zero, proclaim the opposite: the game master must please and accommodate the players throughout the play experience. Their task is to manage the relationship between the rules and the players at the table, without intruding on the narration, of which the players are the absolute protagonists.

N.B.: rule zero and the considerations above do not apply to every roleplaying game: masterless games, for instance, are excluded, since everyone at the table holds both roles at once.

Opinions on the matter are countless: what do you think?

How do you handle friction within a play group, and discussions about the mechanics?