Understand this. The Games Master is your enemy. He may come under different names - Games Master, judge, referee... friend - but he is always your enemy. It’s a different game he’s playing, with different rules and different objectives.

His game is about control and dominance. He might dispute this, may use words such as ‘storytelling’, but ask yourself this: Whose story is it he wants to tell?

His.

Now contrary to what certain 1980s animated series might have had you believe, Games Masters are not in the habit of descending from the heavens to walk the earth, for the very good reason that within five minutes they’d find themselves with a knife to their throat, and a voice whispering in their ear: ‘Tell the dragon to back away slowly...’ (Or perhaps end up nailed to a tree, depending on the genre). But don’t get despondent, for Games Masters can be defeated.

And I’m going to tell you how.