The role of the game master
A job some people dream of, and others puzzle over. It’s a term full of mystery, one that crops up more and more in everyday speech. The game master plays a vital part in the world of games. Thanks to them, a mystery game becomes immersive and genuinely unusual.
What does a game master actually do?
A game master is someone whose job is to host and guide players through a game: an escape room, a life-size escape adventure or a board game. So much for the (almost) Wikipedia definition — now let’s dig deeper. These mystery games involve role play, with every player sharing the same goal: solving a string of puzzles to escape, or to unmask the murderer. An escape room is entertainment, and usually a playful piece of teamwork. It’s an experience like no other, perfect for a stag do, a hen do, a birthday or a corporate event. Escape rooms are also a great way to build team spirit.
The many settings of an escape room
Depending on the story, players may be locked in a room or sent out to investigate outdoors. They play detective to uncover the secrets of the room or the location. A series of clues leads them towards the solution.
Then there are Urban Escape Rooms, played out in the middle of the city. The streets become the traditional “room”. Objects multiply, the immersive investigation grows more complex. There are many formats: some urban escape rooms rely on physical props, others on mobile apps.
Every session is different
Game mastering is, above all, a people job, and everyone does it their own way. A player will have as many different experiences across escape rooms, with their varied sets and puzzles, as there are types of scenario and game masters.
To go further, we asked three of our game masters to share their impressions and their experiences: three different personalities, three backgrounds and three ways of approaching the game — Sarah, Jean-Baptiste and Virginie.
The game master is responsible for making sure the session runs smoothly. From welcoming players to setting up the next round, they know every detail inside out. The game master is the players’ first point of contact. The atmosphere starts with them, the moment the group walks in. Players are then accompanied by a host who guides them, keeps them safe and looks after the equipment.
The work changes with the game being run. Running an escape room isn’t the same as running a life-size large-scale murder mystery or a board game.
Players often feel they only catch a glimpse of the game master. In reality, they’re doing far more than anyone realises.
Inside the game master’s job
In an escape room, the game master welcomes players at the door. They run the briefing, cover the safety instructions and the rules, all while drawing the group into the story. Players then turn into real detectives, searching everywhere, dodging traps and using sharp deduction to crack the puzzles.
The game master disappears from view, but they’re very much still there. Escape room designers keep finding inventive ways to weave the host into the game. Throughout the session, the game master becomes a kind of “extra player” outside the room. They shape the pace of the game and guide the team from their station, using all sorts of channels.
First, they can see and hear everything. The room may have a monitor for sending clues, or a tablet, or a screen. It might be a phone that rings at key moments, a walkie-talkie, voice messages piped into the room. And when something goes wrong technically, it’s back to improvising: notes slipped under the door or words whispered through a wall. Although, of course, that might all be part of the script…
After being your best ally throughout the game, the game master opens the door to freedom and answers every lingering question. Time for the debrief — a crucial step that should always be built into the scenario. Right up to the final second, the game master stays in role; you may never see them break character.
A one-of-a-kind experience
Once the session ends, the conversation with the players stops, but the game master’s work is far from over. The room has to be reset, the clues collected, the route reorganised for the next large-scale murder mystery. That way, every new group feels like the very first to play, with no trace of previous teams — even if our rooms sometimes take quite a beating.
The different game master profiles
There are several types of game master, including freelance performers who bring an actor’s training with them. It’s a skill set they put straight to work in the game. At Arcane, Sarah is a professional actor and runs our life-size games such as Mafia Denfert. She tells us her acting work helps her enormously to immerse herself in the game. When Sarah hosts a session, she isn’t Sarah the game master: she steps into a character to lead the game and draw players in. “ Playing a character lets me channel the players and set the boundaries.” Immersion is immediate and complete. Players themselves are encouraged to become characters in the story.
For Sarah, her acting background also helps her handle the large groups she sometimes faces.
The second profile has no acting training but loves hosting groups. You’ll find these game masters most often in escape rooms.
They may not be actors, but they know exactly how to pull players into the story.
The different player profiles
No two players are alike, and they won’t all spot the same clues when solving the same puzzle. Everyone has their own strengths, and the trick is to get the best out of each person. Someone’s good at maths? Excellent! They can help crack the puzzles built around numbers. There’s a child in the team? They can squeeze into every corner of the room to find the clues. Everyone has to weigh up their strengths and weaknesses and work as a team.
Our game masters shared a few stories about the different kinds of players they’ve met along the way.
The leader
There are several player types, starting with the leader who takes charge and hands out tasks. And there’s a clear difference between a good leader and a bad one: the one who listens, and the one who doesn’t but still wants to control everything — and sends the whole team down the wrong track.
The observer
Then there are the followers, happy to be carried along by the leaders. Some hang back, and the game master can step in to draw that player out personally and bring them into the game. That’s how the host keeps the team together. As we said, the game master’s role is to watch the session unfold, work out what place each player is taking and respond accordingly.
Virginie tells us what she loves about the job: laughing with the players and hearing their wonderfully offbeat reasoning as they tackle the puzzles in an escape room. She shares a story: “My oldest player was 90. He didn’t quite follow everything going on around him, but he still had some brilliant hunches that helped the others.”
The saboteur
Another player type: the saboteur. The saboteur is someone who will “ spoil the game for their team or the other players ”. Jean-Baptiste masters an escape room and Sarah runs large-scale murder mysteries; both come across saboteurs. And both agree: a saboteur, knowingly or not, damages the atmosphere and the team’s cohesion.
The first step is spotting them. According to our game masters, a saboteur stands out because they treat the game lightly, talk loudly, refuse to get into the mood — in short, they don’t play along. They won’t take on the detective role. You have to rein them in straight away: the game master needs the composure to step out of the immersion, restate the rules, remind everyone to handle the props carefully and calm the saboteur down.
There’s another kind of saboteur: the one who muddies the trail, hides or moves clues to disrupt the game. In a large-scale murder mystery, that stops other players progressing through the story and quickly breeds frustration. In an escape room, they’ll try to control the session, push their team towards false leads and slow down the puzzle-solving. They’re also the player who forces the equipment and may well break something. Sometimes a treasure hunt saboteur will even walk out of the room to make their displeasure clear. The game master then has to pull the team back into the story so the game can carry on.
So what makes a good game master?
We asked our game masters what makes a good game master. After a good laugh and a few “that’s a tricky one”, their answers all pointed to the same qualities. First rule: adaptability.
A good game master has to be ready for anything, however unlikely. To handle it well, you need to know the game inside out and leave room for spontaneity and improvisation. Sarah tells us: “I know my game by heart, but I can’t turn up with a fixed script to follow, because every session is different. You have to adapt to the players in front of you. They never react the same way twice.”
A game master’s core qualities are clear delivery and good listening. In an escape room, the game master watches and listens, but doesn’t run the game. They guide the players, nudging them at key moments. It all comes down to timing and listening, so the clues fit the team.
In short, a good game master is attentive and able to adapt to every unexpected turn.
So what are you waiting for?
Whether you head to the escape room or the escape room comes to you, bring out the adventurer in you! Can you find the clues and crack a whole series of puzzles before time runs out? Step into a life-size experience like no other.
