Generally, one of three types of people becomes a role-playing Referee:
* The guy that loves having power over his friends
* ­The guy that gets stuck with the job because nobody else in the group wants to do it, and someone has to or else nobody plays
­* The guy who is extremely imaginative and is very enthusiastic about presenting his creations to the group

Honestly, it’s the second guy that is most likely to become the best Referee. The first guy will likely be unpleasant to play under, and the third guy is likely to become upset as the players run roughshod over all of his carefully constructed ideas. However, with discipline, all three types can become quite decent Referees.

Now you may think all this makes it sound like being a Referee is an awful, overly effortful undertaking all for the sake of playing a damn game.

And you’d be right.

But there’s one thing that makes it all worth it. One thing that validates every spare moment making maps, coming up with tables and lists and ideas of how to entertain those… those… players… who show up every session expecting to be entertained.

The Referee is the game. The Referee becomes the de facto leader of an entire little reallife social clique. Referees make all the magic happen.

Now put away that social life, pick up that graph paper, and let’s get to work.