"It's Not Fair!" - Exploring Game Master Unfairness in Tabletop Role Playing Games

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) offer a unique and immersive game experience, allowing players to collaborate and be creative while they step into imaginary worlds. TTRPGs are at their core a deeply social endeavor, fostering social connection among players. TTRPG play, however, can also harbor tensions and conflict, resulting in a negative experience and hindering the overall enjoyment of the game. One of the identified causes of conflict are the feelings of unfairness experienced by players. Our study employed a combination of an on-line questionnaire with 57 responses and the analysis of 528 comments from 3 relevant YouTube videos to explore the multifaceted nature of game master unfairness in TTRPGs from the perspective of the players. The study reveals that GM unfairness is pervasive in the game with 73% of the responders reporting at least one incident. Its most common forms include controlling and restricting agency, unequal player treatment, favouritism and unbalanced and discriminatory in-game scenarios. Our findings provide valuable insights into the dynamics of unfairness in TTRPGs, highlighting the need for supporting GMs to promote more equitable and inclusive gaming environments and proposing concrete suggestions to this end.