I’m a forever GM too, and I made this meme referring to a player in my groups. She’s an amazing player and I include her as often as possible. The point of the meme was not really to highlight that people use TTRPGs as a therapy replacement, though I definitely know that some might try that and I agree with you that it’s not a good idea.
I’ve never played a TTRPG, but I noticed that the first person said DM and you said GM. Are they interchangeable? Or is DM specifically only for D&D because of dungeon? Is there bad blood between people who say GM vs DM? Is it like crips and bloods?
The phrase “Dungeon Master” is a registered trademark[1] by the rights holders of Dungeons and Dragons. DM is the abbreviation of that, and most likely safe to use.
Game Master (GM) is used as a generic (and game agnostic) term.
Edit:
I have (twice) edited this now after additional information from others (thank you Kichae for the link to the Dungeon Master trademark) was posted on this thread.
I don’t think DM is a trademark, but if you have other information feel free to provide it. Looking through older discussion forums on this topic, the only semi-definitive answer I’ve found is in this 2021 thread where somebody referred to a now-defunct US gov’t trademark search link, where they said they found a lot of "DM"s registered but none related to D&D. I’m inclined to believe it was a working link at that time and they weren’t just making shit up.
Personally I use the term DM because I’ve mostly played D&D, so to me it’s more natural.
I’m a forever GM too, and I made this meme referring to a player in my groups. She’s an amazing player and I include her as often as possible. The point of the meme was not really to highlight that people use TTRPGs as a therapy replacement, though I definitely know that some might try that and I agree with you that it’s not a good idea.
I’ve never played a TTRPG, but I noticed that the first person said DM and you said GM. Are they interchangeable? Or is DM specifically only for D&D because of dungeon? Is there bad blood between people who say GM vs DM? Is it like crips and bloods?
The phrase “Dungeon Master” is a registered trademark[1] by the rights holders of Dungeons and Dragons. DM is the abbreviation of that, and most likely safe to use. Game Master (GM) is used as a generic (and game agnostic) term.
[1] https://trademarks.justia.com/742/64/dungeon-74264094.html
Edit: I have (twice) edited this now after additional information from others (thank you Kichae for the link to the Dungeon Master trademark) was posted on this thread.
I don’t think DM is a trademark, but if you have other information feel free to provide it. Looking through older discussion forums on this topic, the only semi-definitive answer I’ve found is in this 2021 thread where somebody referred to a now-defunct US gov’t trademark search link, where they said they found a lot of "DM"s registered but none related to D&D. I’m inclined to believe it was a working link at that time and they weren’t just making shit up.
Personally I use the term DM because I’ve mostly played D&D, so to me it’s more natural.
“DM” is not a trademarked term, because it’s a pair of letters. “Dungeon Master” is absolutely a trademarked term, though, and has been since the TSR days.
Thank you for this information, I have added it to my original comment.
Generally yes. DM and GM are interchangeable, with the small caveat that the term Dungeon Master is owned by Wizards.
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