Quote Originally Posted by Telok View Post
I though at first of a range, from games that were lots of work to GM to those that were little work to GM. But that's a very simplistic model that leaves out something important. The idea has shaken out to be a description of how much effort a GM has to put in to the mechanics of running a game. Don't care about the setting here, nor the session prep like making maps or picking out premade NPCs to use.
Not sure why excluding this stuff. Your model works here as well. Premade settings everyone knows by heart and which can be used without any further explaination and adjustment would be Zeus, GM-made settings would be Hephaistos and vague settings that are only expanded/developed in play by the GM would be Atlas.

Similar with NPCs. If the system provides enough sensible premades for all occasions it would be Zeus, if you have to craft them yourself in preptime, it would be Hephaistos and if you give your NPCs only stats on the fly during game, it would be Atlas.

But sure, if you want, you could restrict the discussion to rules and rulings only. But it is worth considering that there are many groups where rules decisions are not something the GM can or should do unilaterally so it is not really him carrying the game here.