‘Winning’ and ‘losing’, while these things are important to most games, they do not apply to Ilkor. The GameMaster and players do not explicitly play or compete against one another (although PCs might not like one another, might not be aligned and could be on different sides. They might even fight one another), even though the GameMaster often plays the role of various monsters and NPCs which threatens PCs. The GameMaster does not take sides.
The GameMaster acts more like a guide and a referee, the person who keeps the action flowing and creates exciting quests, encounters, adventurers and opportunities. Player characters have fun by overcoming fantastic obstacles and obtaining treasure, but this does not end the game. Nor is the game ‘lost’ when an unlucky player’s character dies, since the player may simply create another character and rejoin the game.
Ilkor is similar to the creation of a series of fantasy novels, written by the GameMaster and all the players.