Elemental Knight
08-29-2002, 07:30 PM
Which of these are you? There's no shame in admitting, after all, the poll itself is anonymus. If you qualify as a "Friend", then click HERE (http://members.aol.com/essuncius/cover3.html) and learn something.
Originally posted in Uncle Figgy's Realm: (http://members.aol.com/dwcope/index.htm)
The Mad Gamer. This is the good GM's dream player, and, in Uncle Figgy's experience, the rarest of all players. This guy loves to roleplay and is as serious about it as any human could possibly get. He uses props at the games -- if his character smokes a cigar, he buys one just for the game even if he doesn't smoke. He speaks in different accents for each different character. The names of his characters quite closely match the atmosphere of the game being run (if you run an Arabian-nights style game, he comes up with a name like "Sha'bat al'abatha" or some such). His characters will do things that seem idiotic, but if you look, those things are always totally in character. If he has defined his character as curious, he will happily pull every lever he comes across, even though he knows as a player that it will likely get his character killed. To do otherwise would mean to not be in character, which is worse to him than death. His characters will often be "concept" characters that, more often than not, totally fit the game genre. Min-maxing is a foreign concept to him. Sure he'll try to make the best character he can, but only if it fits the concept he has created. Get a stronger character for free? He asks. But I really wanted a weak genius, thank you. As long as he knows ahead of time what your gaming style is, he might be quite happy joining in or he might bow out until you run one more his style.
But there are problems involved with The Mad Gamer. He expects nothing less than perfection from his GM. If he's not having fun, he's gone; looking for another GM. He wants the GM to respect him for his character playing abilities, not how many monsters he can kill. The GM of a Mad Gamer must give him what his character needs. If he has created an inventor type and the game turns out to be nothing but a slug-fest, he'll leave. If he has created a sneaky thief-type, there'd better be opportunities for sneaking.
Unlike The Average Joe, he is hard to predict because all of his characters are different -- with different motivations and reactions. What you used against one of his characters won't necessarily work against one of his others. But if you know his character, you'll know how to manipulate him, because 95% of the time he will do whatever would be most likely for his character to do.
There is a tendency for fights and arguments to break out around The Mad Gamer when the other players cannot fathom the depths of his being in character (e.g., a Mad Gamer playing a ninja from medieval Japan: He puts high stock in honor and finishing the mission, whatever the cost. Another player's character loses a leg through sheer bad luck, thereby -- at least in the ninja's eyes -- endangering the mission. So the ninja kills the hapless PC.
The Powergamer (Min/Maxer or "Munchkin"). This gamer wants to wring every drop of ability she can out of the character creation rules. If there's a point-break or die bonus, she'll find it. She genuinely likes role-playing, but she's locked into the concept of "beating the game". Her characters are usually not very creative; instead being the "best" that the genre has to offer. She examines the rules as much as she can in an attempt to find the most useful character type. If one class of character seems stronger than any others, she will almost always go for that class. In games where point values are used to design characters, she will constantly redesign her characters for maximum cost-effectiveness and point-breaks.
There are few inherent problems involved in playing with a Powergamer; the most obvious being that a Powergamer can (and will) quickly become a Rules Lawyer if she feels that she is being cheated out of a rule that she has relied on to make her character more powerful.
The Average Joe. Your basic gamer. There is nothing extraordinary about the Average Joe in any way, either positive or negative. He likes roleplaying, but he hasn't quite understood that his characters are supposed to be different from each other and different from himself. He shows up on time for all the games, but he might not take them too seriously. If one of the other players starts talking about work while the GM is busy with another player, the Average Joe will join in.
The Average Joe is the easiest to predict because all of his characters tend to be the same and they all tend to be like him. Uncle Figgy had a player in one of his groups who was the perfect Average Joe. When playing a supers game, his character was a big, metal-covered, muscle-bound combat machine. When playing a fantasy game, his character was a big, metal-covered, muscle-bound combat machine. And, when playing a cyberpunk game, his character was... well, you get the idea.
Like the Powergamer, there aren't many problems involved in playing with the Average Joe so long as you don't expect too much of him. He'll tend to go along with whatever the other players decide in pretty much anything. Put him alone, however, and his decisions will be based on things he has seen, heard or read (e.g., he'll do whatever he thinks other players would do in that situation -- his actions are based on what the player would do or think, not what the character would do or think).
The Copycat. It's not exactly certain who enjoys roleplaying more: the Copycat or the Average Joe. One thing is certain, the Copycat wants to play something she's seen in the movies, on television or in books. If she's allowed to do so, she's quite happy roleplaying and seems to enjoy it very much. This makes her very easy to predict, as her character will almost always do exactly what the original would have done. If you know the original, you know the Copycat's duplicate.
The main problem with the Copycat is that she expects her character to be just as powerful, well-known and respected as the original. In systems with randomly-determined attributes, this can be next to impossible. In systems with point-based characters, the Copycat might not be able to afford the cost of the original. And the Copycat almost never quite understands why she can't have exactly the character she wants.
The Psycho Killer. This player type likes to roleplay about as much as the Copycat, but only while he's getting his way. If he doesn't get his way, he lashes out by having his character attack everything in sight. When he goes shopping for a weapon and the store-owner won't give him a price he wants, the Psycho Killer kills him. If a cop stops him for something, the Psycho Killer kills him. If anyone in the least bit annoys him, the Psycho Killer kills them. The Psycho Killer believes that his character is the penultimate being and every NPC should bow to him just by right of his being a player character. In his mind, there should never be consequences to any of these deaths.
It's very easy to spot the kinds of problems inherent with the Psycho Killer, the bigger question is what to do with him? Uncle Figgy's chosen solution is to keep track of the death count around the Psycho Killer's characters. When the numbers out of hand, that's when the game authorities step in. In a supers game, for instance, if someone is murderous enough, other supers (maybe even other party members) will hunt him down. Sometimes (such as in a horror game) even the villains might band together to take out a common threat. Usually, after having it proven violently to him several times that his character is not the biggest and baddest character, the Psycho Killer settles down to become either an Average Joe or a Combat Monster.
The Combat Monster. Fight, fight, fight! That's the motto of the Combat Monster. She loves roleplaying for three simple reasons: combat, combat and more combat! She's only happy when she's rolling dice and rocking heads. If more than five minutes goes by without her being able to fight something, she sulks like a dark cloud until the next combat. In fact, it's relatively easy to forget she's even there, as her characters will just follow along blindly until a battle occurs.
There is no problem with having a Combat Monster in your group as long as you're running a hack-n-slash campaign. But if you're running a game that isn't very combat intensive, she'll be unhappy and chances are she'll ruin everyone else's ability to enjoy themselves. Uncle Figgy's solution: tell her up front that you're not running a combat-oriented game. If she persists after more than one game and she's ruining it for everyone else, politely insist that since it's the combat she likes so much, maybe she'd be better off staying home and playing certain, popular, martial-arts video games.
Continued next post...
Originally posted in Uncle Figgy's Realm: (http://members.aol.com/dwcope/index.htm)
The Mad Gamer. This is the good GM's dream player, and, in Uncle Figgy's experience, the rarest of all players. This guy loves to roleplay and is as serious about it as any human could possibly get. He uses props at the games -- if his character smokes a cigar, he buys one just for the game even if he doesn't smoke. He speaks in different accents for each different character. The names of his characters quite closely match the atmosphere of the game being run (if you run an Arabian-nights style game, he comes up with a name like "Sha'bat al'abatha" or some such). His characters will do things that seem idiotic, but if you look, those things are always totally in character. If he has defined his character as curious, he will happily pull every lever he comes across, even though he knows as a player that it will likely get his character killed. To do otherwise would mean to not be in character, which is worse to him than death. His characters will often be "concept" characters that, more often than not, totally fit the game genre. Min-maxing is a foreign concept to him. Sure he'll try to make the best character he can, but only if it fits the concept he has created. Get a stronger character for free? He asks. But I really wanted a weak genius, thank you. As long as he knows ahead of time what your gaming style is, he might be quite happy joining in or he might bow out until you run one more his style.
But there are problems involved with The Mad Gamer. He expects nothing less than perfection from his GM. If he's not having fun, he's gone; looking for another GM. He wants the GM to respect him for his character playing abilities, not how many monsters he can kill. The GM of a Mad Gamer must give him what his character needs. If he has created an inventor type and the game turns out to be nothing but a slug-fest, he'll leave. If he has created a sneaky thief-type, there'd better be opportunities for sneaking.
Unlike The Average Joe, he is hard to predict because all of his characters are different -- with different motivations and reactions. What you used against one of his characters won't necessarily work against one of his others. But if you know his character, you'll know how to manipulate him, because 95% of the time he will do whatever would be most likely for his character to do.
There is a tendency for fights and arguments to break out around The Mad Gamer when the other players cannot fathom the depths of his being in character (e.g., a Mad Gamer playing a ninja from medieval Japan: He puts high stock in honor and finishing the mission, whatever the cost. Another player's character loses a leg through sheer bad luck, thereby -- at least in the ninja's eyes -- endangering the mission. So the ninja kills the hapless PC.
The Powergamer (Min/Maxer or "Munchkin"). This gamer wants to wring every drop of ability she can out of the character creation rules. If there's a point-break or die bonus, she'll find it. She genuinely likes role-playing, but she's locked into the concept of "beating the game". Her characters are usually not very creative; instead being the "best" that the genre has to offer. She examines the rules as much as she can in an attempt to find the most useful character type. If one class of character seems stronger than any others, she will almost always go for that class. In games where point values are used to design characters, she will constantly redesign her characters for maximum cost-effectiveness and point-breaks.
There are few inherent problems involved in playing with a Powergamer; the most obvious being that a Powergamer can (and will) quickly become a Rules Lawyer if she feels that she is being cheated out of a rule that she has relied on to make her character more powerful.
The Average Joe. Your basic gamer. There is nothing extraordinary about the Average Joe in any way, either positive or negative. He likes roleplaying, but he hasn't quite understood that his characters are supposed to be different from each other and different from himself. He shows up on time for all the games, but he might not take them too seriously. If one of the other players starts talking about work while the GM is busy with another player, the Average Joe will join in.
The Average Joe is the easiest to predict because all of his characters tend to be the same and they all tend to be like him. Uncle Figgy had a player in one of his groups who was the perfect Average Joe. When playing a supers game, his character was a big, metal-covered, muscle-bound combat machine. When playing a fantasy game, his character was a big, metal-covered, muscle-bound combat machine. And, when playing a cyberpunk game, his character was... well, you get the idea.
Like the Powergamer, there aren't many problems involved in playing with the Average Joe so long as you don't expect too much of him. He'll tend to go along with whatever the other players decide in pretty much anything. Put him alone, however, and his decisions will be based on things he has seen, heard or read (e.g., he'll do whatever he thinks other players would do in that situation -- his actions are based on what the player would do or think, not what the character would do or think).
The Copycat. It's not exactly certain who enjoys roleplaying more: the Copycat or the Average Joe. One thing is certain, the Copycat wants to play something she's seen in the movies, on television or in books. If she's allowed to do so, she's quite happy roleplaying and seems to enjoy it very much. This makes her very easy to predict, as her character will almost always do exactly what the original would have done. If you know the original, you know the Copycat's duplicate.
The main problem with the Copycat is that she expects her character to be just as powerful, well-known and respected as the original. In systems with randomly-determined attributes, this can be next to impossible. In systems with point-based characters, the Copycat might not be able to afford the cost of the original. And the Copycat almost never quite understands why she can't have exactly the character she wants.
The Psycho Killer. This player type likes to roleplay about as much as the Copycat, but only while he's getting his way. If he doesn't get his way, he lashes out by having his character attack everything in sight. When he goes shopping for a weapon and the store-owner won't give him a price he wants, the Psycho Killer kills him. If a cop stops him for something, the Psycho Killer kills him. If anyone in the least bit annoys him, the Psycho Killer kills them. The Psycho Killer believes that his character is the penultimate being and every NPC should bow to him just by right of his being a player character. In his mind, there should never be consequences to any of these deaths.
It's very easy to spot the kinds of problems inherent with the Psycho Killer, the bigger question is what to do with him? Uncle Figgy's chosen solution is to keep track of the death count around the Psycho Killer's characters. When the numbers out of hand, that's when the game authorities step in. In a supers game, for instance, if someone is murderous enough, other supers (maybe even other party members) will hunt him down. Sometimes (such as in a horror game) even the villains might band together to take out a common threat. Usually, after having it proven violently to him several times that his character is not the biggest and baddest character, the Psycho Killer settles down to become either an Average Joe or a Combat Monster.
The Combat Monster. Fight, fight, fight! That's the motto of the Combat Monster. She loves roleplaying for three simple reasons: combat, combat and more combat! She's only happy when she's rolling dice and rocking heads. If more than five minutes goes by without her being able to fight something, she sulks like a dark cloud until the next combat. In fact, it's relatively easy to forget she's even there, as her characters will just follow along blindly until a battle occurs.
There is no problem with having a Combat Monster in your group as long as you're running a hack-n-slash campaign. But if you're running a game that isn't very combat intensive, she'll be unhappy and chances are she'll ruin everyone else's ability to enjoy themselves. Uncle Figgy's solution: tell her up front that you're not running a combat-oriented game. If she persists after more than one game and she's ruining it for everyone else, politely insist that since it's the combat she likes so much, maybe she'd be better off staying home and playing certain, popular, martial-arts video games.
Continued next post...