Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 14 - Personality Types at the Table

Episode Date: March 29, 2020

We all play RPGs in different ways and for different reasons.  How can you, kind GM, juggle these different personality types and goals into a cohesive gaming group?  Are there personality types that aren't conducive to good gaming?  Can Jeremy write one of these not in the 3rd person that doesn't ask questions?

Ladies and gentlemen, it's March 29th as I'm recording this, and the coronavirus epidemic has no end in sight. Please wash your hands often, maintain social distance from one another, stay home if you're ordered to do so by the government, or if you're sick. Cover your coughs, and most importantly, make sure you get your medical advice from reputable sources such as the CDC. Get some sunlight, stay safe out there, and I hope you and yours are and continue to be happy and healthy. Now on to the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Taking20 episode 14, Personality Types at the Table. Hey, I'm proud to say that we actually have a real sponsor this week. Just kidding.

The sponsor's chickens. They're delicious when you drag them through the juice of their own ova, roll them in flour, and fry them. Chickens! Please take a moment to check out our Facebook and check out taking20podcast.com. There you can suggest future episodes, provide feedback, so come on by. We'd love to see you. This episode, by the way, is a gross oversimplification of this concept of personality types at the table.

The reality is every table is different, every player is different, and very few players fit squarely within the categories that we're going to define here. Most are usually a mix. My advice would be to use your emotional intelligence, pay attention to the way your players play, and keep these general personality types in mind so that will help you interact with your players and provide them a good gaming experience. So let's talk about general player types,

how to reward them, how to encourage that playstyle, as well as how to challenge them. Now, the challenge them should be used sparingly. Not every single fight should be a challenge for a particular playstyle or personality type. But you can use them periodically to spice things up a bit. I want to start with the list that was originally published in the book Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. It was written by Robin D. Laws and later on expanded upon by Greg Kostikian.

The first personality type I want to talk about is the power gamer. They're the ones that make their character bigger, tougher, better. Success is defined by more and more. They look for ways to break the game. One of the things that's a danger for these types of characters is power creep. It's really easy for this type of character to leave other characters behind. And so if you want to reward them, yes, give them opportunities for shiny new abilities and items. Make them work for it to get it. That way it feels so much more rewarding. If you want to challenge this type of player, put them in situations where they have to use their abilities creatively. They can't just stick with the same one-note song over and over,

doing the same tricks, using the same methods. The next personality type I want to talk about is the butt kicker. This is the person who wants to live vicariously through their character. They love clobbering enemies to show their superiority. The why isn't important, only the punching. If you want to reward them, give them chances to curb stomp some combats. Give them lots of lower level baddies to take their frustrations out and allow them to just bash things left and right. If you want to challenge them, put someone on the battlefield that's better than they are at what they're good at. That way they're not superior to everyone.

It makes them hold up, check up, if you will, and think about what they need to do to actually win a fight. The next personality type I want to talk about is the tactician. This is the thinker. Likes complex problems on the battlefield. They want their choices to mean the difference between success and failure for the party as a whole. If you want to reward them, give them challenging logical obstacles to overcome on the battlefield as well as between combats. If you want to challenge them, give them a battlefield that's messy, chaotic, and difficult. Fighting 60 goblins in the middle of an earthquake or a battlefield that changes over time. It's dynamic like a giant puzzle box and pieces slide around. Maybe the environment itself goes

from cold to hot to other energy types prevalent on the field. Give them a battlefield that is more difficult and requires them to think to come up with a good solution. The next player type I want to talk about is the specialist. This is a player that favors a particular character type and plays it over and over and over. Whether you're playing fantasy or far future, low tech or high tech, they still seem to always play a ninja or a cat cat person, or someone who's devil touched, or someone who's insectoid, specializes in flying. The innocent maiden, the manliest man who ever manned. They have a type and they stick with it. If you want to reward them, give the

ability for that character to do cool things with the ability that they're strong at. But if you want to challenge them, make their one trick less effective. If they specialize in flying, put them in an anti-magic area where they can't fly. So another personality type I want to talk about is the method actor. For them, tabletop role-playing is an avenue for their personal expression. They are just as happy when they have an entire gaming session and the dice never come out of the bag. They love being in character and being their character. If you want to reward them, give them situations that deepen their character's personality traits. Give them opportunities for meaningful interactions with PCs and NPCs. If you want to challenge them, put them either in combat or a type of social encounter where they can't use their primary ability.

Make them intimidate if they're good at diplomacy. Make them be the bad cop when they're really good at the good cop. Another gamer type I want to talk about is the storyteller. These are the players that are interested in the narrative rather than having a strict identification with their character. They love keeping the action moving. identification with their character. They love keeping the action moving. Character arcs to them are important to see how a character is born, evolves over time, and then maybe has some heroic sacrifice at the end or grows as part of the process. If you want to reward the storyteller, give them regular character introduction and regular development of plot threads.

If you want to challenge them, encourage the player to engage by asking them what their character would do in a situation. Make them think about their individual character rather than the story as a whole. Another gamer type I want to talk about is the casual gamer. These are your low-key players. They're there to have fun, spend time with friends. If you want to reward them, give them the opportunity to take the spotlight, but don't force it. Specifically solicit their input on a question or a problem that the characters have.

See if they want to contribute. Give them that opportunity. By giving them the chance to contribute, maybe they change from a casual gamer to something that's a little more regular. Maybe they start enjoying tabletop RPGs. And that way you have brought someone else into the fold of this wonderful hobby. If you want to challenge them, give them difficulties they can overcome, but it requires them to engage with the rest of the team to do it. Expanding this concept a little bit into some of the other types. There are some players that I call builders or creators. They want to impact the world in some way.

They want to make change to the world. They want to feel like that their character is important and big and they have left their mark wherever they've gone. If you want to reward this type of character, give them the opportunity to do so. Allow them to interact with townspeople and NPCs. Later on in the campaign, show them how they have affected these NPCs, both positive and negative. You can do it with flash-forwards. You can revisit old areas and show how it's changed because of the actions of this character. If you want to challenge them, show them the unexpected repercussions of their choices,

kind of the butterfly effect. Perhaps an interaction they thought was small or inconsequential has had long-lasting repercussions. Perhaps an interaction they thought was small or inconsequential has had long-lasting repercussions. Another type is kind of a variant of the casual gamer, the friend or significant other. Maybe they're just there because, oh, their girlfriend wants to play and they're just hanging around, or their husband wants to play and so they're just hanging around as well. If you want to reward them, give them the opportunity to become part of the fun, even if it's just for a few minutes. Allow them to play minor NPCs if they're not playing in the game. Allow them to interact with the rest of the players and show them how much fun it is to play

this game. If they are engaging with others, allow them to use their abilities to help save or support or generally help someone else. The challenge here is really getting them to engage at all. All you can do is give them the opportunity and let's see if they step up. Another player type that you'll find are the doppelgangers. They want to play a copy of something else. Batman, Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, what have you. They love the idea of playing the tortured rich boy who's a superhero who lost his parents when he was young. They love the idea of playing the janitor who fell into toxic sludge and now kills people with a mop. If so, if you want to reward them, allow them to

play like their character and give them the opportunities even to play against that type. Maybe Iron Man is not a rich playboy. Maybe he is rich and focused on one particular individual. If you want to challenge them, make that type less effective in combat and social encounters and make them think outside the box for the right solution. Going forward here, I want to talk about some more negative personality types. These are aspects to gaming that really you don't want to reward. You'll want to address these behaviors one-on-one with the player and away from the table. Never address them with everyone present. It's management 101.

You criticize in private and praise in public. The first type of gamer I want to talk about there is the apathetic gamer. Doesn't really care to be there. They distract others. They wander off. They talk over people. This personality type hurts your game and hurts the other player's engagement within that game. The challenge is getting them to engage at all. Don't reward this personality type. Instead,

challenge them to engage. Give them opportunities to buy in. Maybe give them a story arc that revolves around their character and their past. If they don't buy in, then maybe it's time to talk to them one-on-one and make them aware of the problem. And if they don't buy in and they just remain apathetic about being there, maybe it's time for them to find another gaming table. The next negative personality type I want to talk about is the rules lawyer. This is the person who's read the rule book cover to cover three times. He knows the rules and tries to call you out when his interpretation would differ from yours. If this

person provides unsolicited feedback on the way you're handling the rules, thank them for the clarification on the rule, but then specify that you will ask them for help if you need it. A person questioning one interpretation of a rule does not a rule lawyer make, but if they're causing a distraction and it's repeated, discuss this problem with them. It's your game. You should be able to run it the way you want to, even if it's different from the way they would play. Another negative personality type that you don't want to reinforce is the realism Nazi. To anyone who's listening to this and is offended by the word Nazi, I apologize. These are the people that insist that the RPG is grounded in a modern world with realistic everything.

If they keep bringing up the problem of this not being realistic, ask them what specific problem they have. If it's just a general problem with the whole thing not being realistic, point to the map that you have on the table and say, hey, you know, this isn't a real place, and then point to the little plastic miniatures or cardboard miniatures you have and say, and these aren't real people. These are motherfucking elves fighting a motherfucking dragon in the middle of a motherfucking volcano. Realism isn't exactly what we're going for here. Ooh, sorry, that went dark. I don't need to drink while I'm recording these. Ask them to put their analytical brain aside and just have fun playing a game.

I mean, face it, when we all sit down to play a board game like Monopoly, we're not actually buying property. When we're playing Risk, we're not actually a World War II general, we're just playing like one. Ask them to relax and have fun at the table. The next negative personality type I want to talk about is the griefer. This is the person who plays to make others upset. Think troll. Has fun at others expense. Maybe they're not aware they're doing it, but pull them aside one-on-one and make them aware of the issue. Let them know that their fun stops at the other person's nose. Ask them to change their behavior, and if they won't change, ask them to leave.

If someone's really trolling and really griefing others, act quickly on this one, because this is one that can shatter a table. Next personality type is the murderer. They think, everything dies eventually, and I want to be the cause of most of it. Monsters, NPCs, PCs, animal companions, plants, gods, clouds, whatever they can kill, they're going to try to kill. If your campaign is built around this, then enjoy. Have fun on a giant murder spree for all your PCs. But if it's not, make sure this player understands that his character's actions are causing problems,

and then freely give that character the repercussions of his character's actions are causing problems, and then freely give that character the repercussions of his or her actions. Have him arrested. Have someone put a bounty on his head. Have an assassin's blade visit him in the night. Something. Just make sure he knows that free murder has consequences. The second to last type of player I want to talk about is the sexual expressionist, who uses their character to try to sleep with anything and everything. Including, for example, the innkeeper, the serving girl, the town guard, livestock, the wishing well, the kobold priest, the hive queen, the gelatinous cube they just killed, the cleric's ceremonial headwear, the spaceship SS chastity, not anymore if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, you know,

you know, yeah, you know. A pile of dirty laundry, and then finally, as their pièce de résistance, a clone of himself. Unless your game is geared towards that type of playing, pull the player aside, ask them to tone it down just a little bit. And if they refused, well, then, you know, magical space gonoclimido herpes can be really hard to get rid of. And if they refused, well, then, you know, magical space gano-climido herpes can be really hard to get rid of. Oh, I'm very sorry, your genitalia just exploded. Minus four to constitution and you can't sleep with anything. The last player type I want to talk about is the cheater. This is the person who lies, fudges dice rolls, misrepresents what's on her character sheet, fudges dice rolls, misrepresents what's on her character sheet, changes her character between sessions and doesn't tell anybody. Personally, once I discover this, I have one talk with the

player about how their actions are hurting the story, the other players, and how they need to stop it immediately. I discuss how failure makes for an interesting story just as well as success does. That natural one, even if it kills your character, can be a great story moment. Any second instance of cheating that's discovered by either myself or the other players, they're gone. I have zero patience for this type of behavior. I think player cheating ruins the fun for everyone else. Now, honestly, a lot of the times we're talking about degrees here. It's an order of magnitude question. Like, is someone the vanguard or are they full-on Leroy Jenkins? Are they the role player or are they the over actor? Are they the

leader of the group or do they quarterback and tell everybody what they have to do? Are they excited to be there or are they interrupting everyone and making play disjointed? Are they a thinker, or are they the silent player that doesn't engage? Are they the DM's assistant, or are they the rules lawyer? Are they just that quirky little character, or are they annoying as fuck? Finally, are they helpful? Or are they trying to be the glory hog? A lot of times it's just a matter of degree. The players you have at a table are going to vary widely. Almost every table will be a mix. One of my campaigns I'm

running right now has two power gamers, a butt kicker, and a specialist. The other campaign I'm running has a storyteller, casual gamer, two tacticians. Good GMing requires analysis of the way the group interacts, how the players play. You can change the types of adventures you put in front of them and the types of challenges that they will face so that they will be challenged occasionally, but give the opportunity to play in a way that they enjoy. Watch the way your players play their characters. Give them chances to both shine and struggle. And I talked about both positive and negative personality types at the table. You can have a good game with a couple of negative personality types. So you have an apathetic player who spends a lot of the time on his phone and then

only looks up when it's his turn. That's fine. You can have a good game. It just requires a little bit more work, a little bit more emotional intelligence, and a little bit more refereeing. By knowing what type of players are at your table, you're better equipped to give them a fun time and a fun time for yourself as well. Thank you so much for listening to episode 14, Personality Types at the Table. We went through this list very quickly because there is a ton of different personality types and there are a ton that I didn't even mention. We have a Patreon. Please come visit us at patreon.com slash taking20podcast. Finally, I want to thank our fake sponsor, Chickens. I learned the hard way when I was a kid that you can't catch a 15-pound

rooster with a fishing pole and five-pound test line. My name is Jeremy Shelley. Thank you so much for listening and I sincerely hope that your next game is your best game.