AdventureDesign/Players

Players

The ultimate goal of a roleplaying game is to have a good time together. Every player has his own idea of what a "good time" means. One way to find out, is to look at the PlayerTypes. By determining the types of your fellow players, you can get a good idea, what kind of adventure they might find interesting. Keep in mind the players often show the traits of several player types and these traits may very depending on the system.

Another method is to look at the motivation of the player and characters and what the individual players would like and not like in the game. Thus you could find out what player type they are :)

Once you have thought about your players, it is helpful to write down that information in a little table.

Example

You have three players: Joe, Mary and Sam. Joe likes a good story and the twists and suprises of a good plot. He dislikes when players destroy the plot. Mary likes to act out her character, but doesn't bother too much about rules and hates long boring dice orgies. Sam loves the thrill of a fight. He tunes his character to be effective and can spend hours rolling dice. Social plots do not interest him too much.

+-------------+--------------------+------------------------+---------------------+
|  Player     | Joe                | Mary                   | Sam                 |
+-------------+--------------------+------------------------+---------------------+
|  1st Type   | Storyteller        | Method Actor           | Buttkicker          |
|  2nd Type   | Powergamer         | Casual Gamer           | Powergamer          |
|  Motivation | A good Story       | Explore her Character  | Good Game           |
|  Likes      | plot twists        | Character Conflict     | challenging fights  |
|  Dislikes   | Acts against story | Extended Dice Orgies   | Boring social stuff |
+-------------+--------------------+------------------------+---------------------+

What do we learn from this table?

1. There might be a problem between Joe and Mary, if Mary insists on acting out her character against the dramatic arc of the story. "My character would never do this!".
2. Mary and Sam are also opposites. Where Sam loves the Dice Game, Mary loves the Roleplay.
3. Joe and Sam would not have too many problems with each other, if Sam gives the story some room.
4. The adventure should have some good action to satisfy Sam.
5. An interesting plot with some nice twists and a supprising end would be nice for Joe.
6. Mary needs some room to act out her character, but is otherwise easy with everything.

Can these players have a nice time together?

As long as the storyteller keeps the interests of the players in mind, this could be some fun indeed. Avoid plots where Mary's character does not fit at all. Or at least have options, so that the adventure can continue if e.g. the palladin wouldn't steal the candy. Thus it's a nice plot twist that would be fun for Joe. Have some action in the adventure. It gives Sam and Joe the possibility to use their cool powers and gives Sam some dice action.

Unknown Players

If this is your first time you play with the characters, try to keep some options to cater the individual archetypes. On a convention read the character sheets. Min-Maxed characters indicate powergamers, pages of background information method actors. If the story works against the character concept of a method actor, the method actor won't be happy. So talk to the player and ask him if he could alter his concept or character.

Comments

---

• Previous: AdventureDesign
• Next:AdventureDesign/Plot
• BrokenQuill