D&D 5E Player roles that no longer exist, and why

[billd91]

We still do record keeping but only rarely mapping. The only time I even heard anybody suggest having a caller was an AD&D Open game back in 1984. We didn’t take that player up on his offer.

 

[Arilyn]

We've never had a caller.

We've always had a mapper.

We've always had a treasurer (often me, if only so I'm not mapper).

Note-taker is kinda done by committee most of the time.

Beer-deliverer - well, we're still working on that one...

I'll bring the beer every time in order to avoid being the mapper.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Note Taker
This is a task for each player. It is their responsibility to take notes. But I'm not a jerk about it. I'll let the player make an intelligence check to remember something from a prior session. I may make minor changes or give more or less detail depending on how well they roll. This still give a strong advantage to players who take notes without punishing players who hate note taking.

I like the idea of having an intelligence check to remember stuff. I might steal that.

Co-DM

One thing I've done long ago and would like to do again is have a co-DM to run NPCs help with combat, etc. As an example of this, see the podcast Dragon Friends.

For milestone BBEG encounters, I'm thinking of bringing in a guest DM to run the BBEG as deadly as they can. Basically they would run the BBEG as if they are competing with the players. I would run minons and track effects etc. Often these settings have multiple BBEGs so it helps to have multiple DMs playing against the characters.

I like this idea as well, but will probably not be able to find somebody willing/able to do this.

 

[Lanefan]

I'll bring the beer every time in order to avoid being the mapper.

We play every Sunday night in Victoria BC. Hoyne Pilsener for me, thanks.

More seriously, the main reason I don't want to be the mapper when I'm a player is because of all the mapping I have to do as a DM; I'd rather let someone else do it. (that, and our usual mapper in the game I play in turns most of them into minor works of art by the adventure's end)

If I was just a player I'd be much more open to taking on the mapper role, provided someone else did treasury (I sure wouldn't want to do both!).

 

[prabe]

In the two campaigns I'm running, there's a player who takes extensive and good notes, and I appreciate it as a GM. We play in a campaign together and she takes good notes there, too.

 

[Lanefan]

I like the idea of having an intelligence check to remember stuff. I might steal that.

We do this all the time, mostly to cover off that what might have been two hours for the PCs has been a week for the players; and not every little detail gets into the online game log.

I like this idea as well, but will probably not be able to find somebody willing/able to do this.

It'd have to be somebody who isn't otherwise going to play in your game at a later point, to avoid revealing too many secrets. (this is my main limiter here; the people who I might recruit for this are also people who might (re-)join the game at some point)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I was planning out my game session this upcoming weekend, and it hit me how several of the player roles we had back in the day no longer exist.

In the 70s and 80s, you'd typically have one player act as the mapper, and another act as the leader (the caller). They'd be the ones to do most of the talking and declare party actions to DM. Then you'd also have the record keeper. The player who kept track of all party gold.

Nowadays only the record keeper exists, and only in some of the campaigns. So why is that?

Mapper: Back in the day, you were lucky to have graph paper, let alone a gaming map with inch grids. Minis were few and far between, and easily accessible, and expensive. Most groups I played in back in the early 80s as kids, we did ToTM except for marching order or really complex battles, and then we used paper minis I drew myself, or dice, or some other toy. So there was a need to have a player keep track of the dungeon exploration on a piece of paper. Very similar to those old RPG video games of the 80s. However, now it's very common for someone to have a battlemap with erasable markers and minis are all over the place, and very cheap (with the move to plastic minis about 10 years ago or so). With the battlemap, the DM takes an extra role now in drawing out the area, and there is no need for a player to be a mapper any longer.

Caller: IMO, the biggest driver of this going away is because players felt they wanted more player agency. They didn't want to have only one player speak for the whole party to the DM. And most players want to role-play their own interactions with NPCs. Now, the only time I see a group decide to have the same player do all the talking is in optimizing groups, where everything is numbers driven. The PC with the highest persuasion bonus always talks, no one else.

Record Keeper: This still exists, with a player keeping track of all the treasure, but I see it less. Especially in 5e. I'm guessing because in 5e, magic items are far rarer, as is other treasure. And it also goes back to players wanting control over their character, including wealth. So they want to split up the treasure as soon as possible.

I've played from the late 70s onward, and we rarely had a mapper. The main reason was that Humans are vision based creatures, and the characters could SEE what they were mapping. Unlike the poor players, who had to rely on, often poor, descriptions from the DM. Can't recall ever having a caller. But most groups usually end up having someone, or possibly several someones, track loot.

 

[Boendal2]

During the last campaign I played (ToA) our GM expected us to map EVERYTHING. And it was awful. Just horrible. When 2-3 people just watch the DM for 10min as she tells one other player "left, right, 45 degree left, 10ft. further then a 90 degree angle to the right".... oh man.... it was awful. In my honest opinion it's not even playing pen and paper anymore, but watching two people play a very weird game of battleship.
Granted, ToA might take the cake for mapping, but after seeing my GM argue with the mapper if 45 degree angle to left meant "to her left or his left" for 2min straight just to start the mapping of the 20th maze from scratch...... I never want to play a single DnD session with player mapping again.
I am quite new to the hobby, but my approach is that it is a fun and fast RP game where everybody gets a chance to "shine" and express themselves (doesn't mean to win, failing is fun too, sometimes it just means RP at the campfire). And mapping just doesn't fit with that. It keeps the table waiting for something that could have been printed out (or prepared on a battle map by the GM). Also most dungeons can be easily resolved with theater of mind.... I guess....!? Even if the cobold lair has 12 different rooms - good communication by the GM can solve that (as mentioned before).

The caller would be weird in the games I play or master. Again: In my opinion everybody should have their special moment (winning or failing, doesn't matter). Just watching one player do all the social interactions would limit that way too much.

Sometimes we have a treasurer, sometimes not. Depends on the table and if you are playing a long campaign or just some short adventures/one shots.

Most of my friends and random people who join in AL actually are all very good record keepers, so we share that role all around the table I guess. We waste a lot of paper & pens though ;-) But it makes for a better and collaborative recap next time.

 

[Retreater]

I feel like mappers stopped when we began using battle grids. My players are much more passive these days, and it's just looking down when it's their turn, and otherwise it's looking at a cellphone or something.

 

[Ulfgeir]

We have 2 roles that players do (and not their characters).

1: Keeping track of initaitives. We use laminated cards with our names on it, which the kepper puts in proper order after we roll initiative, and then have numbered cards for different gorups of enemies, and of course a card with the text "Big Bad".

2: HP-tracking of hitpoints. One guy keeps track of all damages dealt to any indivdual enemy and any effects on them. So after a successful attack, he tells the GM how much damage that being has taken total, and the GM then checks if it is dead or not. The GM would tell if the critter has damage reduction or regen as well.

One person also keeps track of party loot. This was especially important in the Starfinder campaign, as the Goblin in the group could break stuff down for materials and we would get more value of it than if we had sold it. He could then build stuff from this.

Sometimes we have had players writing chronicles (I have done a few) from their character's point of view.