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Message: <blockquote data-quote="loverdrive" data-source="post: 9778122" data-attributes="member: 7027139">(I apologize, I accidentally clicked "Post reply" before I finished my though lmao)I'm running a big 50+ player organized play (not D&D, but D&D-esque, soo I think it's relevant here), so the subject of many different players with wildly varying preferences finding their place in the same campaign is a very acute problem for me.To borrow player taxonomy from Magic, we have a Timmy ("power player" that just enjoys big flashy things, and is looking for the thrill and excitment first and foremost) covered, just by virtue of the fantasy setting combined with straighforward narrative rules. Timmy can play a big strong fighter, or a powerful wizard, or a dashing rogue, and get to fight big scary monsters. "Hell yeah! I HIT HIM WITH MY SWORD!", that's exciting!We sort of have a Jenny ("creative player" that uses the game as a vehicle for self-expression) covered—I mean, it's a roleplaying game. She gets to create her own character and forge her own story! IME most GMs are pretty receptive to incorporating backstory hooks and whatnot, but what the game as it exists right now lacks is any mechanical tools for self-expression: my fighter will be just like your fighter, and I will do mostly the same actions in combat. Yawn. Jenny has fun out of combat talking to NPCs and struggles to stay awake in a fight. "Ah, right, it's my turn. I hit him with my sword, I guess?"Spike ("competitive player" that wants to win and show off their skill) is just completely stranded in most RPGs. Playing to win is just boring, because most RPGs are broken and will immediately fall apart if you play them to win. I don't really have a solid solution here (and frankly I don't know if there is a need for one—there are plenty of outright competitive games to play) but hard victory conditions and tighter balancing tend to help.But at the end of the day, you can't catter to them all at once in every scene and every session, and even if you could, preferences shift over time—player maintaining the exact same mindset for the whole four hour session sounds unreasonable to me. Sometimes, they will look at each other and think "wait this looks fun, I should try this too!". Sometimes, they will just come tired and want to yell "I HIT HIM WITH MY SWORD" in funny voices. And that is all okay.I think, wider play experience needs to be structured around player opting in and out of things, with something to make them busy if they do opt out.</blockquote>

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