Discourse on RPG Players and Differences Thereof, from a Gaming Perspective
Disclaimer: The following assertions are made from the life experiences of the author. Readers with different life experiences will most likely have issue with parts or the whole of the following treatise. The author realizes this and does not in any way think the following to be absolute or end all-be all of gaming perspectives, just one perspective and that’s his own.
Gaming attracts a large mix of people. Although stereotypes sometimes hold, there have been a large number of times this author has come across gamers who did not at all fit any of the traditional assumed attributes of an RPG gamer. And when that person casually mentions their involvement in the hobby it is quite surprising as well as refreshing to see how varied the community is. This author has done his share of surprising gamers when they find out that he plays their hobby. Those same gamers previously mentioned varied widely in age from as young as 10 and 11 to their 50s. What they do for a living, educational level, other hobbies, all vary greatly enough that I can not even give a quick summary of the range and do it any kind of justice.
However, despite these apparent differences in gamers the way they approach the hobby, their goals when they sit around the table, have a more standard deviation. The reason for these deviations seems to stem from many sources. Some that have the greatest impact are individual personality, how long a gamer has been playing for, what kind of DMs/GMs/Storytellers they have played under, and even their personal life situation at the time. As the latter implies, the general gaming categories are not at all fixed and can change not only from game to game, but even within the same game. However it does seem that most players will display one type of gaming pattern consistently over time even though there may be interludes of variation. And if there is an overall change from one category to the next then it is after a significant experience. Changes due to moods or life events are usually transient and the gamer seems to return to their usual pattern after a session or two.
The categories are; Middle School, High School, College, Master’s and Doctorate. The categories are listed using descriptive titles that do not at all imply anything concrete about the gamer. In other words, if a 30 year old seems to fall under the category of High School, it is not a judgment on that player. That player may have been recently introduced to the hobby or it may be that he has gamed under GMs/DMs/Storytellers that ran games that favored that gaming style so that style may be all he or she knows. Or very simply that’s the style he or she prefers. It is not a comment on the actual player’s maturity or educational level since that same player may have several Doctorates and still enjoy a good mindless bloodbath. The terms are used because they do imply progression and because, at least from Middle School to College, it seems that gamers who started playing at an early age do follow that pattern if they have stuck to the hobby throughout and gamed regularly. The levels of Master’s and Doctorate are simply a progression of the descriptors. From the authors experience one who is pursuing a Master’s, particularly if they are working to pay for the degree, will not be gaming at all regularly. The Doctorate category is more of a theoretical based on a few amazing players. As the categories are fleshed out keep in mind that any style of play is equally good so long as the players involved are having a good time, and, say, the Master’s level of gaming is not intrinsically any better than the College or High School or Middle School.
The Middle School – This is an introductory level of gaming. From experience it seems that older gamers do not spend much time at this level and that really it is mostly younger players who have been recently introduced to the game. These players usually run fairly basic or even pre-generated characters in pre-made modules or straightforward adventures. They approach the game systematically and are not in the same mode of materialism and experience avarice as either older or more experienced gamers. They are not quite as thorough and not everything is searched and rooms are skipped, and they are primarily preoccupied with finishing the module and “winning” the game. Leveling is nice but character development is very minimal, as is character commitment. Players at this level are more concerned with a concrete gaming experience and if they play again they may get another character to see what that is like. At this stage monsters are still scary for the most part since these gamers are not jaded to orcs and zombies, and combat is approached with either more caution or with harried recklessness. Role-playing is none and interaction with the person running the story as well as any other players is done out of character. At this stage the RPG is another game, like say Monopoly, and its wonderful uniqueness is not quite yet made obvious.
High School – This level swells the ranks of the RPG world. Most gamers that are first introduced into the hobby revert to this mode of game play at first. These are usually gamers who spent a year or so in the Middle School stage, or older gamers with a drive to make their character the best. It could also be gamers brought into the fold of gaming amongst other competitive gamers in an atmosphere that dictated characters who were either mechanically useful or otherwise considered worthless. These gamers are driven to have the best character as is measured by how “powerful” a character is. This is a combination of having the best toys, having the most dazzling array of powers and being able to shell out damage like it is going out of style. It can be summarized as a character that can kill your character. It mostly evolves around being able to say you are the best at the game. These gamers usually make painfully sure to search every drawer, every chest, loot every body and kill every monster at a session. These gamers will get upset if other gamers “take their kill” if this results in a loss of experience and hence levels. These also make for some of the chanciest members of a party to take watch, particularly if they are a thief as out of game arguments turn into in-game “one-ups” that sometimes leads to one PC killing another PC. These gamers will usually jump at the chance of gladiatorial type games where they can face off against other player characters or where they can kill mindless random monsters for gains of experience and/or treasure. In actual adventures these players are reactionary. Whenever an NPC or an event in the game affects them, then they will interact. Otherwise they usually sit back with their arms crossed and wait quietly for the next fight. Their characters tend to have an eroding personality that dissolves as the game sessions progress until the player’s preoccupation becomes solely the perceived growth of power of his or her character by collection of materials and levels. To exemplify this style of game let me mention the World of Warcraft board game that is about to be released by Fantasy Flight Games. It has characters that you can play that have hit points and powers that increase with experience and with magical treasures. It has quests you can go on and monsters you can kill. Gaming at the High School stage is indiscernible from this board game.
College – A possible progression for High School style gamers, College is interestingly enough where most female gamers observed by the author start their gaming experience. The marked difference at this stage is a preoccupation with interaction with other players, and NPCs, which becomes a game element par with fighting in its importance. Character development, his or her history as well as personality, is also given a lot of time and thought previous to the game instead of a preoccupation with stats and abilities. Some of the stress is taken off of character growth from a level and power perspective, and more towards character growth from a personality and interactivity perspective. At this stage one begins to identify actual role playing as PCs take on individual personalities that may differ from the person playing it. Characters that may not be of great use in game from a mechanics perspective may be treasured by the party for their quirky or otherwise memorable personality. Games at this stage usually progress more slowly as players tend to “stop and smell the roses” and dawdle at a tavern or downtown rave or whatever other social gathering. They also tend to play out important game events and sometimes skill use in a narrative style, describing the actions. Usually these gaming groups are less cutthroat but not always, as sometimes characters made with wonderfully evil tendencies fulfill their role in game to the chagrin of the other players. If there are player kills they would stem most likely from plot driven reasons. To be able to run this level of game the person running the game must be up to this level of game play or the College gamers will not be able to play to the level they can play to. If the GM/DM/Storyteller has insipid NPCs that really have no personality or simply does not want to spend time in conversation then the College players can still interact with each other but this will usually cause the person running the game to loose their patience and prod the players on to the next stage of the game.
Master’s – The College level involved the realization of the player’s character in the role playing game as a living independent entity. At the Master’s level this entity is immersed in the gaming world. The players at this level interact with the nonspeaking components of the game world. While at the College level interaction with the gaming world was limited to components that interacted back, at this level the gamer is comfortable going off and doing his own thing, rattling off a soliloquy of what his character is doing off stage, pursuing interests that were first defined during character creation. Immersion at this level is also exhibited by an “outside the box” approach to situations where the player asks very specific questions about his or her surroundings so they become part of his strategy. He may hide by crawling up a chimney or turn over a table to block incoming arrows. He may toss the chicken roasting in the spit at the charging goblins on worgs even though all that was said was that “lunch was cooking over the campfire” or that “there is a fireplace in the room”. This character becomes immersed in the game world and usually is busy asking very specific questions about their surroundings. Also combat tends to switch over from the mechanical “I hit”, or “I attack”, to “ With a grin and a wink I sidestep his spear, spin and bring my mace to the back of his skull”, and combat along with skill use and most aspects of the game becomes narrative in style. Again, the DM/GM/Storyteller must be at equal footing with this level of gamer for this gamer to be able to play up to their potential. The person running the story must not only be comfortable in the environment he is describing, but also be ready to answer some obtuse questions about that environment and the placement of enemies, friends and other things in it. This stage is arguably the full realization of the RPG as the unique living breathing fictional character developed by the player is immersed in the active and vibrant world set forward by the person running the game.
Doctorate – The few players the author has observed that may indeed be at this lofty level were all very experienced, both in the hobby and in life in general. This gamer understands the distinctions in play style of the other gamers, and can jump into any game and conform to the style of the game seamlessly. More importantly, he or she can slowly interject some of the more advanced forms of gaming in such a positive way that other players strive to follow suit. At the same time if the other players or the person running the game are pretty set on the game type, the Doctorate level player can play to that style and still have fun. The other classes are not really compatible. A College player in a game run in a High School manner will tire of the hack and slash, while High School players in a game run in a Master’s style will spend a great deal of time wondering when the game will get to the point and they can kill something because, after all, who cares what the room really looks like or who rules who in the kingdom. This can often lead to bored, frustrated, or even angry players or GMs/DMs/Storytellers as they are note getting what they want out of the gaming experience.
Again, the above are generalizations and indeed some folks will be able to draw traits from all the categories. However it is the author’s experience that most players, over time and many sessions, will fall into one of the above categories which is their comfort zone. Again, there is no right or wrong and the way to win an RPG remains by having a good time playing it. The author hopes that by fleshing out some of the general styles of game it may help players and person’s running games to better understand differences in style and what is fun for yourself versus for someone else. By understanding these differences and hopefully being able to reconcile them then gaming groups can cater to all the players and hence get an even better gaming experience out of it.
Disclaimer: The following assertions are made from the life experiences of the author. Readers with different life experiences will most likely have issue with parts or the whole of the following treatise. The author realizes this and does not in any way think the following to be absolute or end all-be all of gaming perspectives, just one perspective and that’s his own.
Gaming attracts a large mix of people. Although stereotypes sometimes hold, there have been a large number of times this author has come across gamers who did not at all fit any of the traditional assumed attributes of an RPG gamer. And when that person casually mentions their involvement in the hobby it is quite surprising as well as refreshing to see how varied the community is. This author has done his share of surprising gamers when they find out that he plays their hobby. Those same gamers previously mentioned varied widely in age from as young as 10 and 11 to their 50s. What they do for a living, educational level, other hobbies, all vary greatly enough that I can not even give a quick summary of the range and do it any kind of justice.
However, despite these apparent differences in gamers the way they approach the hobby, their goals when they sit around the table, have a more standard deviation. The reason for these deviations seems to stem from many sources. Some that have the greatest impact are individual personality, how long a gamer has been playing for, what kind of DMs/GMs/Storytellers they have played under, and even their personal life situation at the time. As the latter implies, the general gaming categories are not at all fixed and can change not only from game to game, but even within the same game. However it does seem that most players will display one type of gaming pattern consistently over time even though there may be interludes of variation. And if there is an overall change from one category to the next then it is after a significant experience. Changes due to moods or life events are usually transient and the gamer seems to return to their usual pattern after a session or two.
The categories are; Middle School, High School, College, Master’s and Doctorate. The categories are listed using descriptive titles that do not at all imply anything concrete about the gamer. In other words, if a 30 year old seems to fall under the category of High School, it is not a judgment on that player. That player may have been recently introduced to the hobby or it may be that he has gamed under GMs/DMs/Storytellers that ran games that favored that gaming style so that style may be all he or she knows. Or very simply that’s the style he or she prefers. It is not a comment on the actual player’s maturity or educational level since that same player may have several Doctorates and still enjoy a good mindless bloodbath. The terms are used because they do imply progression and because, at least from Middle School to College, it seems that gamers who started playing at an early age do follow that pattern if they have stuck to the hobby throughout and gamed regularly. The levels of Master’s and Doctorate are simply a progression of the descriptors. From the authors experience one who is pursuing a Master’s, particularly if they are working to pay for the degree, will not be gaming at all regularly. The Doctorate category is more of a theoretical based on a few amazing players. As the categories are fleshed out keep in mind that any style of play is equally good so long as the players involved are having a good time, and, say, the Master’s level of gaming is not intrinsically any better than the College or High School or Middle School.
The Middle School – This is an introductory level of gaming. From experience it seems that older gamers do not spend much time at this level and that really it is mostly younger players who have been recently introduced to the game. These players usually run fairly basic or even pre-generated characters in pre-made modules or straightforward adventures. They approach the game systematically and are not in the same mode of materialism and experience avarice as either older or more experienced gamers. They are not quite as thorough and not everything is searched and rooms are skipped, and they are primarily preoccupied with finishing the module and “winning” the game. Leveling is nice but character development is very minimal, as is character commitment. Players at this level are more concerned with a concrete gaming experience and if they play again they may get another character to see what that is like. At this stage monsters are still scary for the most part since these gamers are not jaded to orcs and zombies, and combat is approached with either more caution or with harried recklessness. Role-playing is none and interaction with the person running the story as well as any other players is done out of character. At this stage the RPG is another game, like say Monopoly, and its wonderful uniqueness is not quite yet made obvious.
High School – This level swells the ranks of the RPG world. Most gamers that are first introduced into the hobby revert to this mode of game play at first. These are usually gamers who spent a year or so in the Middle School stage, or older gamers with a drive to make their character the best. It could also be gamers brought into the fold of gaming amongst other competitive gamers in an atmosphere that dictated characters who were either mechanically useful or otherwise considered worthless. These gamers are driven to have the best character as is measured by how “powerful” a character is. This is a combination of having the best toys, having the most dazzling array of powers and being able to shell out damage like it is going out of style. It can be summarized as a character that can kill your character. It mostly evolves around being able to say you are the best at the game. These gamers usually make painfully sure to search every drawer, every chest, loot every body and kill every monster at a session. These gamers will get upset if other gamers “take their kill” if this results in a loss of experience and hence levels. These also make for some of the chanciest members of a party to take watch, particularly if they are a thief as out of game arguments turn into in-game “one-ups” that sometimes leads to one PC killing another PC. These gamers will usually jump at the chance of gladiatorial type games where they can face off against other player characters or where they can kill mindless random monsters for gains of experience and/or treasure. In actual adventures these players are reactionary. Whenever an NPC or an event in the game affects them, then they will interact. Otherwise they usually sit back with their arms crossed and wait quietly for the next fight. Their characters tend to have an eroding personality that dissolves as the game sessions progress until the player’s preoccupation becomes solely the perceived growth of power of his or her character by collection of materials and levels. To exemplify this style of game let me mention the World of Warcraft board game that is about to be released by Fantasy Flight Games. It has characters that you can play that have hit points and powers that increase with experience and with magical treasures. It has quests you can go on and monsters you can kill. Gaming at the High School stage is indiscernible from this board game.
College – A possible progression for High School style gamers, College is interestingly enough where most female gamers observed by the author start their gaming experience. The marked difference at this stage is a preoccupation with interaction with other players, and NPCs, which becomes a game element par with fighting in its importance. Character development, his or her history as well as personality, is also given a lot of time and thought previous to the game instead of a preoccupation with stats and abilities. Some of the stress is taken off of character growth from a level and power perspective, and more towards character growth from a personality and interactivity perspective. At this stage one begins to identify actual role playing as PCs take on individual personalities that may differ from the person playing it. Characters that may not be of great use in game from a mechanics perspective may be treasured by the party for their quirky or otherwise memorable personality. Games at this stage usually progress more slowly as players tend to “stop and smell the roses” and dawdle at a tavern or downtown rave or whatever other social gathering. They also tend to play out important game events and sometimes skill use in a narrative style, describing the actions. Usually these gaming groups are less cutthroat but not always, as sometimes characters made with wonderfully evil tendencies fulfill their role in game to the chagrin of the other players. If there are player kills they would stem most likely from plot driven reasons. To be able to run this level of game the person running the game must be up to this level of game play or the College gamers will not be able to play to the level they can play to. If the GM/DM/Storyteller has insipid NPCs that really have no personality or simply does not want to spend time in conversation then the College players can still interact with each other but this will usually cause the person running the game to loose their patience and prod the players on to the next stage of the game.
Master’s – The College level involved the realization of the player’s character in the role playing game as a living independent entity. At the Master’s level this entity is immersed in the gaming world. The players at this level interact with the nonspeaking components of the game world. While at the College level interaction with the gaming world was limited to components that interacted back, at this level the gamer is comfortable going off and doing his own thing, rattling off a soliloquy of what his character is doing off stage, pursuing interests that were first defined during character creation. Immersion at this level is also exhibited by an “outside the box” approach to situations where the player asks very specific questions about his or her surroundings so they become part of his strategy. He may hide by crawling up a chimney or turn over a table to block incoming arrows. He may toss the chicken roasting in the spit at the charging goblins on worgs even though all that was said was that “lunch was cooking over the campfire” or that “there is a fireplace in the room”. This character becomes immersed in the game world and usually is busy asking very specific questions about their surroundings. Also combat tends to switch over from the mechanical “I hit”, or “I attack”, to “ With a grin and a wink I sidestep his spear, spin and bring my mace to the back of his skull”, and combat along with skill use and most aspects of the game becomes narrative in style. Again, the DM/GM/Storyteller must be at equal footing with this level of gamer for this gamer to be able to play up to their potential. The person running the story must not only be comfortable in the environment he is describing, but also be ready to answer some obtuse questions about that environment and the placement of enemies, friends and other things in it. This stage is arguably the full realization of the RPG as the unique living breathing fictional character developed by the player is immersed in the active and vibrant world set forward by the person running the game.
Doctorate – The few players the author has observed that may indeed be at this lofty level were all very experienced, both in the hobby and in life in general. This gamer understands the distinctions in play style of the other gamers, and can jump into any game and conform to the style of the game seamlessly. More importantly, he or she can slowly interject some of the more advanced forms of gaming in such a positive way that other players strive to follow suit. At the same time if the other players or the person running the game are pretty set on the game type, the Doctorate level player can play to that style and still have fun. The other classes are not really compatible. A College player in a game run in a High School manner will tire of the hack and slash, while High School players in a game run in a Master’s style will spend a great deal of time wondering when the game will get to the point and they can kill something because, after all, who cares what the room really looks like or who rules who in the kingdom. This can often lead to bored, frustrated, or even angry players or GMs/DMs/Storytellers as they are note getting what they want out of the gaming experience.
Again, the above are generalizations and indeed some folks will be able to draw traits from all the categories. However it is the author’s experience that most players, over time and many sessions, will fall into one of the above categories which is their comfort zone. Again, there is no right or wrong and the way to win an RPG remains by having a good time playing it. The author hopes that by fleshing out some of the general styles of game it may help players and person’s running games to better understand differences in style and what is fun for yourself versus for someone else. By understanding these differences and hopefully being able to reconcile them then gaming groups can cater to all the players and hence get an even better gaming experience out of it.
