NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 8869608" data-attributes="member: 6796661">Complaints about power gamers remind me of complaints about rules lawyers. People have very strong opinions about such players, but I've never had much of an issue with either type. I think both stereotypes describe a player type that really enjoys rules mastery. Playstyle preferences are rarely an issue in my experience as long as the player is decent person with a sense of etiquette and modicum of emotional intelligence. For any player type, you can make a negative stereotype based on your bad experiences. I role-play, story-focused player can become a "spotlight hog".  If I can engage in conversations with someone without it becoming a fight, if I can play a board game with someone without them flipping the board, if I can travel with someone without a bunch of drama, then I can play a TTRPG with them, whatever their play style preference. Based on stereotypes, my current group of players shouldn't work based on many of the stereotypes I see debated in TTRPG discussion boards. One player always plays magic users, really optimizes them, and their characters are just insanely powerful at mid to high levels.Another player also has a high level of system mastery and can get very crunchy with rules (he's been DMing Pathfinder 1e for many years), but is really into the downtime activity between games, his characters backstory and role playing. Its become a running joke at the table to ask him whenever the party is attacked if he wants to attempt to parlay.  ("A purple work erupts for the ground swallowing on of your retainers and his mount."  Wizard: "I hold my action in case the cleric wants to attempt to parlay.")Another player generally plays rogues and is generally the ID of the party. Really doesn't care about optimizing his character or making the best tactical decisions. Is really into long dialog role playing with his character, but likes taking risks and enjoys how the story develops when things go sideways. Nearly any character he plays would have been voted "most likely to unwitedly sire children with a coven of hags" in his high school yearbook. The fourth player likes to generally sit back and just tank on opponents on her turn in combat and enjoys the occasional spotlight in social and exploration situations. Somehow it all works out very well for us, because we are all get along and nobody is a jerk. Any limits I put on my campaigns are for thematic reasons. Whatever the limits I put into place, a systems-mastery focused player is going to find ways to optimize his or her character. And that's fine with me. There have been times where it has made running encounters more difficult for me as a DM, but I also think it has made me a better DM.</blockquote>

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