Timmy, Johnny, Spike, and Vorthos

[Dausuul]

They match quite well:

Johnny = Thinker
Timmy = Character Actor
Spike = Power Gamer
Vorthos = Storyteller

Thinker: "This kind of person is likely to enjoy min-maxing a character, spending hours out of game to find every conceivable advantage available in the system to deliver maximum damage from behind maximum protection, even if the min-maxing produces results that are seemingly illogical/impossible." That sounds a lot more like Spike than Johnny.

Power Gamer: "This kind of person is likely to enjoy playing a character that has a minimum of personality (often, this kind of person plays a character that is simply an extension of the player). This kind of player enjoys short, intense gaming experiences. The consequences of a failed action are minimized for this player, who will roll up a new character and return to the fray without much thought for the storyline implications of that action." Sounds like Timmy... mostly. I don't know where the heck you see Spike in this.

Character Actor: "This kind of person is likely to enjoy the act of theater; using voice, posture, props, etc. to express a character's actions and dialog. This player will have a character that makes sub-optimal choices (from an external perspective) to ensure that the character's actions are 'correct' from the perspective of the character's motivations, ethics, and knowledge." You can make this look like Vorthos if you squint hard. It doesn't resemble any of the other three.

Storyteller: "This kind of person finds enjoyment from the logical progression of the narrative of the scenario. There should be a beginning, a middle and an end. Characters should develop over time in reaction to their experiences. This player will look for a non-rules answer to inconsistencies or anachronisms in the game experience." There is no parallel whatsoever in M:tG to this.

I stand by my statement. The Rosewater profiles are a terrible fit for D&D.

 

[Hassassin]

Thinker: [...] That sounds a lot more like Spike than Johnny.

Power Gamer: [...] Sounds like Timmy... mostly. I don't know where the heck you see Spike in this.

In MTG Spike is about winning, Johnny is about using unexpected interactions and combos. Hence, Spike is more about the game than the character (=Powergamer), while Johnny is about "solving" both the game and ingame situations (=Thinker).

Character Actor: [...] You can make this look like Vorthos if you squint hard. It doesn't resemble any of the other three.

Storyteller: [...] There is no parallel whatsoever in M:tG to this.

These are a bit worse matches. Timmy is about trying to win with style even if suboptimal (=Character Actor). Vorthos is about the lore and history behind the cards, which isn't a perfect fit to Storyteller, but closest IMO.

I stand by my statement. The Rosewater profiles are a terrible fit for D&D.

I wouldn't say terrible, but they aren't even a perfect fit to MTG players so of course they don't perfectly match D&D players.

 

[Pickles JG]

I think Johnny supposed to be is more about expressing himself than solving the game. Anyway in CCGs I tend to be Johnny/Spike with a tiny bit of the others. (40 40 10 10)

In D&D I guess I am the same though the tiny bit is much bigger. (33 33 17 17 maybe).

 

[harpy]

A problem I see with a clear mapping of MtG archetypes to RPG archetypes is that MtG is heavily weighted to deck building and system mastery. If you just focus on 3.x and 4e for the MtG archetypes then then line up better as a good chunk of play styles that these system push, but if you extend it to earlier editions then character building and system mastery begin to fade and become irrelevant.

 

[avin]

Vorthos mixed with Johnny. But mostly Vorthos.

 

[Minigiant]

When I was an MTG player, I was a serious Johnny. ANYTIME anyone said something kinda bad or near useless... I saw it as a challenge. I had to make it work and my decks always had a "why is that even in there" card in there. I didn't care if I won, as long as the point of my deck was expressed.

As a D&D player, I am the same. I either play ultrastereotypes (gold-loving, Elf and Giant hating, ax-using dwarf in a viking helmet) or optimized bad combinations (halfling paladin fencer in leather armor). I would be close to a Character Actor except the only bad choices are in concept. Then I power gamer the heck out other character (within the PCs goals and motivations). This is why my favorite race is half-elves. Because they "suck".

 

[howandwhy99]

I guess I'm a Vorthos who finds narrativism highly overrated and avoid it like the plague (as it makes me retch). I steer clear of story whenever and wherever possible and instead do the rest of the elements in the Vorthos description.

 

[Cadfan]

Roughly speaking I'm a Johnny. But if combat isn't tactically interesting, I get bored with it, and wonder why its even in the game.

 

[was]

Mix of the bunch

 

[Lord Mhoram]

No, but I think they may fit WotC's Breakdown of RPG Players from the 1999 market survey somewhat better. It still isn't a 1:1 mapping, but it seems closer to this than to GNS.

And, yes, I think you can support them all simultaneously. It takes a bit of work, and players who are okay with sharing, and occasionally doing things for reasons other than their primary playstyle. Your rules-crunch gamer needs to be able to step back and do things because they are dramatically appropriate on occasion, and your immersion-story dude has to occasionally go through a rules-crunchy combat, and so on. Sometimes, it may pay to have a group of more matching playstyles, but with cooperative people, mixing and matching can be done.

Pretty much this - on the WOTC breakdown I am almost a complete split between Power Gamer and Character Actor - I love the combat, and making powerful characters... but I do so within the character concept, and never at the expense of it- I just come up with character concepts that lend to power. But my focus while gaming is immersion and character. I have one Hero character I've played for 25 years, and could play another 25. I've spend $150 over the years for character commissions, and have a diary of her thoughts and adventures that tops 40 pages. And she has almost always been one of the most competent character in combat (even with same point level characters)

In this poll split pretty evenly between Spike and Johnny with a bit of timmy thrown in.