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What are your player traits and incentives? (from DMG II)

What are your player traits and motiviations?

  • Accumulating Cool Powers

    Votes: 87 49.2%
  • Kicking Butt

    Votes: 93 52.5%
  • Brilliant Planning

    Votes: 78 44.1%
  • Puzzle Solving

    Votes: 49 27.7%
  • Playing a Favorite Role

    Votes: 65 36.7%
  • Supercoolness

    Votes: 33 18.6%
  • Story

    Votes: 114 64.4%
  • Psychodrama

    Votes: 43 24.3%
  • Irresponsibility

    Votes: 20 11.3%
  • Setting Exploration

    Votes: 54 30.5%
  • The Outlier

    Votes: 13 7.3%
  • Lurker

    Votes: 12 6.8%

Edit -- please vote regarding your personal player traits, not the traits of other players.

The Dungeon Master's Guide II has a section (p. 8 ff.) on Player Traits and Incentives -- "particular emotional impulses that give your players a sense of reward." I thought it would be interesting to see how the people of EN World rate themselves.

Brief explanation of each:

Accumulating Cool Powers -- appeals to one of the most reliable human motivators: ambition; "power-gamers".

Kicking Butt -- the simplest, most primal fantasy of vented frustration: laying a thrashing on a horde of deserving bad guys.

Brilliant Planning -- hope to be rewarded for clever, careful play, in which the group gains maximum advantage while exposing itself to minimum risk; [often] historical or military buffs.

Puzzle Solving -- not only the opportunity to demonstrate one's cleverness, but also our deeply rooted impulse to make patterns out of apparent randomness. ["Puzzles" also encompass mystery stories, here.]

Playing a Favorite Role -- many players like to play the same type of character over and over.

Supercoolness -- the fantasy of being icy cool and in command [like James Bond].

Story -- the game is like a movie or television show, but one in which they're taking part in the story.

Psychodrama -- want to explore the psychology of their characters from the inside out.

Irresponsibility -- fantasize about being able to flout authority and live by their own rules.

Setting Exploration -- linger in fascination over large-scale maps; chomp at the bit to head off to the far corners of the world.

The Outlier -- get their charge by subverting [the typical PC group] dynamic; revel in being different; love to play oddballs.

Lurker -- show up and participate to a degree, but don't distinguish themselves; might attend your games chiefly because the rest of their friends are there.
 
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reveal

Adventurer
I'm glad my group isn't much different than everyone elses. My three picks are the top vote-getters so far. :)
 


Chiaroscuro23

First Post
EricNoah said:
After 10 voters, "Kicking Butt" is winning by 1 point. I think the message is clear!

I voted based on my group rather than myself; hence my vote for "lurker" as well as others.

But nonetheless, I agree wholeheartedly that this poll is completely accurate and representative. Kicking Butt rules!

;)

-C.
 

Laslo Tremaine

Explorer
This does not have my main reason for roleplaying:

I like to watch my character grow and have an impact on the game world.

It is close to the "Cool Powers" option, but not quite. In D&D like to see my charcter start off as a lowly pleeb, and work his way up in the socio-economic structure of the game world until he is a "Person of Importance".
 





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