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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Theory of Games" data-source="post: 9619077" data-attributes="member: 7042201">It's a playstyle thing: certain players come to the table with certain expectations of what "fun" is. WotC identified the playstyles years ago (1999) with a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201107224647/http://seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/gaming/BreakdownOfRPGPlayers.html" target="_blank">player survey</a> that opened some eyes and of course triggered a lot of debate in the ttrpg community. IME most players are a mix of playstyles rather than just being dedicated to one style of play. The survey even inspired a (very good IMO) book by Robin Laws, Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, which can help GMs identify players' preferred playstyles and better craft their adventures around those playstyles to enhance player enjoyment. [URL unfurl="true"]https://warehouse23.com/products/robins-laws-of-good-game-mastering-pdf[/URL]So, in most groups we have had (for decades) players who prefer combat or prefer social interaction or prefer acquiring gear and treasure or prefer puzzles and planning or whatever. I've learned to incorporate a good mix (like many experienced GMs) to keep the group engaged, but there's days where players who normally enjoy social interaction "just wanna smash monsters" so of course we GMs have to be flexible - session-by-session. I've also learned to lean on sometimes splitting the party, so players striving for different experience can have what they want simultaneously with different scenes. It's tricky because the GM has to ensure each PC faction gets their "spotlight time", but done well, it pays off. Like anything, party splits get easier with experience. I game online primarily where it's very easy to do, but managing F2F party splits aren't as difficult as some would suggest. [URL unfurl="true"]https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/47259/roleplaying-games/random-gm-tip-splitting-the-party[/URL]Personally, the rare chances I get to play, I'm looking for a faster pace adventure/campaign where my Barbie® can get the meta loadout and build their ship entourage <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60d.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":love:" title="Love    :love:"  data-smilie="16"data-shortname=":love:" /></blockquote>

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