I'd love to hear what you came up with!
I made a 5-axis system that provides 16 distinct player archetypes.
External/Internal - How a player gets energized by a session. Do they get excited by things happening at the table, or by their internal worlds?
Concrete/Abstract - How the player likes to process information. Do they like the specific details, or like to think in grander themes?
People/Mechanical - What is the player there for? Characters and other people, or the game system itself?
Planned/Spontaneous - How does the player like to deal with situations? Do they spend a session arguing about how to kick down a door, or do they just go guns blazing?
Casual/Immersive - What is the player's emotional investment? Do they get sad over their PC's death, or are they excited to roll up with their new character?
I then paid this with the 8 types of TTRPG fun, to see
why the player is there. And that is narrative, fantasy, discovery, challenge, fellowship, expression, sensory, and submission.
I have a more in-depth deep dive into the compatibility system here (
Player Archetypes: The 16 TTRPG Personality Types)
Damn, funny how we both came up with archetype-based solutions! This is really good. Yes, I completely agree that setting player and GM expectations through archetypes is the way to go.
I did it through creating my own game system (One of Us Will Die) so it's definitely different. On my side, it was a little more selfish because I made it a narrative heavy game, which means my players are filltered to the sort that enjoy that sort of gameplay. As a GM, I personally prefer playing with Bards and Clerics so I made the system cater to them, but that's where I stopped with playstyle.
The next level of level of categorization, I took was asking the question as to what story these players wanted to tell with their characters, so I created the game's character classification system based, not on the abilities a certain character had, but on the sort of story the players wanted to tell.
Each archetype had it's own playbook, and was basically a template based on how these archetypes play out in fiction. The example below is The Lover, which a player would choose if they wanted to tell any kind of love story.
There are also other character archetypes such as The Scorned (which tells a revenge arc), The Child (which tells a coming of age arc), The Sinner (which tells a redemption arc, or alternatively a villain arc) and the list goes on. I came up with twenty archetypes.
The aim of this system was to set expectations for both the GM and the player. The GM would know precisely what sort of tale the player is trying to tell, so a good one would know exactly how to challenge them, surprise them, reward them, and most importantly how to torture the heck out of them. The player would also be given absolute shameless freedom to play that role because the system rewards players for playing into their archetypes through dramatic moments. For example, someone I know who was often seen as annoying for talking so much about oppressive systems so much during D&D games picked up The Rebel and did the same. It felt more natural in this setting because many of the Rebel's story milestones (which are how the player characters advance) involve them speaking out against the unfair oppressive system this character lives in. I no longer felt like I had no idea what to do with this player because now that I know exactly what he wants, all I need to do is constantly validate his character through constant oppression. We didn't need to have a long discussion. He just picked up a playbook, and we were on the same page.
It became a game where players advance by being as theatrical and dramatic as they want to be. On top of that, I added a social deduction mechanic (the game's main gimmik) where the players must constantly observe each other because one of them secretly knows their character is going to die at the end of the story. The object of the game is to figure out exactly who it is.
I then added a campaign mode that has a fixed ending (because each campaign and one-shot ends with the tragic death of one of the characters) and a progression system based on story milestones unique to each archetype. Everyone gets to play the way they want to, and because it's a social deduction game, the players are encouraged to pay a lot of attention to one another. It's what keeps them coming back.
Now when I run games, I use this system, and my players are filtered down to my favorite kinds of players, and expectations are set through their choice of playbook. It was what FINALLY got me a group that would sit through the entire Curse of Strahd campaign with me, and a few of them even admitted it was one of the best RPG experiences they've had.
The kickstarter page has more info. We're currently in pre-launch. You can see it
here. I really like how we both had similar ideas but completely different solutions.
astroartificer.com
