DM-nastics #13 Those Pesky Players!

I'm not so sure I always have the same play style. I know I'm like an actual PC in that way. I'm nowhere near the same type of player I was when I started. Lots of player growth, as well as PC growth.

My play-type tends to shift depending on the tone of the game the DM wants. Is it dark and gritty realism, Game of Thrones style? Is it breaking the 4th wall Acquisitions, Inc. style? There's lots of factors that go into how I play, but overall I'm there to ensure that the DM sees their story and vision fulfilled, no matter the path we take to get there.

I think many of us can identify with more than 2 play styles, I just limited the poll to 2 choices to emphasize your strongest/most frequent approaches to playing. For instance, I can identify strongly with actor and explorer, and I am an incidental optimizer. However, all three of those are more extensions to the Fighter and Storyteller votes I pinned. 

1) Fighter because I love board games, and that's what a good combat encounter looks like to me. It's not rolling dice to see who gets lucky, or even creating a dramatic moment. It is game theory in one of its highest forms. Here, I'm using the wikipedia entry definition of game theory, "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers." Storyteller, because contextualizing all that math adds new objectives beyond HP attrition, which can get boring fast. Storytelling keeps the math fresh. 

2) I think both styles came about due to inherent personality traits. I was playing board games, and dreaming about fantastic locations before I ever played an RPG. These games just presented themselves as the perfect synthesis of the two.

3) What stories work best for me? Honestly, I'll be bored to tears if we go four hours without a fight. I like a good dungeon crawl (or any scenario that presents a series of fights), provided there's a plausible reason to be doing it. I've only played one character whose primary motivation was the acquisition of wealth, so my character needs to be there for something other than the dragon's hoard. Let me rescue a princess or recover an ancient tome. My characters probably won't risk their lives for mere gold. 

4) I'm already a perfect player...

Okay, I need to avoid giving OOC tactical advice in the middle of combat. I can usually see the best option to take in most situations, for everyone's character. When it looks like someone is going to take a sub-optimal action, I ought to let them do it and keep my mouth shut. Unless it's going to get the party killed!

5) Since I spend most of my time DMing rather than playing, I generally give great consideration to what the DM is trying to accomplish when I do play. I won't claim that I'm a DM's dream player, but I am at a loss for how I can be better. 

3x5: Morgan Deepoath, cleric of Moradin. This is my character for D&D Encounters, I only ever dreamed up some vague notions for his background, so I'm making up most of this on the spot.

Places:
1) Alderton, a tiny human village in northern Faerun where he spent most of his youth.
2) Temple of Moradin in Eartheart (The Great Rift) where he trained to become a cleric.
3) Flasky's, a low-key tavern in Baldur's Gate with good prices on great ale.

Events:

1) Family left Underhome in disgrace when Morgan was very young, went to Alderton.
2) Called upon in his dreams to serve Moradin, returned to the Great Rift.
3) Saved Flasky's daughter with a healing spell, is a welcome patron.

Allies:

1) Father is a civil engineer, still in Alderton. 
2) Gandor Rockhome, a fellow dwarven cleric of Moradin he befriended, resides in Underhome.
3) Jona "Flasky" Whitborn, proprietor of Flasky's, an elderly human

Rivals: 

1) The Pambrose clan, hick family of demi-human haters in Alderton
2) Huron Rubynose, high ranking cleric of Moradin whose wife was killed by Morgan's father's bad engineering
3) Jilly Leafbiter, a well-meaning halfling who takes it upon herself to make Morgan stop taking life so seriously, patron of Flasky's

Enemies: 

1) Spiders! (this is a stretch for me, because I do so love spiders IRL)
2) Farlan Drak, a petty mugger who escaped after killing a friend of Morgan's outside Flasky's.
3) Unknown -- someone was responsible for his father's failed bridge, it wasn't really faulty engineering.

Why do you choose that play style? Actor/fighter

When did that become the play style for you? Not long just started up in the last year. Just been playing the Star Wars edge of the empire or self battles in d&d.

What stories work best for your play style? Ones that i can be creative with. My character is a hacker. He is very weak... A stiff breeze can knock him over. However get him next to a control panel he is very very OP.

How can you be a better member of a party? By helping others roleplay better or come up with creative ideas in our game without always helping. Otherwise i eould be playing 2 or more guys.

What can you do to be a better player for your DM? Not being so OP. Try to think up ways to make things more difficult to make the story or session more interesting. I could hack and take over everything and steam rill through a session or i can say i need some set back because i am a nervouse scared person worried about a droid coming behind me and shooting me. Sometimes it is fun taking over an entire ship and other times it is more fun to work for it.