Archtypical Gamers, Players and GMs Options

[Wraithshadow]

Since someone asked me to do more of these, and it seems like I should add on the other half of the coin, here's an expanded version of what I did in the Shadowrun 4 forum.

There's a broad variety of players and GMs, with their own philosophies and styles. You might fit one of these archetypes, or you might be several- or none. If you think I missed one, add it in.

Game Masters

The Competitor
This sort of GM looks at the game not so much as a cooperative storytelling as a competition between himself and the players. Can he come up with a situation they can't beat? Can he get enough rocks and hard places involved that the players are simply overwhelmed? It's worth noting that this isn't so much an attempt by the GM to win, as it is the belief that a GM's reputation rests upon how much he can challenge his players. A GM who's able to present major challenges is good at what he does- after all, he's outwitted the group allied against him, right? The Competitor avoids simply striking down the PCs; sure he could just declare them dead, but that's not a challenge, that's twinky. He may, however, throw things at them that in his mind could be beaten if they do things just right.

The Counterweight
Every player spends countless hours pouring over the latest supplement, trying to find new tricks that will give them an edge. There's no way the GM can put as much effort into this as the players, so the best way to make sure they don't get out of hand is to balance anything nasty with something equally so. The problem is, if you don't know what's nasty, you have to guess. And the more blatant something is, the more likely the GM is going to come down on it. These GMs are struggling to maintain game balance in the face of overwhelming odds. They expect they're outnumbered, outgunned, and outmaneuvered before the dice ever hit the table, so they're working to rein in the players. The problem is that their expectations of doom and gloom might be overestimating things- much like the way the USAF vastly overestimating Soviet nuclear weapon stockpiles.

The Gritty Dark Futurist
The book makes mention of PCs getting screwed over repeatedly- Mr. Johnson probably isn't telling them the whole story. That gun's probably not as good quality as it should be. Your cybersurgeon might take a bribe to do a little extra while you're under the knife. Life never cuts you a break, and neither does the GM. The Gritty Dark Futurist looks at Shadowrun as being Film Noir crossed with a country song crossed with a 'Nam war film: you're going to end up losing everything by the end of it, through no fault of your own. If you manage to make it out as well as you came in, you're doing great. The problem is that most players want rewards- not losing what they've got might not be enough to keep them happy, and they might want to push towards goals as well. This sort of GM probably also makes use of 'realistic' tactics, borrowing methods that the players can't counter but are used in the real world for just that reason.

The Light In Dark Places
Rare, but not unheard of, this sort of GM believes that people- and PCs- are at their best when things are at their worst. The more hopeless the situation, the more the players will shine, and the better the roleplay will be. The Light In Dark Places truly does want the PCs to succeed, and may be rooting for them the whole time, but much like the saying about sparing the rod and spoiling the child, they're making things harsh For Their Own Good. This sort of GM is positive that when it's all done with and the PCs have survived, it'll be one for the ages, and everyone will be happy with what happened. The problem, much like with the Counterweight, is when the GM overestimates the PCs' ability to rise to the occasion. This can be especially difficult when the GM puts severe consequences (such as death) with what should be an easy hurdle. What might seem quite easy to the GM may be anything but for the PCs.

The Greaser
The Light In Dark Places might be pulling for the PCs to succeed, but the Greaser has his thumb on the scale. He wants the players to win, and he's willing to cheat on their behalf to help them do it. He'll probably throw in the usual variety of challenges, but he'll tilt things in the PCs favor. Maybe the enemy isn't looking, or for some reason they're hurt or unarmed. PCs don't need to find the key for the door, they'll have it handed to them. There's probably someone they can go to for information, gear, or a diamond the size of their fist (consider it a gift) if they want. Fudging dice rolls isn't unusual either- even if they're in plain view. The downside is that this isn't much fun for the players. It might be great at first, but it quickly gets boring. There's no challenge to it, and even if the players deliberately try to sabotage themselves, the Greaser's going to pull their fat out of the fire.

The Engineer
It's always a good idea to plan ahead, but the Engineer takes this to the extreme. He tends to have the adventure laid out well in advance, and he wants to make sure it all works exactly right. This tends to lead to railroading, or adventures where you have to do things a particular way. If you don't manage to do things just right, it won't work, regardless of if it should or not. Woe betide the players who forego the way things are and try to come up with an alternate means to succeed. On those occasions where they do, it's usually temporary because they'll lack some specific component or bit of information that they would have had if they'd just done things the way the GM intended, leaving them in a dead end or facing insurmountable odds. The problem, of course, is that the players feel more like they're on an amusement park ride than in the middle of an interactive game. It's likely that players will set out to monkeywrench things, or just give up entirely.

The Rube Goldberg
The Engineer's big brother, the Rube Goldberg sets everything up so that the players need to do just one simple thing, and then the rest takes care of itself. The idea is to let the PCs be part of something much larger, but it often becomes a case of 'the rest' being the part the players want to be involved with. This can get frustrating because it feels like the only reason the players exist is to propel NPCs to glory. It might be fun to get the plans for the Death Star to Princess Leia, but sooner or later the players are going to want to make a trench run. The Rube Goldberg may also show hints of the Greaser, just because he keeps things simple for the players.

The Veteran
The Veteran has been roleplaying for decades, or maybe has years of real world experience with whatever he's running. This seems like a good thing at the beginning- until the players realize the Veteran expects them to know just as much as he does. The Veteran will keep key knowledge to himself, because he's of the opinion that they players should already know it- or their character should- so why should he coddle them? The Veteran often puts PCs into situations where failure to recognize some clue will result in harsh punishments, such as mentioning the NPC wears a particular flower that, according to page 183 of the Assassin Guild sourcebook, denotes the NPC as a master of the touch of death who must be accorded appropriate respect- he just won't mention anything more than, "he's wearing a star lotus." This may result in a high PC death rate, and angry mutterings about not signing on to play Zork.

Players

The Armory
Most players realize that it's a good idea to have a backup weapon. The Armory takes this to a new level. He likely has a huge variety of weapons, suitable for use in all sorts of situations- you could suspend him by one leg down a narrow well and he'll probably have six different things he could use. Even if the GM was to strip the characters of all gear, the Armory's probably got enough weapons hidden on him to arm the entire party. The problem with this is that the Armory tends to only focus on his vast arsenal, leading to a lack of ability outside combat. The Armory may also try to be equally proficient with all his weapons- meaning that even in combat he's got the tool for the job, but not much skill in using it.

The Munitions Dump
The Munitions Dump is a variant on the Armory- he may even be a former Armory that's decided this is a better way. Where the Armory carries dozens and dozens of weapons, the Munitions Dump only has one or two. However, the Munitions Dump will make up for this by carrying a huge amount of specialty ammunition. This isn't as much of a problem as the Armory, but it can lead to lots of frustration when the Munitions Dump spends half of combat changing out combat loads to get just the right sort for the job. Also can lead to massive player frustration if for one reason or another the Munitions Dump's ammo cache catches on fire, as the resulting detonations can eliminate everything in a five block radius.

The Manipulator
The Manipulator is usually welcome at the game table- at first. He tends to be a good roleplayer and an intelligent gamer, and will often be a valuable asset for completing the group's adventures. However, the Manipulator sees it all as a means to an end- and that end is his supremacy. The Manipulator will often get himself elected to party leader, talk the other players into letting him have the best gear, and might even get NPCs to give him a bigger cut of the reward than the rest of the group. Sooner or later the other players are going to get frustrated with the fact they've been relegated to henchmen while the Manipulator hogs the glory or runs circles around them. He might be good at what he does- but the question is whether you really want him to do it.

The Disk Jockey
The Disk Jockey is a veteran RPG player- he's seen them all, played them all, probably owns most of them as well. The problem with the Disk Jockey is the fact the RPGs he's a veteran of are the computer variety. The Disk Jockey sees the game as something to manipulate and win by playing the system for whatever he can get. Everything has to act specifically according to the rules, with no room for alteration. If he finds an 'exploit' he'll use it and believe he's fully within his rights to do so, regardless of what the GM may think. Morality, character development, and story is all something you hit the B button to skip, because really, it all comes down to the next power up. Tends to frustrate more traditional gamers because the Disk Jockey sees tabletop RPGs and computer RPGs as identical, and will expect everyone else to do the same.


Gotta run- I'll add more once I get back.