To help manage your campaigns better and deal with last- minute real life issues that tend to come up, create a player contact sheet and put it in your GM binder, or keep
it on your computer with your other campaign files. Things to include on your contact sheet:
* Player name
* Day phone (and hours)
* Morning/Evening phone (and hours)
* Cell phone
* Day e-mail
* Alternate e-mail
* Typical available days
* Pick-up address/Directions
The range of phone numbers gives you the most flexibility for coordinating last-minute changes. When collecting these, ask for any acceptable use conditions (such as
contacting players at work only case of emergency).
E-mails are tricky because you don’t know how often players will check theirs and when they’ll be able to respond, so by getting a daytime e-mail you are again able to contact
players with greatest possible success.
Tracking alternate game days that players have available can make scheduling a lot easier and more efficient. If you can rule out a day, for example, that’s 1/7 of a rescheduling
decision made without making a single phone call.
Knowing players’ pick-up addresses and driving directions lets you pass those on without delay to drivers. This is especially important during last-minute commute changes.
All this might seem obvious, but if you don’t have a contact sheet prepped, consider stopping right now and whipping one up – even if it’s full of blanks. Get things filled out
before or during next session. As GM, you can use a player contact sheet to ensure sessions are as fully attended as possible with minimal starting delays.
Final point: ask what players’ privacy policies are. Some players want to keep their contact information (or certain pieces of it) private – even from fellow players, so gather this information and honour any requests.
I started a new job recently (teaching english on an intermittent basis) with a bang (organisation was a week long bitch), and my legal formalities for a french variation on micro-enterprise status are still buried somewhere in the government’s intestines…. So I’m now about three weeks behind. Better news is that I should have some free time next week to catch up and I’ve been able to keep basic content work moving along.
Blogging hit a snag recently, but Site5 did another top-notch job of unscrewing the inscrutable in jig-time.
The content waterfall recommend by Johnn Four and Yax was no great surprise, as it echoed much of my self-developed work methods. Best tip for me was “do the index first” as it dragged me out of a creative swamp I’d driven myself into.
Boy I’m wiped. Massive Paintball event all day long (each weekend I pick the saturday or the sunday as my day off), 60-70 strong players all on the same terrain at the same time. Intense, despite the wet weather. But great fun!
The Tragedian
This Player likes literary tragedy and wants to play out something similar with his Characters. The GM must be prepared to give this Player what he wants: the Tragedian’s characters must be betrayed, lose loved ones, make mistakes which result in catastrophe, and alienate those he cares about. This should not take place all at once, of course – the tragedy must be sustained throughout the campaign. While he’s somewhat masochistic, the Tragedian does create interesting characters and backgrounds and is a sure outlet for a GM’s more cruel impulses. Of course he must have contrasting periods of happiness in which he acquires the friends and loved ones he will lose later on….
The Winner aka Mr “Win-at-all-costs”
Someone who is obsessed with success in the Game World to the exclusion of anything else -ignoring role-playing, story development, character development, or anything at all that will distract them from their goals. This Player type seeks out the best equipment, best spells, and the best everything that it’s possible to get in the game. Driven towards these goals, they often sacrifices things that other people hold dear – such as friendships and relationships — if it can benefit their personal goals to do so. Sometimes, in the worst cases, they abuse game rules to get what they want, squeezing the most efficient skill or power into their character regardless of whether or not it makes sense in the Game World for their character to do so.
This concludes (for the moment) the Player Types thread.
Aknowledgement :
All credit for this section goes to Aaron Allston and his seminal Strikeforce supplement for the Champions RPG that contained the initial version at the base of this section. It is, alas, no longer in print yet still lives on due to the fond memories of many Champions players past and present (myself included!). These pearls of wisdom have been reconstructed from memory and some of the versions available on the Internet.
The Strategist
This Player loves outwitting the villain. If a problem can best be solved by punching a bad guy in the snoot, the Strategist will spend his time figuring out how to out-think his foe. This Player has good and bad points. At best he’s thinking, hungrily evaluating each situation, offering interesting solutions to problems which require analytical deduction. Unfortunately the GM has to work hard to keep up (the GM is thinking for vast numbers of NPCs while the Strategist is thinking for only one character or PC team), and the Strategist sometimes slows the progress to a crawl while he figures out how to outwit the villain. So long as every episode has an intellectual problem to resolve, the Strategist will remain satisfied.
The Terrorist
This Player lives for Player-vs.-Player conflict. Possibly of the lethal kind but also including ruining the lives or chances for success of other Players Characters. They work under the assumption that other Players are the most interesting targets because they’re capable of more independent thought or action than GM-controlled targets. This is very unhealthy for a groups’ morale and can lead to severe disputes. Thus a wise GM steps in to forbid outright this kind of behaviour, upto and including banishing the Terrorist from the gaming group. A sub-variety is the Eternal-Argumentor, whom the GM simply needs to prevent from monopolising all the groups’ time (see the section on settling rules arguments).
The Thrillseeker
The Thrillseeker is the Player that must have Something To Do no matter where they are or what they are playing. This Player craves ACTION more than anything else, even in games where GM-moderated combat leaves little time for role-playing.
I’ve just managed to recover from a week’s progress lost due to a motherboard failure on my main computer, and I’m Back! ….so now is a good time to start up a chatty Development Log.
I started this blog just under a month ago, with some trepidation. My experience in this domain being basically that of an admirer of other peoples’ blogs, it was definitely outside my comfort zone. Good! A challenge! I pored over hundreds of themes to find one with a beautiful header and layout that could handle the functions I wanted (RSS, FeedBurner). (kudos : WitcherWorld won me over, and I’ve never regretted it.). I also award great face to Site5 webhosting, as they have helped me in a swift and professionnal manner every time.
I’m steadily exploring and learning to exploit the Wordpress Dashboard functions, tagging and categorizing merrily. I’ve come to the conclusion that I won’t be a profilic blogger, but I am determined to be a *quality* blogger….
Currently I’m working on generating content to post and polishing it. As always this will be things that gamers will find useful, especially Games Masters. And since almost every Player is tempted to become a Games Master at some point… Stay tuned for more news!
The Pro From Dover
This Player creates characters who must be the best at what they do. If the hero is a Brick (super-strong, super-tough fighter), he must be the strongest and toughest in the world. If the character is a scientist or magician, he must be the undisputed master of his field. The GM needs to provide the Pro From Dover with occasional opportunities to display his prominence, and must be careful not to allow new PCs to overlap the Pro’s area of interest.
The Romantic
This Player is most interested in the personal relationships of his characters. If the Romantic’s character does not become involved with another PC, the GM should make sure that the PC is supplied with NPCs to meet, get to know, and develop relationships with – not just romances, but professional relationships, familial relationships, etc. If the Romantic can’t develop relationships, the Romantic won’t be happy.
The Rules Rapist
Typically this is an unhealthy variant of The Pro from Dover. In general, the Player wants to create characters with skill or powers which bend and exploit the existing rules. These Players are constantly redesigning their characters for higher point-value efficiency, and, unless they also have other campaign interests, they’re probably not all that involved in role-playing. In mild forms the Rules Rapist can be an excellent friend to new and old Players, constantly suggesting new ways to use the game’s systems to their full potential. Often, the GM will not be able to satisfy the Rules Rapist’s gaming needs, or find himself engaged in an “arms race” of new tweaks and tricks. Something he will always lose if he allows the Rules Rapist to copy his tweaks on the morally blackmailing basis of “What’s fair for NPCs is fair for us”.
The Showoff
This Player needs to be on-stage, at all times, keeping the spotlight on himself. His characters may be well-designed and inventive, or could be unimaginative and ordinary: only the amount of attention he receives, and the number of faces staring at him, are important. It doesn’t make a difference what the setting is, or whether or not their character should be the centre of attention at that point in time, they *will* to do something to get themselves noticed. This Player type can be an excellent source of role-playing for others (who can mock, admire, or interact with the Showoff however they wish), but can also be extremely annoying when taken to the extreme. The GM will have difficulties with the Showoff; he must either let this Player dominate the campaign, or must make sure that all Players get equal time until the Showoff grows out of this phase or leaves the campaign.
The Genre Fiend
This Player’s motto is “No, do it right!” This is the Player who loves the Game World so much that they learn absolutely every trivial thing possible about it, and considers him- or herself an expert on everything involved with the game. If the GM (or any other Player) misses a convention or an opportunity, the Genre Fiend is certain to let him know about it. Repeatedly. The GM’s task here is to understand the genre and ascertain what sort of encounters, situations, and themes that the Fiend is expecting to play, and then provide them whenever possible.
The Jester
The Jester is the type of Player who finds the entire concept of role-playing games amusing and can’t quite understand what all the fuss is about when they do something completely out of character for the game universe that they think is funny. In small amounts the Jester can be one of the biggest saviours of a game — lest we become too obsessed and immersive that we forget that the game is also about fun. But as with all the other types, taken to extremes, the Jester can ruin the fun of other Players with excessively silly or stupid behaviour that ruins the setting or scene for other Players.
The Mad Slasher
This Player spent a long, hard week at the office or at school, and when he gets to the gaming table all he wants to do is kill. When a villain confronts the hero, the Mad Slasher kills him. When a cop gives the hero lip, the Mad Slasher kills him. When the villain is shielding himself with the body of a girlfriend or relative, the Mad Slasher blasts right through the hostage to get at the villain. The Mad Slasher says, “I put up with garbage in real life; in my games, I get to do anything I want to anyone I want.” Obviously, the problem here is that the Mad Slasher only belongs in a campaign where everyone is a Mad Slasher. If all your Players want their character to be maniacal killers, you have no problem. If some of them are role-players, the GM is going to have to get rid of the Mad Slasher, or calm him down. Getting him to reduce his target list to bad guys would be a good start…
The Plumber
This Player likes to create a character with a finely detailed and intricate personality, and then spend his gaming career plumbing this character to its depths. The GM needs to provide the Plumber with a variety of different situations, including moral quandaries and emotional scenes, to react to. If he does not, the Plumber will grow frustrated and unhappy.
The Prince
The Prince is a Player who is into power and control. Quickly politicking their way to the top of the political food chain of their choice, the Prince is often a mover and a shaker in the Game World. These are the Players who rise to the top of factions, by hook or by crook, and stay there until pried away with a crowbar or the Player grows bored and drops the Character. These characters can be fun to play with, but sometimes their desire to manipulate and control can render them tiresome to interact with and not fun at all to be around. They’re often too busy trying to deal with the “burdens of power” to take time out to role-play interesting scenes with other Player types or advance the groups objectives.
The Chatter
This Player comes to the game to chat with other folks rather than play the game. Just about everyone has a bit of the chatter in them; few people come to role-playing games just to stay in character all the time, and in order to build an in-game team you need to chat out of character sometimes. The Chatter, taken to extremes, is the sort of person who spends all their time talking about something out-of-character, often continuously disrupting other Players immersion in their role-playing.
The Combat Monster
This (often young and male) Player wants his character to fight, fight, fight. This doesn’t mean that the campaign must consist of only combat, but if every single episode doesn’t have some sort of battle, or if the character is prevented from participating in these conflicts, the Players will not be happy. Fortunately the urge to fight directed is towards NPCs, goons, and other GM-generated creatures rather than other PCs, otherwise he becomes a Player-Killer (aka “The Terrorist”)
The Copier
This Player like to run the game-world equivalent of characters he’s seen elsewhere – in movies, books, TV, or the comics. In most cases they are trying to duplicate characters taken from the universe that the game is based on. This can be a very interesting experiment and provide for wonderful role-playing. The problem is, he also expects the hero to be as effective or as universally respected as the original hero. There is a strong risk of disappointment when their character doesn’t get to duplicate the originals amazing success. The GM has to work hard to understand the Copier’s goals for his character; if the GM feel these goal can’t be met, he needs to tell the Player as soon as possible.
A sub-variety of Copier is the Clone Artist : the Player who creates one character and runs the same character – or variant forms of him – in every campaign in which he plays, no matter how illogical or strained the fit might be.
The Drama Queen
This Player is a variation on The Showoff. They don’t necessarily need to be the centre of attention, but everything they do tends to be overdramatized and emotionally extreme. They can be relied upon to regularly undergo – and emote noisily about – some profound tragedy, even if its based on the flimsiest excuses.
The Impersonator
This Player wants to run game-world versions of characters that someone else created. In most cases they are trying to duplicate characters taken from the universe that the game is based on or historical figures. This can be a very interesting experiment and provide for wonderful role-playing, unless, of course, the Player becomes a Copier, which is the much more common version of this type of Player.
I’m a big proponent of the “Living World” method of campaign handling. I list all the major factions the PCs should have heard of(and significant NPC groups that player will have major interaction with), and flesh them out just enough detail (I’m also a proponent of “Just-in-time GMing” aka “Don’t do more campaign prep than you expect to need, plus a safety margin”) to be able to assign each one major “Fundamental objective” and three “project” goals. I deliberately set this up so groups and factions have conflicting goals (this makes the generation of rumours and NPCs even easier). Then the PCs start campaigning. They hear about conflicts between groups and factions: their actions, reactions, progress and failure. They hear about (or even get caught up in) events that are local, regional and/or national. This goes on even if they don’t choose to intervene. BUT (and this is the point) some of their actions *will* interfere with factions goals and change their plans (you need to note the change down : what, sho decided, date, what this makes them feel about the PCs…), thus the PCs hear “echos” of the consequences of their actions, which can inspire them to further action. These interactions show the players that they are influencing the world, which they appreciate greatly, and provide the GM with a easy supply of:
– campaign news/rumours and evolutions;
– scenario springboards;
– Ideas for scenarios;
– NPC conversational gambits;
– new rivalries and alliances;
… and so much more that the PCs can interact with!
I repeat : take notes of the changes of faction/group plans, and activities!
N.B. Some factions are never prepared more than a few paragraphs of flavor text, ressource parameters and names of significant members. That’s all it takes to kick this off. Except a coherent vision of your campaign world and a list of the factions in it, of course, but thats something for another day 
Also to be found on
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/pc-choices-and-consequences/
This post is a part of my upcoming “Game Master Workshops”. it’s rather long (5 pages in all) so I’ll post it in chunks over the next few days…
Here’s a chunk to get you started.
Players : Their Types and what they’re looking for.
Players don’t realise it, but they very often have a “type” of Player they belong to. Each “type” is looking for a different form of role-playing experience. Many Players don’t even know their type, but a good GM can spot a Players “type” and enhance their enjoyment by tweaking his scenario to supply the role-playing situations that they crave.
The Actor
The Actor is the base type of Player, and most people start here and accessorize with various degrees of the types below. This Player is interested in improvisation and acting out the role of a character in an immersive game, writing “their part” in the collaborative work of the Game World they choose to play in. They work out their characters role, spending equal amounts of time starring and in the background, chatting when it’s called for, fighting when it’s called for, and doing whatever seems appropriate for their character. But every Actor’s personality is also made up of varying degrees of one or more of the following Player types…
The Buddy
This Player is involved in the campaign primarily because his friends are. He’d probably rather be at a movie or watching a ballgame, but so long as everyone else is playing he’ll go along for the ride. He usually won’t be deeply involved or interested in the campaign, and wouldn’t cry if it eventually closed down. The GM has two options dealing with the Player. First, he can ignore the Player – the Buddy’s not contributing much to the campaign, after all. This might be the GM’s only option, especially if the Player really has no interest in role-playing. A more rewarding course is to draw the Player (sometimes against his better judgement) into the campaign. Lurking inside every Buddy is another type of Player trying to get out. If you can find whatever the Buddy enjoys and give this to him, he will likely become more interested in your campaign, and might even become a campaign stalwart.
The Builder
This Player is into creating, building, describing, and otherwise adding long-lasting things to the Game World. He wants his character to have an impact on the world – to build institutions, to clean up a city, to change things, to leave a legacy of some sort behind, be it an organization or an object. If your campaign is absolutely static (if Players cannot introduce new technologies, make the campaign setting a better place to live, or substantively change anything though their efforts), the Builder just won’t be happy. He must have some lasting success or he will end up frustrated.
Aknowledgement :
All credit for this section goes to Aaron Allston and his seminal Strikeforce supplement for the Champions RPG that contained the initial version at the base of this section. It is, alas, no longer in print yet still lives on due to the fond memories of many Champions players past and present. These pearls of wisdom have been reconstructed from memory and some of the versions available on the Internet.
