Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm
Most complaints from GMs who claim they have that problem sound like, "My players are having hurting wrong fun because they don't roleplay the way I would."
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This ^^^^.
I have orders of magnitude less GM experience than Kromm, but my takeaway as a player and GM is that roleplaying is primarily about the people at the gaming table, not the campaign, the characters or the power level.
Part of being a good GM, and also making your life easier is a GM, is to "go with the flow." If you have a roleplayer, a min-maxer, and a couple of social gamers in your group, you need to give them all a chance to shine.
Let the roleplayer roleplay when it's appropriate and reward them when their roleplaying makes things more fun, or at least more "interesting" for everyone.
Reward the min-maxer for problem solving and being even more competent due to clever tactics or rules-lawyering.* Also reward them for working around the limitations the roleplayer puts on the group.
Reward everyone for showing up and being engaged.
Hand out immediate rewards when it's appropriate to do so. If an unexpected encounter turns into a successful improv side quest, immediately give the characters a Favor from a grateful client (with the option to turn that person into a Contact or Patron in the future) or a point in an appropriate skill.
If the players are cool with it, give out Impulse Points to allow them to influence game play events and bend the laws of probability in their favor.
* GURPS has a lot of rules, even skilled players forget some of them sometimes. Having players who also know the game system and are experts on areas where you're weak as a GM is a godsend. Smart GMs use rules lawyers' powers for the greater good. Have them help inexperienced players create characters or guide them through their first few combats, or even let them act as an "adversary" or "auxiliary GM" and run NPCs during certain combats.
Obviously, whining and not respecting the GM's final authority are undesirable, but every player should have "right of appeal" if the GM is clearly making a mistake and the GM should be willing to take correction if the player is right. If that ends up hosing a GM's fiendish plans, so be it.
The same holds for roleplayers or other types of players who are clearly into the game setting. Use them to write up auxiliary material about the game world, detailed character histories that the GM can use as plot hooks, etc.