[Robin's Laws] Specialists

[Chansith]

In the list of player types in Robin Laws' Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering one of the types is the 'specialist', described thus:

The Specialist favors a particular character type, which he plays in every campaign and in every setting. The most common sub-type of specialist is the player who wants to be a ninja every time. … The specialist wants the rules to support his favored character type, but is otherwise indifferent to them. To make a specialist happy you have to create scenes in which his character can do the cool things for which his archetype is known.

Robin D. Laws, Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, p. 4

It seems to me (partly from introspection) that Laws' 'specialists' might be a special case of a more general player type. I am not such a one-note wonder as all that, but I clearly remember playing at least several of my characters with a prominent idea of what their schtick was, and of looking for a way to look cool by executing my schtick for the character.

[Dinofreak2000]

i agree with Robin personally. in all the some dozen gaming groups i have played in there is always 1 if not 2 players who play the same thing in every game.

as a current example. i had a player who always had a majority of these aspects when he could get away with it:
Race: must be an elf/half-elf/elf-like human/felionoid
Class: Rapier duelist/sniper (archer or gunner)/master martial artist/Bladesinger/Shadow Dancer
Advantages:Weapon Master/Combat Reflexes/Fit/Very Fit/Trained by a Master/Appearance
Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Anything resembling Bushido/Chivalry/Duelist's Conduct/etc...)/Curious/Careful (he reads it as Paranoia)/anything else he feels he can take and not need to worry about having any ingame effect
Skill: Melee Weapons (only swords or other bladed items), Ranged (Bows and/or guns), Fast Draw (for appropriate weapons), Karate, Judo, Acrobatics....


this is everytime. it is very sad when he hands me a character and says this one is so original, and it is nearly identical to every character he has ever made.

Your "Enactor" idea is interesting. One might say my friend her is an Enactor but no matter what character he plays he plays them all the same. His idea of dramatic action has actually killed so many intense situations with game stopping idiocy. Needless to say the current gamers i have have flat out stated they with not game with him, and thus he is no longer allowed to game with us. To say the least he is a wannabe Enactor who fails miserably.

[Sydney]

Originally Posted by Dinofreak2000

i agree with Robin personally. in all the some dozen gaming groups i have played in there is always 1 if not 2 players who play the same thing in every game.

Try having an entire group that always plays the same basic thing...every single different campaign...Made it easy on me, but then it pretty much sucked after a while, as they did play the same thing every campaign, eventually my DMing skills atrophied a bit...My last campaign ended horribly though due to health reasons, and the fact that I tried to force them from a railroaded hack and slash campaign into one of actual RPing (outside of their comfort zone to be sure).

[Ed the Coastie]

My wife almost always plays fireball-slinging mages, archers, or submachinegun-armed gunslingers.

If I have a "usual" character type, it is a character that is counter-intuitive to the setting -- such as a sword-swinging barbarian in Traveller or a magician in Boot Hill.

[Lord Carnifex]

I guess I do have a tendency to play the "seer". In old-school D&D, I'm usually the mage. In cyberpunk I'm often the console cowboy. In modern fantasy or horror I'm the student of the occult.

[roguebfl]

Planing an archetype, does not mean playing the same character though. and face so specialist simply because they only one willing to fill the role. for a long time I was lucky when in my D&D group, when some else would even try a spell caster, sand some time I would luck out and the fighter with spells (Paladin/Ranger) would ventured for and I could play a Divine caster of some sort, or a bard, while they would plan the archivist it mean we would be with out helling if I did not take some type of healer.

[Sumner Kai]

Wouldn't someone who envisions and then attempts to play different characters, be they archetypes or originals, be better described as a method actor? The way that I am reading your Enactor, they are trying to play this one style, and after it gets boring, they move one to another. Sounds like method acting to me...

[Blood Legend]

Robin's Law Quiz: http://quizfarm.com/quiz_repository/Fashion/9166/

Butt-Kicker
92%
Power Gamer
67%
Storyteller
50%
Specialist
50%
Tactician
42%
Method Actor
33%
Casual Gamer
17%

Neat..

[Blood Legend]

Shwiggy.. Though I agree with Butt-Kicker being my highest ranked, I must say "Casual Gamer" is too low and Power Gamer is there simply because I like being efficient. The most efficient I am, the more points I can blow on my actual concept without being useless.

[whswhs]

Method Actor, 75%
Tactician, 67%
Specialist,58%
Butt-Kicker, 50%
Storyteller, 33%
Power Gamer, 33%
Casual Gamer, 17%

Bill Stoddard