Robin D. Laws Player Types Quiz

[RogerBW]

Don't believe I've ever done this one before either.

Power Gamer: 29%
Butt-Kicker: 17%
Tactician: 50%
Specialist: 8%
Method Actor: 88%
Storyteller: 75%
Casual Gamer: 50%

Definitely some that were hard to answer here. "I would sacrifice my character if it made for a good story", yes, but only if it were the sort of thing the character might reasonably do in that situation. "I forget/don't bother properly role-playing my character if it annoys another player", no, but I might change to a different character or downgrade that aspect of their personality for the sake of (player, not character) group harmony.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Agemegos, I can't believe this is the first time you've taken the quiz! :)

It does seem strange.

[Kromm]

Then:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Casual Gamer: 88%
Tactician: 67%
Method Actor: 63%
Storyteller: 54%
Power Gamer: 33%
Butt-Kicker: 21%
Specialist: 17%

Now:

Casual Gamer: 79%
Storyteller: 75%
Method Actor: 67%
Specialist: 63%
Power Gamer: 50%
Tactician: 46%
Butt-Kicker: 38%

I still seem to be a casual, with notable storytelling and method-acting tendencies, but my interest in protecting niches ("specialist") has gone way up at the slight expense of caring about tactics. Seems about right, given the stuff I prefer to write.

[Luke Bunyip]

Storyteller 71%
Method Actor 67%
Casual Gamer 58%
Tactician 54%
Power Gamer 46%
Buttkicker 33%
Specialist 33%

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Then:


Now:

Casual Gamer: 79%
Storyteller: 75%
Method Actor: 67%
Specialist: 63%
Power Gamer: 50%
Tactician: 46%
Butt-Kicker: 38%

I still seem to be a casual, with notable storytelling and method-acting tendencies, but my interest in protecting niches ("specialist") has gone way up at the slight expense of caring about tactics. Seems about right, given the stuff I prefer to write.

That is a pretty big change on tactician. For me one of the things I like about GURPS is that it encourages tactics more than many games do. If everyone just splits up and wades into the enemy, it doesn't seem right to me. I want people worrying about being attacked from behind.

I think for me storyteller and method actor are hard to differentiate. I mostly GM and I think while GM'ing I spend more time on method acting because I'm playing all the NPCs so I don't want to be the same personality for all of them whereas as a PC it's not that big a deal if my personality leaks in. I definitely love setting and worldbuilding.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I think for me storyteller and method actor are hard to differentiate.

Focus on plot versus character. The method actor wants to completely identify with his character and submerge himself it it to see all the situations from that character's point of view and make choices accordingly. The storyteller is all about the ongoing narrative, willing to bend on those character-driven traits if it helps move the story along, and less concerned with deep identification with that character.

Most RPGers are some of each, of course.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Focus on plot versus character. The method actor wants to completely identify with his character and submerge himself it it to see all the situations from that character's point of view and make choices accordingly. The storyteller is all about the ongoing narrative, willing to bend on those character-driven traits if it helps move the story along, and less concerned with deep identification with that character.

I'd interpret my results this way:

Casual Gamer: 79%. Kromm sees gaming as a social activity above all else, and wants to make sure that everybody is having fun – even if that means snacks, chatter, cocktails, and jokes rather than gaming per se.

Storyteller: 75%. When the gaming starts in earnest, Kromm believes that the path to everybody having fun is to collectively tell a good story, even if that means having to sacrifice tactics and planning and fighting. But this is in second place because Kromm doesn't believe that the story should trump fun (e.g., by railroading).

Method Actor: 67%. Kromm believes that the best way to tell a story and have fun is to play your character as a person. But this is in third place because sacrificing the story or other players' fun for your personal fun with an annoying character or annoying voices isn't cool.

Specialist: 63%. Kromm believes that fun, stories, and character personalities are all best served when each player's character has a clear role that the player enjoys filling and that the group needs filled. That is, Kromm is a fan of niche protection. This is rarely in conflict with the previous three, but it's a lower priority.

Power Gamer: 50%; Tactician: 46%; Butt-Kicker: 38%. Kromm doesn't really believe that super-effective characters, super-complex plans, and loads of fighting intrinsically contribute much to fun, or to a story, or to character realization. That's because in Kromm's experience, people who focus on their PC's potency or brilliance just about always invade niches, interfere with roleplaying, derail stories, and thus trash the fun of most of the other gamers at the table.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'd interpret my results this way:

Casual Gamer: 79%. Kromm sees gaming as a social activity above all else, and wants to make sure that everybody is having fun – even if that means snacks, chatter, cocktails, and jokes rather than gaming per se.

Storyteller: 75%. When the gaming starts in earnest, Kromm believes that the path to everybody having fun is to collectively tell a good story, even if that means having to sacrifice tactics and planning and fighting. But this is in second place because Kromm doesn't believe that the story should trump fun (e.g., by railroading).

Method Actor: 67%. Kromm believes that the best way to tell a story and have fun is to play your character as a person. But this is in third place because sacrificing the story or other players' fun for your personal fun with an annoying character or annoying voices isn't cool.

Specialist: 63%. Kromm believes that fun, stories, and character personalities are all best served when each player's character has a clear role that the player enjoys filling and that the group needs filled. That is, Kromm is a fan of niche protection. This is rarely in conflict with the previous three, but it's a lower priority.

Power Gamer: 50%; Tactician: 46%; Butt-Kicker: 38%. Kromm doesn't really believe that super-effective characters, super-complex plans, and loads of fighting intrinsically contribute much to fun, or to a story, or to character realization. That's because in Kromm's experience, people who focus on their PC's potency or brilliance just about always invade niches, interfere with roleplaying, derail stories, and thus trash the fun of most of the other gamers at the table.

That's an interesting way to look at it. Going by my results from taking the test just now:

Method Actor: 58; Storyteller: 58. Bill is strongly motivated to develop the character he's playing, but he wants that character to be someone who fits the setting and whose traits naturally emerge from it. On the other hand, while he wants there to be a story, he wants the story to be one that emerges from the characters and their interactions, rather than being imposed on them. The "improvised fiction/drama" aspect of RPGs is the biggest source of their appeal for him.

Tactician: 46. When he's playing, Bill is thinking about how to make his character's traits useful in the situation, both for the shared goals of the party and to make himself a more useful member of it. This analysis takes place in the background, so that it doesn't derail the drama in the foreground.

Specialist: 8. Bill actively avoids anything like getting type cast; he makes a point of looking for a significantly different character concept or archetype in each new campaign, as a way of challenging himself as a roleplayer.

Casual Gamer: 21. Bill isn't obsessive about it, but he thinks the creative storytelling/roleplaying aspect of gaming is valuable, and every chance to play is a treasure; he likes to stay focused on playing.

Power Gamer: 38 and Butt-Kicker: 38. They have their place, but they're not his main focus.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I think for me storyteller and method actor are hard to differentiate.

It doesn't help that Laws chose a vividly non-descriptive term for his "method actors". Back when we were thrashing this stuff out on rec.games.frp.advocacy they much preferred the terms "in-character play" or "immersive play" to "method acting". I'm not the person to explain "the other side"'s point of view, but I think the crux is that in Stanislavski's system, the art of experiencing (though it is very distinct from the art of representation) is nevertheless a means to the end of performing a character in a story for appreciation from an exterior point of view. But in-character roleplaying isn't. In-character roleplayers don't feel that they are actors at all. For them (I think) their art of experiencing is for feeling it from the inside, not showing it to the exterior view.

It's a subtle distinction, the locus of a lot of difficulty in communication. A storytelling tragic such as myself protests that identifying with the protagonist of a story and having a vicarious experience of their situation is the core of story, that a narrative in which a character acts without or contrary to motivation is ipso facto a bad story, and that these considerations have been front and centre in analysis of and advice about writing since Aristotle. But the "method actor" insists that they are talking about something different, that they exercise the art of experience for their enjoyment of it itself.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'd interpret my results this way:

Method Actor: 88%

Brett really likes to be able to appreciate his character's dramatic situation as though it were real and respond to it in accordance with the reactions it provokes and the opportunities it offers. This is either pretty close to or easily mistaken for wanting to experience being his character.

Storyteller: 79%

Brett really likes to identify with his character going through a causal series of consequential events in which incident arises out of character and characters respond to incident, and in which the level of conflict rises steadily to a crisis in which the conflict is resolved in way that is surprising but is felt to have come about naturally from what went before. In short, Brett plays RPGs to participate in the collaborative improvisation of stories, in storytelling jam sessions, while identifying with his character as with the protagonist in a story.

Tactician: 75%

When it come to that, Brett rather enjoys the intellectual exercise of gathering and analysing information, making plans, and responding to contingencies, even when it involves stepping back from his character. But he prefers only to tacticise when his character is a tactician. And Brett doesn't actually enough and therefore does not play, truly tactical games such as skirmish wargames.

Power Gamer: 58%

Brett doesn't care much whether his character grows in power. Though he does rather resent it if his character's power is taken away.

Butt-Kicker: 42%

Brett doesn't get much feeling of triumph when his character defeats a foe. But he really doesn't like it if his character gets beaten or humiliated. He doesn't play RPGs to win contests, but he's certainly not in this game to lose them!

Casual Gamer: 29%

Brett gets all the chit-chat, snacks, and boozing that he needs other than in gaming (in fact, his doctor…). On the rare opportunities he gets to play an RPG he wants to get the most possible satisfaction of his RPG-specific impulses. Brett is quite okay playing RPGs with people who aren't really his friends, even with strangers at a con.

Specialist: 0%

Brett likes each of his characters to be quite different from the last, and strives to avoid forcing the square peg of a favourite character into the round hole of a setting or campaign that it doesn't belong in.