Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 4 - What Makes a Good Player Part 2

Episode Date: March 1, 2020

Jeremy continues his discussion about what makes a good player:  buying in, embracing failure, being present at the table.

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So last time we talked generally what makes a good player. We also talked about how you can be a good player before the first session and between sessions. Today I want to focus on how you can be a good player during the session, specifically starting when it's your turn. And what I mean by that is that many times during a gaming session, combat will start or encounters will start or there will be some method that your gaming system uses by which each player will have their turn in the spotlight. They will be able to decide what their character does, take actions, ask questions, maybe make rolls or checks or what have you. So when it's your turn, one of the things I definitely want you to do is

engage with and respond to your DM and fellow players. Ask questions, engage in the world, buy into the story. All good players, at their heart, they need to support the story being told and contribute to the party's success. If you're not doing that, at best, you're taking up a chair. At worst, you're ruining others' immersion and maybe even ruining their fun at the table. So buy in, support the story, and contribute to your party's success while you're there. Also, during your turn, make sure that you do things and own your decisions. What I mean by do things is make a decision. Decide what your character is going to do. We've all been at a table where the DM says,

okay, that's the bad guy's term. Liam, you're up. And you get a, uh, I could, I should, I make a perception check. It's frustrating because they don't know what to do and they kind of get paralyzed. So do things, make your choices. But when you do make that choice, make sure you own the decision that you make. Because we've also seen the character that says, okay, I'm going to look at the north wall for secret doors. And the DM says, ooh, north wall? Make me a reflex save. And they say, no, did I say north wall? I meant east wall. North Wall? Make me a reflex save. And they say, no, did I say North Wall? I meant East Wall.

This dovetails into my next point, which is to embrace failure. Everyone loves being the hero that stands up, makes an attack roll with their huge sword, rolls a natural 20, critically hits the dragon, severs the head, and the party cheers your name. But just as good, just as interesting, just as entertaining is Roll the Dice, Natural 1. Ooh, maybe they look up the Critical Failure deck and maybe you swung your sword too hard, you accidentally let it go, and right now your sword is flying over the dragon and landing on the other side. And your backup weapon is a non-magical

dagger. That's okay. Embrace that failure. It's funny. Picture it happening in your mind. React how your character would react, and then continue on with your turn or pass the turn on to the next person. Embrace failure in storytelling. You're going to hear that from me over and over again. It's not a video game to be won. It's an experience with your friends to enjoy. Never should you use the phrase, well, it's what my character would do to be a dick. I don't know how to say this any other way. I've known too many players who will use the fact that they are playing a neutral or even an evil character to be just obnoxious and difficult and work against the party just because they say it's what my character would do.

One way this manifests itself is with paladins. I kind of refer to this as the paladin problem. For those of you that don't play fantasy RPGs, paladins tend to be what are called lawful good, or as one of my good colleagues calls them, lawful stupid or lawful annoying. Paladins have a very strict and rigid moral code that they have to uphold, which means anytime the party wants to do something that's a little bit gray, the paladin will say, no, no, that's not what my character would do. I'm going to have to take you to the authorities or something like that. The paladin class is sometimes used as an excuse just to be a difficult player. Don't. Please just. If you are playing a paladin, there are other ways to play

it besides lawful stupid. Another suggestion I could make is that if you have a dice tower or some convenient way of doing so, go ahead and roll the damage dice with the attack roll. It does save time and it doesn't sound like it'd be much. Clunk, roll to hit. Clunk, roll for damage. A few seconds per player over the course of a night can make a huge difference. If you've got room in your hand, roll the damage dice with the attack roll. Now let's talk about some things you can do during the session when it's not your turn. The first thing I would say is don't interrupt. If there is a dramatic moment going on right now, or another player has the spotlight, or it's another player's turn, or however your gaming system talks about it, don't interrupt with an unrelated question. There's nothing more frustrating for the rest

of the table when the DM is describing exactly what you see in the third floor window of this apartment building when someone says, ooh, how does grapple work? And it's completely unrelated, is jarring, it takes everyone out of the moment. I understand you may have questions. And if so, save them for your turn because maybe you're planning on grappling when your turn comes around. So when your turn starts,

there's nothing wrong with saying, hey DM, how does the grapple work again? Don't try to help people play their characters unprompted. It's called quarterbacking where one player says, you're going to do this, and you're going to do this, and this is how you're going to play your player, and this is how you're going to play your player, and I'm going to do this, and it's going to be awesome. This really depends on your player's dynamic, because some players enjoy the help.

Maybe they're new. Maybe they like having someone who is more experienced help them make some decisions. But a lot of us don't. If you want to help someone play, ask if you can make a suggestion. They may say no and don't get all butthurt about it. When it's not your turn, be present at the table. What does that mean? That doesn't mean never get up and get snacks or never get up and get drinks or anything like that. Plan what you're going to do. Plan what you're going to do.

Know what you're going to do when it's your turn. It makes turns go a lot faster when the DM can say, Okay, thank you, Linus. That brings us over to Mark. Mark, what are you going to do? Oh, I'm going to charge the bugbear. Use that time when it is not your turn to plan what you're going to do during your turn. Related, don't try to distract the player whose turn it is. We all like to have out-of-character conversations around the gaming table,

and a lot of us are catching up, talking about friends, talking about family, asking what they're doing this weekend, asking how their job is going, etc. But keep those conversations quiet and conduct them in such a way that they aren't distracting to the players at the table who are working on it. Some tables even have a rule that says all out-of-character conversations happen away from the table. Don't waste everyone's time when it's not your turn. decision or actions that are being taken and are being adjudicated by the GM or what have you, now is not the time to try to make the spotlight shine over to you. Here's an example of what I mean by that. In a gaming session of my recent past, the entire party was at a door that was

locked and jammed and they were trying to get the door open. they were trying to find the kidnapped boss's son and bring him back to his family. In the middle of trying to disarm a very tricky trap, one of my players says, oh, while they're over there doing that, I'm going to be in the yard making laurels out of the grass. Here's yours, and here's yours, and yours is made of lavender, and I don't like you, so yours is made of stinkweed. Okay, fine. Funny, but it completely derails the narrative, and it pulls everyone out of the immersion of this particular trap role that was really critical to one of the characters' survival. So don't waste everyone's time

with non-important things. I could go on here talking about doing things when it's not your turn, but I want to broaden the scope a little bit and talk about things that you should always do or never do, and we'll talk about them on a one-by-one basis. Dovetailing off of the previous point, always keep non-game chatter to a minimum. Believe me, previous point. Always keep non-game chatter to a minimum. Believe me, we all want to find the latest meme that's going around and we all want to show everyone, oh ha ha ha ha, yes that's really funny, but a lot of players are there for the game, not just the camaraderie. So at the table, keep non-game chatter to a minimum. Hey, you get up and you get some snacks at the same time that Jennifer does. Yeah, I'll let you talk about that in the kitchen all you want.

But at the table, try to keep the non-game chatter to a minimum and follow the lead of the DM. I will be first one to admit, I will crack jokes that break immersion sometimes. And so I give my players license to do so much more regularly than I would in other campaigns where I don't do that. Find and support the fun. Don't spend your time criticizing and complaining. Well, you just said your character's going to do this and I probably would have done this instead.

Or you designed your character this way and I really think it would have been better if you had taken this feat or this trait or this ability instead, or you designed your character this way, and I really think it would have been better if you had taken this feat, or this trait, or this ability, or made this choice on your character, or even worse. Okay, DM, yeah, I know you said that this is what's going to happen, but if I were running this, I would have done it this way, or I would have made this choice, or I would have put this monster here. All you're doing there is bringing the entire table down, pulling everybody away from the fun of the game, even if you're an experienced DM and the person who is DMing has never done so

before. Don't criticize, don't complain, be there to support the fun. Find what you're enjoying and embrace that as long as it supports all of the players. Never negate and never argue with the DM about a particular rule for very long. There are times when a DM may make a decision about how a rule will be adjudicated. You may have made a different choice. You may have said, no, I think that's partial cover, not full cover. There's nothing wrong with asking the DM if it's partial or full cover. But if the DM says full cover, even if you were in the DM chair, you would say partial cover, accept it and move on.

It benefits no one to sit there and argue and argue and argue and argue about a rule interpretation. So you would have done it differently. That's fine. Maybe it would be more fun. Maybe it would be less. I would encourage you to DM your own table because heaven knows we need more DMs out there. But the point being, don't argue with the DM and don't negate what the DM and players have established is true.

One of my favorite ones is that there are specific rules in certain game systems for how combat happens underwater. How you could swing a slashing weapon or fire a laser underwater or what have you. And it's easy for someone to say, well, you know, I work at the Applied Physics Lab and I use lasers every day and if that laser was underwater, there's no way it would work. Yes, well, you also don't have elves at the Applied Physics Lab. Or if you do, let us know, because that would actually be kind of cool. On the topic of not negating, one other thing I want to say is that there's going to be an entire episode to talk about the use of improvisation or improv at the table.

There's a concept inside improv of yes-anding, meaning you never deny the facts that have been presented to you. meaning you never deny the facts that have been presented to you. Yes, and your fellow players and your GM support what they give you, accept it as true, and move forward. Remember the distinct hard-line difference between character-character conflict and player-player conflict. They are very different. Character-character conflict can actually drive the story forward, but must be handled with care. If the entire table feels like it's fun for two characters

to bicker back and forth, that's great. That's fine. Do that, because the table is enjoying it. However, be judicious with its use, and make sure you understand that just because your characters are bickering doesn't mean your players are. Case in point, my brother-in-law and I tend to play characters that bicker with each other because at our gaming table where everyone has known each other for multiple decades, we all agree that it's kind of a normal thing for our characters not to like each other, and it's fun. But as soon as the gaming stops, my brother-in-law and I are tight. We have each other's backs no matter what, we support each other, and we love each other. So character-character conflict and player-player

conflict are very, very different, and do not let the two bleed over onto each other, because you can lose friendships that way. Always volunteer to help, whatever that help happens to be. It could be as simple as bringing dinner, snacks, drinks, what have you. Be willing to support the group. Don't put the onus always on the host to provide dinner for everyone. That person may be hosting because they have a small child and can't leave the house or for whatever reason they have to host that particular week. The financial burden of providing dinner week after week after week to four, five, six, or even more people

can be difficult for families to bear on a weekend, week-out basis. So volunteer to bring dinner, drinks, snacks, rotate the duties, volunteer to help out with music, with decoration, with anything that you feel like that the group would enjoy and could use. Always enjoy the spotlight. The spotlight will be on you on a rotating basis throughout the entire gaming session or campaign or adventure path. Enjoy the spotlight, but be very eager to share it. Give people their moment. You may be a naturally bubbly, outgoing, vivacious, whatever word you want to use, charismatic person who can charm everyone and loves the spotlight and loves it when everyone looks at them. But there are

people who are also shy, a bit of a wallflower. They don't like having the spotlight. Give them their moment. Don't step on them to get more moments for you. And if you have the opportunity to bring them into a moment, bring them in and cheer them on. Encourage them to step out and make some of these decisions and be the big damn hero. In general, remember, this is a game world and our world's logic doesn't apply. Maybe the party is in the middle of a firefight and someone has broken into their lair or headquarters and one of the players says, well, if this was New York City, the cops would be here by now. Or if this were London, we'd have cops all over the building by now. This is not London. This is not New York. This is a fantasy or science

fiction world. Our world's logic may not apply. If nothing else, remember, our world doesn't have trolls or dragons or halflings, whereas the game world does. Leave your hang-ups at the door. There's going to be an entire bullet point about this in a future episode, but in short, the game table is not the place to advance your political agenda, no matter what they may be. The people there are there to play a game, not to listen to your dissertations. Be honest while you're playing. Never, ever, ever fudge dice rolls. I've seen players do this. One of the most common ways they'll do it is they'll pre-roll. It's not their turn yet, and you can kind of see them tossing a d20 back and forth, and all of a sudden they'll stop. And that's probably because they rolled a nice high number.

So when you get to their turn, they'll say, oh yeah, I already rolled my attack roll. I rolled an 18, so that's a 33 to hit. Yeah, that's a form of cheating. The other thing I've seen players sometimes do is they'll roll a low number and then they'll hit the table or nudge their dice tray or something like that so that the dice will flip to another number. Please don't do that. Low rolls contribute to a great story and the fun of everyone around the table. Even if that low roll means your character tumbles off the edge of the space station

and falls four miles to the planet's surface below, burning up on impact and making a crater that's ten feet deep. That's okay. It's a great story moment and your players will be talking about, hey, do you remember when

Thomas fell off the space station? That story will be told as long as this gaming group exists. Finally, stay off your damn phone. You have a big battle going on and the DM is juggling 45 different bad guys along with this party of six players who are all maneuvering and getting everything ready and you've been spending the entire time browsing Reddit or watching videos on, insert name of social media here. Then if someone says, okay, Mike, it's your turn, and you look up from your phone, okay, what are we doing? It's distracting. It slows everyone down.

So it dovetails into the kind of be in the moment and be present at the table, but stay off your friggin' phone. Know exactly what's going on. If you have to look up rules or something like that on your phone, fine. But now is not the time to be browsing social media. This is as good a point as any to wrap everything up. What I wanted to do is, first and foremost, thank you so much for listening. I wanted to please encourage you to subscribe and rate us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play,

wherever you happen to be listening to this. Please come visit us on taking20podcast.com, listen to old episodes, provide feedback, ask questions, maybe contribute to future episodes. Once again, I want to thank our totally not made up sponsor, Maps. Maps, the number one source of directions before the internet existed. I've been Jeremy Shelley, This has been the Taking20 Podcast, and I'm hoping that your next game is your best game.