In my continuing series, I discuss The Play's the Thing, a player advice column that ran in Dragon Magazine in the early years of D&D 3rd edition. The point of the column was to help players improve their games for their own enjoyment and that of their fellow players. In addition to reviewing that advice, I'll be providing my thoughts on how it works in actual play.
This is the final installment and in contrast to the others was not written by Robin D. Laws but Penny Williams. It is no less relevant however.
How to win DMs and influence Players
Issue 308, June 2003
With that in mind here are a few tips for ingratiating yourself with your fellow gamers.
Bring Food: Keeping the blood sugar up is the easy way to keep everyone happy. Make sure the GM gets his own selection or at least reserve the last piece for her since the GM will often be preoccupied with the game. But don't neglect your fellow players either.
I'm actually a bit ambivalent about this advice. I love snacking but having been trying to lose weight for a while. For me I'd rather the snacks be outside of my reach. I doubt anyone would resent having snacks brought to them but be conscious of their dietary restrictions and goals.
Anticipate and Handle Trouble Spots: The GM is often called the referee, arbitrating rules disagreements and personality conflicts. While the later task should be handled by the GM, you can help out a lot with the people problems.
During the game, run interference for the GM, diverting arguments until after the session. Try talking to any disgruntled or unhappy players before or after a session and see if you can't find out what is bothering them. Maybe it is something you then need suggest to the GM after the game or perhaps something that you can help the player fix on their own (such as a character build that is poorly optimized to do what the player wants).
Whatever you do, keep the GM informed and avoid taking sides. You don't want to become the GM's tattletale or be seen as the leader of a coup against the GM. The earlier articles on negotiating with your GM will be really helpful here. Ideally you just smooth any ruffled feathers and make suggests to improve play.
I've played this role for many neophyte GMs. The GM has enough on his plate running encounters, responding to player decisions, and rule adjudication. He or she doesn't need to do on the spot character optimization or babysitting duties on top of it.
Avoid arguments with the DM: In addition to handling trouble spots, don't be one yourself. Avoid getting into arguments with the GM about any bad calls during the game session. Handle any disappointments due to rulings against your character calmly, asking for a brief explanation and then dealing with it more thoroughly outside of the game.
Also don't spring any rules breaking combos on the GM during play. Nothing makes a GM more reactionary and prone to arbitrarily saying no than backing him or her into a corner. At the same time you don't need to go along with everything the GM says.
As for your fellow players, support their ideas and avoid shooting them down.
I've discuss this in more detail in my previous three posts.
Get Organized: this is the simplest but most effective tip. Just keep track of your character and their resources. That means ensure your character sheet is legible, that you have some paper for notes and your own writing implement. Having your own dice is also a plus.
To really earn brownie points, record everything important that happens, such as treasure and experience gained and clues uncovered. Then you can take over the task of recapping the last adventure, giving the GM more time to review his or her own notes for the current session.
Keeping organized can continue into play. Work to keep the gaming group focused on their current goals and not get distracted by Monty Python quotes. Develop standing operating procedures for common situations. Having a plan for what the group does when faced with a locked and possibly trapped door will help to speed up play and make the game more enjoyable for everyone.
Another thing I love in player and which I try to do myself. Few of us have much free time so every moment wasted searching for an item on a sheet, looking for a pencil or struggling to recall a clue is one less moment spent having fun. If everyone pitches in a little the game goes much more smoothly.
Promote Active Use of the Party's Resources: using your notes from earlier, you should know the group's available resources. In many games, player characters (PCs) pick up an eclectic collection of potions, wands, and one shot items. Don't let that gear go to waste!
If you wait for the perfect opportunity to use an item, favor, or charge you likely will never use it. The group will be hauling that bag of random magical crap around for the entire campaign. If an item looks applicable use it.
So many times I've been in charge of carrying the group inventory and those lists of items get very long. I try to use them as much as possible because if I don't no one else will.
Learn from Your Adventures: Are there recurring problems in your game? Does one player always charge into the horde of monsters unprotected? Is the group chronically lacking in medical care?
If you see a problem, point it out. Work with your GM and fellow players to fix it. Maybe the barbarian can be convinced to hold back on his initial attack or perhaps the group can better protect him. Get that wand of healing for when the cleric is tapped out.
Learn your group's weak points and then work to shore them up.
Know the campaign: Just as you learn from your encounters, also learn from the game world as a whole. Keep track of what information your GM has been provided, who the powers that be are, and what the world is like. If it is a published setting or based on a novel, it can't hurt to read up on it.
At the same time, if your GM is using a published setting, learn to censor yourself. Things your character has no reason to know (like Elminster's hit points), you should keep to yourself. That goes for any out-of-character knowledge. Instead use your knowledge of the setting to build a believable character.
This does just help with roleplaying, it can also be a game changer. Like knowing where the local temple of healing is for example.
Cultivate Relationships with NPCs: The NPCs don't have to be there just to give you your next quest or be cut down in the final act. Spend some time getting to know them, whether that be plotting to take the villain down or talking about the good old days with the old sheriff.
Investing yourself in the NPCs lightens the GM's workload as he or she can then rely on a few recurring roles. For positive relationships, it gives your character a reliable source of information and a potential ally in a conflict. For negative relationship, it makes those battles all the more poignant.
A hundred times this! PC-NPC relationships are what make a game come alive. Now your character wants something from an NPC and they can then ask you for favors in turn. That creates openings for the GM to bring in new plot hooks.
Provide and Use Adventure Hooks: Including those NPC relationships, you should try to make your characters with built-in hooks to them get into the GM's stories. These might be an interest in a particular part of the game, ambitions to gain a certain item or position, a code of conduct, or a history laden with potential adventure seeds. These then become easy ways for the GM to both get you into a given story and make you focus of it.
Keep things on the level: In other words, no cheating!
Cheating steals the spotlight from other players. Your failures leave openings for someone else to shine. Cheating also keeps you from improving your own tactics and becoming better at the game.
In the same way it hinders the GM from learning from his mistakes. How is the GM suppose to know that his encounters are way too hard if you cheat your way to victory? At some point he will be caught without your sleight of hand and probably kill off the party.
That doesn't even include the loss of trust if you get caught.
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