Play Like a Legend: 6 Behaviours That Make You the MVP at the Table
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person
Players. Playing TTRPGs at the GMs property. But you can’t be any geek off the street, gotta be handy with the sheet if you know what I mean - earn your keep.
Oh wait - that’s aspiring Regulators, not Players. My bad. You wanted advice to become a better player.
Hey, I got you covered there too.
The absolute basics
There are two desirable groups of qualities when it comes to discussing the characteristics of TTRPG players. Initially, there’s the basic factors that are all “must-haves” as far as I am concerned, unless you want to find yourself persona non grata within a session or two:
Be enthusiastic (bring your own dice, have learnt, or be actively learning how your character works, and how the basic game engine works)
Be kind
Be compliant
Listen (give everyone your attention)
Respect everyone’s time (be ready, don’t distract attention away from the game)
Nothing ground breaking here right? You can do this, and it’s the minimum behavioral standard that I’d expect players to keep if they wanted to sit at my table. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t forgive the occasional lapse from time to time, or that we shouldn’t give new players some grace to find their feet. Human’s gonna human afterall.
However, what if you wanted to up the ante? What if you wanted to help your GM to deliver the best games, and become a great player - not just an acceptable one?
Well then, you’d need to look at that second group of qualities I mentioned:
6 Ways to be a Great Player
Group dynamics are weird, most people in a TTRPG group will passively delegate all authority and responsibility to the GM, and take it from me - that’s a hell of a lot to own on top of everything else.
Being a great player is all about taking an active responsibility to make the game better for everyone, and not just sitting back and leaving the GM to worry about it.
Hey, I’m not saying that you must embody all of these behaviors to be a great player either, play to your strengths and do what you can do, and even if you only tick off a couple - your table will notice and be grateful for it.
Collaborate with the GM in your pursuit of an in-game Agenda
Have a side quest that motivates you. Make one up and run it by your GM - it should be something achievable within the scope of the game. If the game is a prehistoric wilderness hex crawl, and your side-quest is to climb the greasy pole of city politics then that’s not really compatible - try ‘hunting and killing a T-Rex’ instead.
I had a character, a cleric from the feasting domain in a Saltmarsh game who aspired to own a restaurant. Specifically a floating converted pirate ship restaurant. This meant that I had two things I was always keeping in mind - the need to buy or commandeer a vessel, and the need to collect artisan recipes from across the world.
The idea here is that you’ll never have those moments where you don’t know what to do, because you’ve got this motivation underpinning everything and it keeps the game moving without solely relying upon the GM to spoon feed the games direction.
Create constructive Drama with Other Willing Player’s Characters
Starting off with a big caveat: Check in with the other player to see how this is going down - the last thing you want to be doing is simply being an annoying contrarian. Read the room, dude.
But yeah, what I like to see at my table is when players start bouncing off each other with friendly conflicts and rivalries, it gives me a moments respite as GM, and allows me to sit back and watch and take inspiration. It also gives your characters depth, and can provide new directions to explore.
It brings the game to life and stop it from becoming this place that only exists through the framing of the GM’s words.
Invite and Coax Engagement From your Peers
Did you know that quiet and nervous people exist? Who knew? More, that they can be great players too. Other great players recognise the value of their input and are self aware enough to make space for them at the table. It’s all too easy to be the loudest person at the table, but if that comes at the expense of drowning others out, or intimidating them then it’s not great player behavior.
Moreso than simply making space for other people to talk, or not talking over them - a great player actively seeks out others opinions, or gently engages their characters in the moment. It takes two to tango afterall.
These quiet players will not be so forever, and they will find their own comfort level eventually - I guarantee that this is not ‘silence’ either, it just takes a bit of support and a safe space.
Suggest the Descriptive Elements that You Would Like to See in the Environment
As players, you’re often sat there thinking about all the cool things you’d like to do in this situation if only XYZ. The problem is that the GM is not a mind reader and doesn’t know that you’re hoping for XYZ. So, as a player, you should not be afraid to ask in good faith - “Is there XYZ here?”.
Honestly, don’t be scared. I’m not going to tell you off (if you GM does tell you off for this, your GM is bad). I love it when my players do this, and it’d have to be a pretty unreasonable request for me to respond with “no”.
When players do this right, it adds richness to the game world, and it’s also helping me to improve my descriptions too.
Adlib your Own Fluff Directly At the Table
Psst, did you know that when you call in at the tavern and speak to the barmaid about her life story, that the GM is just making all this stuff up?! Here’s the kicker, you should too!
This is my favourite thing - as a player - make stuff up. Don’t sit there afraid that you can’t contribute to an in-game conversation because you don’t know what the official cannon is for a particular topic. Just reach inside, find something plausible and throw it out there with confidence.
One of two things should happen. First, ideally, everyone rolls with it and hey you just made the game richer - awesome. Or secondly, the GM steps in with a “no, but” to modify your fact, if they need to make sure that it’s not too off-piste.
This latter isn’t scary or shaming or anything bad, and you shouldn’t be worried about it. A great GM will not hold it against you, and will in fact appreciate that you kept the game flowing, albeit with a minor intervention on their part.
Be an Active Listener
Passive listening is just about shutting your pie hole and letting others talk whilst paying attention to what is being said. This is a pretty basic skill in social situations.
Great players are active listeners, this has three components:
> Make encouraging and affirmative sounds and gestures in response to information being shared with you, to indicate your presence.
> Ask questions about this information, to check your understanding.
> Take notes to ensure that you can remember this important information next time.
The objective here is that as an active listener, you will know what is going on, and you can help shepherd your fellow players through any confusing moments that arise.
Being an active listener is also a massive moral boost to your GM, because nothing kills a GM’s motivation to run an event based campaign like the feeling that they’re the only one putting any effort in!
Conclusion
Are you just starting out as a player? Which of these could you do with working on the most? Experience players, do you have anything that you’d add to my list? Did you listen to the entire of Regulate whilst reading this article? Let me know in the comments below.
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There are two desirable groups of qualities when it comes to discussing the characteristics of TTRPG players. Initially, there’s the basic factors that are all “must-haves” as far as I am concerned, unless you want to find yourself persona non grata within a session or two