Play Styles<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Murder Hobos are those truly awful types who rush from place to place endlessly repeating the same formula of kill the monsters, grab the loot.\u00a0 They take hold of anything of value and stuff it into their bulging sack that, curiously, is never too heavy to carry.\u00a0 They kill anyone that gets in their way who opposes them, annoys them or might have a few coins in their pockets.\u00a0 These drifters never put down roots or even take an interest in the places they ransack.\u00a0 Beauty, mystery, pretty girls \u2013 nothing interests them but loot.<\/p>\n
The Story Gamers are those truly awful types who waste time in endless, pointless in-character chatter.\u00a0 They focus their time on noting every little feeling they have and then telling everyone who will listen about each one of them.\u00a0 When they can rouse themselves from excessive introspection they want their gamemaster to hitch a rope to the ring in their nose and pull them through a story that will unfold in easy, digestible bites.\u00a0 They take precious little initiative and expect the story to unwind as they make easy, predictable choices.<\/p>\n
These descriptions are distillations of the comments dropped in message boards and social media feeds all over the Internet.\u00a0 These stereotypes are hard to find but that doesn\u2019t stop the complaints.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is two different sets of priorities are both finding what they want in RPGs \u2013 and then bumping into each other.<\/p>\n
The mindset behind the \u201cMurder Hobo\u201d lines up in many places with the style that predominated in the early days of the hobby and finds expression today in the OSR community.\u00a0 These people want to focus on the adventure their character takes rather than their character.\u00a0 Seeing new places is more interesting than staying home.\u00a0 This sort of gamer wants to match wits with fearsome monsters, orc bands and clever traps.\u00a0 They want to take hold of the prize, accomplish something rare and worthwhile.<\/p>\n
Also, they may have the long view in mind.\u00a0 Many of these gamers are building up wealth so they can equip followers and then establish a fortress of their own.\u00a0 This is the way to bring about a larger and longer lasting benefit in a region.\u00a0 Focused and tireless labor at the start brings about a greater reward in time.<\/p>\n
I have seen game groups that give in to immature and self-centered notions of fun.\u00a0 They slaughter the peasants on the edge of town just so they can spend a night in their cottage and take anything inside that catches their eye.\u00a0 These groups have been rare in my experience and I never wasted time with them.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they give some meat to the \u201cmurder hobo\u201d charge.\u00a0 A halfway responsible gamemaster who lets actions have consequences is enough to stamp out this kind of crap.<\/p>\n
The thinking behind the \u201cStory Gamer\u201d has much in common with a newer style of play that became more popular in the hobby somewhere near the early 90s.\u00a0 These gamers want to experience the wonder of walking into a magical world.\u00a0 They relax after a long week of work by slowing down, getting to know some NPCs, taking everything in bit by bit.\u00a0 Traveling and meeting challenges is fun but a lot more fun if there\u2019s some meaning behind it.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to take initiative but it\u2019s also good to see what other people have to offer.\u00a0 Perhaps the gamemaster\u2019s story is interesting (stranger things have happened).<\/p>\n
There are groups out there, online and off, that let every session degrade into never ending in-character chats.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think poorly of this but I quickly grow tired of it.\u00a0 They can have their fun without me.\u00a0 It\u2019s also true that some gamers take no initiative and wait for the gamemaster to lead them along.\u00a0 A good gamemaster trains players to become better.\u00a0 Give them something to follow but then leave them high and dry in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 Make it clear they need to take charge or things won\u2019t progress.\u00a0 Few players are as irredeemable as the online hand-wringing would have us believe.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a brief introduction to the Murder Hobo vs. Story Gamer struggle.\u00a0 Which camp claims your loyalty?\u00a0 I find myself somewhere in the middle so I can\u2019t choose.\u00a0 Thankfully no one checks my party affiliation before a game session starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The tabletop roleplaying hobby has been around since the early 70s and involved a lot of people over the years.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s only natural that factions would develop.\u00a0 These opinionated groups disparage each other online and wonder what state of affairs could have resulted in such wayward gamers.\u00a0 Their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}