One section was entitled Types of Champion Players, and was later used in the 4th edition Champions core rule book. Sadly like Blacow's Four Aspects, this was before the web and so is difficult to get hold of today. After some searching I did turn up a Vocabulary by Phil Masters that includes most of the terms. The original gave Advantages and disadvantages for each of the Types and hints for dealing with them in play, although by no means were these equal in either number or attitude.
The link provides the following types (except those marked with an '*'):
- Builder - wants to have an impact on the world
- Buddy* - he comes to the game to be with his friend(s)
- Combat Monster - wants combat, in a reasoned way
- Copier - is interested in recreating a character from another source
- Genre Fiend - wants to model everything after genre elements
- Mad Slasher - kill everything that moves, no reason needed
- Mad Thinker* - seeks clever solutions to in game problems
- Plumber - wants intricate characters and exploration thereof
- Romantic - focuses on relationships
- Rules Rapist - interested in bending the rules
- Showoff* - seeks the most spotlight time for his character
- The Pro from Dover* - desire a character who is the best of his field
- Tragedian - like tragedy and wants to play it out.
Still you can see how some of these map onto Blacow's Four Aspects. Combat Monster is roughly equal to Wargamer. Plumber and Romantic are flavors of Role-player, etc. Additional types are added, Rules Rapists for example aren't found in Blacow's model.
In one way Allston work here was a serious improvement on what went before, as he related the Types directly to the game and offered advice for dealing with players matching them (even if that was in a couple of cases- "get rid of them"). What they'd like, tendencies to watch out for, etc. He also noted that individuals could display one or more traits, and even change type over the course of a campaign.
Reduced to its basics, this was another "people play for different reasons" model. The core concept was: find out what your players want, and deal with them on those terms.
On its down side, it was clear to me that he didn’t much care for some of the Types and there wasn’t an even-handed treatment of the various approaches. In many ways he sounded more like Blacow’s disenchanted GM after he determined the cause for the campaign going south, and he wasn’t happy with some of the reasons.
In a way I like the hard pragmatism of this, as it mirrors my own approach for my campaign (i.e. remove those who don’t fit, work with the others until they do). But therein lies it’s greatest failing. This is meant for a certain type of GM who mirrored the author’s tastes. There’s no advice there for other types of groups, say for example a number of Copiers who want to re-imagine the Marvel Universe (like my group for example). The wording and approach would be insulting to such, and the advice close to useless. Thus I must judge this model as a failure.
Despite this, there’s another take away that shouldn't be forgotten. Sometimes general labels hide very specific and important factors. Yes Plumbers and Romantics are each just Role-players, but they aren’t happy with just any role-playing. A factor some models with fewer labels completely forget about.
Allston should be remember for pointing out that no matter your working theory- one still needs to determine the individual desires of your players.
*Thanks to Zweihander for pointing out these which are missing from the provided link
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5 comments:
I'm feeling pretty excited as I have some substantial input about this.
I learned about Allston's Players from my copy of Sean P Fannons The Fantasy Role-
Playing Gamer's Bible. It states that it refers to the Strike Force supplement but lists 13 types and I'll put the additional ones up:
Buddy - Is playing because a friend is playing. It's discussed as a mostly transitional type, but I find it neat as a type that is described in strictly social terms away from the game.
Combat Monster - Interested primarily in getting into fights in game.
Mad Thinker - Looks to find clever solutions to problems in the game.
The Pro From Dover - Creates characters that are the best in the area the player wants to excel in.
Showoff - Seeks the most spotlight time for their character.
With these 5 extra types, the list is more comprehensive, and always felt like a reasonable list of types.
Thanks Zweihander. I knew some were missing but currently my books are packed away and I couldn't find them.
I had listed Combat Monster, but screwed up the formatting so it wasn't clear. I've gone back and edited it. I don't think I'll add these as I can't present an online link for them anyway. Beside, you've done that for me :)
"find out what your players want, and deal with them on those terms"
That's probably some of the best GM advice you can give, right there.
I haven't looked at my copy of Champions (4th ed.) in years...I'd forgotten how charming Allston's player types were. Thanks for the reminder!
The core message of Allston's model sounds very similar to the one in Robin Laws explicitly stated on p.32 of Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, "[A] fun game tries to balance the competing desires of its participants." Sound advice, and nice antidote to one-true-wayism. Too bad that by the time Laws wrote his book (2002), the spells of the various ONE TRUE WAY(s) had already enthralled so many gamers.
L. Beau- Robin's Laws is the subject of the next article. Good stuff there.
Zweihander- I went ahead and added the missing types in. Sort of had to as I referenced one of them in the following article :)
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