Part 3: Integrating the “Thespian” and the “Tactician” in Your Game

In previous articles, we looked at two drastically different types of roleplayers—the thespian and the tactician. The first, the thespian, is more focused on the “soft” side of gaming, with heavy interaction, acting, and character building and the second, the tactician, leans towards the “hard” side of gaming, with a love for rules, tactical play, combat, and maximizing a character’s abilities and scores. Both are legitimate and common types of players that have their role with your gaming group and campaign. However, just as in real life, different personality types can sometimes butt heads complicating the way that the game is played. This article looks at combining the strengths and weaknesses of both types of players to help make your gaming sessions enjoyable for everyone involved.

Recapping the Thespian

Let’s review the first type of player described in previous articles. The thespian is the roleplaying game’s roleplayer, the consummate actor who loves breathing life into the mere statistics that are used to describe a character. The thespian thrives on NPC interaction, character history and motivation, and detailed, intricate plotlines. In addition, this sort of player strives to make a character unique in its portrayal, often describing in detail her looks, likes, and often literally giving her a special voice—some sort of accent or mannerism of speech. The thespian character loves talking and situations where diplomacy and discussion can get the group through situations as much as (or more than) combat can. The thespian is great for making a game believable, vibrant, and interesting as she (and hopefully others in the group) plays her character’s personality to the hilt.

On the downside (and in extreme cases), the thespian can easily dominate the gaming table with her personality, either by bragging incessantly about her character or simply talking far too much. She may not be very familiar with the actual rules of the game, and can shy away from situations that require a certain level of rules knowledge. Because of her love of plot threads and social intricacies, the thespian can also lead the group off on red herrings, pursuing irrelevant bits of information or getting bogged down in social interaction that can quickly derail your plot or bore the other players to tears with her prattle.

Recapping the Tactician

On the flip side, the tactician is the consummate wargamer, who thrives on combat, rules interaction, and creating characters that have maximum in-game power. The tactician loves rules and is often extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of the game, especially combat, spell and magic item details, and character creation. They are most likely to have a whopping library of books, allowing them to pick and choose the best components for each character. When combat occurs, the tactician is in her element, plotting out the best tactical maneuvers for her character and offering suggestions to the other players on the most advantageous maneuvers, spell choice, and other important game mechanics. She’s often a walking encyclopedia of rules and often can quickly quote a rule when it comes up for debate. The tactician also loves puzzles and other mind-games that allow her to solve a problem with intelligence alone. In short, the tactician likes to win and enjoys situations in which victory or defeat is clearly defined.

However, a tactician that takes these aspects too far can be nothing more than a rules-lawyer, playing the game for only the rules sake. She may become obsessed with the finer points of combat, Attacks of Opportunity, spell duration, and other rules that others may forget or gloss over. In the worst case, the tactician can be extremely pushy, dominating less rule-oriented players with her knowledge, sometimes barking out commands—she can become irate if her advice is not heeded and takes a dim view towards those (such as the stereotypical thespian, above) that don’t take combat or the rules seriously.

Clashes of Personality

As in life, sometimes personality types can clash. At the gaming table, you might find yourself with thespian and tactician players who each have their own opinions on how the game is to be played. The question, of course, is how to integrate these types of players into the adventure, allowing them both to shine in their respective manners, without making anyone mad or bored?

Choose One Style or the Other
The most obvious solution is to pick one style of play and go with it. This has the advantage that there will be no debate as to how your game will be run. For example, if your game is heavy with intrigue, NPC interaction, history, and character motivation, the thespian player will be in hog heaven, allowing them to play their character to the hilt. Or, you may opt to make your game much more combat and rules-oriented, playing the adventure more as a string of combat (or puzzle) scenarios that let the characters pit their skills against a variety of foes.

This method works best, however, if your gaming group is composed primarily of one type of player or the other. Forcing a group of tacticians to play in a game of cloak and dagger, full of mysteries to solve will probably draw their wrath. However, you might find yourself surprised when the rules-lawyer in your group breaks tradition and dives into the roleplaying aspects with abandon, or the thespian character gets deeply involved in your fight scenes.

Of course, choosing one style or another has its downfalls, as you will inevitably turn off one type of player or the other. If you choose to go one route, make it clear up front that you will be doing so, allowing players that are not inclined for that style of play to either be prepared for it (and not complain while the adventure unfolds) or bow out for the next adventure or campaign. This said, try not to completely ignore either the roleplaying aspects of the game (NPCs, personality, plot hooks, etc) or major portions of the rules (Attacks of Opportunity, character “min-maxing”, and the like)—the rules exist to make the game move along, but it’s the story and the world that make it interesting.

Lean towards One Style Over Another
In this scenario, you choose one style of play as the dominating theme, while the other is not-so-distant second. For example, you may be itching to have the players fight an interesting new monster and aren’t particularly concerned how they get there and why they have to fight it. You may provide a basic framework for the characters to get from point A to point B, with a few side-encounters along the way for variety. However, underlying all of this is a sense of purpose and story that may fit in neatly with another ongoing campaign or plotline.

This method is also good to break up the pace within a game. If you find yourself constantly just going from one combat or another, throwing in a few plot twists that force the characters to think and interact with NPCs can keep the adventure alive and interesting.

Strive for a Balance
Ideally, the best scenario is finding a healthy balance between roles versus rules, where players get plenty of opportunity to both get in satisfying combats and get into the thick of your plots and storyline, portraying their characters as something unique. RPGA adventures are designed with this balance in mind. It’s a difficult blend, to be sure, but here are some suggestions on how to make this possible:

• Alternate styles of play within the game. This is a simple matter of swapping between combat and heavy roleplaying scenarios. For example, in the first encounter, you set up the plot, along with all the pertinent NPCs and motivations, with the characters asking a lot of questions and prepping for the adventure—something that makes the thespian player excited and motivated. Next, you move on to a fight scene with one of the previously mentioned NPCs (or monsters), allowing the tactician to shine. Then, you move to a scene of “downtime” where the characters must deal with the repercussions of the combat and how it muddles their goals. And so on.
• Include small “prizes” for each player within each encounter. This has the advantage of keeping both types of players happy. For example, during a fight with a particularly nasty and powerful creature, the characters catch a glimpse of some shadowy figure watching on who taunts them as they fight. This keeps the tactician happy, as he uses his skills to defeat the monster (and hopefully the shadowy figure as well) and the thespian, who may retort in kind and is also driven by the desire to find out who the figure is and its purpose. However, be careful not to overuse this suggestion, which can weave layer upon layer of plots and counter-plots (including many potentially unwanted red herrings) that can take an adventure off course. Be mindful as well that too much “talk” within a combat can cause the tactician character to get bored or frustrated while he rolls his dice.
• Reward players that break from stereotype. If you have a thespian character that studiously avoids reading the rules, keeping up on combat, or takes the party off on pointless side-treks because it “seems fun,” reward them when they keep up on the rules, are helpful and attentive during combat, or strives to keep the plot from going awry. If you have a tactician that has trouble portraying his character as little more than a bunch of stats on a piece of paper, reward him when he goes out of his way to breathe life into his character or does something that seems “in character” rather than smart from simply a rules-point of view. These rewards can come in many forms, from information or assistance in game, bonus treasure or magic items, and additional XP when it’s given out at the end of the encounter. As mentioned in previous articles, when a player does something that deserves an award, make sure that you tell him or her and the rest of the adventuring group why you did it, in hopes that they will continue such behavior in the future!

Conclusion
In concluding these articles, realize that each player brings their own style of play to the gaming table. Both types of playing styles is neither wrong nor right as each has its own strengths and weaknesses that can make your game something truly unique. With luck, your adventures will find a happy blend in between that satisfies everyone at the gaming table.

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