Hard to Please Player.

In recent days I’ve been force to think about my approach to gaming. My good friend of many years JM had put a lot of work into a campaign setting of his own creation. It was a rich and imaginative world that held a lot of potential. My friend filled many pages with background, rules and great character classes and a whole lot of options. Along with another life-long friend of ours (we’ll call him AH) we began playing in that world, and having fun. But, I must admit, I was less engaged in that campaign than I had been in others I’d played in the past.

I enjoyed hanging out with my friends and rolled dice, but the campaign itself never “grabbed” me. I was just going through the motions. I didn’t understand why at the time and neither did my friends. The campaign world was great, my friend is a great DM who is skilled at eloquently describing the scenes and action our characters engaged in, and he was always well prepared. However, I just couldn’t produce any characters that I cared about.

After a time, my two friends decided to revive an old group of characters and start a new campaign rooted in a Forgotten Realms campaign that we played twenty years ago. We re-rolled the characters and started a new campaign run by AH. I was on fire for that campaign and threw myself into it with great enthusiasm. Unknown to me, that enthusiasm caused some vexation to JM, who saw it as an indictment of his campaign and skills as a GM, and was contemplating abandoning the campaign. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fault, if there was fault, it was mine.

It bothered me greatly that JM felt slighted, and started me thinking about how I could have done more to embrace his campaign. After a few days of such introspection, I came to the conclusion that, as a player, I’m hard to please.

The accumulation of imaginary treasure and experience points weren’t enough for me. I wanted to get involved in JM’s narrative, and have some effect on it. It’s just the way my brain works. All the treasure and experience levels in creation didn’t mean anything if the characters had no goal. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the campaign JM had created; I liked it so much I really wanted to be part of it.

I wanted to be involved in the complicated politics of the city state of Northwind. I wanted to participate in the subtle machinations of North wind’s all seeing church. I wanted to smell the pipe smoke and beer in the taverns. Being in the world was different from being part of it. The thing is, at the time, I didn’t realize that I wanted any of those things. I thought that the setting was so detailed and imaginative, that my characters would naturally slide into the world. I didn’t tell JM what I wanted to do, so he had no way letting me do it; the quintessential failure to communicate. This resulted in frustration for both of us.

The point is that, even if you’re not running a campaign, you still have to do some work if you’re going to play in it. Look for ways you’re characters can enrich the campaign. Weave them in to the setting by working with your DM to help him tell his story. JM will likely read this entry, and I hope he will take heart and keep his campaign alive.