Know Your Players

ACTING

Players who enjoy acting like getting into character and speaking in their characters' voices. Roleplayers at heart, they enjoy social interactions with NPCs, monsters, and their fellow party members.

Engage players who like acting by ...

• giving them opportunities to develop their characters' personalities and backgrounds.
• allowing them to interact regularly with NPCs.
• adding roleplaying elements to combat encounters.
• incorporating elements from their characters' backgrounds into your adventures.

EXPLORING

Players who desire exploration want to experience the wonders that a fantasy world has to offer. They want to know what's around the next corner or hill. They also like to find hidden clues and treasure.

Engage players who like exploration by ...

• dropping clues that hint at things yet to come.
• providing rich descriptions of exciting environments, and using interesting maps and props.
• giving monsters secrets to uncover or cultural details to learn.

INSTIGATING

Player's who like to instigate action are eager to make things happen, even if that means taking perilqus risks. They would rather rush headlong into danger and face the consequences than face boredom.

Engage players who like to instigate by ...

• allowing them to affect their surroundings.
• including things in your adventures to tempt them.
• letting their actions put the characters in a tight spot.
• including encounters with NPCs who are as feisty and unpredictable as they are.

FIGHTING

Players who enjoy fantasy combat like kicking the tar out of villains and monsters. They look for any excuse to start a fight, favoring bold action over careful deliberation.

Engage players who like fighting by ...

• springing unexpected combat encounters on them.
• including combat encounters with large numbers of weak monsters.
• interrupting social interaction and exploration with combat.

OPTIMIZING

Players who enjoy optimizing their characters' capabilities like to fine-tune their characters for peak combat performance by gaining levels, new features, and magic items. They welcome any opportunity to demonstrate their characters' superiority.

Engage players who like optimization by ...

• ensuring steady access to new abilities and spells.
• using desired magic items as adventure hooks.
• including encounters that let their characters shine.
• providing quantifiable rewards, like experience points, for noncombat encounters.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Players who want to solve problems like to scrutinize NPC motivations, untangle a villain's machinations, solve puzzles, and come up with plans.

Engage players who like to solve problems by ...

• including encounters that emphasize problem-solving.
• occasionally allowing a smart plan to grant an easy win for the players.
• creating NPCs with complex motives.

STORYTELLING

Players who love storytelling want to contribute to a narrative. They like it when their characters are heavily invested in an unfolding story, and they enjoy encounters that are tied to and expand an overarching plot.

Engage players who like storytelling by ...

• using their characters' backgrounds to help shape the stories of the campaign.
• making sure an encounter advances the story in some way.
• making their characters' actions help steer future events.
• giving NPCs ideals, bonds, and flaws that the adventurers can exploit.