[UA] Reactive vs Proactive Players

[Chad Eagleton]

--- Frank Cord Lohmann <f.c.lohmann at gmail.com> wrote:

> Chris Cooper <insectking at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> - Oddly enough, they love it when their character
> suffers. Especially
> when their character suffers emotionally.

My wife, though she's not a romance novel reader, is a
reactive player. And she in fact loves when her
character suffers.
 
> - They were total suckers for the wise, mentor-like,
> old
> wizard-approaches-you-in-the-tavern type of NPCs.

She and the other "reactive players" I've played with,
again, love that too. In fact the more NPCS they can
talk to about anything on a continual basis the
happier they are.

> 
> - More things happened in their head during games
> than with any other
> group I've gamed with.

Again, true.

> 
> To sum it up - even if they're reactive doesn't mean
> that they're not
> involved, or immersed, or that they don't enjoy
> themselves. They
> simply expect to fill out a mould instead of putting
> their brand on
> the gaming world.

Yes and as someone else already said, it doesn't make
them a bad player. I think a lot of it really has to
do with how they "learned" gaming. The group my wife
played with were sort of taught to be reactive. The
guy who ran their games always made it obviously what
they were supposed to do. Their goal was always
clear--from A to B to C. What happened on the way from
A to B could be up in the air; they were free to act,
but their actions were always with that knowledge of:
I'm trying to accomplish this thing to get to B.

So, when confronted with something not like that
they're unsure what to do. There's a lot of "Am I
missing something? I don't know what we are suppossed
to do" type thinking. What if i do the "wrong" thing?

I don't run things that way, and the group I played
with did't either. My wife has adjusted well to having
more freedom, but she's not the take charge person.
She's still active in a sense though, and does things.
And I help that along the way, with some slight
tweaking to what I used to do: a) more planning ahead
of time--why group is connected, what their "overall"
purpose is, b) reoccuring NPCS for her to talk to, c)
and making a few things ovious they're not going to
work; so it's not really pulling from B to C, but
pointing out a few roads that aren't going to lead there.

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