Motivating Your Players

The Dungeon Master's Guide (and The Player's Strategy Guide) introduce the concept of "player motivations." These eight categories describe what a player is most looking for in a campaign. Any DM worth their salt can tell you the importance of tailoring your campaign to fit the playstyles at your table. Today, I'm going to share these eight motivations and give you an idea how you can work with (and against) these tendencies to create a more engaging game night.

The Actor
"I am Sir Edwin Von Nancypants and this is my ceremonial Toga-Robe."
The Actor is a player who doesn't just play their character, they are their character. Actors may speak in whatever accent they think their character would use or they may go all out and dress like their character. However they choose to express their motivations, Actors are looking to engage with the game world in a personal way.

Using the Motivator: Engaging Actors is easy; they do most of the work themselves. Make sure that you refer to the player by their character's name and make an effort to hide any negative feelings you have towards this play style. It's important to make sure that the rest of your players also keep their stigmas in check. Wearing strange outfits and speaking in character may seem like LARPing behavior, but it's still a valid way to play.

The Explorer
"I known it's just listed as 'Room and Board,' but what does the food taste like?"
The Explorer wants to know about the way the game world ticks. The descriptions of people and places aren't just filler for them, they're part of the gaming experience. Explorers will want to know the details of the lost city they've found and will want to examine every last crevice of the dungeon. When the party finds an item of note, it will probably be the Explorer who holds on to it.

Using the Motivation: When you build your campaign world, spend a little extra time thinking of the details of people and places. Your Explorer will really appreciate a couple extra lines of description and will love it when you can answer their questions about the history of a place. Explorers care about the details and are likely top remember them, so you can use certain colors or ornamentation to indicate what kingdom a person or place belongs to.

The Instigator
"I sure hope whatever is living here doesn't pop out of nowhere and totally pwnsauce us!"
The Instigator is a troublemaker. The reason may be that they're only interested in conflict or that they just bore really easily. Whatever their excuse, Instigators get a kick out of making things happen. They may pick fights with especially dangerous-looking enemies or have a habit of stealing from everyone the party meets. Whatever they do, it tends to send the party into conflicts.

Using the Motivation: Like Actors, Instigators do a lot of the work themselves. The hardest part about keeping them entertained in your game is planning for all of the stunts they may pull. If you want to punish the Instigator for being so reckless, remember that the rest of your party will be dragged along, too. Make sure that you don't lock the entire group into a no win situation because one of them couldn't keep their hands to themselves. Consider having the wronged NPC challenge the reckless character to a one-on-one duel for honor.

The Power Gamer
"The attack does 24 damage, but I also get 2 damage for charging and 6 for..."
On the battlefield, the Power Gamer is a force to be reckoned with. This player gets their kicks by maximizing the efficiency of their character. Most often, this is represented by their efforts to get the most damage possible out of every attack, but it can also involve the pursuit of the highest AC or even an enormous bonus to a certain skill. Power Gamers love to optimize and may even use online forums to get the best possible build.

Using the Motivation: A lot of the pleasure a Power Gamer is looking for comes from the work they do in between meetings. At the table, the best thing you can do for them is to put them is those situations where they do their best work. Make sure you also include situations where all their planning falls flat, too. If the player has created an unstoppable juggernaut, make sure to have some skill challenges or traps where all that killing power is useless. This will give your non-Power Gamers space to showcase their own talents.

The Slayer
"Is it dead yet?"
The Slayer just likes to kill things. Their satisfaction is derived from facing difficult foes and sending them to the dirt. Slayers aren't interested in dialogue or overly wordy descriptions and will likely space out until something arrives that they can kill. They will likely play strikers and will go out of their way to provoke things into combat. If it looks alive, the Slayer probably wants to kill it.

Using the Motivation: What Slayers want is your average Hack and Slash adventure. Keep lining monsters up and they will be perfectly happy knocking them down. To really engage your Slayers, give them an enemy that they will really want to take out, but keep them from killing it for a little while. This can be as easy as creating an especially vile Big Bad and keeping them safe from bloodthirsty players with bodyguards and political ties. Before the Slayer can sink their weapons into them, they will have to prove to the public that this person actually deserved it.

The Storyteller
"If I can pull the sword out, will I be the next king?
The Storyteller engages with the ongoing events of the campaign and how their character fits into it. For the Storyteller, the far-reaching effects of their actions matter. They may ask you to repeat important plot points or to slow down while they take notes on events. What a Storyteller is looking for is a chance to use their knowledge of your plot to give their character an edge in becoming a part of it.

Using the Motivation: As with the Explorer, a little extra work goes a long way with the Storyteller. Work out how the actions of your players influence the world, both in the immediate and long-ranging ways. Give the characters the chance to work out threats to important NPCs and foil them. As they get higher in levels, make sure to have their reputation precede them. NPCs pointing them out in a crowd, Lords asking for them by name, or even children arguing in a back ally about who gets to pretend to be the Storyteller's character.

The Thinker
"Four stones of different colors arranged in a circle... FETCH MY THINKING CAP!"
The Thinker is actually pretty straightforward. This motivation loves puzzles, coded messages, and fights that reward careful planning. The Thinker takes their time when planning actions, preferring to see what their opponents will do before making their own move. Thinkers get a kick from the strategy element of combat, working to outmaneuver foes before stabbing them to death.

Using the Motivation: To really get to your Thinker, you're going to have to think outside the traditional DnD mold. What Thinkers really want is problems that allow them to apply their real life knowledge. When designing a dungeon, include traps that can be avoided by a particularly observant person. Have doors that unlock following a small Mastermind-like game. In short, create obsticles that require more than dice throws to surpass.

The Watcher
"If you're having a good time, I'm having a good time."
The Watcher doesn't play for exclusively their own enjoyment, but rather for the enjoyment of everyone else at the table. They have the most fun when the whole group is having a good time. A Watcher will rarely call attention to their own character, but will encourage the other players to do what they do best. Watchers may not always seem like they're participating actively in the game, but they will always keep the team together.

Using the Motivation: The Watcher is a motivation of an entirely different nature. The Watcher doesn't want to be singled out for any singular participation and you need to respect that. This is made especially difficult by the fact that all good DMs must be part Watcher themselves and players who are Watchers don't always look like they're having fun. Throw your Watchers some bait every now and then, but don't force the issue. Not everyone wants to be the next king, after all.