You have reviewed every class option before session one, and you are in this for the battle. You play your character like a game piece and know every ability they have. The highlight of your evening is a round where you set up the cleric's spell and the boss dies as planned.
Your GM match: The Tactical Arbiter. Both want open numbers with no hidden values, firm rules of play, and fights where tactics determine who wins.
Tactical Neo-Trad uses prepackaged abilities, per-fight resource management and a GM who understands the rules of play, and storytelling still matters. A good player commits their character's abilities to memory and plans their turn while other players act.
What you bring
- The fight continues to flow because you plan your next move while other players take action.
- If you see the combo coming, you hold off on your turn so another player can land a huge hit.
- You know the rules inside out, and when someone makes an incorrect interpretation, you raise it as a question.
Where your style trips
Leading with the build. Everyone else waits while you hunt for the optimal move, and the entire battle comes to a halt on your turn.
The fix: Plan your move while others are moving, and take the first good one on your turn. A good-enough move in time beats a perfect one at minute forty.
Things to try
- Give your character an incentive, one thing they want besides fighting.
- One time per battle, use your turn to set someone else up for a major moment of theirs.
- Describe one hit you land in each battle: what does it look like, and how does your character feel?
Player types you lean toward
You'll probably recognize yourself in Tactician, Power Gamer, from Robin D. Laws's player types. Most players fall into more than one category.
GMs who'll suit you
- Best match
- The Tactical Arbiter
- Also works
- The Systemic Architect
- Talk it through first
- The Immersionist. Decide together how often the table examines numbers, and when a scene drops mechanics for emotional experience.
Bring this to session one
Intent plus approach: describe what you would like to occur, describe how you'll get there, then roll the dice.
Point your table at these
- On screen
- 300, Pacific Rim, Edge of Tomorrow, Aliens, Ender's Game, Seven Samurai
- Actual play
- The Glass Cannon Podcast's Pathfinder campaigns and tactical streams that display a grid live, where each turn is a genuine decision.
- Games
- Pathfinder, Draw Steel, Lancer, D&D 4th Edition, 13th Age
A culture of play describes a group sitting around a table playing together, so one 5th edition group could find itself in two separate cultures on two different Tuesdays. The idea comes from John Bell's "Six Cultures of Play". FKR and world simulation are both missing from Bell's list, and sit here alongside it.
Terms on this page: Neo-Trad