Player Psychology: Usefulness

In this first in a series of articles about RPG Player psychology, we'll cover the need that players feel to be useful. Keeping this in mind can help us read our players when Game Mastering, and to write more balanced scenarios.

A common "tell" of Player Usefulness Distress is when a situation arises, and a player franticaly scans their character sheet, mumbling "there has be something on here I can use!".

Player Usefulness Distress typically occurs during combat, but it can occur in any situation in which simply talking isn't a viable solution in the game.

A major contributing factor to this Distress is often lack of knowledge on the part of the player. They may not understand the rules, but more often, they don't understand the situation they are in. The could be at a cultural level (in a Japanese RPG for example), or at a tactical level (are there any exits? is there room for me to join the fray?), or at a rules level (what do these spells/magic items do? can wizards fight?).

But even when knowlege isn't a factor, this can still occur. For example, if the scenario is written such that a major NPC will only talk to one of the PCs, then the rest of the PCs will feel useless - unless there something to the side that they can do.

Players generally like for there to be 1-2 things that their character is good at that none of the others are. And, they like to be able to use their abilities. If a rogue never gets an opportunity to sneak attack, they may feel useless compared to straight-ahead fighters.

So the next time that you are runnign or writing, think about how you can make sure that everyone can feel useful!

Until next time,

Tim