I recently was reviewing the list of player motivations published in the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 8. A DM had asked us to let him know how we thought we were motivated. In reading them over I couldn’t actually clarify which motivations I identified with most.

A part of me wanted to impress others with my story telling as “The Actor.” Another part likes to get things moving along as “The instigator.” I just couldn’t really focus at all on this list. A part of me was rejecting the exercise all together.

So I just sort of answered vaguely claiming many motivations.

Then the other day I was getting ready to play with a new player in a different game and this question came up again. This time when I read it I knew clearly what I was. Here is what I deduced:

When we are actually playing I’m an instigator and slayer. I like to keep things moving and take lots of action and I like to kill stuff. Provided however, that I love character development and I spend a lot of time thinking about my character and why he will do things.

When I’m in between games I become and actor and power gamer. I love to write and read blogs about the characters and I love to tweak with the characters to get the most out of my character’s builds.

So, the question is why it was so clear the second time and not the first. Because I was afraid to admit to the first group how much of a munchkin I am. Not because they’d be upset or whatever but because I had judged the power gamer motivation as not as “good” as other motivations. What is funny is that this is in conflict with one of the elements of why I love to play DnD.

So here is my conclusion. I’ve decided to become one with my inner munchkin. For me this means that I do put energy into making effective builds and make sure my DM’s know that this is something I like and want to explore. I personally don’t go as far as some in this motivation because I love a challenge and I would prefer to lose to a solid well ruled challenging fight than win by twisting rules, etc…

As a final note I think its worth stating: Being a power gamer is not about unbalancing or breaking the mechanics. In fact I think it relies very heavily on these being place to maintain the fun of the game. Power gaming without well balanced rules loses its fun because the power gamers drive the game to much and are rewarded by unbalanced and overly effective characters.

Power Gaming is not the same as cheating but it can appear very similar. :)