Power Gamers in Your Campaign: Bow Before the Archmage!

We now conclude our series on various player types with the final entry... the dreaded Power Gamer. This is the guy who wants to win but plans on achieving his triumph through the meta-game of character design and planning.

The power gamer wants to overcome a challenge before it is even presented. This means finding ways to optimize their character to its utmost potential and create the ideal build that will allow the player to immediately bypass obstacles that might oppose him in the game.

Perhaps the player builds a character with massive attack bonuses, or one that can turn invisible at the beginning of each encounter. Whatever the case, it will be a very powerful addition to the party, one that might cause problems if it steals the spotlight too often.

Fortunately, there is still a place for considerate power gamers at the game table. For many, clever character design is simply a part of the appeal, and they mean no harm in creating such powerful builds. The easiest way to deal with them is to challenge them at their own game... find ways to exploit their strengths and weaknesses. Target vulnerabilities they may not have considered. Throw the super-strong barbarian into a diplomatic crisis, or pit the invisible character against monsters with heat vision. Force the player to constantly adapt, as they try to figure out ways to respond to the new threats you present them with.

If your power gamer is disproportionately powerful compared to his team mates, it might even be fun for players to ask his advice on getting the most out of their characters as well. After all, if all the characters are excellently designed you can just send tougher encounters their way and it is all balanced out!

Of course there should be limits to character optimization. Don't let a power gamer build contradictory or nonsensical characters for the sake of minimizing weaknesses and maximizing strengths. And don't allow the exploitation of loopholes or glitches in the rules that produce game-breaking results. Use your judgement and ask the power gamer to limit their optimizations to some reasonable parameters that you will define for them. The two things you want to avoid are a power gamer hogging the spotlight from team mates  (by winning encounters themselves every time) or succeeding at every encounter with no risk or challenge.

Besides that, let them have fun using the rules of the game to build something effective. If the game-within-a-game of character design is what appeals to them, base your challenges around that. Test their abilities and allow them an opportunity to shine. At the end of the day, fun is your foremost goal. And fun comes in many flavors and styles. Everyone has their own taste, so keep an eye out for these tendencies and techniques as you identify the classic player types in your own gaming group.

Happy ventures!