You can win at ttrpgs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fundamentally, they are (mostly) sandbox games in which you can determine your own goals and achieve them. Even beyond winning, you can be good<\/strong> at them. Playing a ttrpg requires a collection of skills not limited to roleplaying but also ones such as information processing, math, and social awareness. These are skills that improve with practice and can intentionally be developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I consider myself pretty decent at doing math in my head. Sometimes it takes me a bit, but I’m usually accurate, and faster than my immediate family. This pales in comparison to my friend Magnolia, who can usually nail a boss’s current health once she knows its max HP, because she’s keeping track of all the damage we’ve done in her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at who has been getting the spotlight at the table. Look at who hasn’t. Find ways to redirect that spotlight and ensure everyone gets a chance to shine — but be wise enough to recognize when someone isn’t comfortable in the limelight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the damn book: you should know your rules, my rules, and everyone else’s rules. That way you can help people when they forget something or aren’t as versed. Please, I need you to help me remember the mechanics for combat rituals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Drive it like you stole it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give in to your impulses. Kiss Mike square on the mouth. Throw the lighter into the trailer full of fertilizer. Find the most busted combo in the rulebook and proceed to demolish every encounter by using Triple Slash<\/strong>. I want you to get everything<\/em> out of this game. Scheduling this shit is hard enough; do you really want to spend a few hours each week phoning it in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want you to wield the authorial pen. I want you to give me something to riff off of. My cognitive load is making sure the sky is blue and the road runs from east to west and there are three pirates and one of them is an octopus and on even turns it will try and poison you. Please tell me what outfit you’re wearing and what you ate for breakfast in the tavern. I suck<\/strong> at inhabiting NPCs but I promise if you speak to them in character I will do my best to give them a voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tell me your build, tell me your plans. Tell me where you want to go on the map. Tell me that you love my minigame or hate it. Tell me that you can’t keep track of all of these NPCs and can you please give me some reference images Serket. Tell me you want a tournament arc or that you want equipment that increases your max HP. I want to surprise you with gifts and challenges and despite everything else I’m saying in this post, it’s all for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is<\/strong> all for you, but this is not a performance; it’s a jam session. We are in the band together and this game is the art we make. This isn’t a place to act like a grazing animal; this is skydiving. I want you sweating and out of breath by the time we leave, and I want you to feel proud of what we’re doing together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please go read Valeria Loves’ Players Should Not Try To Be Good<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This post was written for Prismatic Wasteland’s Player Advice Blogwagon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To any of my current players: this is not a critique of your performance at the table. I love you all. I am simply manic about games, a tryhard, and an optimizer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" square up (lock in) You can win at ttrpgs. Fundamentally, they are (mostly) sandbox games in which you can determine your own goals and achieve them. Even beyond winning, you can be good at them. Playing a ttrpg requires a collection of skills not limited to roleplaying but also ones such as information processing, math, … players should try to be good<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[160,232,230,233,140,231],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ttrpgs","tag-blogwagon","tag-lock-in","tag-player-advice","tag-player-skill","tag-prismatic-wasteland","tag-valeria-loves"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/player_advice_cover.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}have even more fun<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
what i actually want players to do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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