There's A Huge Difference Between Power Players and Cheaters

We all have a story about that one player. You know who I'm talking about. The guy who, through some convoluted formula, can disappear right in front of you, no matter what senses you have. Maybe it's that one girl who, even on a 2, will not only hit the big bad, but chop off a third of his health with a swing of her greatsword. Or it's that one player who, because he's been the DM for so long, always builds characters capable of astonishing feats, so that the rest of you feel like hobbits following Gandalf around.

What do you mean none of you took a specialty in parkour?

Most of us refer to these folks as power players. They know the game like the back of their hands, and they can stack their characters' abilities to ensure that when they tell you they are the most skilled swordsman in the land, or the deadliest rifle marksman, or even the most powerful enchanter, you can believe them. However, too often we use this term as a pejorative. As if people should be ashamed for actually playing a game by the rules. While we shouldn't shame players who lack the knowledge and experience of power players, or who simply choose not to use that knowledge if they have it, the same is true of those who choose to go full Batman from time to time.

You see, power players understand the game. They know which bonuses stack, and which ones don't. They know when they're operating at negatives, and when they don't. They are following the rules the table has agreed upon. There are some players, though, who try to camouflage themselves as power players. They declare with confidence that certain abilities work one way, when they don't. They'll stack bonuses that can't go together, and they'll ignore penalties or negatives when it's convenient for them.

These people are not power players. Call them what they are. Cheaters.

Power Players Obey The Law

Let's create a scenario here. You have two people, both of whom made the same amount of money. Neither of them paid taxes. The first gave to certain charities, kept the receipts from business trips, declared all the tax write-offs he qualified for, and at the end of the year, he legally owed no taxes to either the state, or the federal government. The second person just didn't pay his taxes.

And one of them has committed a crime.

This is the essential difference between genuine power players, and cheaters. A power player achieves their results through game-legal channels. A cheater will bend, ignore, or deliberately misinterpret the rules in order to get the results that they want. And while that kind of cheating is harder to catch than someone who rolls a 12 and calls it a 19, it's a member of the same family.

Now, it's important to mention that we're not talking about honest mistakes here. If someone participates in organized play, for example, they might not realize that the actual rules of the game are different than organized play rules. Alternatively, a new player who wasn't there for your Session 0 might not realize that the way a given ability works at your table is not the way it works by the rulebook's description. Those are mistakes, and everyone makes them. What you're looking for is a pattern of deliberate misuse and misinterpretation.

A Clear Definition

All of this seems pretty cut-and-dried. After all, when you get together to play your RPG of choice, you all agree on what rules to use. Whether it's, "everything as it stands, no 3rd-party books," or "just the core," or, "X, Y, and Z classes and races aren't allowed in this campaign, for reasons," you've set out what rules you're allowing, and not allowing. Players can use any rules they want to build their characters within that accepted rule set.

Even the expanded 3.5 errata.

The whole reason I decided to write this Monday's post, and why it seems like I'm playing the same tune in a slightly different key, is that we all seem to be using different definitions when it comes to our games. You see, several weeks ago, when I posted You Cannot Contain Power Players (So Try Working With Them Instead) one of the most common themes of the comments I saw was that power players couldn't do what they do if they didn't bend the rules. The assumptions, and experiences, of the commenters was that you couldn't do these things in game if you actually held to the rules.

I will admit, there are certain players out there who act that way. Just like there are shyster lawyers who will lie to their clients, the judge, and anyone else in order to win a case, there are players out there who will boldly claim that an ability works one way, even while you're pointing out that it doesn't in the text. In both situations, people are breaking the rules. Actual power players are more like trial attorneys. They have an intricate knowledge of a narrow subject, and they build an argument that is meant to perform a certain function.

And, just like a trial attorney, when you need one on your side, you're really glad to have one.

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You Cannot Contain Power Players (So Try Working With Them, Instead)

Every roleplaying game out there is built on a foundation of rules. The rules decide how many points you get to spend on your attributes, how likely your attacks are to hit, what special abilities (if any) your character possesses, and how they work. And if you get a table of four players together, and you present each of them with the same options, there's going to be at least one of them who finds the right combination of abilities to make a character that's really good at his or her job. They didn't break the rules, or even twist them, but their character is definitely in the heavyweight category compared to the other players when it comes to spellcasting, skullduggery, swordplay, or any other tasks that start with "S".

These are your power players.

Time to meet the monster.

I would like to give an important piece of advice to all the DMs out there who see power players coming their way, and who try to tie them down with red tape and house rulings. Take a breath, and stop. Because whatever your power player has brought to the table, taking away one toy will just mean they go back to the toy box to find something else that will let them accomplish the same goal in a different way.

If There Are Rules, There Are Building Blocks

I'll give you a perfect example of how this situation tends to go. Mind's Eye Society, a group that ran and oversees World of Darkness LARPs, saw that too many players were building the biggest possible combat pools they could, and using these combat powerhouses to essentially take out other characters in a single hit. Instead of addressing things on the small-scale, however, the organization chose to institute a blanket ruling that put a cap on the amount of damage that could be done in a single hit.

This worked about as well as you think it would.

The theory was that if you made it impossible to build one-shot wonders, then players wouldn't use violence as a means to solve every situation. That was, of course, not what happened. Instead of building bigger brutes, some players invested in characters who could soak up inhuman amounts of punishment, since there was no cap on how much health you can have. That way they could simply outlast the other characters, tanking as much hurt as they could before walking away the victor. Other players invested in recruiting small armies of NPCs, which meant that instead of having one trigger to pull, a single player could have control of a dozen, highly-trained shooters at a time.

The point is, taking away the ability to build a character that could cave in someone's ribs and rupture their heart with a single punch didn't stop people from building combat monsters. All it did was create a detour, making players use different means to achieve the same end.

And, as a DM, that's what you're going to see if you start arbitrarily telling players who did their homework that they aren't allowed to use certain abilities, or create certain combinations. Because if the player hasn't broken any rules, it can feel like you're punishing them for being able to find, and use, the most effective options available.

Make Your Power Players Work For You

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; every game needs a Session 0. If you have a power player (or two, or three) at your table, you need to sit down with them, and listen to what they're planning on doing. If you have someone who's planned a multiclass shock trooper, capable of smashing through hordes of foes, then you need to ask yourself how that's going to gel with the game you're planning on running, and where that leaves the rest of the table. Because if the group is made up of a face man and two spellcasters, then that sort of muscle might be just what they need. But if there are already two other combat specialists, and you know they won't be able to keep up with the power player's build, then you should try to fix that.

But you don't fix it by just banging a gavel and denying one of your players a perfectly legal option. Instead, talk to them, explain that you appreciate what they're trying to make, and work with them to make something that will let them have fun, but which will help keep the game going in the direction you want, while allowing everyone else to enjoy it, too.

It doesn't seem that hard, does it?

Now, there will be some players who get offended that you'd ask them to change their concept because you feel it would be disruptive. Some players may even make a stink that you want them to "play down" to the rest of the table's level. If you present your case in a reasoned, thoughtful sort of way, and that's the reaction you get, un-invite that player to your table until they learn that this game isn't just about them, but that it's a cooperative effort among everyone.

That is the sort of understanding you need to foster, if you want a power player to give you a character that will not only do the job they were built for, but help build up the rest of the table at the same time. It takes skill, time, and dedication to learn how to match the right options together in order to build a powerful PC. But being able to do that without overshadowing anyone else, that takes cooperation, care, and more than a little help from the person behind the screen.

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