"Powergaming" so called

Most of my friends really don't like "powergaming" as a style of play, or at least that's what they say.  Some might consider this a fundamental misunderstanding of what the point of RPG play is.  Terms, like "roll playing" vs. "role-playing" are used to try to get at this.

I'm going to state for the record that I personally don't really like powergaming either.  But what I've observed is that it's really very common in our hobby, and rather than define it as "something bad" I'm going to let it be what it is, and then try to understand it better.

It may have become apparent already, but I'm pretty open minded when it comes to games, and how they're played.  I accept that there are a lot of different motivations and diverse play styles that meet some need on the part of the players in a game, and I'm also going to accept that these are all equally valid, if at some times, not compatible styles of play.  Our hobby is a big tent.  It should stay that way. 

So, back to powergaming.  There are actually a lot of different things that come up when people are asked to define this.  We might say that powergaming falls under the mindset of "winning" the game, but that's not very useful, since I want to "win" too, it's just that how I define a "win" is different. 

But, we can tease out some common manifestations of what powergaming is, and look at them.  Here's my list.

1) powergaming using character generation - min/maxing, creating a character that is very, very good at one thing, and not creating anything approaching the fully fleshed out character with quirks and flaws and weaknesses, but rather generating an unstoppable machine, as much as possible.

2) powergaming using the rules - looking for loopholes to avoid bad things happening to the character, rules lawyering, using the rules to force the GM into letting your character get the best of any situation.

3) powergaming using objects of power or money - using the special things in a game (magic items, etc) in ways that the GM hadn't thought of to again create a situation where the character "wins" and isn't exposed to risk. 

4) powergaming by ignoring the story - being singlemindedly determined to advance character power and abilities without regard to whatever the story says, or what the character might reasonably be expected to do, such as a paladin murdering people to possess an item of great power.

Looking back on this, I'm struck by how this all sits firmly in the realm of how a player sees their character.  A common bit of advice from the diceless gaming world says "Love your character" which, actually, is exactly what the powergamer does.  He just loves it from afar.  In other words, it's more important to develop the character's abilities, rather than their interior life.  To make the character powerful on paper, rather than something more realistic, flawed, or deep. 

I would think that, for the powergamer, the satisfaction of playing a character comes from seeing that character, as defined by it's abilities, grow. 

Implicit in this is the idea that the GM is the source of all power, and it's the player's job to cajole, force or blackmail the GM into giving it up.  It turns the game into a competition between the GM and the player. 

In many ways, modern online RPGs are a perfect expression of this.  The GM is faceless.  It doesn't provide much in the way of moral quandary or ethical choices, it's just a machine that if interfaced with in the right way will provide levels, artifacts, and powers.  Success is defined by getting to level N, and completing quests or missions, for which there are awards. 

It is important to remember that these online games came out of our hobby - we're all the fathers and mothers of that style of play.  I'm not actually knocking it.  It can be a lot of fun to play that way, and if a group of players and a GM want to play that way, more power to them (sorry, I couldn't resist).

There are an awful lot of bits of advice for GM's about how to control this sort of behavior, often with the implication that it's "bad" and needs to be stopped, or transformed into "good" RP by using various tactics.  I'm not so sure if that is necessarily true.  It's a fundamental difference in view, actually, and until that is addressed, openly and compassionately, trying to change a powergamer into something else is probably going to fail. 

Because, even if you take away the rules, even if you take away advancement, even if you make it extremely onerous to disregard story, the true powergamer will find a way to get what they want out of the game.  A game like Amber DRPG tries to encourage RP and get around the powergaming issue by making all the characters immensely powerful right off the bat, but even so, there's always some goal implicit - take the throne, recreate the universe - that plays right into the mindset of the powergamer.  Yes, the means by which a powergamer will try to accomplish their desire to make their character really powerful will be different in a game like that, but it will still be there.  And it's probably impossible to set up a game with any sort of conflict and goal without providing opportunities for powergamers. 

In other words, powergaming is a state of mind.  This is not something that can be addressed by rules, or by in-game stuff.  It's the basis for what a player brings to the table. 

So, you have a few choices.  First, I suppose, is to not play with powergamers.  This is perhaps the easiest solution, but of course, it means that you need to be able to know ahead of time if a player is a powergamer, and this can be subtle, so it may not always be obvious. 

Another option is to try to accommodate them, and just live with it, but this means almost running two different games.  On the other hand, this is much the same as what we do when we've got players with other styles, say someone who is into tactical stuff, and another who is more about screen time and character drama.  You would need to structure your game in such a way that the powergamer gets what they want, and also in such a way that the powergamer won't mess things up for everyone else.  This is hard.

Third, you can try to block or otherwise mess with the powergamer, which is probably doomed to fail, and is a ton of work.  It also reinforces the GM vs Player model that's at the core of powergaming.  So this approach contains the seeds of it's own failure.

For many of us, we've been conditioned to accept different styles of gamer, because we're somewhat thin on the ground, so we're used to playing with whoever will show up.  This is a philosophical position - is it better to play with styles you find problematic, or better not to game at all?  I leave that up to you.


Ultimately, I think I can conclude that the powergamer views the game differently than someone who is more into role-play, specifically in the sense that the character, to the powergamer, is something outside of himself, a set of abilities and scores to increase.  For someone who is more of a role-player, it's a character to inhabit, to view the world from the characters perspective.  That's the difference.  Both valid, but often incompatible.