The Questing Hero

Traditional (Trad) play · Bite the hook, and play the hero to the end.

You come for the GM's story, and you play it straight. When the old wizard says the kingdom needs you, your hero says yes and means it. You pick your moves off the sheet and stay inside the character. If your hero dies, you trust the GM to make it count.

Your best-fit GMs: The Auteur Director. A hero chasing a grand plot, and a storyteller holding the secrets that make it land.

In Trad play the GM is a storyteller with a plot, and the story sits above the mechanics. Good players take the hooks and care about the GM's material.

What you do well

You care about the GM's material, so their prep gets played.
You stay in character when it counts, so the big scenes feel real.
You react hard to other players' choices, and that's rocket fuel for a scene.

Where your style trips

The passive audience. You wait for a hook, follow it, fight and go home, and the GM ends up driving the whole story alone.

The fix: Write one long-term want on your sheet. Every time a new NPC or place shows up, let that want drive a question.

Things to practice

Tell the GM your plans before the session, so there's track laid where you're headed.
Ask the GM what kind of character they'd be excited to run for.
Narrate one action with a detail others can ask about, like a family crest on your sword.

Who you play like

You'll probably recognize yourself in Storyteller, Method Actor, from Robin D. Laws's player types. Most players span several.

GMs who'll love you at their table

Best match: The Auteur Director
Also works: The Arc ShowrunnerThe Catalyst Co-Author
Talk it through first: The Tactical Arbiter. Agree how much of each session is fights by the rules, and where the story gets room.

Send your GM the GM style quiz

How to prep

Two beliefs on your sheet that can clash, like 'never abandon a wounded soldier' and 'save who you can.'

Pitch your table with these

On screen: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Star Wars (1977), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Die Hard, The Princess Bride
Actual play: Long-running campaign shows where the GM's plot carries the season and the players chase its hooks in character.
Games: Call of Cthulhu, Vampire: The Masquerade (World of Darkness), Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Dragonbane, The One Ring, Pendragon

A culture of play describes a table, so one 5e group could sit in two cultures on two Tuesdays. From John Bell's "Six Cultures of Play". World simulation isn't on his list, and sits beside it here.

Terms on this page: Trad

The 6 player styles

The Dungeon DelverOld School Renaissance (OSR). Your wits against the dungeon. Bring a ten-foot pole.
The Tactical StrategistTactical Neo-Trad. The build's a puzzle, and the fight's the payoff.
The Questing HeroTraditional (Trad) play. Bite the hook, and play the hero to the end.
The Arc ProtagonistNeo-Trad play. Bring the backstory. Expect it to come back for you.
The Story Co-AuthorStory games. Share the pen, and make your friends look great.
The Systemic RealistWorld simulation (simulationist). The world has physics. Your character has to survive them.

Glossary

Creative agenda: What a group sits down to do, across a session or a whole campaign. Ron Edwards, 2001.
Fan mail: When you love another player's moment, you hand them a token. From Primetime Adventures (2004).
Knives: Hooks you hand the GM to use on your character: a Tie, a Fear, an Obligation and a Secret.
Lines and veils: Limits set before play. Lines keep content out; veils keep it off-screen. Ron Edwards, 2003.
Neo-Trad: Trad since about 2015, in two kinds: collaborative (a shared point pool) or tactical (packaged abilities, rules-fluent GM).
OSR: Old School Renaissance: classic dungeons, modern player-facing design. Player skill tackles the game, referees use common sense, failure buys information.
Player skill: Solving problems by observation and description, ahead of your sheet. "Player skill over character skill" is Matthew Finch's OSR slogan.
Plus-One rule: In someone else's moment, add one thing to it, then hand it back.
Script Change: Film controls like Pause and Fast Forward that turn a boundary into an edit. Beau Jágr Sheldon, 2013.
Session zero: A meeting before play to set expectations and limits, often building characters together.
Stars and Wishes: Closing ritual: everyone names one thing they loved (a star) and one thing they want more of (a wish).
Steering: An out-of-character choice, dressed afterward in an in-character reason. Montola, Stenros and Saitta, 2015.
Story games: A culture of player authority: players trigger flashbacks, successes can win narrative control, and GMs often don't roll.
Trad: A storyteller GM with a plot. Mechanics mostly serve combat; the story sits above them.
X-Card: Anyone can tap it to cut content, no questions asked. John Stavropoulos, 2012.

Credits and further reading

Built on John Bell's "Six Cultures of Play", Robin D. Laws's player types, Mary Kuhner and John H. Kim's threefold, Ron Edwards's creative agendas and lines and veils, Matthew Finch's Quick Primer for Old School Gaming, steering from Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros and Eleanor Saitta, Ben Milton's player duties, John Stavropoulos's X-Card, Beau Jágr Sheldon's Script Change and Ginny Di on romance.