Discussing Player Types - The Storyteller

Welcome to the Corner! It's here that we will discuss the different player types, in particular, the Storyteller! Understanding your players will only make you a better DM, and that's what this is all about!

Ah, the Storyteller. If I was allowed to have a favorite, these players may be it. They crave rich story and beautiful story arcs with reoccurring NPCs and consistent story. As far as these players are concerned, rules are good, but if they conflict with the flavor of the story, the narration should be what wins. These guys call DMs to a higher level of narrative.

In my experience, I haven't encountered too many Storytellers. In fact, I only know one personally! I will say this though: As much as I may want to be a Storyteller, I'm an Actor instead. Some of you may already be asking, "Hey BornToCrit, how do you tell the difference?". Well, I'm very glad you asked!

Actors are character motivation driven, we want to feel what our characters feel. Joy, loss, rage, these are all powerful ways to express our characters, and we can sometimes be so focused on our own character development that we could can be seen as wanting to be in the spotlight all the time. Sometimes we do, other times we don't realize we're doing it. Storytellers are different in this respect.

These players love the story, right? I mean, it's in the name! Storytellers want to see how the story unfolds. Individual character motivation or big fight scenes are not what a Storyteller wants all the time because those can sometimes derail from the over all story arc. It's truly all about story, and let's be honest, that's how we all get to the really big, fun stuff! I don't think I've ever heard of a session 1 starting with "So, you are walking along annnnnnnnnnnnnd ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!" I mean, you can do that, but yikes! haha

The Storyteller will make incredible characters that will have deep backstories, but they will also make sure that they fit in the DM's world. These players will also make these characters and then watch where the DM takes them, snatching up all the quests thrown at them. This could be because their character has a good five page backstory (I love those! Give me a freakin book of backstory!), but they don't really have goals in mind for their characters. If they do, they happily leave it in the hands of the DM to build that story so they can experience it for themselves. It's these players that give you nearly unlimited resources for working backstory into a story arc, or even make one entirely centered around it.

In my experience, Storytellers are much more reactive than proactive. They like to take it slower and plan every move versus rushing to get the jump on someone. Which is a good thing! Some tables need a Storyteller to say "Hey, let's not rush into the Fire Giant's fortress and get blown away by the arcane trebuchets it has EVERYWHERE OUTSIDE!". Now, if you're evil like me, that Fire Giant's fortress is really tempting! A golden set of invulnerable armor gently levitates in the treasure room the characters know is in there. But the Storyteller will talk the party down into what is most likely a certain doom situation. And that's where the Storytellers power lies!

Things to be wary of - Storytellers are all about getting their characters to match the story and the world the DM is building. Sounds good, right? I've seen some of these player types completely change the character they wanted to play to fit a game. Elves are bad guys in your campaign? Your Storyteller most likely won't be an Elf unless everyone else in the party has some sort of tie to the Elves to justify it. They are willing to sacrifice what they enjoy for the sake of the story. That's a HUGE no no if we can help it. No one should make the sacrifice to not have as much fun as everyone else. So, DMs, talk to your Storytellers, build a world that allows your players to be the characters they want to be.

Closing Thoughts - Storytellers are awesome. Plain and simple, they are the players every table deserves. I was in a group that was a round robin style of DMing (Every session, it was someone else's turn to DM), running a new One-Shot every game. We learned in just two sessions (when we died... R.I.P. Ulhar) that we all craved an actual story. These players know story is important, and they remind us that D&D can be so much more than cool monster fights and crazy magic items. If you are a DM that loves story, and puts your heart and soul into your narrative, a Storyteller will appreciate everything you do, and that makes it all worth it!