Power Gaming or Fluff Gaming: Can They Co-exist?

Most people in my years of experience fall into one of the two categories.  Very, very few people manage to walk the thin line between the two for long before falling to the Dark Side.  Of course which is the Dark Side depends on your perspective on gaming.  Wait?  What?  You have no idea what I’m talking about reader?  No not you Erik, the young lady in the back left looking utterly confused and terrified at being here.  Well first, thanks for coming by.  We hope you stay around a bit.  We geek types are typically pretty cool.  Second, thanks for reminding me to define what I’m talking about.  No point in defending a thesis if you haven’t explained what the hell you’re talking about.

Okay, gaming 101, and yes these concepts apply across all gaming platforms: role-playing, war gaming, board games, card games (I totally power game at Egyptian Monkey Slap), etc:

A Power Gamer is one who “min-max’s,” meaning looking to minimize their character\army\unit\list\deck\etc weakness while maximizing their efficiency.  Often statistics and a healthy does of mildly difficult math is involved as well as extensive play testing of said list\unit\character\etc.  Doesn’t sound so bad does it?  (Why the heck is my auto correct trying to make that last “does” into “do?”)  Yeah well, sadly in many cases power gaming brings the giant helping of douchbaggery along with it.  In the Warhammer world we say these guys are “math hammer” types, with RPG’s they’re known as “roll-players,” and so on and so forth.  Power gamers shouldn’t be confused with competitive players, there is a difference in the approach, though it can certainly be a fine line between the two.

A Fluff Gamer is one who doesn’t necessarily play just “for the fun of it,” but does let the mandates of the particular game’s back-story, world, or “fluff” guide their decisions when building the character\army\unit\etc.  In RPG’s these players don’t mind taking a low stat or negative trait as they look to role-play it and it guides the development of their character.  They will often select some of the not so optimized units from an army list in the goals to achieve a story contiguous build.  These sorts tend not to be as directly competitive, not saying they don’t like to win, but tend to play the game for the experience and social element of the game.  They can mistakenly be called casual, or beer and pretzel, players.  While this adage applies to some members of this group, they can’t all be lumped into that category effectively.

So now that we have a working definition of the two groups, lets get to some reflections on their interaction.  A number of problems may arise when you mix the two groups, and lets be honest, due to our unique personalities as geek sorts we draw mixed crowds to our gaming groups.  I have two to three gaming nights a week, one for war gaming, one for board gaming, and our RPG group as well.  Never mind the video gaming that happens late nights.  So personally I have a mix of these personality types, but we’ve managed to find a good middle ground, but only through trial and error.

We all like to win, and interestingly different games and styles of games bring out the competitive nature in members of our groups differently.  But some of us are more casual about our gaming than others.  So some potential problems you’ll need to look out for:

• Heavy-handed power gamers and relaxed fluff gamers as a rule don’t mix.  You’ve got one guy who’s out to crush face through strict manipulation and knowledge of the rules and how to use them to his or her advantage.  Rules first, story second or not at all.  On the other side you have someone who loves the back-story of a game and the idea of cinematic battles creating a great story along the way, which is usually a bit more relaxed on rule adherence.  Story first, rules second.
• Another problem you may have is power gamers may over run other players in a co-op or other style game.  The min-maxers and hyper-competitive sorts only focus on winning, as that is the goal as well as source of satisfaction for them.  So intentionally (the D-bags) or accidentally (the Unobservant) they can take control of a gaming session and steamroll the other players’ involvement.  This can be exceptionally detrimental…especially if it’s your spouse you just steamrolled.  Not that I’d know anything about that…just saying.
• Power gamers can be very resistant to trying anything they’re not good at, and Fluff gamers may pass on really good games because the theme or story isn’t tied well to the game mechanisms or interesting enough.

Keys to success are finding a balance and a group that can get along in that medium.  As a GM I offer my group a solid mix of intrigue and role-playing along with great combat scenes, puzzles, and action.  Some session we’ve had no combat just creative problem solving, great role-playing, and tension.  Others have been almost exclusively combat oriented, like on a massive dungeon run.  But more often than not, most sessions have a balance of the two as I feel the latter can certainly stunt the former with just story getting dull for some players.

Personally I fall into both categories at times depending on what I’m playing.  In general I am competitive in almost everything I do.  From a war-gaming approach, the fluff has to get me or else I don’t care.  In role-playing, while I mostly GM, I love to play complex characters at a disadvantage.  Now board games are a weakness…I really like winning.  Pandemic for instance has proven a game I have to watch my self since I steam roll everyone else.

So what are your experiences with these two categories of gamer?  And most importantly where do you fall?