| abstract
| - The Roleplayer is the Tabletop RPG player who plays mainly to create a character and tell a story. Most of them aren't too concerned with Min-Maxing - their abilities are based more on whether they fit their conception of the character than pure combat effectiveness. These players tend to be most interested in the storyline of the game, which means they frequently interact with the NPCs and try to find solutions to in-game conflicts without resorting to combat. They may even insert their own story into the games, providing a wealth of background information which the Game Master can tap for plot hooks (not all GMs will do this, though). The roleplayer is generally considered the golden goose of the Tabletop RPG for the depth that he adds to the gaming environment. Not to mention the fact that he's not as laconic or stereotypical as The Real Man, or as potentially annoying as The Loonie, and the Munchkin. However, in some cases extreme roleplayers can be problematic:
* Drama Queen (a.k.a. Thespian): A negative roleplayer who seems a little too attached to his character. From the description he hands in, you'd get the impression that the character would be a Mary Sue if the Game Master wasn't firmly in control of the story (and if they are the Game Master, they'll be a GMPC of the worst kind). These types may have a tendency to hog the spotlight, to the point where the other players stop having fun. And God forbid you kill his character...
* Anti-Munchkin: The type opposed to optimization of any kind. He'll frequently hand in characters which are wildly incompatible with the style of the game (such as an underwater basket weaver in a dungeon crawl), or the rest of the party (like a Paladin in a group where everyone else is evil, though sometimes this is just a Munchkin looking for an excuse to kill the party). Any objections will be met with a rant about character conceptualization, implying that the other players at the table are nothing but power-gaming Munchkins who are there only to kill monsters and steal their stuff. Those above types are frequent punching bags of The Loonie and Griefers for being somewhat high-strung and humorless, especially in the MMORPG (of all places) where they occasionally show up. Some games, such as World of Warcraft, even have RP-oriented servers where this style of play is theoretically encouraged (whether a given RP server succeeds is open to interpretation). World of Warcraft in technical terms is a largely static environment, and is far more heavily designed to cater to Munchkin/MinMaxer players, however; so while it is possible for players of this type to do what makes them happy, WoW will generally require that they work much harder at it, than they might need to in other games. A Player Archetypes subtrope, along with The Real Man, The Loonie and the Munchkin. Examples of The Roleplayer include:
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