What Makes a Good Player, Part 2
(or, Yes, You Can Be Bad at D&D)
Last time, I said that part of being a good player is being an Effective player. Let's unpack that.
Situation: You are playing D&D 5e and the party rogue is, for whatever reason, not using Sneak Attack in combat.
The rogue's player is not playing effectively. Now we might say "Well, who cares? As long as they're having fun." And okay, fair, but are they? Is everyone? Ineffective play can hurt the whole table. Allow me to explain:
Effective play is faster- in the example above, the combat is taking a lot longer than it should missing the rogue's extra damage. When you only have 3 hours to play once a week or less, two extra combat rounds can cost you a lot of more interesting play. Playing effectively gets things done faster.
Effective play is safer- now imagine your character died in the last round of that combat. Had the rogue been playing effectively, you wouldn't have.
Effective play is (somewhat) predictable- as a GM, it's important to know your players capabilities so you can challenge them without killing them. If players are Effective, you can set up scenarios with some idea of how they'll shake out. When they aren't, you never know if a simple sneak-past-the-guards set up will turn into an all evening melee.
So how do you become Effective as a player? By following the principles from yesterday. Does the rogue's player not understand the sneak attack rules? Do they struggle with the combat rules altogether? Are they just not interested in the sort of play that their character is built for? These are all issues that can be addressed.
This doesn't mean you have to be making OP builds and chasing maximum optimization over all things. Players have the right to make their characters do things that are "sub optimal" but it should be coming from a place of deliberate on player choice, not ignorance of the character's capabilities.
Next time: Finishing this topic up with a hot (ish) take