Better Player #3: Do Something!

One of the great joys of RPGs is the immense freedom that they give to players. Whereas with a book or a movie you have to watch the story unfold the way the writer has decided, with an RPG the player has the agency to determine his or her own path. (And, indeed, the tabletop RPG has an advantage over even the computer version here, because a PC can deal only with the actions the coder considered when writing the game, while the DM can adapt on the fly.)

All of which is to the good, but it does give a certain responsibility to the player: you've been given the agency to decide what to do... use it!

From the "better player" perspective, then, there are a few sides to this, then.

The first of these is that, especially in combat, the player should seek to take action promptly. Whatever the situation, there probably isn't a single 'right' answer. And, especially in combat, you're character certainly doesn't have huge amounts of time to ponder the options. So, in short, GET ON WITH IT! Yes, you might not make the best choice, but you'll probably make a good choice, and that's enough.

The second comes with more open-ended situations such as exploration, mystery solving, diplomacy, and the like. In these situations, there's a risk that the party will get bogged down, not knowing how to proceed, where to go next, or they might find themselves trapped debating options endlessly (actually, this is the same problem as above, just on a party, rather than an individual, scale). Well, do something. Whether that's a case of finding some NPC to talk to, or applying pressure to the story somewhere else, or asking a question of the DM, or something. Because until the PCs do something, the game's going to sit there. But you'll find it's actually easier to change direction once it's moving than while it's stationary.

The third is the resolution of a pet peeve of mine - the player who expects the DM to bring adventure to him. Basically, a player should have some sort of actual motivation for his PC. Presumably, your guy chose to become a Fighter rather than a blacksmith for some reason - he wants something out of it, be it revenge, fortune and glory, or whatever. So, if you find yourself between quests and the DM asks "what do you want to do?", you should probably have some sort of an answer. The actual answer will depend on the character, of course, but you'd think there must be something. And if there isn't, maybe there should be.

All of which is an awful lot of words to say very little more than is in the title: to be a better player, do something!