Looking for a Dragon article, the one about player types?

[Urpriest]

I've been trying to get a good idea of the history of the concept of "player types", in particular when the concept of Munchkin split off from Power Gamer (/Optimizer these days) as uniquely negative. I remember a Dragon article a while back that listed player types including Power Gamer (or something like it), with a followup article that listed negative player types like the Rules Lawyer (and maybe Munchkin?). This was some time during 3.0 or 3.5. I've looked through my collection but I can't seem to find it, does anyone know which Dragon it was in?

[Palanan]

The earliest article I can find about player types is in Dragon #19, p. 7, "A Compendium of Diverse D&D Player Personalities." This is a one-page note that discusses personality types (smug, bland, shy, etc.) rather than how players approached powergaming, since there wasn't much optimization going on in 1978. (Although the "genius" is described as being able "to quote all three D&D booklets, plus the supplements, forward and backward," which sounds like an early rules lawyer to me.)

The full-fledged "rules lawyer" appears in Dragon #144, in a hilarious article on "Convention Ornithology," describing the many different species of odd birds encountered at gaming conventions. (Note for field identification: "They all look alike…so it is best to rely on habitat, activity and sometimes voice.") This includes the "Great Crested Rules Lawyer," described as "arguably the worst pest of all convention birds" for its pontifications on rules during gameplay.

"Troubleshooting Your Game," from Dragon #187, discusses players with the "Monty Haul Syndrome" and other problem types, including "players who want to run characters with higher ability scores and more firepower than the average dragon," which seems to touch on powergaming without using the term. ("Don't be afraid to take powerful magic items away from your players," the article also counsels.)

The term "power gamer" shows up in Dragon #242, in a Forum letter beginning on p. 12, which describes "power-gamers wielding skill-laden killing machines" in a decidedly pejorative tone. This was in 1997, and the letter-writer (clearly a grognard) had a special dislike of "far-flung aggregate type mutations" such as the mage-knight, the acrobat-fighter, and the "psionicist-necromancer-berserker," which really got his goat.

I can't find anything discussing munchkins or optimizers from the 3.0/3.5 timeframe, nor player types in general, although my collection is a little spotty in the early 300s. "How to Make Players Do What You Want," from #306, and "Reading Between the Lines," #322, might offer some general observations about players, since the one is about manipulating them (one would hope gently) and the other about pleasing different personality types. That last one might be your best shot if you can find it.

[Urpriest]

Yeah, after a more in-depth look I have to agree, I must have been mistaken. I did take a look at the articles in 306 and 322, plus articles in the same series, and it definitely feels like the author had some idea of the relevant concepts.

Now I'm really curious where I first ran into the classification. I don't think I ran into it online, since back when I first learned about it was definitely before I used the internet very often. I can't think of any media I would have gotten it from besides Dragon and Dungeon though. Hmm.

There's also the remaining mystery of where "Munchkin is specifically problem players, not optimizers in general" came from.