Games are fun, so playing them is the opposite of hard work, right? Simply put, no. The opposite of hard work is sleep. Really satisfying play is work, but it’s not the work you have to do to get it out of the way, and it’s not the work other people make you do so you can earn a buck and buy the things you need to live. Play is the kind of work you choose to do because you want to do it, from beginning to end. Playing a role in an RPG in particular is part of a hobby which increases its emotional rewards in direct proportion to the effort invested in the play experience.
I wrote an essay on hard work for GMs first. Go ahead and read that part, and consider the first thing you need to do as helping the GM work all those things out. The play space, scheduled play time, and little extras like props and minis can be contributed to as easily by players as well as the GM. When it comes to planning, communicate with your GM, to help him know what you want as a player and what your character can do. Your GM is your friend, with whom you’re trying to play a fun game together. He’s going to control the opposition to your character, but if he didn’t, you’d be pretty bored. So tell him about all the fun things your character is able to do so that he’ll know you want to do those things, and will be able to give you a chance at them. Helping the GM with his job is only part of yours, though.
To play the game well, all the players need to work together. So your first priority, after helping your GM get the game to run, is to talk to the other players. You should all agree on what you want out of the game - which isn’t to say you should all want exactly the same things, but after talking about it you should all agree on what you will allow and help each other to pursue in the game. Since you should all be talking to the GM about what you want as well, this will get everyone on the same page as far as what the game will be about. Even if some players love to just talk to NPCs and emote in character and others are very driven to seek out and solve mysteries, they can have fun together in the same game if they talk to each other and come to an acceptable middle ground. The emotion-roleplaying lovers probably won’t mind pursuing the investigation as long as they get some intense scenes to roleplay out of it; on the other side, the mystery-lovers will probably even enjoy roleplaying through getting their information more than they would if it were presented more dryly, despite the fact that it is likely to happen more slowly.
Busting it down to basics as a player of an RPG, you are portraying a single character. You act and react in a shared world with the other players’ characters alongside characters and settings provided by the GM. The players’ characters are the heroes of the story, because everything that happens is about them. So, since the story is about you, make it interesting. The other PCs are a good place to start: make up reasons to interact with them. If you have some time during play, have a conversation with them, in character. Connections between your characters give you reasons to help each other pursue goals, and make the game more fun and memorable, because of the vicarious emotional connection through your characters. That is, since your soldier cares about the other player’s technician as a friend, there’s an emotional reaction when you find out the base was attacked while you were out. Is your friend ok? You want to run and find out, and get back at the people who did this.
One of the most important times a player can work hard is during the game itself. The GM doesn’t have infinite attention. Try to do as much game-system bookkeeping as you can for yourself and help other players to do the same. Your initiative count, result for your most recent action with the traits used and the reason you were doing it, what you’d like to do next and why and what traits you think apply, the effort and/or wounds you’ve expended or suffered, and other details are all within your power to track. Use the time when the GM isn’t directly paying attention to you to prepare for the next time he is able to, and pay attention to what the other players are doing and where your character is among the action. You shouldn’t waste people’s time by needing to ask questions like “what’s going on?” or “what should I roll to climb?” You should shine when the spotlight is on you, and contribute to everyone’s enjoyment by helping things go smoothly.
Studying the rulebooks is another way players can put more effort into a game. It is very helpful to know which dice to roll when, and what the right modifiers are for a situation. Don’t be tempted to try to twist the rules always in your favor, and never argue for more than a minute with the GM over a point of the rules while the game is going on. Even if the GM is dead wrong on the particular point, wait until a break in the game to have an extended discussion over it. Disrupting the flow of the game because things don’t go your way is childish, selfish, and no fun. That’s the kind of behavior which has led to the negative term “rules laywer,” and general suspicion of players knowing the rules too well. Knowing the rules is actually a good thing; combine it with a helpful attitude towards the GM and all your fellow players, and it’s a great thing.
A selfish attitude is a terrible thing to inflict on a game, though, and knowledge of the rules isn’t the only thing it can and will taint. So, don’t be “that guy.” He’s the one who uses connections with other characters to get his way, but never lets others have theirs. He does things everybody else hates but defends his actions with, “It’s in character! I’m just playing my character!” That doesn’t make it right. Don’t play a character who makes things unfun for other players. Don’t, in general, be selfish. This also means you shouldn’t hog the spotlight, meaning the GM’s attention. Let everybody have their own turn at it.
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