Class, background preference link to player personality

After connecting with the team at Quickphix.ch who ran this TTRPH personality survey earlier this year I had a look at some of the outputs.

tl;dr: survey results comparing Big Five Personality Inventory with class and background preferences gives some hints on who likes to play what.

Reasons for coming to the table are pretty clear among the (N = 53) group of respondents: socialising, getting immersed in the world and being creative. A second 'tier' of drivers include system mastery and the thrill of risk.

Grouping these responses shows a broad alignment with the GAMA survey from back in 2006 which looked at motivational factors for tabletop role-play gamers (TTRPG). Not all the same questions are asked, as the GAMA survey covered other potential pastimes such as computer gaming and wargaming.

Within the Quickphix survey there were a series of questions that tie back to the Big Five Personality Inventory (more data behind link - .doc file) along with gaming motivators, class and background preferences. Cutting the data to see if any patterns emerge we see that there is an apparent correspondence between BFI factors and preferred game aspects; these mostly appear sensible - winning against another at the table is contra-indicated with agreeableness while enjoying socialising matches to high agreeableness.

Turning to class preference among respondents who rated highly for each of the BFI we see some patterns - Extraversion maps to Social classes (e.g. Bard), Neuroticism maps to magic-users, Conscientiousness maps to clerics.

Similarly different backgrounds were more popular among those with different BFI preferences. One question is whether the class/background combinations that are frequently seen are drivers or results of this preference - if the class choice is driven by a players preferred way to play, then the background choice may be to synergise with that (within the system) or it may be an independent preference choice tied to personality.

The sample size was small, making this just a hint of what could potentially be gleaned from a larger data set asking similar questions.

In the meantime, the TTRPG personality survey remains live - feel free to give it a go. Also the team at Quickphix.ch has a nice site with some 1-page adventures and quick-start tools.