Imperfect GM

I suspect more has been written to answer this question than any other topic in tabletop roleplaying, which means there's no way I can successfully answer this question. Of course that's not going to stop me from muddling through an attempt to answer it in a thousand or so words.

My first assumption with this question is that we're not dealing with any sort of conduct issues. The players simply have different expectations and desires about the game, there's no players causing out-of-character problems. My second assumption is that some of the players are unhappy about the situation, you can have groups with diverse play styles that more or less work pretty well together. Invariably when a player is unhappy about the play style dynamic it's due to a sense that their desires are being sacrificed in favor of the desires of other players. The roleplayers may be disappointed with all the time spent number crunching during battle scenes while the power gamers may be bored with all the talky bits.

If the GM is unhappy about how the players are engaging with the setting then the GM should simply recruit better next time. Accept the players you have, don't project on the ones you wish you had.

The Old Paradigm

When I used to answer this question, I would provide a number of techniques for GMs to artfully address play style conflicts. This is the Old Paradigm, which places on the GM the brunt of responsibility for making sure everyone has a good time. The GM can through clever pacing and thoughtfully structuring scenes can accommodate a fairly diverse set of expectations. The Old Paradigm can work, yet it's highly inefficient; the whole approach can be summed up as the GM psychically reads the players and tries to manipulate the game in a way to make everyone happy. All the responsibility in on the GM, which is both unfair and as stated before - inefficient.

The New Paradigm

There has been a shift within the hobby over the last decade or so towards player empowerment, as demonstrated by last month's article about X-cards. If you've played a RPG like Microscope you've seen how an initial communication and negotiation stage can provide structure to a fairly open-ended roleplaying/storytelling experience. This is what's desperately lacking in a lot of tabletop RPGs - players taking ownership of the game.

The passivity of players forces a lot of GMs into corners, they will sense something is wrong and have to address it without any contribution from their players. Even when a GM reaches out to players they're often reluctant to express themselves, sure some are good about this, yet most aren't. This is even prevalent in-character as well, where PCs let another PC do things that they would never tolerate from a NPC - simply because the PC is being run by a player. A lot of player passivity is born from a mistaken desire to be a team player, yet it causes more problems than it solves.

The New Paradigm tackles this directly with the solution to the problem: Communication.

Facilitate Communication

Everything begins with you the GM approaching things differently. Get your players talking about their desires and expectations before the start of a campaign and revisit these topics from time to time. Players will be more accommodating of differing play styles when they hear them directly expressed by other players. These discussions will provide the GM with guidance about how to better run sessions. You regularly repeat this discussion from time to time to make corrections and check in with everyone. This is the essence of the New Paradigm - players are partners with the GM in ensuring the success of a game, while this seems obvious it's not how a lot of games are run.

Good Questions

Before the campaign starts:

1. What's something you'd like to see happen in regards to your PC during the campaign?
2. What would your ideal roleplaying session look like?
3. What's your favorite part of roleplaying games?
4. What's something you avoid in roleplaying games?
5. How would you like to interact with the other players in the game?

After the campaign has started:

1. What would you like to see more of in the campaign?
2. What would you like to see less of in the campaign?
3. Where would you like the story of your PC to go next? vIs there anything you would like to learn about the other PCs?
4. Is there anything that disappoints you with the campaign that you would like to discuss?

The Crucial Component

The New Paradigm only works if the players are willing to step up and express themselves. If the players are willing to do this then most play style problems will disappear, the reason for this is that players will feel like they are being heard and as such they will be more willing to accommodate the other players and their play styles. A lot of times the GM won't even have to change anything in the campaign, simply getting the players to talk with one another about their differing expectations will make everyone more understanding.

How do you get players to communicate?

That's a tough question. The best the GM can do is be honest about their expectations and desires as well as express a willingness to be criticized. If a few players complain about how disorganized combat encounters are then the GM should accept that graciously and try to fix the problem. No one expects issues to be resolved immediately, what everyone wants is simply good faith efforts, which take time.

The New Paradigm takes time to implement, yet can be a very powerful mechanism for creating a more cohesive group and a far more focused campaign.