What to expect when you're expecting...to play an RPG

One of my pet peeves is the lack of player responsibility laid out in player guides or core books. There is usually pretty extensive lists of information that a GM is expected to know or at least be familiar with. Typical RPG books will put the burdern of the game on the GM without explicitly providing details about what the players are expected to bring to the table. This is most likely because 99% of the time the GM is the one to shell out the ducats for the game books and will need to teach the players how to play the game to some degree. As a GM I accept this responsibility, but I also know that there are a lot of basic player responsibilities that too often go unsaid. 

I'm usually much to eager to get to the meat of the game, so I gloss over the parts where I explain the player expectations and responsibilities. I have been part of campaigns that ended due to players not really bringing anything to the table. I may also have at one point, a very long time ago when I was young and foolish, been one of  those players. I'm not ashamed to admit that...at least in tiny text. In my defense, I never had a GM lay out expectations for the game for me as a player either. Sometimes a bad GM is to blame for the situation, but there isn't really any sort of fix that can be universally applied to bad GM-ing.

So here is my attempt to lay out some of those unspoken parts of being a player that I feel apply pretty universally to any RPG. It's meant to hopefully provide a helpful guide to how to bring your A game to the table. It's not an all encompassing list. I'm sure there are plenty of others, but I feel like it's a pretty solid foundation for any new player that wants to get into RPGs. 

• Know the rules damn it - Not all of them though. A player at the very and utter least needs to know the rules that apply to their character, so that they don't force the GM to run their character for them by reminding them at every turn of what their character is capable of actually doing. If you're the only player who has a character that can use magic, then you should be familiar with how that works in the game. If you're character gets a bonus to some kind of attack or type of creature, it isn't the GM's responsibility to remind you that you have an ability. That's on the player to remember that they have chosen for their character.
• Know your character - But Our Hero The GM, isn't this the same as the first entry? No voice in my head that refers to me as a made up internet name. It's totally different. This has more to do with the RP part of RPGs. A player should know their character and have some idea of their personality and motivations. Everyone has goals in life, big and small. If you can't come up with some sort of goal for your character then why bother playing that character if they have nothing they want out of life. No one started out life as a murder hobo that travels the land killing for money, so what sent your particular murder hobo down this path? Maybe you want to play a character that is a boring one dimensional murder hobo that needs no one in their life for any reason. Fine, but you should know why they are that way.
• The GM presents the fun, but it's not the GM's job to make it fun - This is one of those things that makes me think a player is expecting a video game when they sit down at a table. This is possibly the most annoying thing I've experiences as a GM. A player that is expecting a narrative from the GM that has their character in the story. A GM could have the most fun, most amazing, and best adventure/campaign ever created sitting in front of them, but if the players that show up don't take action that compels their character to explore/interact with that adventure/campaign then it's not the GM's job to railroad or narrate your character into something interesting. The GM provides the situation, the players are the ones that make it interesting with their choices.
• It's okay to admit you don't know a rule - This is the caveat to knowing the rules as a player. A GM should be more than willing to help a player out that can admit to not knowing a rule. If a player doesn't admit they don't know something, everyone is going to keep moving at the table assuming that everyone is on the same page as far as the way the game works.
• If you don't know a rule that come up often, Learn it - Not every rule laid for a character in an RPG will apply to it. There will be some that you don't necessarily expect to need to know, but if it comes up a lot you should have a basic idea. For example, if a character is chugging healing potions because they keep getting their ass kicked, then it would be really helpful to the game if that player knew how the healing potions worked instead of deferring to the GM every time it comes up.