Clyde's page

I had one of those. She started in our PFOP group and from the word go was a complete rules lawyer and very very pushy and if things didnt go her way would come close to throwing a fit.

One night her husband kept rolling 1's over and over, on one attempt to throw alchemist fire he rolled a 1 on the attack, GM said jokingly "Dont roll a 1 on the miss-direction or it will drop at your feet" needless to say he rolled a 1 and remarked I take 1 point of splash damage.

Later that week when I ran into the GM at the store and he remarked she had sent him a nasty email about the miss rules as they effect thrown flasks yadda yadda yadda and how it wouldnt have landed at his feet. The GM said he just let it go and said 2 can play that game.

The following week she made a minor mistake on the effects of a spell, the GM corrected her and she flat-out tried to start an argument over it, to which he calmly said "Look it up, you have your book right there" after a few minutes she stated "Well I must have read an errata on it and since I have an early copy of the Core its not corrected." So we wasted time after everybody but her agreed to the effects to look it up with an I-Pad because she wouldnt let it go. The GM was right. Her face was beat red and said she would find the errata. She never did.

After a few sessions you could really feel the mood change when she showed up. The GM had asked us all to give her a chance to adjust and fit in and said if she didnt in a week or two he would ask her to leave as she just didnt fit in.

Last week in character she was giving one of the other characters a rough time on finishing his faction mission, as does happen sometimes if missions are opposed somewhat. In the last fight she was knocked down to 0, on her next turn instead of falling and playing dead (she was flanked) she decided to stay standing and do nothing thinking the party healer (the one she was giving a hard time to all night) would save her. On the opponent's next turn, which was before the healer's, he attacked her as he was flanking and the GM rolled a crit (he doesnt roll behind a screen) so everybody saw it, he then rolled another 20 on the confirm. Ended up being 22 points of damage, killing her outright at that point. She was very mad and very loud about her disdain with what just happened, the GM ignored her and continued on. The rest of the party survived by the way.

She whinned and said she would never come back. Fine by the rest of us.

The GM has a house-rule that if he one-shots you like that, he will give you basicly a 50/50 death save that if you make it he allows 1 round for the party to try and save you before you outright die. They have to bring your character above the value you die at. Doesnt come into play much but has been known to save a character or two. Needless to say, since it is a house-rule and not a RAW, he didnt even mention it and the rest of us weren't either.

It appears our problem player solved itself.

I am going to vent for a minute or two so please bear with me then add your comments if you feel inclined to do so-good, bad, or indifferent-I would like other perspectives on this issue.

As the title states, I am so tired of hearing "Thats not the way its written". Some background-I began running games back in the late 70's during the ad&d days before I even had peach fuzz. Took a 15+ year break, missed the whole 3/3.5 editions, walked into a flgs one night and was introduced to 4th ed. I almost gave up then and there as the 4th is such a system shock from what I had run with 1st & 2nd, I even made the comment that what we where playing was not d&d but a pen & paper video game. I then found Pathfinder and the voices in my head where happy again.

So I bought the books, learned the rules, and began running games at the flgs. One-shots, open world campaigns, and organized play. I kept hearing thanks for doing this its hard to find somebody to run a game let alone a good table/fun session, etc time and time again.

I soon realized that with the internet, pdf's, and file sharing that pretty much any published adventure (including organized play sessions) where and are readily available. Not a problem I thought at first as it gave me a lot more options for adventure hooks and story ideas.

Then thats when the whole "thats not how its written" started. I have several players that no matter what happens in the game world always want to debate every little thing that they feel isnt "as written" in the adventure. I stopped telling them the name of the module long ago but it isnt that hard to locate it if you have a few key plot points Ive found out.

Examples-they feel they should be able to rest after every fight to regain abilites without any consequences in any room of a dungeon, that the creatures they come across should always be mindless and walk right into flanking for them, that if 4 players show I should take half the challenges out but if 7 show I shouldn't make adjustments either, that no creatures should ever be able to make a perception roll to notice the fighting in an adjacent room, or come out of that room to investigate or for whatever else reason, and it goes on and on. Most the time I just blow it off.

Recently a player made a huge mistake that set off a fight that resulted in a tpk. Later that same night I started to get text messages from the same player saying he didnt think it was right the tpk happened because it wasnt written that way in the module. I pretty much blew it off and told him does it really matter ? If you went and found the adventure after the fact and read it, which you apparently did, the creatures are in that area and a fight would have happened anyway, you just gave me a creative way to start the fight other then "roll perceptions, sorry you all failed to spot the creatures now roll initiative".

I figured he was just getting it out of his system and let him vent but it now has carried on for weeks and spilled over into the new season of Encounters that started tonight as well. I am done dealing with him and if he shows and starts again with the "as written" I will tell him to leave if he doesnt like the way I run games as Ive got a waiting list that keeps growing and growing of people asking me if spots have opened up. Keep in mind nobody else has complained about my games and many ask if I have other night/games open as well.

I was told after tonight's session that this guy had run a season of Encounters and he drove half the people away as he didnt know what to do most of the time and during the opponents/creatures turns he would sit there for minutes on end trying to figure out what to do. They said it seemed like he was playing a boardgame and had no clue on how to adjust on the cuff or keep flow going. Sessions on average had lasted a minimum of an hour longer than any season before.

Is this what playing rpg's has come to ? Not so much as an rpg but just a fancy boardgame as it appears he thinks it should be ? What has happened to the creative license that I learned to run games with ? Part of being a dm/gm is keeping the flow going and adjusting on the fly if need be, changing the story arc as characters act/react in the game world, the so-called outside of the outside of the box as my mentors back then would say. Has the way 4th plays really tainted noobs as to how rpg's in my opinion are meant to be played ?