This one isn't so bad for me. Though, I'm not saying that this shoudln't be anyoing for anyone. I actually prefer playing with new players because they don't min/max (which isn't always bad as discussed many times on these boards) they don't bring in 8,000,000,000 different splat books literally expecting me to let them play the half gold dragon half teifling flash grafting anti-paladin that's min/maxed to kill CR25 creatures with one hit at level one they've always wanted. They're satisfied with the core races and classes, and they just play to have fun. I mean it's great. I love writing a story and watching the characters play through my book.
I think you misunderstood my complaint. The player in question was not new- she had been playing with us for over a year by this point. It's just that in that year, she hadn't even learned how to make an attack roll.
Character names. Yep, I realize it is just a game and all but I want players who are somewhat serious about their characters.
I hate character names that are stupid or a play on words, a pun, a joke, a sexual innuendo or cribbed from the latest movie you have seen.
Samurai or ninja called Long Wang, fighters called Bob the Fighter or Shrek the Magnificent, etc. drive me nuts. You might think you are being coy or clever or cheeky but trust me, it gets old really fast.
If you picks a stupid name, expect your 'Bob the Fighter' to join the rest of the 'Bob the Fighter' character sheets in my 'killed characters' folder.
I agree. While I'm not a killer DM by any means, I have one rule when it comes to names. If you name you character something dumb, he will die.
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Players that complain about making characters with pen and paper. Yes Herolabs and the 4E character builder to speed up the process yet until they were released good old fashoned pencil and paper worked fine.
Players who expect D&D to allow them to do stuff other rpgs do. Then get angry it does not
Player:"what do you mean my character cannot do that rpg xyz does"
DM: Were not playing rpg xyz.
Players that rush head first inot comabat without any protective spells or backup from other players. Then get angry that their character either dies or get knocked out.
Players that drop out of a game session at the last minute. Emergencies do happen and somtimes a person get sick. Not on a routine or constant basis.
Players that are okay when you suggest a character to play than turn around and throw it into your face that your forced them to tkae a certain class. Why play a class you don't like it boggles the game
Players with poor hygine. I don't care what obscure study you read online about deodrant causing cancer or that you think it's cool not to bathe regularly. If you stink worse than roadkill your not coming into my house.
If I had a greater daily chance of dying in real life with X item instead of Y item, I would spend my time trying to figure out how to get Y item.
I think this is overly simplified.
Perhaps that's what you would do, but look around you. We can easily find that "X" model of car is safer than "Y", and present higher rate of survival with an impact at "Z" km/h. Equipping the said car with "A" brand of tire may be more expensive, but increases adherence by 5% compared to brand "B".
Yet when we look on the roads, there's a lot of car "Y" with "B" tire. Why doesn't EVERYONE drive a "X" with "A" tires? Perhaps they just don't have the "level". But why then aren't they saving everything in order to afford "X" as soon as possible?
While I understand the principle of what you're saying, life as an adventurer, D&D style or modern style, is more than making $ to get better gear to make more $ to buy better gear to make more $...
'findel
I agree. While I'm not a killer DM by any means, I have one rule when it comes to names. If you name you character something dumb, he will die.
I've got something better : If you name you character something dumb, you don't play with us. :P
Stuff.
But the GM don't have to (and should not, IMO) decrease the difficulty of the campaing, or module, or AP, just because one player in the party is a dummy. If you can't hit anything because you use a weapon that you're not proficient with, you're putting your life, and the life of the other PCs, in serious, needless, danger. Like someone else said in this thread, the other PCs should react to such nonsense in-game by training the dummy PC (to give him a RP reason to take the proficiency feat) or, if he don't want to be trained, by kicking him out of the party.
I agree. While I'm not a killer DM by any means, I have one rule when it comes to names. If you name you character something dumb, he will die.I've got something better : If you name you character something dumb, you don't play with us. :P
Hey sometimes it can be enough fun to be worth it. I had a friend in a oriental setting make a character nameds Bang Pow Master of Fireworks. To this day I can't hear that without laughing.
Another memorable one was a Shadow Run campaign. We were introducing our characters and one guy had picked out and name and then forgot it. The conversation went like this:
Player: I Forgot what I said.
GM: Forgot What I Said. F W I S. Fwis, so your character is named Fwis.
Player: No that's not my name.
Unfortunately it now was. He was now and forever know as Fwis.
Also sometimes it is unintentional. I named a character Dillan Holstein once without thinking it through.
I will agree that if done constantly or uncreatively it gets old fast.
Hey sometimes it can be enough fun to be worth it. I had a friend in a oriental setting make a character nameds Bang Pow Master of Fireworks. To this day I can't hear that without laughing.
Yes, funny names work best in a light-hearted campaign.
My brother hasn't played D&D in 25 years or more, but I still remember his characters Brutus "Flashing Blades" Butterfingers and Sewage-Face Lulu (an elf thief with 16 Charisma).
- When a player keeps changing characters because he or she doesn't like it
THIS. I've had the same player making his character die/leave about five times in the same campaign. The two other characters were getting a bit tired of always seeing their new companions die or leave, and at one point, one of them even said to the player's fifth new character : "Still, I have to warn you, our party has some kind of curse that might kill you or make you want to leave in the next ten hours." The warning got through.
Well, not that anyone is going to read this post this far... :)
I have a player that whenever anyone rolls a skill check, he rolls one as well and then says what he got. Even when his character isn't there or has nothing to do with the situation. For example, the Rogue goes to make a Stealth check. The player says, "I got a 28." The very next thing I will here is, "I have a +12 on Stealth. I got a 25.". Same player will also argue on why his character should be the one performing various skill checks (because he has a higher bonus). But, of course, he never THINKS of coming up with the idea himself.
I hate stat-whores. I have a player that will just whine and whine and whine about how his stats suck. He will try to make deals to reroll stats. One time the party was starting at 5th level. His stats "sucked" according to him, and he was wanting to make a deal. He mentioned that he would lose a level if I let him roll his stats again. By time it was done, he had a 2nd level character (and of course spent the next few adventures complaining about being behind). I invited a new player, and found that he was even worse. He spent the entire session rolling up new stats for his character. I think he rolled up 60+ sets of stats and then lobbied to be able to use one of those. He was not invited back... Makes me want to switch to point buy only.
-Windquake
Oh, stupid names drive me nuts too.
The worst was in a Cyberpunk game I ran in college. One of the player's rolled up a homosexual character (random chance through the Lifepath tables) and named him... Fu G. Packard. >_<
My brother hasn't played D&D in 25 years or more, but I still remember his characters Brutus "Flashing Blades" Butterfingers and Sewage-Face Lulu (an elf thief with 16 Charisma).My younger brother(s)'s:
"Torc" the orc
"Frank Toad Pea" the dwarf
"Cinnamon Toast Swirl" the gnome
Have you tried playing with a 4-year-old? It may put things into perspective.
My son named his characters "#2 Dragon Fighter" and "#2 Witchy Fighter."
I hate it most when the player who just got done running a different group through an AP decides to metagame the hell out of it when we play in a different group. It's especially egregious with Kingmaker, since he made a custom bound to be king character and since becoming ruler has basically made all the decisions, pointing to the map and saying we go here because there's something great here and so on. Our co-GM (when we started the main GM got a job and had to turn it over partly to somebody else) isn't very experienced and on some encounters, he virtually ran the combat himself.
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Well, at least you found out about his problematic nature sooner rather than later? lol.Yeah. He wasn't as bad as another guy the GM tried to bring in. The guy said he had lots of experience with 3.5, and the GM had seen him playing another rpg (don't remember which one) at an LGS and thought his play-style would mesh well with ours. Then, about 20 minutes into the night, we have our first combat. New guy wins initiative, and announces that because he has improved initiative, combat reflexes, and a longbow, he has 'combat advantage' over the enemies and can thus fire an arrow at each of them (there were about a dozen). No one was able to convince him otherwise, as he kept demanding that 'combat advantage' let him do this. When we asked him what 'combat advantage' was, he called us stupid, grabbed his dice and left.
This reminds me of a guy we played one session with (though it was during our brief flirtation with 4E rather than 3.x). He shows up with a greatbow-wielding elven archer character that's been built to exploit some poorly written bit of ruling where (if you closed one eye and squinted real hard and didn't let your GM read another section that precluded this) it implied archers with such and such power could take an AoO whenever anyone in their range moved. The best-worst part about him, though, is his stunningly three dimensional character portrayal, kicking off with our first introduction:
GM: Cool. Describe your character to the party so they know what they're looking at.
Guy: Well... he's... a generic looking elf. An archer. He has a greatbow.
GM (coaxing): So... what's he wearing?
Guy: Generic leather armor.
GM (somewhat exasperated): What color's his hair? Eyes? Skin?
Guy: Brown.
GM: All brown?
Guy: Yes.
GM: Well... uh... go ahead then.
Guy: Hail, everyone. You can call me Archer.
GM (somewhat stunned): Archer... the archer?
Guy (unphased): Yes.
He lasted one session. The next, our friend the elf-hating elf (or is it self-hating?) NPC discovered his now-NPC Archer the Archer was a dirty spy and did violence upon him. Best. Elf. Ever.
I agree. While I'm not a killer DM by any means, I have one rule when it comes to names. If you name you character something dumb, he will die.I've got something better : If you name you character something dumb, you don't play with us. :P
Why all the hate on dumb names? Or maybe it depends on your definition of "dumb". Silly names can be OK, in my book. In one of my current groups, one of the players is playing a fighters whose combat technique is to have an incredibly high AC, stand up at the front, and use Total Defense each round. The enemiy fighers pound on him while our casters pick at them from afar. His name is Etam Hedils - an anagram of "Meat Shield". :-)
In a game long ago, I played a halfling who had a riding dog. My character's name was Teenie. The dog's name was Weenie. When mounted atop the dog, we were a single entity known as "Teenie Weenie". This was inspired by the characters known as "Master Blaster", from Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome.
Why all the hate on dumb names? Or maybe it depends on your definition of "dumb". Silly names can be OK, in my book. In one of my current groups, one of the players is playing a fighters whose combat technique is to have an incredibly high AC, stand up at the front, and use Total Defense each round. The enemiy fighers pound on him while our casters pick at them from afar. His name is Etam Hedils - an anagram of "Meat Shield". :-)
In a game long ago, I played a halfling who had a riding dog. My character's name was Teenie. The dog's name was Weenie. When mounted atop the dog, we were a single entity known as "Teenie Weenie". This was inspired by the characters known as "Master Blaster", from Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome.
Most folks' problems with silly names is that they ruin immersion in the game. You want the players to feel like the game is a living, breathing world, and to take the events seriously. That can be difficult when an ally's name is a blatant joke. It's hard to ask Teenie Weenie for help and not lose any sense of suspense or danger.
As for myself, I cringe whenever I hear a joke name, but I don't dissallow them. It is a game after all, and if that's how some players have fun, I can deal with it.
There are really two games that I've played that I can accept silly names.
Paranoia, because it's pretty much expected that you try to make a funny name. i.e. Kill-U-DED, Yul-B-DOA
And Gamma World, if it's not too out there. Bob Myknob, was one such over the limit name. -_-
Most folks' problems with silly names is that they ruin immersion in the game. You want the players to feel like the game is a living, breathing world, and to take the events seriously. That can be difficult when an ally's name is a blatant joke. It's hard to ask Teenie Weenie for help and not lose any sense of suspense or danger.Why all the hate on dumb names? Or maybe it depends on your definition of "dumb". Silly names can be OK, in my book. In one of my current groups, one of the players is playing a fighters whose combat technique is to have an incredibly high AC, stand up at the front, and use Total Defense each round. The enemiy fighers pound on him while our casters pick at them from afar. His name is Etam Hedils - an anagram of "Meat Shield". :-)
In a game long ago, I played a halfling who had a riding dog. My character's name was Teenie. The dog's name was Weenie. When mounted atop the dog, we were a single entity known as "Teenie Weenie". This was inspired by the characters known as "Master Blaster", from Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome.
If a silly name makes you take the danger your character is in less seriously, then you weren't that involved to begin with.
One of our guys makes up names so juvenile, he might as welll just go ahead and name his next character Dr Raven Darktalon Blood, but I don't go "oh, well that unclean tool can't think of an authentic role-playing name, so I can't get into this 'not getting the crap kicked out of us' thing."
If a silly name makes you take the danger your character is in less seriously, then you weren't that involved to begin with.
One of our guys makes up names so juvenile, he might as welll just go ahead and name his next character Dr Raven Darktalon Blood, but I don't go "oh, well that unclean tool can't think of an authentic role-playing name, so I can't get into this 'not getting the crap kicked out of us' thing."
I'm just saying that everytime you say or hear DR. Raven Darktalon Blood you're getting an in your face reminder that it's just a game and lose some level of immersion. I'm not saying silly names are badwrongfun or that joking ruins the game, but hearing or saying a goofy name can change the mood of the game.
Playing my Monday game reminds me of my main problem with other players: Not being ready for a game that is only played once every two weeks
Playing my Monday game reminds me of my main problem with other players: Not being ready for a game that is only played once every two weeks
I agree, but for me it's more a matter of hating players who only put in the minimum amount of effort. Especially as a DM, I hate when I put a ton of work into getting the campaign going, and for my current campaign and two of my previous campaigns, I've even gone and made a wikidot site for the campaign (complete with NPC lists, maps, handouts, private forums, etc.) and no matter how much work I put into it, only one or two players will even acknowledge that the site exists. I understand not having the time or even the motivation to post character journals or whatnot, but if you're going to be in someone's campaign, at least put SOME time or effort in.
In the same vein, I've played with players who won't even be bothered to purchase their own dice or keep track of their own character sheet. (They often give it to another player to hang onto until next session.)
Players with poor hygine. I don't care what obscure study you read online about deodrant causing cancer or that you think it's cool not to bathe regularly. If you stink worse than roadkill your not coming into my house.
I am astounded at the number of gamers who seem afraid of running water and soap. A few years ago I was at my local store going through some 3.5 books when two guys come up and ask if I was currently in a game. I glanced up and immediately said "Yes, but we're full." One guy actually had lice visibly crawling in a long, scraggly beard and the other guy gave off a smell like rotting meat. We made gamer small talk for a couple of minutes and I faked a "phone call set on vibe" and left. Egad.
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I am astounded at the number of gamers who seem afraid of running water and soap. A few years ago I was at my local store going through some 3.5 books when two guys come up and ask if I was currently in a game. I glanced up and immediately said "Yes, but we're full." One guy actually had lice visibly crawling in a long, scraggly beard and the other guy gave off a smell like rotting meat. We made gamer small talk for a couple of minutes and I faked a "phone call set on vibe" and left. Egad.
:puke:
Seriously if you have lice in your beard imo it has reached a level where you should have your head checked. The reaosn why I bring up poor hygiene is that for awhile we had a player in our game who was in denail about the problem and who brushed it off with comments like " a tur friend would ignore and not say anything" and other such bits of wisdom. He did not last long I can tell you.
Ever get a player that WANTED to RP but was simply terrible? Like in the adventure I'm running right now, one of the players is really good at RP and is able to handle talking to characters in character, and then the other just sits there. So we encouraged him to speak up and gave him some 1 on 1 time with some NPCs. He just could not manage it past "hi there". I started asking him questions in character and he basically froze.
I don't know what to do. He seems willing, but he just doesn't seem to be able to handle it...
Anyway, it's driving me nuts. The fact that one of my players is getting this much spot light unintentionally really sucks.
Also, I had one player that used to come to every new game with some crazy character concept and then immediately die in the first combat. It was ridiculous.
We had a guy we used to game with that came up with the swell idea of rolling a dice to determine what class he would take when we level'd.
He was a fighter/sorc/ranger/rogue that died at 4th level. Wonder why?
I am astounded at the number of gamers who seem afraid of running water and soap. A few years ago I was at my local store going through some 3.5 books when two guys come up and ask if I was currently in a game. I glanced up and immediately said "Yes, but we're full." One guy actually had lice visibly crawling in a long, scraggly beard and the other guy gave off a smell like rotting meat. We made gamer small talk for a couple of minutes and I faked a "phone call set on vibe" and left. Egad.
:puke:
Seriously if you have lice in your beard imo it has reached a level where you should have your head checked. The reaosn why I bring up poor hygiene is that for awhile we had a player in our game who was in denail about the problem and who brushed it off with comments like " a tur friend would ignore and not say anything" and other such bits of wisdom. He did not last long I can tell you.
That's hilarious because I have a friend who does the same kind of thing. I tell him he stinks, get a shower, whatever and he's just waves it off as though we're teasing him or something. He's gotten a bit better lately but it's still nasty.
I have a hard time when I'm running a game and something doesn't go well for one of the players, so he stops participating in the fight and goes to sulk:
Player: (Rolls a 13) My barbarian Power Attacks AC 21 and does 24 points of damage to the giant! Woah!
GM: Unfortunately, he's wearing heavy armor. Your shot missed.
(A Turn Passes...)
GM: It's the barbarian's turn to go.
Player: I'm moving out into the hall and searching for secret doors.
GM: Huh? You're leaving the sorcerers and the rogue in there alone with the giant?
Player: If I can't hit that thing, I'm not staying in the room with it.
The ones who usually pay for such behavior are the poor slobs left finishing the fight without the whole team on the job.
Grrr....
Had a frustrating experience over the weekend with a player. I am not a GM who expects optimized characters but I do expect players to know how to play their characters.
This fellah is just plain lazy. A few months ago when we started the campaign he dragged his feet making a character so another player helped him. He insisted on playing a divine spellcaster, a druid, IMO the most difficult class to play because of the myraid of abilities on top of the long list of spells. He made the character just so he could be silly with him and paint himself as a reclusive crazy loner.
So, the other night I have four other players sitting around the table, locked in, who know their abilities inside and out and every time this guy comes up in the initiative he is flipping through the book or looking through his spell cards. He was very proud of the spell cards he printed as if to say "look, I am a good player because I have a printer." Thought apparently no one told him that you actually have to read your spells or know what they do. He spent the whole night casting call lightning since it is the only spell he knows how to use. I had lent him my book for a month so that he could read up on the druid class but he plainly told me that he "didn't have time to look it over," and that he "was still 'learning,' how to play his class."
I told him that the campaign was only going to last for 5 or 6 more sessions and by the time he did learn how to play his class it would be over. I have suggested that he play something simpler like a fighter with vital strike and a big ol' greataxe but he LOVES his druid and will not part with him. The party gets along fine since the other four players are spot on but it makes combat longer to have him at the table since he never knows what he is doing and he leeches their experience points and treasure.
Players with poor hygine. I don't care what obscure study you read online about deodrant causing cancer or that you think it's cool not to bathe regularly. If you stink worse than roadkill your not coming into my house.
and this problem seems to only occur in men. has anyone ever had a female player with poor hygiene?
and this problem seems to only occur in men. has anyone ever had a female player with poor hygiene?
In my experience, female players are few and far between. So that's like asking if I've seen a unicorn with a wooden leg. :-)
Players with poor hygine. I don't care what obscure study you read online about deodrant causing cancer or that you think it's cool not to bathe regularly. If you stink worse than roadkill your not coming into my house.and this problem seems to only occur in men. has anyone ever had a female player with poor hygiene?
Sadly yes. But it was ata FLGS that had open tables.
We took a break for dinner, and someone brought back LJS.Another friend of mine says "I smell fish!" excitedly over the contents of the bag, and said gal came over and yelled at him being defensive about her funk, when he wasn't even talking about her.
Players with poor hygine. I don't care what obscure study you read online about deodrant causing cancer or that you think it's cool not to bathe regularly. If you stink worse than roadkill your not coming into my house.and this problem seems to only occur in men. has anyone ever had a female player with poor hygiene?
Sadly, I have. Though that was at GenCon. Still, it was pretty damned nasty. Generally it's like hogarth says, female players are so rare (very sadly so) that the chances of one with hygiene issues are really slim. But it can happen.
Along the same lines as the hygiene issue, I'm often disturbed by players who think they're in a high school locker room. Shameless flatulance was okay back then but now that we're all adults can't we have a little bit of maturity? Maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy now.
OptimizeLikewise, I hate when players sub-optimize.
"My PC is a commoner with 7 Con who flees at the onset of anything violent or scary! He has no reason whatsoever to be an adventurer. Aren't I awesome? I'm thinking outside the box!"
Outside the box for my group is someone with a positive CHA score and at least one point of Diplomacy.
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:puke:Seriously if you have lice in your beard imo it has reached a level where you should have your head checked. The reaosn why I bring up poor hygiene is that for awhile we had a player in our game who was in denail about the problem and who brushed it off with comments like " a tur friend would ignore and not say anything" and other such bits of wisdom. He did not last long I can tell you.
I'd like to point out a website that a friend pointed to me several years ago: Five Geek Social Fallacies.
While not directly relating to the smell some gamers exude, it does relate to how this one responded. (And is a very interesting read)
We take you back to your regularly scheduled topic.
Hey, I got one that just came up. I have an old school gamer, 20 years and since 2 edition, and he can't seem to play anything other than a CN jerk with nothing to do but horde everything of any sort of value.
That and he thinks that rogue means EXTREME KELPTOMANIAC.
Ever get a player that WANTED to RP but was simply terrible? Like in the adventure I'm running right now, one of the players is really good at RP and is able to handle talking to characters in character, and then the other just sits there. So we encouraged him to speak up and gave him some 1 on 1 time with some NPCs. He just could not manage it past "hi there". I started asking him questions in character and he basically froze.
I don't know what to do. He seems willing, but he just doesn't seem to be able to handle it...
Anyway, it's driving me nuts. The fact that one of my players is getting this much spot light unintentionally really sucks.
Also, I had one player that used to come to every new game with some crazy character concept and then immediately die in the first combat. It was ridiculous.
I have this in my group but I don't mind.
Basically I have three regular players. A wizard, a cleric and a fighter. The wizard and cleric both talk in character, but the fighter is VERY skeptical of doing that. You basically have to force him to do it.
I think it's just a social hangup, really.
Like I have this total absolute hangup where I absolutely cannot, as a GM, have an NPC 2 NPC conversation. My speech basically totally freezes, so I do everything to keep this to an absolute minimum.
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Hey, I got one that just came up. I have an old school gamer, 20 years and since 2 edition, and he can't seem to play anything other than a CN jerk with nothing to do but horde everything of any sort of value.
That and he thinks that rogue means EXTREME KELPTOMANIAC.
I'm wondering if this is attitude is actually less prevalent amongst younger gamers who don't have the rogue=theif=klepto thing drilled into them by gamer culture.
The things I hate:
Players who never say or do anything. Despite me asking them. And making clear at the start of the game that all their characters needed motivations or they were going to be bored roleplaying wise because I am not going to go out of my way to constantly motivate them to do things that relate to their characters. Mostly because I'm running two groups and we're playing D&D, not a completely character centric roleplaying game. I only really care about this when it's over half the group.
Players who refuse to be reasoned with.
Players who walk away from the table and then waste everyone's time having things explained to them when they come back.
Oh, and as a player, GMs that do any of the above.
I'm wondering if this is attitude is actually less prevalent amongst younger gamers who don't have the rogue=theif=klepto thing drilled into them by gamer culture.
I wonder Indeed!
And believe me in two editions from now, it will be hard to convince the younger generation that rogues don't necessarily have to sneak attack everything.
"I know, that how all rogues used to *used* to be. Broaden your mind a little, man! This is 6th edition now, don't get stuck to the concepts of the past!"
'findel