After another session, I want to say players playing with their significant other.Meh. It's ok when the SO in question actually cares about the game. When they are just there to spend time with their boyfriend/girlfriend, it becomes a problem because they become a distraction.
You'd be surprised apparently.
The fact the DM keeps centering the quest on their backstory (they are also significant others in game) isn't helping.
I have a player who always has a "plan". The "plan" cannot be changed in any way, or he will sulk and throw a hissy fit.
Heh. I thought you were going to talk about another type of player, the one who has to create a super-elaborate plan that involves 50 skill checks in order to do something relatively simple (like breaking into a building which could easily be accomplished by something trivial like smashing a window).
Heh. I thought you were going to talk about another type of player, the one who has to create a super-elaborate plan that involves 50 skill checks in order to do something relatively simple (like breaking into a building which could easily be accomplished by something trivial like smashing a window).I have a player who always has a "plan". The "plan" cannot be changed in any way, or he will sulk and throw a hissy fit.
My response to stuff like this (provided I didn't actually come up with it) is usually "Well I have a hammer right here..."
Which is usually how my Monday game goes. Hammer, the Dwarven lockpick.
After another session, I want to say players playing with their significant other.Meh. It's ok when the SO in question actually cares about the game. When they are just there to spend time with their boyfriend/girlfriend, it becomes a problem because they become a distraction.You'd be surprised apparently.
The fact the DM keeps centering the quest on their backstory (they are also significant others in game) isn't helping.
Games I've been involved in over the years have involved a lot of significant others (and my current campaign includes my wife of 17 years, about as significant as you can get) and sometimes it is a problem. In general, I'm pretty tolerant of it unless the person is actively disruptive. In fact, I'm generally happy they've got someone in their lives, given the lack of social skills and "game" many of the people I've played with over the years have had. I don't want to chase away the one chance they have to get laid in any particular decade!
The only time I ever had any real problem with a significant other in a game was years ago, when I was single. One guy's girlfriend was also in the game, and he was very jealous. He refused to let her sit next to me (the only other single guy at the table) because he was convinced I was hitting on her (I wasn't, not my type). A couple of times he angrily confronted her about flirting with me (also untrue, far as I could tell, unless you count routine conversation as flirting) or me about looking at her. Guilty as charged on that last count. She tended to wear uber-short skirts, high heels and thigh-highs to games, since they usually had sex in his car after the games (still lived with his mother, and I know this because he bragged about the sex constantly, a real class act). And well, I am an unapologetic heterosexual male. If a woman puts something on display, I am going to look, and I don't feel guilty about it (unless my wife catches me looking). Anyway, his jealously eventually got so bad that he dropped out of the game. Good riddance.
In fact, I'm generally happy they've got someone in their lives, given the lack of social skills and "game" many of the people I've played with over the years have had. I don't want to chase away the one chance they have to get laid in any particular decade!
That tidbit of gentle sentimentality just brough a tear to my eye :p
Oh, yeah, bad math bugs me too. It doesn't irk me nearly as much as it used to, but when I started with my main group there was one guy who was constantly messing up his math. You know, he has a +13 to attack and rolls a 16 on the die, then has to stop and think for 20 seconds before announcing that he got a 32 to-hit. I think there were two main reasons it bugged me so much. One, he slowed down the game. I've played (and still do play) with other guys who would make the same mistake, but at least they make it quickly. Second, the guy had a MASTER'S DEGREE IN MATH and was a working MATHEMATICIAN! He got payed to sit around all day and do math, yet he can't add a couple of easy numbers together?
OK. I have a B.Sc in Math and am wrapping up my coursework for my M.Sc in Statistics (which is not Math). That said: Advanced mathematics has almost nothing to do with regular Arithmetic, and it is not uncommon for Mathematicians to be terrible at Arithmetic.
Back to the original topic:
Occasionally my players get off topic... The biggest issue we have is getting started in a reasonable time frame, and we don't game that long.
As in: we get there at 5:30, and are done for the night sometimes by 9:30, but the players will dick around until 6:30 or 7 to get started. Sucks balls.
Occasionally my players get off topic... The biggest issue we have is getting started in a reasonable time frame, and we don't game that long.
As in: we get there at 5:30, and are done for the night sometimes by 9:30, but the players will dick around until 6:30 or 7 to get started. Sucks balls.
+1. I've actually gone out of my way to attend a special extra long day of gaming to wrap up a long campaign. I, after driving for five freaking hours to get there, arrived only to find out that no one (including the DM) is prepared. We spent three of the seven hours scheduled waiting for people to update their character sheets, plus an hour and a half of arguing tactics and another half hour of talking about baseball. In the end, we actually played for about three hours and didn't come anywhere near to finishing the campaign like we were supposed to.
Infuriating.
We spent three of the seven hours scheduled waiting for people to update their character sheets,
Infuriating.
OOOH I HATE THAT!
I wish people did that admin junk 'offline' rather than in Game Time.
I mock up my level up sheet before I think we will be levelling just so I can complete and hand in immediately. Come prepared!
We spent three of the seven hours scheduled waiting for people to update their character sheets,
Infuriating.
OOOH I HATE THAT!
I wish people did that admin junk 'offline' rather than in Game Time.
I mock up my level up sheet before I think we will be levelling just so I can complete and hand in immediately. Come prepared!
Every game I play is AT MOST once every two weeks. No one does ANYTHING until the second the game is supposed to start. Not the hour before but the exact moment it starts. And what's worse is where some people need to use the store's computer to update their character (4e) game and that person is there EVERY DAY FOR HOURS. Not only that, but I am the ONLY player not in a game that occurs THE DAY BEFORE the D&D game which means any updating characters can be done the day before because the other players and DM are there to help it get done (being what happens when characters are being updated when the game is supposed to start)
The only thing worse is people who have no idea how to play their character and another person basically plays it for them. At least if they don't know how to play their character and just sit around being useless they don't waste everyone's time.
Three players didn't show up for last night's game. I understand it's the end of the semester and they have exams, but would a quick Email have killed them?
People playing thieves (or rogues as they are now known) and trying to steal stuff from the dead foes before the party knows what was found every time. I could handle it if it was just once in a while, but to do it after every fight.I once played a character who did this. But in this case, I really was "just playing my character". You see, she was part dragon. So I decided that it would make sense for her to have a natural hoarding instinct. Now, she didn't try and pocket the entire amount removed from the dead foes, she would just skim a little off the top before bringing it to the table to be divvied up.
I even even noted explicitly on my character sheet which treasure and cash was in her "hoard", separate from her pocket items. She kept her hoard in her bedroom, and slept on it.
I'm not talking about a few coins here and there either. I mean gems/magic items/etc. This happened mostly in 2nd edition, there was an ability (don't remember exactly what it was called) that allowed you to identify and grab the best loot in a short amount of time. So of course, that was the first ability said thief took for their characters.
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Huh. I would introduce the player to my plan. Specifically my plan would involve holding a stick, labeled "I will hit you with this." Should he ever attempt to return to the table the stick will be employed, with great vigor.I have a player who always has a "plan". The "plan" cannot be changed in any way, or he will sulk and throw a hissy fit.
stuff
....and then quit the character, stating he was making an enchanter to get back at the other players.
Thank you Phneri and Cartigan. It hit a breaking point with a lot of players (see: all 10 people we've played with) and we're going to move on to Kingmaker sans Mr. Plan.
Granted, that's just the new plan
Every game I play is AT MOST once every two weeks. No one does ANYTHING until the second the game is supposed to start. Not the hour before but the exact moment it starts. And what's worse is where some people need to use the store's computer to update their character (4e) game and that person is there EVERY DAY FOR HOURS.
That's just bad.
I can understand someone getting caught short once, but not all the time every time.
We just all ping each other on facebook and have a group mail where we can grind questions and get clarifications. If you turn up 'not ready' we simply start, and what you came with is what you have... so if you are still a level behind well thats your problem :p
I don't now how you can game with such inconsiderate players!
Hey, I understand about how advanced math isn't like simple arithmetic. I have an engineering degree myself, and took quite a few courses on advanced calculus and differential equations (even a couple of statistics classes, which, as you said, are definatly not math) so I have some idea of the difference. But really, how hard is it to add together a couple of one- or two-digit numbers? It bugs me no matter who does it, just the math guy drove me insane because it seemed like he should really know better. Maybe not a logical complaint, but since when is logic necessary for someone to get ticked off?
And to your point on getting started, I completely understand. One of my games "starts" at 7pm, although it is rare that everyone is there before 7:30. Then, of course, we have to chat about how things are going, and what PCs did on any time off between sessions. So we are lucky if we actually get to start the game by 8:15. And because we play in the middle of the week and everyone except me has to be at work in the morning, we usually try to wrap up between 10 and 10:30. Luckily, my players are pretty good about doing most of their buying, selling, and crafting via email, but something always pops up on game day. Also, since we play every week we can still get through the adventures in a reasonable amount of time.
I totally understand how it would still tick you off, especially given that it took him a long.... time... to get it wrong. Just felt some clarification was needed. I'm glad to know lots of people have posted on the "taking forever to get started" meme, I really can't stand it some days. Recently however, my inner rage with the issue has projected onto my players, and they have been remarkably on time and efficient. Yay!
People trying to apply real world physics in a fantasy game is a something that gets me a little peeved.
I agree wholeheartedly. I posted this in another thread (I think), but I hate that as well, especially because in what seems like 100% of the cases, it's being used to bring a nerf to something that wasn't broken to begin with. A DM I recently played with, for example, nerfed Darkvision to complete and total uselessness (you couldn't use Darkvision for thirty minutes after you've been exposed to light as bright as a candle- think about that for a moment and let it sink in) because, according to the DM, "The human eye takes 30 minutes to adjust to darkness."
Despite the fact that not only is Darkvision a supernatural (read: magical) ability, but THE ONLY RACES THAT HAVE DARKVISION ARE NOT HUMAN. And yet, human physiology was the only criteria that this DM was using to determine the effectiveness of this magical ability that only occurs in fictional, non-human beings.
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And yet, human physiology was the only criteria that this DM was using to determine the effectiveness of this magical ability that only occurs in fictional, non-human beings.
And completely bogus "human physiology" at that. I'm pretty sure my eyes adjust to darkness in about 30 seconds (maybe less), not 30 minutes.
Make OOC references and comments while they are talking in character. Anything else I enjoy at least somehow.
I get the occasional laugh out of this one. During our last game, in fact, we came across a hound archon polishing off some orcs. For effect, the GM had them displayed on the grid, with the miniatures representing the orcs tipped over to demonstrate their advanced cases of death. One of our party's (three) barbarians strode up to the archon, the player thrusts out his hand, and in his gruff and bathos-filled in-character voice he loudly exclaims: "Greetings, star-hound! Your presence is welcome, but it is traditional to clear the corpses of your foes off of the battle map, that we do not have conflicting space issues!"
No one at the table was able to speak for about 15 seconds on account of the laughter.
You racist son?
Are you suggesting that Trolls aren't responsible for a disproportionate number of attacks on elder sibling talking billy goats crossing bridges?
Now selling some princess into slavery is obviously a bit much unless the character is evil aligned, but that was obviously an exaggerated example anyways so there's little point in nitpicking all over it.
You don't sell them, you ransom them back. <eye roll> Sheesh.
I recall him only using the one set for most of the campaign, though he did have to borrow some dice one night when he left his at home (since he lived about 2 hours away, it wasn't like he could run home). It didn't help, he still rolled horribly.
Let this be a lesson to everyone - don't roleplay with coolers.
Finally the barbarian got impatient and bashed him to negatives with a chair. After the healers got him back up and moving his attitude was a bit improved.
Win!