Anyone ever have a character whose motivation for PC/NPC interaction was living hell for everyone in the party? This can be from any PC or NPC from games you've played.
I'll list a few personal motivations that come up often to start with.
1. The Assassin for Hire, or the "Murder hobo"
Seems to come up in every game now and again, you'll run across some hired gun sent to kill you at someone's expense or have a member of your party that does the same. It gets very upsetting when characters will be quick to kill any sort of roleplaying NPC with diamond jewelry, a +1 sword, and some fancy magic items equipped without talking to them first simply because they'll get more gold for their cause out of it.
2. The Troll, or "THAT DAMNED BARD/ILLUSIONIST"
Their motivation: To waste everyone's time whether it be bluffing out of convictions, creating duplicates of yourself, or stun/fascinate as many people as possible and just sit there while telling jokes or poking fun. Anyone whose ever played Part One of Rivers Run Red knows the feeling. It's frustrating to play against and its frustrating to DM.
3. The Instigator, or "Its never fun until someone gets hurt"
The character whose sole purpose in life it to create conflict in the most spectacular way possible. For instance, one character put all of their hard work into writing a book on poetry that took an entire year to perfect and shares it with everyone. Instigator reads it, says he's not impressed, burns it behind their backs, and makes it look like someone else did it. All adds up to a boring afternoon of complaints and fistfights.
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4. The Thief
This guy. I mean, everybody knows this guy. His entire purpose in life is to get the majority share of the treasure. Maxed Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Perception. Great things to have on a scout and trapspringer, right? That's what they want you to think. That way they can be up, away from the party, and get to the treasure first. And inevitably, they'll want to pocket something. Every time. This stuff'll get hidden away somewhere, what's left behind will get split amongst the group, and the Thief ends up with the bigger pot as a result. Keep it up through the entire campaign, and suddenly this guy's super-rich out of nowhere, doubly so if the GM has been increasing the loot so as to keep the rest of the party at least close to WBL.
Double Score Bonus if the Thief is ALSO the sort of stingy, miserly character who complains about not having enough money to do things to the rest of the party, despite being the most wealthy PC, and Triple Score Bonus if they're the sort to refuse to contribute to party collections such as a Raise Dead/Resurrection fund, paying the caster to craft magic items, and such like.
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5. The Evil Guy The guy who thinks being evil means being a dick and trying to sabotage the entire party because that's what evil does. I know very few players who can pull off an evil character without being a dick and driving the party apart.
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4. The Thief
This guy. I mean, everybody knows this guy. His entire purpose in life is to get the majority share of the treasure. Maxed Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Perception. Great things to have on a scout and trapspringer, right? That's what they want you to think. That way they can be up, away from the party, and get to the treasure first. And inevitably, they'll want to pocket something. Every time. This stuff'll get hidden away somewhere, what's left behind will get split amongst the group, and the Thief ends up with the bigger pot as a result. Keep it up through the entire campaign, and suddenly this guy's super-rich out of nowhere, doubly so if the GM has been increasing the loot so as to keep the rest of the party at least close to WBL.
Double Score Bonus if the Thief is ALSO the sort of stingy, miserly character who complains about not having enough money to do things to the rest of the party, despite being the most wealthy PC, and Triple Score Bonus if they're the sort to refuse to contribute to party collections such as a Raise Dead/Resurrection fund, paying the caster to craft magic items, and such like.
** spoiler omitted **
I am dealing with this person as a player right now (I've no idea how our GM manages).
Worst thief ever.
And on that note....
4.5. The Ally Thief.
This guy/gal may also be a standard Thief. Or s/he may not. What differentiates the two is really only the order of operations. A standard Thief robs the party before they know what's in the treasure, keeping his/her stash of the loot a secret as long as possible. The Ally Thief, on the other hand, steals after - s/he'll use Sleight of Hand, Bluff, and other measures to rob their own partymates. The worst kind, of course, is the one who does both.
Inevitably will get indignant when the other players complain about constantly getting robbed, saying that to complain would be metagaming because the other characters don't know it's him/her stealing from them, and that asking him/her to stop robbing their friends is "restricting their roleplay".
Double Score Bonus if they're a Kender. Even if their character sheet technically says "Halfling" it still counts.
4. The Thief
This guy. I mean, everybody knows this guy. His entire purpose in life is to get the majority share of the treasure. Maxed Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Perception. Great things to have on a scout and trapspringer, right? That's what they want you to think. That way they can be up, away from the party, and get to the treasure first. And inevitably, they'll want to pocket something. Every time. This stuff'll get hidden away somewhere, what's left behind will get split amongst the group, and the Thief ends up with the bigger pot as a result. Keep it up through the entire campaign, and suddenly this guy's super-rich out of nowhere, doubly so if the GM has been increasing the loot so as to keep the rest of the party at least close to WBL.
Double Score Bonus if the Thief is ALSO the sort of stingy, miserly character who complains about not having enough money to do things to the rest of the party, despite being the most wealthy PC, and Triple Score Bonus if they're the sort to refuse to contribute to party collections such as a Raise Dead/Resurrection fund, paying the caster to craft magic items, and such like.
** spoiler omitted **
I am dealing with this person as a player right now (I've no idea how our GM manages).
** spoiler omitted **
Worst thief ever.
Ouch. Drizzt clone that steals AND somehow manages to force combat encounters. I'd have a heart attack if I had to DM that.
5. The Evil Guy The guy who thinks being evil means being a dick and trying to sabotage the entire party because that's what evil does. I know very few players who can pull off an evil character without being a dick and driving the party apart.
I am currently dealing with one of these players right now in Serpent's Skull book 1.
I'm trying to find a way to end this sort of behavior without having to drop the bus on him, probably by taking away future buffs as castaways become more aware of his antics. The worst part is that the rest of the players don't mind him doing this.
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The Absolutist
This guy must act to destroy X whenever X appears. Even if destroying X will cause the party to fail their greater mission, cause PVP, and possibly result in TPK. The absolutist tenants are bestowed by a god, class feature, or just something they themselves have deemed too important to the character. In extreme cases the PC will fight to the death even when faced by unbelievably outnumbered odds because hey, X must be destroyed at all costs.
Over excited -
The character (or player) that is so excited to contribute something, even when said tactic destroys the rest of the team's plans. This can range from a Leroy Jenkins type assault while the rest of the group discusses strategy, to someone so excited about throwing a fireball that he/she fails to notice the group is in the blast radius. Note that this behavior is often repeated rather than the occasional mistake.
The guy from #2 I was referring to:
The guy from #2 I was referring to:
** spoiler omitted **
Aaaaaah yes. Can't believe I forgot about him. Though he got mostly diplomancer-steamrolled in our game, heh.
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Over excited -
The character (or player) that is so excited to contribute something, even when said tactic destroys the rest of the team's plans. This can range from a Leroy Jenkins type assault while the rest of the group discusses strategy, to someone so excited about throwing a fireball that he/she fails to notice the group is in the blast radius. Note that this behavior is often repeated rather than the occasional mistake.
Ah yes I met one of these guys in PFS. We were on a sea ship in dock. A fight breaks out on the top deck. This guy's character is a rogue and he decides he will go below deck and climb around back of the ship to "surprise" the enemy. Guy ends up dangling from the side of the ship the entire fight because he can not climb the rope. effectively took himself out of a fight that almost killed all the other players. Sure could have used his help.
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The "Roleplayer"
This guy believes that whatever he does in character, no matter how detrimental to the party, is alright because he's "Roleplaying". This is contrasted by the actual roleplayers of the group, who know that everyone is here for a good time and having one person be a dick to everyone isn't conductive to that.
Also, the rest of us can roleplay too f***nuts and we're saying our characters aren't putting up with this any more. Roll something that can work in a team or GTFO.