Air Your Grievances

[TOZ]

Gabriel Cantrell wrote:

So we get to the first combat of the game (Ungrounded but Unbroken), and without even seeing what they were fighting, he walks into the middle of the enemy group and drops Darkness. Bad Guys can see perfectly. 3/4 of PC party have no Darkvision. Never have I been so angered by a player or so tempted to kill him for that.

I'd have been tempted to have the dragon eat him.

[Fromper]

Gabriel Cantrell wrote:

Alright so I am going to go on my own little rant here about a PFS character that I had to deal with at a local con this month.

So the basic character idea that I was told is that this guy was an Ifrit Sorcerer who's Master was making him be in the Society despite him not wanting to be there.

So we get to the first combat of the game (Ungrounded but Unbroken), and without even seeing what they were fighting, he walks into the middle of the enemy group and drops Darkness. Bad Guys can see perfectly. 3/4 of PC party have no Darkvision. Never have I been so angered by a player or so tempted to kill him for that.

That's not a character problem. That's a player problem. The person is clearly violating the "Don't be a jerk" rule, and needs to be talked to out of game about it.

[zainale]

so the wizard in my group """accidentally""" murdered my old PC. blew him to hell by shattering all his glass vial weaponry causing him to go up like a roman candle doing over 100 points of damage. anyways i made a new character a ratfolk character. and the table started offering her cheese as a joke which she would deny wanting. only to later take and eat the offered cheese when no one was able to witness it. anyways my rat folk was accused of stealing the cheese out of character. and threatened with execution if caught. so i brought up that fact the the wizard had just embezzled the whole parties funds over 60k gold. so he could improve his character making himself a fire staff, improving the bag of holding he stole from my first pc's corpse making it larger, then creating three constructs under his characters command 1.)a magic item maker thing 2.)a Packmate and 3.)a iron guardian hound and a s*$~ load of scrolls. for his other pc (a monk) he was going to make a grappling construct arm sleeve thing that slips over a persons arm like a gleave that allows you a free grapple. when i brought this all up the first time he said the grappling thing was for the paladin. which i told him was bull s!!@ he meant it for his monk and he knew it. the paladin wouldn't even use it since he is all about the mounted combat. i think they are going to ignore what the wizard did and focus on the fact that i turned their joke back on them. i think the paladin should be as pissed as i am that the wizard burned away his third of the party treasure so the wizard could give himself a major power upgrade on top of all the magic items he already has while the rest of the party is just struggling to survive. the paladin has a +1 ice burst pickaxe while my new character does not have anything magical and the GM is actively trying to murder her spellbook (she is a witch) in one round my spellbook got struck by lightning then struck by 4 out of 6 bow shots my spell book dodged one attack and i took the 6th shot. though i think that the gm forgot that my familiar was my spell book and just thought that it was a mount. which i have to use it as, since i would not be able to keep up with the party otherwise.

[zainale]

Llyr the Scoundrel wrote:

My gamemaster runs every single encounter like the creatures we're facing are brilliant military strategists who were allowed days to set up every ambush. Which is unpleasant enough on its own... except that for one of the few times we've played together, I'm playing the party's heavy hitter (a bloodrager) and he focuses the overwhelming effort of every assault on me. Meaning that roughly 1 out of every 2 combats we're involved in, my character goes unconscious in the first three rounds. Or, the encounters are primarily bested by our range combatants, and my character can't close the distance fast enough to be effective.

The flip side of this is when someone else is gamemastering, this is the same person who habitually power games and creates these min/max'ed powerhouses that tear through the ranks of enemies. This, because our other steady gamemaster doesn't try to perfectly shape each encounter as though the opponent has perfect forethought for planning and irrational understanding before the encounter of the strengths and weaknesses of each member of our party.

ohh man i feel you. my GM is the same way. and while my PC is not a frontline my gm acts as if it is and always focuses overwhelming force on my character putting my pc with in a few points of death and taking away class abilities. to the point of making my pc feel useless.

[DrDeth]

Gabriel Cantrell wrote:

DungeonmasterCal wrote:

That's just someone throwing a tantrum because they didn't want to be in PFS. I'm normally against PvP, but that bastard would've been cut to ribbons in my game.

No the player likes PFS. Just the character didn't and that was the pain in the a** part.

Players who are not a pain dont play PCs who are.

[Goth Guru]

Friends don't let friends play characters that sabotage the game.

[Kileanna]

If someone wants to sabotage the game, no matter what character he's playing, he'll find the way to try.

[The Usual Suspect]

Gabriel Cantrell wrote:

Alright so I am going to go on my own little rant here about a PFS character that I had to deal with at a local con this month.

So the basic character idea that I was told is that this guy was an Ifrit Sorcerer who's Master was making him be in the Society despite him not wanting to be there.

So we get to the first combat of the game (Ungrounded but Unbroken), and without even seeing what they were fighting, he walks into the middle of the enemy group and drops Darkness. Bad Guys can see perfectly. 3/4 of PC party have no Darkvision. Never have I been so angered by a player or so tempted to kill him for that.

Wait... He played an ifrit in Ungrounded but Unbroken? Did all the NPC's kick his behind and beat him within an inch of his life at the beginning of the scenario? Because it is written into the scenario that any ifrit PC is beaten up pretty badly when they arrive on the plane of Earth.

[The Usual Suspect]

DrDeth wrote:

Gabriel Cantrell wrote:

DungeonmasterCal wrote:

That's just someone throwing a tantrum because they didn't want to be in PFS. I'm normally against PvP, but that bastard would've been cut to ribbons in my game.

No the player likes PFS. Just the character didn't and that was the pain in the a** part.

Players who are not a pain dont play PCs who are.

Going to agree with Doc Deth here. We've had a player who plays his character as if he's a rude jerk that intentionally does contrarian and disruptive things. Why does he do that? Because he wants to be able to be a rude jerk, but is hiding it behind a character. He knows that in real life he can't get away with that, so he is using his roleplaying time to get away with it by claiming that this is just his character.

That's just crap. Adventurers are under no obligation to keep a jerk around; and Society rules allow for a disruptive player to be removed. Talk to your local VA or VL if this player continues to intentionally disrupt games.

[Dalindra]

The Usual Suspect wrote:

We've had a player who plays his character as if he's a rude jerk that intentionally does contrarian and disruptive things. Why does he do that? Because he wants to be able to be a rude jerk, but is hiding it behind a character. He knows that in real life he can't get away with that, so he is using his roleplaying time to get away with it by claiming that this is just his character.

These are words of wisdom.

[Goth Guru]

Game balance does not mean "No fun for PCs". It means monsters should be able to use the wands of healing. Not that you should take them away from everybody.

[Captain Kuro]

There are never enought Flumphs

[Fromper]

Captain Kuro wrote:

There are never enought Flumphs

Definitely. We need more of them.

[PannicAtack]

zainale wrote:

so the wizard in my group """accidentally""" murdered my old PC. blew him to hell by shattering all his glass vial weaponry causing him to go up like a roman candle doing over 100 points of damage. anyways i made a new character a ratfolk character. and the table started offering her cheese as a joke which she would deny wanting. only to later take and eat the offered cheese when no one was able to witness it. anyways my rat folk was accused of stealing the cheese out of character. and threatened with execution if caught. so i brought up that fact the the wizard had just embezzled the whole parties funds over 60k gold. so he could improve his character making himself a fire staff, improving the bag of holding he stole from my first pc's corpse making it larger, then creating three constructs under his characters command 1.)a magic item maker thing 2.)a Packmate and 3.)a iron guardian hound and a s!+& load of scrolls. for his other pc (a monk) he was going to make a grappling construct arm sleeve thing that slips over a persons arm like a gleave that allows you a free grapple. when i brought this all up the first time he said the grappling thing was for the paladin. which i told him was bull s&$# he meant it for his monk and he knew it. the paladin wouldn't even use it since he is all about the mounted combat. i think they are going to ignore what the wizard did and focus on the fact that i turned their joke back on them. i think the paladin should be as pissed as i am that the wizard burned away his third of the party treasure so the wizard could give himself a major power upgrade on top of all the magic items he already has while the rest of the party is just struggling to survive. the paladin has a +1 ice burst pickaxe while my new character does not have anything magical and the GM is actively trying to murder her spellbook (she is a witch) in one round my spellbook got struck by lightning then struck by 4 out of 6 bow shots my spell book dodged one attack and i took the 6th...

I read your stories and I honestly have like no response. Just... what.

[Chris Lambertz]

Removed a post and the replies to it. We're not cool with advocating physical violence to others, including if it's intended as a joke.

[Goth Guru]

I'm thinking of quitting Forge of Empires. This one (censored) keeps using diamonds to advance into the next age just so he can loot buildings for stuff he doesn't need. In group chat some idiot then called me a snowflake. Several claimed it was A WAR GAME. I play games to momentarily get away from reality so don't ever tell me to suck up reality.

I'm thinking of creating a character that if anybody calls anybody a snowflake, they use control weather to show them what real snowflakes look like.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I'm glad I don't play electronic multi user games. I'd be in a homicidal rage all the time, and I'm a pretty laid back guy.

[Goth Guru]

Can a witch create wands of cure light wounds and cast control weather?

[Kileanna]

Yes, with craft wand. Control Weather is both a spell and a hex, so yes.

[Fromper]

So witches can heal special snowflakes. Got it.

[Kileanna]

Yesterday I played one of the most epic gaming sesions I ever had. It was intense, emotive, challenging, everything. Then I went to the cinema and saw a really intense movie that I loved.
Today I have some kind of emotional hangover. I must be getting old.

[ShadeKyubi]

Kileanna wrote:

Yesterday I played one of the most epic gaming sesions I ever had. It was intense, emotive, challenging, everything. Then I went to the cinema and saw a really intense movie that I loved.

Today I have some kind of emotional hangover. I must be getting old.

Change into dragon form and check your scales; older dragons are generally darker

[Mohrlex the Reborn]

Yes, definitely I'm getting old.
I couldn't be darker.

[Kileanna]

My grievance of the hour:
I'm drawing the druid from my RoW party and all this «no metal in the armor» stuff is driving me insane.
I'm making the poor guy lose his druid abilities just to make drawing him easier!

[Goth Guru]

Kileanna wrote:

My grievance of the hour:

I'm drawing the druid from my RoW party and all this «no metal in the armor» stuff is driving me insane.
I'm making the poor guy lose his druid abilities just to make drawing him easier!

How about...pine cone armor!

[DungeonmasterCal]

Yes!

[Kileanna]

I googled it and got some cool results!

['Sani]

Grievance: I want to waste the last half hour at work playing with sound effects in Roll20 for the game I GM, but one of my players is actually in the game working on their macros so I can't, because if they heard the sound effects they might get a clue as to what horrifying death awaits them.

[DungeonmasterCal]

Just tell them you're hungry and it's your stomach rumbling.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have a player (and friend for nearly 30 years) who is currently playing a bard in our campaign. He's 14th level/Mythic 4 and I swear he ONLY does his Bardic buffs and uses his Wand of Magic Missiles in combat. The buffs really help the party, and sometimes he helps with the healing, but overall, he's a 3 trick pony at best. I don't think he's every used a single spell beyond the healing ones, and now that they're facing more and more enemies with Spell Resistance, he just doesn't grasp that the wand is useless. I've seen players make bards just about the best character in a game, but he just doesn't seem to get it at all.

Grievance over.

[Kileanna]

I have a player in my group who, after more than 10 years playing melee fighters and only melee fighters doesn't know how to Power Attack and how iterative attacks work.

[Goth Guru]

Kileanna wrote:

I have a player in my group who, after more than 10 years playing melee fighters and only melee fighters doesn't know how to Power Attack and how iterative attacks work.

1: I thought power attack reduces chance to hit and puts those points into damage. Maybe it's intentional. If they don't hit, they don't damage.

2: Explain iterative attacks.

[Dragoncat]

Goth Guru wrote:

Kileanna wrote:

I have a player in my group who, after more than 10 years playing melee fighters and only melee fighters doesn't know how to Power Attack and how iterative attacks work.

1: I thought power attack reduces chance to hit and puts those points into damage. Maybe it's intentional. If they don't hit, they don't damage.

2: Explain iterative attacks.

Multiple attacks, really. Martial classes generally get them at 6th level. +6/+1 Base Attack Bonus: that means the first attack gets +6 to hit, and the second gets +1 to hit.

[Dire Elf]

Goth Guru wrote:

Kileanna wrote:

I have a player in my group who, after more than 10 years playing melee fighters and only melee fighters doesn't know how to Power Attack and how iterative attacks work.

1: I thought power attack reduces chance to hit and puts those points into damage. Maybe it's intentional. If they don't hit, they don't damage.

2: Explain iterative attacks.

I thought Kileanna meant that the player used Power Attack but used it incorrectly, not that the player didn't use it. I've seen people have a blind spot about learning certain rules. I know I often feel like I should remember how Point Blank Shot works, having given that feat to many characters over the years. Yet whenever I have to make a point-blank shot, I forget what bonus it applies to the attack. I hate conditional modifiers.

To iterate something means to repeat it, hence iterative attacks are repeated attacks during the same round. Fighters especially gain many iterative attacks in Pathfinder as they increase in level.

[Kobold Catgirl]

'Sani wrote:

Grievance: I want to waste the last half hour at work playing with sound effects in Roll20 for the game I GM, but one of my players is actually in the game working on their macros so I can't, because if they heard the sound effects they might get a clue as to what horrifying death awaits them.

Seriously! They need to offer a "GM-only" option for sounds.

[Dalindra]

Dire Elf wrote:

I thought Kileanna meant that the player used Power Attack but used it incorrectly, not that the player didn't use it

That player is afraid of failing a single attack. We have tried to explain him that landing one single Power Attack would net him more damage than landing all of them without Power Attack but he still doesn't dare to use it.

In one of our last sessions we both were flanking the same enemy. He landed his two attacks. I landed only my first one. A Two-handed Power Attack. I had to explain him step by step why I had scored more damage than him... again. A couple of minutes later:

He: "So, Power Attack... Hey, I also have that!"
I: "Then just use it"
He: "But... then I could fail my last attack. Not his time; maybe later"

Facepalm.

[Kileanna]

Being honest, that few times he grudgily agrees to Power Attack he has to be told step by step how it works because he alternatively forgets to lower his attack or to rise his damage.
And even though he hardly ever uses Power Attack he would never think of not picking it as a feat or trying a character that doesn't need to heavily depend on Power Attack.

[Talonhawke]

For that I can recommend a cheat sheet. I use one myself and have had several players want me to make them one with their different attack setups and damages broken down.

[The Usual Suspect]

Considering how close the average damage output between a two-handed weapon and the power attack bonus, Talonhawke is probably right that a cheat sheet showing the differences in to-hit bonuses and damage output would probably be really helpful. Especially if it has a note about DR affects in it; because that's where power attack really shines. Punching through DR. It doesn't matter if you hit, if most (or all) of your damage is soaked up in DR.

[Kileanna]

Most of his problem is that he won't even bother looking at his character sheet. He is this kind of player who likes to sit at the table and have everything done so he only has to think of roleplaying and rolling dice when he is told.
Nowadays I am more busy than I was a few years ago, with personal life, work, etc. I'm also GMing 2 campaigns (Skull and Shackles and Way of the Wicked) and playing a third one (Reign of Winter) so, even if that makes me a really lucky girl, I no longer have a lot of time to do all the job my players are not willing to do. I also have a new player who doesn't know anything of Pathfinder or D&D and is playing a Druid, so whenever I have some time I try to help her because she is the one who needs it the most, while this guy has been a player for about 10 years and has never bothered to do a thing.
So even if that makes me a lazy GM, I am not making cheat sheets for him, at least for now. If he came more often or I had more free time, I might make a bigger effort with helping him, but after many years trying to get him into the basics of the game, I've grown too lazy when it comes to helping him.

[memorax]

Rpg companies that sell PDfs at full or close to full retail. I thought the PDf format was going to make rpgs cheaper. Not slightly less or just as expensive. Their is no one that needs to be paid to print, make or transport the finished product. Yet some companies insist on sellign them more than 20-25$. I wanted to purchase the L5R 4E PDf since the print is very hard to find and existing copies on places like Amazon are too highly priced. It cost 34$ on Drivethrurpg. In US not Canadian funds. I might as well either wait for the second hand copies to go down in price or a sale on Drivethrurpg. Imo 34$ for the PDF is a bit much .

[Bill Dunn]

memorax wrote:

Rpg companies that sell PDfs at full or close to full retail. I thought the PDf format was going to make rpgs cheaper. Not slightly less or just as expensive. Their is no one that needs to be paid to print, make or transport the finished product. Yet some companies insist on sellign them more than 20-25$. I wanted to purchase the L5R 4E PDf since the print is very hard to find and existing copies on places like Amazon are too highly priced. It cost 34$ on Drivethrurpg. In US not Canadian funds. I might as well either wait for the second hand copies to go down in price or a sale on Drivethrurpg. Imo 34$ for the PDF is a bit much .

$34 for a $60 book? That is cheaper. You expect game companies to not be able to pay for the development and art costs or have some profit to invest in their company because you want cheaper RPGs?

[TriOmegaZero]

Printing and distribution are actually the smallest parts of production costs.

[Haladir]

My biggest pet peeve is RPG companies that don't sell PDF versions of their current-edition rulebooks.

I'm looking at you, Wizards of the Coast!

I'd happily pay $25-30 each for PDFs of the 5e Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, and campaign books like Curse of Strahd, but WotC does not make them available at any price.

I know I could download pirate copies for free, but I do not pirate intellectual property. Legalities notwithstanding, it's a matter of personal integrity and professional ethics. (Part of my job is IP compliance.)

[memorax]

Bill Dunn wrote:

$34 for a $60 book? That is cheaper. You expect game companies to not be able to pay for the development and art costs or have some profit to invest in their company because you want cheaper RPGs?

I see your point but I save a decent amount only if I live in the United States. For someone like me that 34$ in US funds costs me about 45$ Canadian. I'm not saying sell them cheap but a benchmark imo should be half of retail. Sometimes it ends up being more. To be fair it's still better than what on Amazon.ca for the book 261 or was 262$. Yesterday their was a glitch I think and it had it listed at 1261$.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night, and then getting game ideas and working on them. Then I'm up for a lot longer than I mean to. However, I think I've finally finished my house rules compilation. Tomorrow, however, I'll be exhausted. But to quote the immortal band Led Zeppelin, "It's nobody's fault but mine".

[Kileanna]

It's not wasted time. Probably not healthy either but as a person who has suffered from insomnia I'd rather do something productive than rolling in the bed for hours, unable to sleep.