DnD Player RPs PTSD To Be THAT GUY | r/rpghorrorstories

[@DnDDoge]

So I realized I didn't have Memberships turned on, so they are now. Or you can always just support through Patreon www.patreon.com/DnDDoge. Any support is always appreciated!

[@R3GARnator]

As someone with PTSD, I've seen a lot of portrayals of it in fiction. The Punisher show, you can tell they really researched it, but also heavily dramatized it (such as with that infamous "No no no no no!" scene). But the most chillingly realistic portrayal I've seen of PTSD was the titular Goblin Slayer (a series heavily inspired by D&D).

[@KHFMcAwesome]

Not really related to the story itself, but when the first story got to the part about switching mechanics mid session I got an ad saying “Don’t try this at home!” and it lined up SO perfectly it made me laugh 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@PaladinGear15]

Bad DMs always go after the lawful good characters, especially if they're a paladin. I was once told by a DM that a paladin killing bandits in self defence would instantly lose all his paladin powers and be re-labeled as evil, a paladin who loots a dead enemy's body would lose his powers for stealing from the dead, a paladin who killed an undead would instantly lose his powers for desecrating a corpse, a paladin who slept with a girl would lose their powers (cause apparently they must also be chaste?) and a paladin who took a gifted reward after completing a quest would also lose all his powers because he should have refused any reward.

[@PresidentAshenHeart]

Your DM sounds like he doesn't know anything about paladins in DnD. Paladins follow oaths, so unless you do something that violates THAT oath (an oath of chastity for example), you're not losing your powers.

[@LoneWanderSpark303]

This makes me imagine a system in which paladin characters are completely self-sufficient so long as they remain a paladin. - Never gets hungry, thirsty, or sleepy (no exhaustion). - Intangible to all hazards, and can extend this to allies (to prevent being dead weight). - Can materialize any item they need for any situation, including one-of-a-kind items. - Enemies cower in your presence and lose hostile intentions. If they power through and attack anyway, all attacks are forced to critically fail. - Gear does not tarnish and can only break if they want it to. - Unusually adept at knocking people out without inflicting lasting injuries. - Your allies will always succeed on death saves. I just wanted to imagine something that would make such an awfully restricted paladin a worthwhile choice. That DM sounds lame.

[@megatronjenkins2473]

Wow, hope he's not your DM anymore.

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

IIRC Paladins did have a lot of restrictions in the beginning. Of the ones your DM listed the only one that was even partially right was Chastity. There were restrictions such as you couldn't force yourself and wedlock was preferred. I am however incredibly puzzled by the 'can't kill undead' one though. That was a lot of the paladin's job. Undead by most religions were already thought to be desecrated by the very unnatural act of being made an undead. And killing them was restoring the natural order of things.

[@PaladinGear15]

@@davidtherwhanger6795 Honestly it made very little sense to me. Paladins are zealous crusading warrior knights, yet this DM (and some others I've met) seem to think they're nuns in shiny metal costumes.

[@mikigirl18]

Wow. That's one psychotic Kender. I mean, I know they are kleptos, but they're never really that evil.

[@krystlvines]

they aren't even klepto, just adhd as hell

[@supercoolmaniajon265]

Mental excuses made by players. PTSD- I can kill whoever I want ADHD- I don't need to remember anything I don't want to. INTROVERSION- I don't need to socialise with my party members. BIPOLAR- Free forgiveness for all my sins. SCHIZO- Ok compared to the others this one's actually pretty cool. DEPRESSION- Pander to me or I'll kill mesylf.

[@pugking4518]

I am playing as a PC who has PTSD do to traumatic events but the one thing that PTSD does not let you do is do anything you want that player is just using it as a excuse to cover their bad behaviour

[@Candymanic]

everytime i hear someone playing a Kender, I literally twitch. So many people play Kender as an excuse to be a dick, and don't even play the damned race right

[@PiscesAustrinus]

just show them consequences, the first time its a freebie, the second its a warning, the third time its retaliation, the 4rft its completly on purpouse and guess what...actions have consequences...nothing a knife on the hand and twisting it wont hammer the point...and if the "its what my character would do" comes out, you can also say "and thats how my character reacts to thiefs, its what "my" character would do" not so fun when someone else does it to you

[@brandonturner4113]

Kinder did used to have lore about issues with property and theft. But it was disruptive and wotc changed it for a reason

[@DellikkilleD]

@@brandonturner4113 lol wotc changed it? another abortion I wont be acknowledging.

[@clericofchaos1]

You absolutely CAN play an insane character. you just have to make sure that your antics don't annoy other players or disrupt the game. A good rule of thumb is just to ask your fellow players ooc after the session whether or not you went too far and should pull back on some things.

[@Omnywrench]

So Barbarian went from acting like a baby to... acting like a baby

[@theawkwardpotato1973]

Manchild to actual child.

[@wahoodotwav]

as someone with cptsd id just like to note really quick: age regression is real and can be a ptsd coping mechanism but its pretty rare, most often involuntary, highly unlike what that guy in the 2nd story was doing, and NOT the only thing ptsd does to someone by a long shot. i wouldnt be surprised if that guy was just doing it to be sexual and weird. i hate how agere has almost become synonymous with fetish shit because abdl/ddlg/whatever communities think that conflating the two is just fine

[@Omnywrench]

Does age regression in PTSD cases usually involve the person regressing back to the age they were when they were originally traumatized? Or something else?

[@wahoodotwav]

@@Omnywrench to my knowledge it can but im not 100% sure how common it is. in general regressors will end up at a specific mental age that varies from person to person but some people moreso have age ranges (anywhere from 4 to 9 years old for example) and sometimes it does end up being the age the person was first or most severely traumatized at

[@burtonmoore996]

That sounds sad, but not an excuse for bad behavior in adults.

[@mojpiesto]

How did you get ptsd? And what does the c in front of it stand for assuming it's not a typo?

[@TheLaughingDove]

​​@@mojpiesto CPTSD (I also have it) is PTSD that develops from long periods of continuous types of trauma, like abuse, rather than the more commonly known "shellshock" like variety of PTSD which results from a single or very narrow set of events (eg, surviving a bad earthquake, a bombing, sharp periods of combat possibly although I think some of the prolonged duties might fall more in the CPTSD range? Unsure). Basically the difference between a bone breaking from one sharp blow vs being in a vice for a long period of time with additional weight added over the time until it snaps. PTSD also isn't actually a measure of how bad something is necessarily (it's always from something bad, obviously, but it doesn't exist only only one extreme end of a sliding scale), because it's about the way someone's brain and body processes a trauma, not necessarily the trauma itself. Not necessarily unlike how two people may receive the same knee wound but one might heal and maintain flexibility but another may scar in a way that makes them unable to walk.

[@Bionicbutter43]

People like this make me grateful for my group

[@vincenthernandez2242]

OP: "What if we played D&D but like, cyberpunk? But how would we make magic cyberpunk-y?" Sahdowrun: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@TigerW0lf]

If i had a nickel for every story where someone used PTSD as an excuse to be disruptive, I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice.

[@ss3nm0dn4r8]

I'd have a dollar

[@GXrst64tlc]

@@ss3nm0dn4r8 I'd have 20 bucks.

[@megatronjenkins2473]

@@TigerW0lf I'd have a dollar, give or take. People these days really suck.

[@MarquisLeary34]

And that's why if you got PTSD and apply for our group, instant rejection. We're not having that crap here.

[@burtonmoore996]

I have PTSD, it's never an excuse to be an asshat.

[@phobiawitch835]

That first story just makes me so angry for a lot of reasons, including that I sympathize greatly with OP basically being forced to try and be a moral compass, and being punished for it, and being punished gor mistakes they make as well with stripping of class features. I’ve been there. I was a Half Orc Cleric in my case. Over a year of playing that character and it just became miserable near the end cuz I was in the same boots, only my DM was just manipulative and at times incompetent I think. That experience actually caused me to be hesitant about playing clerics and any religious character ever again. My next toe dip in was almost 2 years later, with a bard who had religious tones. And as of a few months ago, I joined a full campaign, finally playing a Cleric again (a Drow Peace Domain cleric of Eilistraee). Sure I’m still the most Good aligned character for the most part, but my character isn’t forced to play a moral compass, and only really has some reins when it is something he truly feels needs to be done (joining a certain quest we are on, for example, which he sympathizes with due to backstory, and because it feels like there may be time constraints on it). It’s fun to be a cleric again.

[@LordChaosHavik]

If Magneto dosen't have the right ti do whatever he wants, your character doesn't.

[@flamiaminu5536]

Okay but hear me out: Magneto should be allowed - I am dragged offstage by a comically large hook

[@MrJasonx249]

I made a character that suffered from PTSD all we did was make it to where if he failed a percentage roll he didn't receive the benefits of a full rest

[@nekorina9011]

That "PTSD" representation is somehow even worse than Flippy from Happy Tree Friends

[@Someone_ExistsVtuber]

Let's go, I read the PTSD story on my channel almost a day before Doge lmao

[@MortusVanDerHell]

Story 1: I just can't listen to this statement anymore: ‘Don't be a pussy’. The only correct answer to that is: ‘I'm not. They're injected with all kinds of shit and because I won't let them do that to me, we're having this conversation.’ To the PTSD barbarian: Yes, he has the most combat experience - but we can all also clearly see that he is not emotionally stable enough to lead ‘anyone’, so he should do as he is told and wait to be asked for advice by the leader so that his combat experience can be put to good use and the group is not suddenly leaderless in the middle of battle because the barbarian leader has suddenly mutated into destabilised bread.

[@watcherofmemelords7967]

Those two dms in the plotting dms story are a embarrassment to the title they should have their dm rights removed and their resources destroyed so they can't do anything like this ever again.

[@deepseastonecore3017]

Thanks 4 all the hard work.

[@siobhanroberts2329]

Thanks for still being a working doge through all your life stuff. I appreciate and admire you a lot and you're inspiring me to try and be creative and productive even though I'm having a tough time too. Thanks Doge! Pat pat!

[@megancole4535]

Feel better Doge!!

[@loganbetts70]

Hope you feel better soon, I always listen to your stories at work!

[@7thsealord888]

Story #1 - Yeah, stay way from THIS bunch. Story #2 - The DM had no idea what he wanted to run, probably picked the Strahd campaign at random, and pretty much kneejerked and freebirded from there. That he couldn't or wouldn't do anything about PTSD Barbarian speaks volumes. Another instance of wondering why the others hung around as long as they did..

[@absolutfx]

It really is possible the PTSD OP is the problem player here. I know the Barbarian is bad too, but considering the group went with him...something smells fishy.

[@jampine8268]

I get your point, but given that none of them left either, it gives the impression that a lot of them, OP included where being door mats.

[@MatthewHollow]

The others stayed because they wanted to please the barbarian's PTSD for the sake of the game, while the OP went for IC reasons. Although you might be on to something with his deadpool like PC. Like Jampine said, the bigger problem here is that nobody said anything to stop Barbarian's behavior, which let him to grief the experience of others as he pleased. Their inaction led to him to pushing the limits and forcing his fetish on others in the game.

[@Vahktang]

“I cast Heal on your character with PTSD. There, you’re healed.”

[@Autobubbs]

My Tiefling Barbarian has PTSD.... earned through a combination of the DM elaborating on minute details given in her backstory, and all of the bad decisions she/I have made throughout the game. It's used constructively for roleplay rather than for 'that guy' BS. BTW, NEVER follow a Goblin's lead.

[@AlinNightwing]

I own a two headed flail that instead of spiked balls on the ends of the chains, they are two of those big fist sized d20s... if someone at my table tried to go man-baby mode, I'd have this burning urge to just need to go for a good ol' tried and true nut shot, man check the player with 2 nat 20's on chains. There is absolutely no excuse to want to play anything of that kind in a game. Maybe a bad guy with a charm effect that inputs the effect for a very short period but the player recovers... but to just do that and stay with it? get off my table

[@thephantomspectator407]

The benefits of regular, high-doses of "Kittium" are seriously under-valued in modern society! 🥰😸😋

[@hatientacetlen4246]

Every time I hear about someone wanting to put their kink/fetish into a game I feel the need to remind people. There are parties out there that can accommodate your kinks, look online for where people with your interests gather and see if anyone wants to play a ttrpg or do ERP but don't spring stuff on people who didn't agree to that.

[@theawkwardpotato1973]

The VERY first red flag I see is someone playing a Kender. From every horror story I've seen (which is my only experience with Kender at all), that by itself is just a big neon sign that says, "I will constantly steal from and be an active hindrance to the party and phrase it as 'iT's WhAt mY cHarAcTeR wOuLd Do.'" An excuse to roleplay as a character of the Chaotic Asshole alignment, basically.

[@wannabehistorian371]

Funny, I have a D&D character concept for a character with PTSD. Albeit based on a pre-existing character. And he also flies. This is… blah.

[@aleximarie8958]

Oooo if u wanna share I'd love to hear ur concept!

[@wannabehistorian371]

@@aleximarie8958 It’s basically just a D&D AU for pre-existing characters that my friends and I came up with, sorry. ^^;

[@aleximarie8958]

@@wannabehistorian371 Nah it's okay! Hope you guys have fun!!!

[@bellarose4816]

I mean my DM customized Death House like every other obsessed Strahd-er but it took us like 6 sessions to get thru Death House lol

[@nushiwolfgang]

Get well soon Doge.

[@iank472]

Now hold on there Doge! Deadpool may be comic relief (he's literally a parody of Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke from DC) but like his parody target he is terrifyingly effective at what he does. Deadpool doesn't fail forward he brutally murders people while making dark and off colour jokes.

[@unluckyone1655]

Honestly, alignment locked classes is my biggest complaint about older editions.

[@fred_derf]

So... the first story isn't about a toxic player, but about a toxic group. I hate to say it (it's so cliché) but this is why session zeros are so important. So the players and DMs can discuss what kind of game everyone wants to play.

[@vortega472]

Yep, after the day I had, I need the kitties. Luckly like the Doge I too have a Baby House Panther and a Tabby Terror.

[@Nimblefruitquail]

As someone with ptsd. Age regression is a real thing alot of suffers have myself included but it's not something most people are open about it's a private safe thing that helps you relive a bad childhood in a positive way . But that was defo a fetish thing he did and not ok . Real age regression is not a fetish it's pure and wholesome and your literally in the mindset of a child and you can't control it it's an involuntary truma response . Op just wanted to call the girls mommy which is gross

[@XanderMorhaime]

I may be a spiteful git, but if I'd been that paladin, I'd probably have just gone, "Welp, I guess I'll die", jumped down the well (ideally flipping them the bird while doing so), and left the party with no tank and TWO extra packs of enemies to deal with.

[@ganmerlad]

Second story -- if you're going to pretend your character has a real-life mental problem, you should at least know how it works. Probably better not to pretend real mental/emotional problems at all, actually. Just make up something new with its own rules. Barbarian didn't understand PTSD at all. He seemed to do a sociopath pretty well though.

[@Caveat-Cat]

Awww hope you feel better soon ^^

[@aclevername7613]

i love kender but you really gotta know how to balance their desire to grab things and other quirks without making them insuffrable. Seen plenty who turn kender to just a annoying chatterbox that won't shut up and just constantly is taking everything no matter how dumb>.>

[@rynowatcher]

First one: some of the complaints are kind of nonsense, but that last encounter was kind of dumb. Op made a 4e character for a 3.5e game; sounds like a misunderstanding more than a problem. Changing from 3.5 to pathfinder is awkward mid campaign, but they were really similar. I do not think that is worth bringing up if not the end. Kinder are annoying... the 1e&2e version had the Kinder steal random things from the party, no roll. They could not target anyone as they would just steal things whenever they had a chance. 5e Kinder are a vast improvement, and i do not remember them in 3e and pathfinder definately did not have them, so this was probably home brew. Any game is better without Kinder. Though the dms did not respond to it well, the last game seems to be a reaction to the op being a lawful stupid paladin. They say he was ruining their fun, so it seems like the rest if the group thinks he is "that guy."

[@iank472]

Oh cool a long time TTRPG player getting to play D&D for the first time! They got the starter set! Great jumping off point! It's what edition? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Edit: they dodged one bullet just to catch a damn baseball bat to the face.

[@l0stndamned]

Sounds like the DMs wanted the OP along to bully more than wanting another player. Also kender is always a red flag. Second story: the player is certainly scum but the DM is a problem for enabling the him as well as the change in plot.

[@monikasernek1177]

I would give the worst response to the PTSD guy age regression bs.

[@beardedwonder8333]

I mean it sounds like the Paladin trying to save townsfolk didn’t understand somethings in D&D are gonna be railroaded… Like he was supposed to follow his group and fight… you know like a tank is supposed to do.

[@krystlvines]

those guys were literally stringing him along and trying to punish him for not being an asshole

[@beardedwonder8333]

@@krystlvines maybe but we’re also only hearing 1 side… The side that we are hearing is telling us that despite massive hint that he is supposed to fight the boss he decided to abandon the party during a fight and continue to try to save people he clearly wasn’t able to save due to storyline.

[@starkiller1289]

​@@beardedwonder8333but even if he let the people get sacrificed it is almost certain the DMS would "punish" him for "letting an innocent die" he was in a no-win situation.

[@beardedwonder8333]

@@starkiller1289 again we are only hearing one side, as a DM I’ve had to almost stop games cause of players that don’t realize some things are going to happen due to the storyline.

[@supercoolmaniajon265]

Who's that on the thumbnail. Looks like a movie villain.

[@williansnobre]

Cowboy Bebop - Episode 01 - Asteroid Blues The character is the bounty of the week the characters are trying to capture

[@legendnodensetsu8423]

The DMs who allowed a player to steal from other players without any skill checks (stealth vs perception for example, and this could also include other party members' perception checks) and without notifying the player until he wanted to use it... no dnd is better than bad dnd. It's almost like you aren't playing a social role playing game where you can have out of character conversations as a group to plan out what's going to happen next. Wanna have a player who plays against the other players? Why not, I dunno, agree to it as a group first? These guys are just having fun at other people's expenses :/

[@ThievingDuo]

THIS IS A GET-BETTER-SOON-DOGE-COMMENT PLEASE CONTINUE SCROLLING. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

[@danielmartinontiverosvizca7325]

¿playing 3.5 is a red flag? kek

[@Ieatpaste23]

I argue not playing 3.5 is a red flag.

[@krystlvines]

wow, that guy gives kender a bad name. And "white knight syndrome"? It's called BEING A HERO

[@zixserro1]

First Story: Man, that group sucks. Kinda wish OP had gone along with the Kender, though, and had gone and switched up to being evil, just to lose their powers and fuck over the party to the point where they didn't have a tank or a paladin with powers and all got killed, so OP could say, "Hey, you didn't want my paladin to be a paladin, so you lost your tank and died because of it."

[@rosegirlz88]

I put my paw on the like button 🐾🐾

[@Doodle1776]

Changing systems because of an argument is dumb as hell. Though Pathfinder really is just 3/3.5e anyway and it's why I have zero interest in it because I don't like 3/3.5e either. Too many rules, almost zero wiggle room, built entirely for ultra power-gaming, and not new player friendly.

[@AmaryInkawult]

I have two characters that have PTSD. Both with their own tables on how they react to a situation related to their trauma. 1d4 to decide how severe their panic attacks will be. None of this bullshit. One result that MIGHT be comparable to this barbarian would be Result 4: Hyperventilation, Body Tremors, Partial Paralysis, and Severe Hallucinatory Flashbacks. Each symptom has disadvantages to different rolls when acting out in combat. Save for partial paralysis which adds a 1d2 chance to not be able to do anything that turn. 50% chance that their body would not act because of the severity of the trauma. They are in no way completely useless in a fight and it gives them and the party role play opportunities to work past the trauma.

[@littlegiantj8761]

Played a Goblin who had some PTSD at the hands of his gang's torturer and the death of a ransom-prisoner he was tasked with overlooking. Nightmares, bouts of anger (never at the Party); that's the extent of it. Mostly channeled into an obsessive drive to reform and "be the goblin (the prisoner) would want me to be, and die trying"

[@Dingle-Issacoglu]

Get Better Soon.

[@dientimuri3956]

That is so very much not how PTSD works. What an ass. Also, if the DM wanted to run a D&D module, he shouldn't have tried to shoehorn cyberpunk stuff. And if he was genuine about being willing to do cyberpunk stuff there are much better systems than D&D.

[@Kyzoren]

30:24 Doge... Please... I beg of thee, I can't take it anymore! 😭 It's pronounced "E-sék-eye", not "EH-sék-eye", it's driving me nuts! "It's LeviOOOsa, not LeviosAAH"

[@jampine8268]

Canadian AI be like:

[@Kyzoren]

@@jampine8268 lol

[@vampire9545]

That's not bad DND that's not even dnd

[@dracone4370]

What do you think is the best Cat Archetype in games and stories?

[@zerothehero6100]

I'm not sure I completely buy the version of events being told in the PTSD story. Everyone went with the disruptive mommy kink Barbarian and left the kids to die? No one even cared enough to look at OP's fight? No one's thoughts or actions are described except OP's and Barbarian's that whole sequence? It might be that everyone found his Deadpool character to be as annoying as Barbarian or more.

[@marybdrake1472]

The barbarian player doesn't know PSTD from a bloody hole in the ground. He was just being, well, I don't know what really. I'd say he was an ass, but that feel far too light a descriptor. It doesn't even feel accurate to call him that. 🤦‍♀🤦‍♀

[@MarquisLeary34]

Curse of Strahd; NOT. EVEN. ONCE Trying to force D&D into a cyberpunk genre. NOT. EVEN. ONCE. Spineless players and DM's. NOT. EVEN. ONCE. Now add "PTSD characters to the NEO list.

[@brandonturner4113]

I actually really enjoyed my curse of strahd campaigns people just give it a shitty rep.

[@xzafir515]

Sorry about the throat but I'll do you one better how about a comment a like and a subscriber I can't believe I hadn't subbed before

[@ISpyDeli]

Telling them to make Cyberpunk characters and then going loljk its Curse of Strahd is weird, but also, instead of making cyberpunk dnd, *just play an actual Cyberpunk game*. Play Cyberpunk Red or whatever else. I just cannot understand people who try to cram any possible kind of game into dnd5e. There are in fact other genres of TTRPG, and there are in fact games other than dnd5e...

[@CooperAATE]

DTT

[@jacksonbarkerthebluehairedfox]

Hate to be that guy, but first! Hahaha!

[@PaladinGear15]

You weren't first, I'm afraid.

[@SmeddyTooBestChannel]

Hate to be that guy, but first! Hahaha!

[@jacksonbarkerthebluehairedfox]

@@PaladinGear15 Dammit