15 Irritating Things Other Players Do - Player Character Tips

[@lilpotayto]

"Can I roll for Perception?" Oh, you can see everything in the room perfectly fine. There's no need. "I'm really good at Perception." I know you are, but right now there's nothing extra to perceive. "Can I roll anyway?" It won't make any- Fine... sure. "I rolled a 19! Do I notice anything extra?" Nothing out of the ordinary catches your eye. "But I rolled a 19." Yes. But you're already aware of everything in the room. Once you step outside there might be something to find. "Can I try again?"

[@Rikaisupcom]

Wow this happened to me too. This became a meme in my group how stupidly that boy acted that day by doing exactly this.

[@droxictoxic2624]

I had a player that did this kind of thing almost every game session, and it would always annoy the GM to no end.

[@whade62000]

You take in all the wonderful smells and colors in the room. The particular way the lights glints off the edge of a vase in the corner catches your eye, making you notice how wonderfully pointed the edge of the bookshelf next to it is. As you run your eyes through the beautifully arranged books -your high Perception helping you to see their titles even at this distance - you ponder if they may have anything to do with your quest, but realize that they aren't. From the corner of your eye you see your teammates fidgeting, not missing the strange way the vein is pulsating on Faeryn's forehead when he sees you're being distratced from your immediate task by the enviroment again. I feel like you shouldn't just say "you see nothing", it takes little effort to reward the player with some candy prose that highlights how his heightened senses(or habit of looking carefully at things) makes the world look to him. Even "fail" messages should be fun.

[@ethanmartin82]

This hurts my soul

[@huehuecoyotl2]

Gotta control that with a negative consequence: Here's a response: "Great roll, yes indeed you perceive something, you pierce the veil of reality and realize that life and everything you do is pointless and you have no free will. Roll a wisdom check, DC 40, to avoid an existential crisis and if you fail, roll a Constitution check DC 20 to avoid bleeding out from slit wrists. Since you do it in the middle of the night on your watch, your companions are not available to save you, unless they pass a DC 25 perception check to hear your muffled, pathetic whimpers. Good Luck!"

[@goddrag6096]

I'm watching this video before my first ever dungeons and dragons game just in case.

[@messfanfare7126]

goddrag me tooooo mine is going to be in three days and I’m excited and nervous

[@samcanham6215]

@@messfanfare7126 My friend and some people from school are going to start playing and I'm so excited!

[@KayBbyXOXOXO]

goddrag same 🤣

[@katsunada]

How was your first session

[@goddrag6096]

@@katsunada it went well, tough i wasnt accostumed to the game and rules and all that but other than that it wasnt Hard to play (that might be because of the fact that i've played rpgs that have similar ideas tô D&D)

[@allisonfields3108]

Players who change their backstories or refuse to tell the DM all the details! I work hard to write side missions for each character that are personal, and I've got one player who changes. His. Backstory. Daily! "You turn around, and see a famailair face. Your father, who you believed was dead. What do you do?" "Well.... actually, I was thinking it would be more dramatic if I killed my father myself, so he is definitely dead. No way he could have survived." "That's not what you told me before." "I changed my mind." STICK. WITH. YOUR. BACKSTORIES. PLEASE!!!!!

[@fairystail1]

oh my god yes! I had a player say their character was raised by their grandfather, so imagine my surprise halfway through a session to find out the player was homeless because the grandfather was dead.

[@allisonfields3108]

@@fairystail1 Suffering is just part of being a DM sometimes, I guess, but we do end up putting with some ridiculous things 😂

[@Hermectic]

I make small edits to mine, like I had a long and backstory so I just proof read and minimized words and removed anything that wasn’t important to my character. However, I DO change my characters outfit too much. I don’t tell my DM this for personal reasons...

[@noellelavenza494]

In that case I'd just say he pulled a Playboy of the Western World and thought the dad was dead when he wasn't.

[@patrickrannou1278]

First, I don't do any backstory related stuff until the characters have "gelled" a little bit (at least 2 levels ups without changing their backstory). I ask the players to give me their revised backstory at EVERY level bnot just on creation. If I see a modified backstory I just say "if you ever want any backstory related stuff to happen to your PC in the game, stop changing your backstory." and then I just concentrate on the others players instead. When half of a game session is backstory related stuff for everybody BUT the guy who changed his backstory, and then he complains that he didn't get much to do, you just say: well, you changed your backstory, and I did not want to risk wasting time prepping stuff just for you that I won't be able to use anyway because you'll just change your backstory again later on. so, sucks to be you, but you'll have your candy when you can stick to one story. Basically you wait until they promise not to change it anymore and that it is now "final". Then if they change it again you just say "Sorry bud, I don't care what you wrote on your Nth version of your PC's backstory, you gave me THIS version (holding YOUR copy of his backstory) and that's your PCs' backstory for now and forever. Not happy with that? Well, maybe your PC is delusional or something and just made himself THINK that he killed his father. I don't care. Asking me to prep stuff expressly for your PC and then trying to ignore it afterwards is VERY RUDE, you know. Now, say you're sorry, or else you can opt to remain free to change your backstory as often as you like, but at the price that I am NEVER going to waste any time again doing any backstory related in-game events for your PC again, and you'll just have to accept to end up having LESS time in the spotlight than the other PCs. Even if they say "ok, *THIS* is the final version now, I won't change it anymore after that one!", you MUST NOT yield. "No deal. Frigging stock dicking around with me and treating me like a wet mop. I made sure your backstory version was stable before spending hours of prep time just for your PC alone. So choose, right now: EXACTLY the version in my hand *OR* you'll get ZERO backstory related events for your PC, ever. Because I really hate being disrespected wasting my time for nothing, you know. (player complains) Hey sorry buddy but this is ALL on YOU. Next time, learn to make up your mind properly right away instead of being such a wishy-washy weathercock that constantly changes direction. Complain ONCE again, and the choice will be made for you and it will definitely become "Zero backstory for your PC, because it's just going to be a source of headaches and grievances for me anyway.". You'd be surprised how quickly they stop that kind of shenanigans. Yeah, they'll complain, but they will respect you WAY MORE afterwards. Otherwise, you're just like a parent sdaying No you can't east candies before dinner".... but let's them eat all the candy they want before dinner *anyway*. It is also exactly like saying: If you harass me and complain to me enough, you'll win". It only encourages bad behavior in the end. Either a player adapts and stops being a dickhead, or they leave. And you're always better off with less players that all respect you as a DM, than having some rotten apples in your cart.

[@chemllit]

Players that refuse to accept any plot hooks from the DM. "You see a shady man pull out his dagger and slink into an alley" "well thats not my business, take us to the next quest DM" "Uhh.. alright later in the day a letter is delivered to your room at the inn addressed to some lord about a caravan of nice valuables you may wish to steal" "I take the letter to the innkeep and tell him it isnt mine, next quest Mr. DM" "Fine. In the middle of the night a couple of giants wander into town and start recking the place. They smash the wall of your inn room, please roll for initi-" "I run away as fast as I can. Next quest please, DM"

[@Underleaf76]

I can understand the frustration on your end, especially when you spent hours prepping said plot hooks and encounters... but honestly I wouldn't fault them, this happens to me all the time with the party I run in my game. It's why I make sure to have loads of potential side quests some of which lead into the main story arc, and if they skip over a specific plot hook to the main story I usually will find a way to circle them back around to it without them even realizing it. Sometimes the motivations they have at that specific moment tend to keep them from wanting to follow said suspicious guy into the alley. Now if they had a Pally in the party and that happened, I would just facepalm at that point.

[@heatherly6340]

I... no people actually do that... why... O.O

[@mrknarf4438]

True. If you don't want to play, just don't come. It's not the dms job to force you to go live an adventure, you should know why your character is willing to jump in.

[@greymouse451]

This strikes home. I was running and adventure in Dungeons and Dragons Adventures League for a convention. The adventure had the obvious hook of a gnome arguing with four people and a light breaks out. The players decide to go to another tavern. Okay, what do I do to get them on the adventure. Well, the roughed-up gnome enters the tavern and says, "you look like you can handle trouble," yadda yadda yadda. The players' response? "Not my problem." What now? Last ditch effort. The four ruffians from before approach the party and ask, "you want to help us steal diamons from out employer?" Nah, we're not interested. Under the new DnDAL rules, players don't actually get to keep the treasure. They earn "treasure points" that can be exchanged for items or gold and earn a small sum at each level. The NPC's offering the reward is not an enticement. I ended the session. "Let's see: you completed none of the objectives, so not advancement checkpoints and no treasure checkpoints." This started an uproar. They had paid for a gaming session, how could I end it so early without giving awards? I explained it was a two-hour slot and they spent one hour ignoring the 20 minute hook. Even if we retcon, we can't complete the adventure and there is another game scheduled for the table so we can't start again. Sorry those are the breaks. I wanted to, but didn't add, "next time, don't jerk the DM around at a convention."

[@DarthSironos]

You have to give them an actual plot hook, something that would make their character want to act. What can be gained following shady men with drawn daggers into alleys? A dagger in the gut? Unless your players are police officers/townguard/equivalent of this, why would you follow a knife wielding shady guy into an alley? Have someone hire them to track down a local murderer and promise them a reward for doing so. That is a plot hook that gives the characters a reason to get involved. Unless your players are blackmailers, robbers or other kinds of criminals, letters about lootable caravans are not that great of a hook. A letter about a caravan of stolen goods and the promise of a reward would be a much easier sell to get non-evil characters motivated to act. If a giant was strong enough to smash through the wall of an inn, any but the strongest characters would be suicidal not to run. And even if their characters are high level demigods, why risk death for no gain unless they are paladins? Have the innkeeper cry "300 gold to anyone who helps defend my inn" and you have your hook. Otherwise you are asking your players to have their characters act like braindead adrenalin junkies.

[@EskChan19]

We had a good laugh though when someone didn't want to get that there was no hidden info though. ""You enter a room. It looks like a bar, there a row with glasses, used to pour drinks for travelers a-" "I'll take a closer look at the glasses!" "They're glasses to drink from" "I take an even closer look at the glasses!" "The glasses are made of glass" "Can i roll a perception check on the glasses?" "... sure" "Natural 20!" "Oh good. You realise that the glasses are made from an inorganic matter, containing silicates, sometimes made from melting sand" "Isn't that just glas?" "Yes" *turns to the other players* "I'm starting to think our DM doesn't have anything planned for these things" The rest of the group: "You don't say."

[@vanelly5652]

EskChan19 I just imagine someone going into a one hour lesson on how it combined sands of the sea and the blood of a heroic fisher, both burned over a volcano in his honor and finishing with “in short, it was made of glass”

[@CaesarLvcivs]

"Look, at least you found out how glass is made just by looking at it. Cool huh?" xD

[@elgatochurro]

Legit, our munchkin cleric had high wisdom and insight prof., but he never suspected anyone of lying to him outside of merchants... he just tries using insight to ask "is the item really worth that much? Is it truly that powerful? Is he stiffing me on the price?" (Yes, good magic items will be EXPENSIVE) Yet I could just lie and even sell him cursed items at a low price freely, insulting the merchant? Congrats, heres a magic shield (that magically directs arrowsand spells right at you.)

[@Geminosity]

I once made the mistake as a GM of accidentally describing what was basically a cleaning closet in a little extra detail and it took me about 20 minutes to finally convince the party there definitely wasn't anything of interest in there unless they were some kind of eccentric collector of vintage buckets, mops and brooms :P

[@sebbro9432]

@elgatochurro A bit late but I feel like I've got to ask, have you actually had to hold that shield for the effect to work? Because if not then that actually has a lot of potential to be useful, just throw the shield to the side of the battle at the start, and you can no longer be hit by arrows or targeted spells, forcing enemies into melee range and basically invalidating a number of spells enemies can cast on you

[@AnthanKrufix]

I had a DM once say "No" to TWENTY-EIGHT different characters I tried to enter his RP with.... all for different and in-fact conflicting reasons. "Nah, that race is too exotic and unusual." "Human? No that's way too boring." "That race is really overused I've seen 5 people be them in past campaigns. I want something I've never seen someone be before." "Whoa, I've never seen someone play as one of those before, Nah, don't know how that'd work out." "Good Aligned? Nah it's overused." "Evil? No it'd go against the party's wishes." "Nah, I never trust players with neutral aligned characters, they always sit back and do nothing." "We have a few magic users in the party already, can you be someone without it?" "Barbarian? I did say this is a highly magic focused campaign right? You gotta be someone with magical talent." etc. ------------------------------ I decided not to take part in it, but I did end up reading up on the plotline to it later.... it was a purely railroaded storyline... said DM's "precious creation" which the players weren't allowed any control over. Completely enforced via the DM's own party character who made all the decisions and acted as the party's superior/mentor, because it was the DM's character who was the only one who had the necessary magical power to cause damage to the supernatural enemies in the campaign. Every plot related enemy was completely immune to damage from everyone else playing, unless the DM Character cast an enchantment on them once per day.

[@2Infinit2]

Your DM sounds like a fucking moron. Hahaha.. I feel bad for you guys

[@thepip3599]

He should just write a book. He’d clearly rather do that anyway.

[@isabelrayns7622]

@Stirgid Lanathiel Small issue I personally have with this is that (at least due to my experiences) the players always come up with something totally completely ridiculous, no matter what. We started a campaign (Pathfinder) that switches DM every arc. It's not my favorite system (mostly due to continuity errors and rules that are not universally applied, other than that newbie DMs) but it works. We had a party wipe a while ago and made a new one, doing a session 0 to make sure the characters would cooperate and work together. Session 1 a guy shows up with his minmaxed grappler murderhobo that does nothing but kill (unimportant) NPCs that takes up 1,5 hour of the 4 hour session every single time, and the DMs never try to stop it. (I stopped DMing in that group due to very negative feedback that sucked all joy out of DMing for me for the past 6 months)

[@isabelrayns7622]

@Stirgid Lanathiel I'm going to reply to each paragraph seperately, as it's quite a long comment :'). I've talked about the issue with a few other players. We've decided to give him the benefit of the doubt in the campaign of the current GM as it involves less situations that are disruptable by Murder-Hoboing it up. I'll wait for a while and if the issue persists then I'll share my thoughts at the table. I'm don't think this is some form of insecurity, he is known for liking to "break the game" when playing video games as well, it's just the character he plays this particular time has this kind of behaviour. I'll be fair, our group isn't really a "group" in the sense as for example Critical Role is, everyone made their own character and had no real incentive to trust others with their life or secrets (despite us having a session 0 and me making a character that is best friends with another player's character), and there haven't been any situations where we needed to work as a team to achieve something, so maybe it's partially being a ingame new group. I must say I dislike the switching DM thing, I have personally experienced that people care less about the game as "the campaign will end in three sessions anyway why would I care?", and I think that is detrimental, and I've noticed it with other players as well. I think it is the type ofcampaign that evokes the behaviour, and the players only use it as an excuse. It is a good idea to talk about the issues I and probably other players have with the campaign, thank you. I'll ask the group what kind of campaign we're all expecting. It is clear to me that we have different expectations, I and my best friend expect a campaign that has a bit more mechanics involved (some of our GMs give not a single shit about mechanics, in which case I asked why we were playing DnD at all and not just did a play, no clear answer from their side), and others want nothing but roleplay. It's a set of different expectations, and there should be a form of middle ground. I most certainly won't stop playing DnD, don't worry, I love this hobby way too much to have a few negative experiences destroy it for me. I must say though, I as a DM, have had a lot of shit piled upon me for a few mistakes I made. For example I did a campaign where a monster came throuh a portal and was clearly a strong adversary. Everyone insulted me for how I had made a "bad campaign", that "no one had a reason to participate in this thing", and that I should do better. Sure, it was a campaign I didn't execute correctly, I made mistakes, sure. But they made it sound like I could do no right, while I've had wonderful feedback for the past few years from other players. One of my best friends later approached me and said a few mistakes I made, but that he had seen I was capable of better than that, as he had personally had played a great campaign I did wonderfully. I have one final issue with the "no one had a reason to participate in this thing" sentence. I, as both DM and player, think it is a player/character's responsibility to have interest in things. If your every answer to any plot hook is "I don't care" or "not my problem", then I find you a bad player. Yes, obviously there's going to be things your character does not care about, a Barbarian might not care for a library obviously meant for the Wizard, and the Wizard might in turn not care for the Gladiator Tournament meant for the Barbarian. I meant in the general sense of ignoring/avoiding plot hooks. I am now a player that has shifted her attitude from waiting, seeing what would happen and react to that, to proactively pursue most if not all hooks a DM throws at the group, as basically no one else will.

[@noamcohen7124]

Guilty of kinda what you mentioned... I was the best dm of my group(four of us) and made a "test" campaign to see of it would even work. My character(wanted to have a big team so they made me make one) mad alot of the decisions cause they couldnt agree on stuff and one would always do the dumbest things he could(as a smart character)

[@auldcrow1461]

Players who tell other players how to play their characters piss me off

[@Lightgrenadez7777]

depends on the situation though, just started a new campaign, some are veterans of the game some are sorta new, some are playing their first game, we always have people throwing tips across the table. Maybe we are extremely lucky cause we all know each other through a friend or two, (we're not close just been at the same gatherings and its popped up we were keen to try it). our GM is fucking amazing. so we could have just hit the jackpot where we have a group of 8 that are perfectly suited. its all about the story and having a blast, but this campaign is all about getting the newbies up to speed (I'm one of the brand new guys), slowly introducing mechanics etc each week as a way to learn.

[@leandrojacobik6019]

its your fault for not chosing sleep for your first spell. lol

[@drstrawbs]

@@Lightgrenadez7777 I agree I had a PC randomly attacks things or I had to convince out of game and his only reason was, that I'm chaotic neutral which in the PC head CN mean I can do whatever I want but in his personality chart that he was honorable. How can you be honorable when your solutions are always kill the bastard and not talk at all

[@LightingInvoker]

A couple of my friends do this. It's been to the point sometimes where we could give them all the character sheets if we wanted to be assholes and they could do it all themselves.

[@grimmofsparta5022]

Playing a character socially or in a specific way, yes, but helping about maybe the general premise of a certain class, it can't hurt unless done poorly

[@julienbrightside8635]

Stop throwing dice on the table with such force that they vanish into the ether and we have to stop everything to find them.

[@Ambers128]

Simple solution. Dice must be rolled on the table or they dont count.

[@tafua_a]

That's why I always take my casino cup with me and roll my dice with it.

[@gguy3600]

At my group we have a homebrew rule where if the dice goes off the table, the player who rolled that dice then has disadvantage on their next roll.

[@julienbrightside8635]

@@gguy3600 That is a good idea.

[@captainkeg4947]

I had a player that would always, almost every other role sling his dice across the table knocking over our minis and set up. And or fly into others dice getting mixed up with other people's dice.... Fucking hated it.

[@GreasyBeasty]

"Everyone else has been roleplaying, while you've been on another fucking planet." So true. Kills me too.

[@eldritchgm]

My biggest pet peeve is under-descriptive GMs, "you're in a tavern" what's in it? "Tavern stuff" ok? Whats the area look like? Who's here? IMMERSE ME, YOU 1 DIMENSIONAL BANANA

[@shikiaura]

I am now stealing that phrase. It's such a cute way to bring an annoyance across

[@firefly7076]

I think that tavern needed a banana added.

[@rebekahvanslooten6004]

AMEN. My current DM does this, and it drives me nuts. Just dropped us off in a new city without any description. Like, what are we supposed to do? We exist in a void right now?

[@ujlt7198]

"Tavern stuff" LOL

[@eldritchkat]

“One dimensional banana” is now my new favorite Insult

[@Grey_Shard]

if the DM ever asks "Are you sure?" - that is not the time to double down. That is the time for the Player to make their Wisdom check. If the DM facepalms, that does not mean your plan is a good one.

[@EmptyBonesJohnny]

Grey Shard i just realized that i ask players, “are you sure” when i DM, and they’re doing something dumb.

[@kirby3554]

Real orc never backs down.

[@sephirothslayer1152]

Lol this reminds me of either my 3rd or 4th session of my first campaign. I was a copper Dragonborn rogue who was with his team up against a young green dragon. Green dragons hated coppers more than any so I tried to find a more stealthy approach...I climbed his tower...from the outside...it wasn’t as tall as it sounds. Anyway, I got to the top and the dm described how it was crumbling and I figured I better get off before it collapsed. I did a plunging attack on the dragon and the dm just kinda slumped over for a while. Apparently he and the rest of the team thought I should stayed and kicked bricks from the top down onto him. That’s the story of how I accidentally broke my dm.

[@linkron9746]

@@sephirothslayer1152 "The plunging attack is the most reliable move in the game!"

[@robertnett9793]

@@sephirothslayer1152 Don't worry. DM's have a reset-button. You just have to push it for 10 seconds and then they reboot.

[@animentamaxarius3931]

Honestly, collecting dice didn't seem to bother you, but rather being way too picky with their dice. I have like nine sets of dice, if the dm tells me to roll a d20, I ain't looking for my favorite d20, I'm grabbin' the closest die to me rollin' it like it owes me money.

[@heyitshawke]

Yeah, I try and have a set for each specific character I play, and only bring more dice than that with me if I know for a fact that I'll need more for whatever reason during that session, if I don't predict that then I borrow dice from other players or the DM for that particular roll For example, I cast ball lightning from my ring of shooting stars. I only made one ball so it dealt 8d8 of damage (as my bonus action that turn I threw it into a tarrasque)

[@jamesmerkel1932]

I have a specific series of d20s, which I roll in order. Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper and "Participation". I also have my oh shit dice, which are 2" across for when I feel my roll really needs to make an impact :)

[@michelemelo6836]

I have a bag full of different dice I have bought individually throughout the years and before every sessions I just mix and match my custom set of 7 dice for that specific session. All the other dice I put in the middle of the table for any friends who need to borrow some dice, or for extra dice in damage rolls.

[@jamesmerkel1932]

@@michelemelo6836 that's an awesome way to pick your dice, if I wasn't ocd about things matching I would steal that in a heart beat :)

[@bainbonic]

I tend to be very superstitious with my dice, probably because I come from a wargaming background where everybody sooner or later becomes at least a little bit superstitious with dice. However if I have a favourite dice or something like that, I make sure it's apart from the rest so I can grab it at a moment's notice.

[@TheKartana]

I cast minor illusion on my die to make it look like a nat 20

[@AdamSwiggitySwooty]

4th wall breach detected lmao.

[@4700Pedro]

Best to use major image and then illusory reality lol

[@m0cachin0]

I've actually used this before on my wizard to win a dice game, I felt heaps good.

[@0x777]

Lemme get this straight, you try to cast a spell that contradicts the wishes of your god of magic, which is basically me, is that correct? (I usually ask my players for confirmation when they do something that could lead to the instant death of their characters)

[@jasonalen7459]

Roll a D20 for Minor Illusion

[@fakjbf3129]

Players who want to retcon an action because they suddenly thought of a better one

[@DeluxeFlame]

When they confuse meta with what their character knows. PC: "You attacked us first!" GM: Roll deception. Player playing PC: wait what? They did! GM: Yes, but you weren't there yet. You don't know that. Player: oh, I didn't say that then. Kills me even more if they roll that check and then try to argue it. Luckily, this was a learning point for the player and he is much better ^_^

[@allyjackson3561]

I would a low it if they have the idea before i have them roll.

[@Bahael]

It's not always that easy to remember what your character knows when you can't actually see through his characters eyes or hear through his ears. There should be plenty of leniency for for that kind of stuff imo.

[@neotagatg3238]

They're times when it is just a misunderstanding. Last Sunday I did that we were in combat and I had a homeruled wand of "Prancing" Lights that shot out horses of light who pranced around. When we tested this wand 2 sessions ago I shot it at our stout dragon-born fighter who braced himself, and was nearly knocked down when it hit. He was asked to make a Str roll and everything. This was a GM joke, but I didn't know that at the time. Cut to our fight with a drider who stayed on the ceiling and refused to come down. I aim fire and hit with prancing lights thinking ok I can knock the drider down. DM goes you light up the drider. I ask did he shake or anything he asked why and i related the story find out the Knockdown effect was just a joke not real a mechanic. I asked to do something else since it was a misunderstanding. I don't feel bad for doing that, and I don't think any player ever should. Sometimes it is just a misunderstanding on how something is phrased or how something is set up asking for a redo isn't bad.

[@jekkareznikov9769]

Even worse when they retcon it after the outcome has been announced and it was a surprising unfavorable outcome. "Oh wait! I didn't know that it works that way... Then I don't do that, my character would've known and done something else"

[@dmstantastic3653]

I played an incredibly impulsive face first sword swinging character for 3 sessions till the other players finally got mad and my response was. "No one asked him to stop." After that the other players had a blast roleplaying an intervention for him. Roleplay the relationship between your party members and these things become amazing it's not a single player game you are a team so act like it!

[@Vinemaple]

Yes! Sometimes the others are prevented from doing this, but barring that, this is a great way to keep the game engaging and on track!

[@ArtemisDalmasca]

Fair enough! I'm glad that worked out for you! I had a party member once who had the 'too many characters' issue. Well, one that she brought in was a chaotic evil person sorcerer I think, who wanted to sleep with everything he saw. He nearly made the lvl20 vampire npc shopkeeper kill him. But no matter what the party said to this character they decided the people were either liked or hated in two seconds. Eventually the barbarian (their real life fiance) got so tired of the character that they killed him after a single session. She whined about it saying how much help he could have been to the party if we'd tried to get to know him and reason with him... But she wouldn't talk to any of the party beyond declaring hate of the desire to claim and screw them.

[@acetown2263]

my whole table looks up rules every turn cause we've only been playing for 1 week lol. all of us including my DM just started in sept this year.

[@Underleaf76]

I think you guys get a pass. No one in their right mind can get mad at this.

[@mementomori5580]

I think the "don't look at the rules" section of this video was a big miss. There are more than enough situations where it's completely ok to look at the rules, even if it's your turn. Maybe you know the general outline of your action but don't remember some specific and are looking it up right now. I think that's always ok.

[@nathanjora7627]

Memento Mori and also, maybe you couldn’t look up the rules when it wasn’t your turn because it was a tense situation when you needed to listen to the DM and the players. But there are still plenty of situations in which players shouldn’t be looking up rules during their turns, I have to say.

[@katiek2615]

I think that's completely fine, that's how our game is too, we're very new and the rules are wayyyyyy too much to keep track of at first!

[@0x777]

It's normal when you just started playing, you want to do everything right, you don't know what does and what doesn't "normally" work in a game, you guys sure get a pass on this. I'd even give you a pass on the dice bit. ;)

[@pochmurny678]

Players, who get easily angry because of their failures and spoil the fun for everyone else.

[@jamieslingsby9907]

Had a player shout at me because he tried to do some uber dramatic acrobatics stuff that involved him jumping off the building (about 20ft) using his grappling hook to stop himself from slamming into the ground (which he planned on attaching to the building after he'd already jumped. I said 'ok this sounds complicated, roll on your agility' he failed very badly. so i said you get tangled in the rope of your grappling hook as you go down and it swings you into the building, you take no damage but are stunned for D3 actions. And he went on a right tantrum about it as is jumping (not even trying to abseil) straight off the roof of a 20ft building was an every day action that he'd pass automatically because he had a grappling hook.

[@floppymcdankus2905]

I had a ranger in our party do this cause he wondered off on his own in a dungeon waltzed into an enemy encounter got gang beat by elementals and cultists he died and then raged at the party on the DM for letting this happen even though we could resurrect him upon leaving the dungeon

[@matcampbell6383]

@Rednassie Maybe ask your DM not to use fumble rules, as they are a house rule anyway.

[@AdamSwiggitySwooty]

Honestly I find that hilarious because in the end it's like they are arguing with themselves.

[@patrickrannou1278]

@@jamieslingsby9907 Seems like potentially an unfair DM situation. Losing 1d3 turns in a fight is *extremely* drastic (and if there was no fight situation, why STUN the player anyway... Just use normal falling damage, it's a pretty simple situation after all). And what do you mean by "He failed very badly"? Unless he rolled a natural 1, just make it a standard failure. Rolling a 3 on a d20 is not "rolling very badly", no more than having to hit AC 12 and rolling am 18 doesn't make your attack any more "superbly effective". After all, if he had rolled a 19, would you have extra-super-rewarded him like "Ok, not only do you succeed but, as you land, your rope grabs the nearest bandit around the neck and pulls him 20 feet up in the air against the building, stunning him for 1d3 turns?" Of course not. See how ASSYMETRICAL that DM was? I'd throw a tantrum too (and leave). Getting tangled in the rope is just adding insult to injury. How is that even possible unless one is SUPER DUPER unlucky? Like, a natural 1 followed by *another* natural 1 or something? That is as bad as that DM I had that, when my wizard opened a scroll case that the party found, made me roll my DEX to OPEN THE scroll without a problem, and because I failed "badly" (rolled a 6 on a d20), he gave me a paper cut for a whopping 1d6 damage (wow, didn't know slipping your finger on a mere sheet of paper cut as bad as a shortsword wielded by someone actually trying to kill you), plus an insanely high CON Save in order to avoid losing my finger "because it got badly infected" (wow, super fast infection, that one, not even time for a cure wounds spell or just dipping my finger in some alcohol or vinegar or even just use my soap bar and some water, all of which I carried on my PC!). The marks of an adversarial DM that thinks that "exagerating" challenge consequences for failures makes the game any more fun for anybody. Gee whiz, let players have some FUN a little bit! That player reacted in an immature fashion, sure, but it's quite easy to see that here it was the DM that's really the most at fault. Replacing falling damage with STUN condition is too arbitrary and severe. My way to handle it: I warn the player *properly*. Saying "Complicated" doesn't send a clear message. "Hmm, this sounds very tricky and RISKY. If you fail, you'll probably badly hurt yourself and end up Prone. And it's going to be a difficult DEX (Acrobatics) check. Are you SURE you want to try this?" And even then I'd make the final difficulty not that hard anyway. You want to reward cool stuff and "cinematics", not encourage players to never take any risk at all and just keep doing ultra-boring "I swing and roll my attack dice" round after round after round. And if he fails, even on a natural 2, I just give him 10 feet of falling damage (because a *controlled* jump ignores the first 10 feet of falling) + apply being Prone, because THAT is what happens when you badly jump down from a building without anything to stop your fall. If he says he does something else with the rest of his round like getting back up etc. "Nope, sorry but you spent your Move on this manoeuver, and spent your Action on that failed grappling hook attempt. You're prone, hurt, and some the baddies are... (roll a couple dice) shocked into almost-stunned surprise by how badly you failed, losing their next action, while others nearby see you as a very easy target fort their next attack. And if he fails "badly"aka "natural 1 critical failure", then it's the full 2d6 of falling damage, Prone, and a CON Saving Throw vs being Stunned until his next turn. Basically, even a-bit-too-heroic actions should have more odds and potential for reward, than for punishment, otherwise the player must be SUPER CLEARLY warned. the point is to make the game fun, not an exercice in pointless frustration. That player was angry because he wasn't properly warned of the odds and potential risks. He got angry because the consequences for failure were exagerated and too harsh, NOT because he thought it was supposed to be an automatic success. If that had been the case he would NOT have rolled and just said he shouldn't have to roll. Even a 2 on a natural 20 is a NORMAL failure, not a badly failed check.

[@c_rex3309]

The amount of genuine anger in this man sends shivers down my back

[@Mr_Jumbles]

Actually my GM loves when our group gets analysis paralysis... When we are stuck at a decision (that's not time sensitive, combat, etc.) and in game debate and discuss it for minutes and minutes or 10s of... He sits back and is happy because, in his words... "It means I created a captivating story, with a compelling decision to make, that you are all invested in." Also it shows that we as characters have our own agency and personalities... We aren't 1 dimensional beings that always have 1 answer to a situation that we take many steps to decision making that form what we might actually want to do and to have to reconsider and discuss options instead of "just do a thing" for the sake of "keep the game moving". This notion completely contradicts your previous rule of... Players who JUST DO A THING TO DO IT In our games our characters have their own feelings, back stories, personal goals, constantly shifting and changing standings with others, balancing their own wants verse the wants of others be they PC or NPC. To JUST DO A THING to KEEP THE GAME MOVING is basically just removing what ROLE PLAYING of a ROLE PLAYING game is... Characters can be indecisive... As are MOST PEOPLE. To fault a player for playing their character like A PERSON is just ridiculous.

[@TheEgregious1]

I'm pretty sure he meant it regarding situations where this happens in the extreme. Obviously taking a while to discuss how best to proceed is fine, but I've played with and DM'd groups where literally everybody is either disagreeing on how to proceed or constantly changing their minds, and it takes an hour or more to settle on a choice. He didn't say that he'd prefer the party "Just do a thing" without thinking, he said that eventually you've gotta settle on something, preferably without needing to take a flow or immersion breaking amount of decide on. And that, at least in my opinion, is completely fair. A campaign shouldn't be debate club, with everyone is making a choice based on their own personal needs and trying to convince everyone to go along with it. A campaign should be a collaborative effort to achieve a goal, where even if your PERSONAL ideals don't fall 100% in line with what is being suggested, you should be willing to give some ground and do what the rest of the party wants for the sake of the narrative and party cohesion.

[@shadoweddragonfilms4424]

This being said, it does get ridiculous some times. When players take forty-five minutes to do a single action in combat, or to throw a potentially-trapped switch, then I'm going to have an issue with it. Me and my older cousin switch off DM'ing here and there, and, currently, he's playing as an incredibly direct character that doesn't have much patience for waiting around, purely because of this set up. If, say, the rest of the group is arguing over whether they should go into a potentially spider-infested forest after a missing NPC and takes twenty minutes to say yes or no, he just started walking. Mind, I could just be comparing apples to oranges here. Big scenarios to small ones. Either way, there comes a point where the story does have to move forward. Roleplaying a decision is fine and good, but roleplaying for an hour to do a single action is a bit much.

[@koiasi4036]

I currently have a problem with one particular person just wanting to disagree no matter what. The party will take about a half an hour to an hour to make a decision (which has it's own issues because half the party doesn't participate, two people always disagree and the last person wants to play devil's advocate and always agree with everyone...) and when they FINALLY do it, everyone agrees. Then they move on and start to go and the person always objects and starts the debate again. This is particularly annoying because of the person who wants to see everyone's side just agreeing to change everything and then the person who disagrees wanting to stick to the original plan (which then means the DA person is agreeing with both of them at the very same time). It's just a pure mess. This person just absolutely refuses to work in a party setting (even with NPCs) and I feel like they just want to cause trouble. There definitely gets to a point where the arguing and indecisions have to come to an end. Especially when I know it's causing the party to lose interest in the session.

[@VestedUTuber]

The example you gave is fine. I think the line is drawn when your party starts behaving like the player character in a Twitch Plays Pokemon stream.

[@Vinemaple]

I think Guy hates it when metagaming and player indecision causes this. When players are roleplaying indecision, that indeed can be cool. And either way, it is absolutely time for the GM to prepare stuff.

[@paradox3267]

see I feel like the whole being trapped in a box thing can work if done right, like a good way to start your campaign. GM: You suddenly awake and find yourself lying on a hard surface, It is too dark to see anything around you, what do you do? Dwarf fighter: Well I'm a mountaim dwarf I have good vision in darkness can I roll a perception check? GM: Go ahead Dwarf: 17 GM: Having superior vision in darkness as you are used to the darkess of the dwarven caves you are able to make out that that you are inside a large box about 20 meters in size and 3 meters tall, It seems to be made of wood, but it's too dark to see much more. Dwarf fighter: Ok. do we have our weapons with us, can I break my way out using my axe? GM: You look around and notice that your weapons are gone Sorcerer: Can I use Fire bolt to burn down the box? DM: there is a chance the ceiling may collapse and crush you but you are welcome to try Sorcerer: Ok I'll use Acid splash to try and corrode away one of the walls instead. DM: Your acid starts eating through the wall but isn't strong enough to make it all the way through, however it does make a hole, not big enough to scape out of, but you are no longer in complete darkness. Barbarian: step aside, I'll use my strength to break through DM: Roll a strength check Barbarian: 18 DM: You charge at the wall breaking through the already weakened wood with relative ease. You and your party now find yourselves in a clearing in the woods. Druid: I roll a perception check see what I can spot in the immediate area. 12 DM: looking around you can't find anything within the clearing or along the trees that line the forest all around you, but then you look up and that's when you see it, it's your equipment lying in a pile on top of the crate you woke up in. Druid: Can I climb the crate and get our stuff back? DM: Roll a dexterity check Druid: 15 DM: You jump onto the crate and pull yourself up, You now stand on top of the crate, you grab your equipment and throw the rest for you party to take back their stuff as well. However underneath the pile of equipment you find a scroll, the you open it and it reads "You have been chosen by king Varis to represent the kingdom of Vaen in this year's 'Game of Kings' the rules are simple, there are 3 kingdoms, Alvast, Sunder, and Vaen, each kingdom has 1 team consisting of 4 adventurers. You now find yourselves inside the 'Hollow Woods', the forest that intersects and separates the 3 kingdoms. Your job is to find the Golden Hammer that has been Placed somewhere in these woods and bring it back to this clearing. should you succeed and win the Game of Kings you will be rewarded handsomely for your efforts, if you fail you will walk away empty handed. However failing to get the hammer is far from the worst thing that can happen to you here. this is a forest after all, it is not without it's dangers. And don't forget, there are 2 other teams out here, they may get to the hammer first and if they don't, they may try to steal it from you or maybe even try to kill you for it. There is a magical barrier around the clearing, once all teams are ready the barriers will be lifted the the games will begin. Stay together, stay vigilant, and most importantly stay alive. Good luck on your mission, The King expects great things from you"

[@e4Bc4Qf3Qf7]

And if you fail one of those initial roles you are screwed forever.

[@robertnett9793]

@@e4Bc4Qf3Qf7 A number of other games explains failed rolls a bit different than the well known 'you fail to do whatever you wanted to do'. It can succeed but with consequences. Acid splash corroded the box, but the fumes are detrimental to the adventurers health. Breaking the weakened wall? The boards bulge but seem to hold together just so... Maybe if not only one hero tries to break it down it might work. Climbing ontop of the box - why not ask the barbarian to help by lifting the druid? Dice rolls aren't a binary thing of success and failure everytime. They can also be gradients of consequences. Or in very short: If the roll succeeds - the player tells what happens, if the roll fails the DM tells what happens.

[@robertnett9793]

@@shreeeze I have a bit of ptsd regarding failures - or even fumbles. Playing in a group who took the whole concept way to serious. Like "You kneel above the enemy, who is on his last leg" "I'd like to end his suffering quickly" "Make an attack roll" Rolls critical fumble, "You nearly decapitate yourself instead - because the critical failure table says you take double damage from your attack on yourself." While kneeling over an unmoving dying enemy. Who couldn't fight back. Which wasn't even a combat scenario. But no. Fumble rolls are IN THE BOOK!!! Either that - or the DM took the liberty to make it as embarressing as possible for the victim of the fumble. Like snipers who shoot themselfs in the foot alarming the whole base to their presence. Like fighters not only loosing their blade but bury it in a comrade standing 30 feet a way - for double damage of course. Because the table says: "You hit the next ally for double damage..." Sorry, for the outburst :D

[@RyanWBL]

"Oh ugh, so this is a 'fetch' quest...?" The player that compares every session to a video game who critiques out loud. Sorry Nigel, I'm not an open world version of the Witcher 3 or Matt Mercer. Also the player that has anger issues when they roll bad. Really sucks the fun out of the game.

[@Dirty_Davos]

so its either too much like a video game or too little... xD frustrating

[@nyarparablepsis872]

I feel you with the bad dice roll player. I've recently gotten one of those. Consistently rolled 1s and 2s (...it was WEIRD) and became a seething cauldron of rage and anger. Ruined the fun for everyone

[@oz_jones]

I mean, if its said in character, its a good quip.

[@seamusweckerle8879]

Players whom blame the DM for the consequences of their actions. This greatly irritates me, and it happens all the time between all my groups, whether im a player or the DM. Players:"we kill the Emperors youngest son" DM: "Okay. After a few weeks of safe travel, You encounter a band of Bounty hunters that are extremely powerful. They inform you they can either take you back dead or alive. Since the bounty is higher if they take you back alive, they offer for you to come quietly and unmolested to face trial. WDYD?" Players: "Oh, we attack Them." DM: "Are you sure? They are pretty high in level..." Players: "Yeah, we're sure." DM: "...." Now obviously, in the scenario presented, it was a total TPK. All but me and my brother quit afterward and demanded it to be retconed. Idk, but sometimes, even as a player, TPK needs to happen, and if it does, it is the DMs responsibility to explain why, and the players responsibility to make a informed and mature judgement call as to how they react. In the example above, The DM explained that since we betrayed and killed the son of an Emperor, whose jurisdiction ruled over hundreds miles of rich territory, that the Emperor had much more resources and capital at his disposal than say, a baron or Merchant. He explained step by step the process of getting us to face justice, commissioning divination wizards to locate us (none of us, myself included, thought to hide ourselves from scrying magic), Hiring Top notch bounty hunters, Equipping them with top quality equipment, posting bounties from town to town, etc. It made perfect sense to me that the father of someone we murdered, much less the emperor of a mighty imperial nation, would go to such lengths to avenge his son and salvage his family prestige, and for that reason, I continue to play in his campaigns, even after the TPK.

[@BalimaarTheBassFish]

Yes! I was playing with a group of people in Princes of the Apocalypse. We arrived at the Earth Temple (spoilers incoming people so flick past the comment if you dont want spoilers) and then the paladin unleashed Thunderous Smite... which causes a sound everyone in 300ft can hear... so naturally the whole temple came down on us. The priest let us go, warning us that if we returned... the next fight would be to the death. So we left.... gathered a trio of knights from a nearby place and returned to find the top floor mostly empty. Head downstairs deeper into bad guy territory and get attacked by quite a few monks, a few bulletes and one freaky monk woman who was crazy effective. All the named NPCs managed to get away as we slew their minions. Then we found the High Priest... and all the mini bosses were there with him... TPK. We were warned. And when we returned the mini bosses kept escaping.... and ran to their boss... It was our mistakes that lead to the TPK... not that half the players there agreed.

[@jamieslingsby9907]

had a player get pissed at the Gm when he was arrested and charged with blasphemy (and later a flogging) because he set fire to a cemetary in the grounds of a major temple of the god of death (which got out of control) so he could try and smoke a creature out of the hole it had used to burrow into the city.

[@Arlesmon]

I once did a detect thoughts in front of a archwizard to read to throghts of a troubled person. Let's just say that said archwizard hated me a lot, and even if the party tried to persuade him to forgive me, he didn't. At least I didn't get killed, but I learned my lesson there. Though, at that time i was not aware of the many aspects of the lore of D&D.

[@matthewbarcelo9337]

Especially when they're experienced players. I don't mind the DM fudging the damage roll to show the new guy that his actions have consequences without outright killing him. But if the player has several campaigns under their belt, I expect them to know that fumbles happen, risks don't always pay off, death is permanent, and we're not retconning everything just because it didn't turn out in your favor.

[@bainbonic]

My group regularly blames the DM as a joke because we're all good IRL friends. The DM will usually joke that he could just Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies us. The DM tends to get the last laugh.

[@howeslife2718]

I hate players that only care about doing their own thing without a single care for the party, and then they feel offended when no one in their party cares or interacts with them. "Oh, why don't you trust me to hold the magic chaotic orb That might kill everyone??" "Because you've spent a total of one day with the rest of the group. And we've been on this adventure for months."

[@strategicarchitect869]

Oh God, I hate that so much...I'm already dealing with a player who is so into roleplaying his character it's interrupting the other players when it's their turns...I can't count how many times I had to tell him to be quiet because I couldn't hear the others...

[@dacfiro7gadakall]

Got a dude like that in my group right now sadly, has several hundred more gold than anyone else in the party (but made me, the rogue with the least money out of everyone, assist the Paladin, who is our tankiest tank atm, with buying Plate Armor because he wasnt going to pay for someone else), and a bag of holding he keeps stuffing the loot into saying he'll split it up but never does. Also had a chance to get three basilisk eggs in our game, I wanted one and he tried to take them all until pretty much the entire table said I could have ONE because he doesnt need three. In short, he's playing singleplayer in a Multiplayer game

[@BeanLuvsLeon]

I have a guy in mine that has a character that could be really fun, but he takes it too far and it just turns really annoying. At one point he killed all the prisoners we worked so hard to free.

[@stevekillgore9272]

This sort of thing wrecked a campaign against Elemental Evil, the store DM accommodated two drop-ins and they created a trainwreck.

[@1993Killing]

@@BeanLuvsLeon Had a guy like this once. Constantly screwed the entire group. During my night shift I announced that I "tried to slit his throat". He was outraged, but three PC's AND the DM shouted "Finally". When five other players hate you're Charakter and don't care if you leave and don't come back, you probably fucked up.

[@The_Real_Frisbee]

I can relate to the "Out of character" one. There are many times where I have to stop my group in their 20th tangent in order to keep the story going. I get that we're just having fun, but c'mon. We've been here for 2 hours and haven't even left town yet.

[@TKTyrant]

I personally dislike when the group makes a choice and that one player just does what they please. *We try to persuade the royal family to hire us at their guards* Logical player - "500 gold per person at the end of each assignment, I can agree to these terms" That Player - "I raise my cross bow at the king and fire *rolls a 19 with +7 to attack roll* as a warning to the other royalty"

[@megaflamer]

my players would immideately kill that character in the hopes they wont be seen as party to attemted regicide (no sane king in an adventurer rich world doenst have multiple countermeasures to that sort of thing) they do this because we used to have that exact sort of player that would try to steal the kings stuff when the others were negotiating terms of employment. It eventually culminated in a tpw due to this and so ever since they will not hesitate in the slightest to vaporize anyone trying it.

[@rageoftyrael]

Yeah, that player is an asshat. If their character had such a problem with royalty, they should have said something to the rest of the party BEFORE they went in to try and get work from them. If the story requires they do so, then their character doesn't get to have a problem with royalty, or at least no so much of a problem that they'll suicidally attack. In an earlier comment, I said I had a problem with gm's trying to control the players character, but if I was gm'ing and a player did that, I'd just say "No, you didn't do or say that." If they argued, i'd tell them they don't get to do random asshole things because it ruins everyone else's fun. "Oh, but I want to have fun and I think that'd be cool!" You think your character being immediately killed for attempted regicide is cool? "Huh?". If you attack the highly guarded king, you're going to be slaughtered. You sure you want to do that? "Sure, I can take them!" Roll your dice. Natural 20? Of course. Well, after your character pulls the weapon and fires it at the king, you see that your arrow deflects off of an invisible barrier several feet in front of said king. Guess they have a wizard or some kind of artifact to protect them, too bad. Before you have any chance to respond, you are riddled with arrows and you are dead. I'd have them re roll a character, hopefully lesson learned, or just boot them if they simply HAVE to be an idiot whenever they're playing.

[@SophiaAphrodite]

Yet you let the d-bag back into the next session.................

[@droxictoxic2624]

Once I had a problem player in the party, killed him twice in once session.(DnD 3.5) I'd been saving up a tactic I wanted to try. Within 10 minutes of joining the party, and this is after the two times being killed off already, he attacked one of the other players my character had a close relationship with. This was an evil campaign, round 1 I summon a wraith, lucky me the room clears out except the offending player. next round cast owls wisdom. I then cast clutch of orcus on him (will negates, duration is concentration. does d3 damage per round as target's heart or similar organ is crushed, also paralizes, if target dies while under this spell the heart is teleported into the hands of the caster). This is were he says out loud in real life "ah man, I figured out how to talk my way out of this too". He died, I tossed his heart to the player he attacked. Repeat problem players don't deserve leeway.

[@jessewilliams3166]

I remember I joined a party of mostly good characters, I wasn't evil I was lawful neutral and followed mostly good morals but would do things the good hearted king couldn't morally do but I did it for the people. The party and the knights we were fighting with killed me without hesitation because when the evil paladin did smite good it didn't work on me.... are you fucking serious.

[@Leftists_are_Losers]

I hate players who can have fun, if and only if, they are making other players miserable.

[@davegreenlaw5654]

Oh, I HATE that! I was in one group AGES ago, where one player, no matter if he was a player or he was the GM, he seemed to take utter delight in giving others grief. I finally left that group, after having one game too many that I was running scuttled - it was a shared campaign world, and I decided to hand GM duties off to him and leave. When I told him I was handing things over to him, he told me to role up a character for the following week, that is when I said I was going to take a week off...at which point he said "Okay, we'll play Battle Tech. Put together a couple of 50-ton mechs for next week." One other player took me aside and said "Look, I know what you're doing here. You realize that if you do it, he wins." to which I replied "I just don't effin' care anymore."

[@ruggaboo35]

I have a talk with everyone before they sit down at my table, it goes something like: "Look, I am okay with there being tension in the party, and I like my player Characters having real relationships, and honestly, it is okay if your character is a complete and total asshole. But if you build and play your character in any way that makes ME have to FORCE you to be a member of this party, you are not allowed back at my table. Period. and if I feel like you are doing things to make your companions' lives miserable for any reason other than something related to the story we are telling... well... rocks fall. you die. Understand?" That normally makes sure they understand that a party is a group, a team, if you will. And not a gathering of individuals that may or may not do things together.

[@bjiggles8145]

Yep... that's what I call a "Troll" PC. I've been in a few games that had one, but in every case without exception it lasted one session and one session only, for one reason... or another. P.S. Did you know that trolls are not immune to "giant rock" damage?

[@ClintLowe]

Yup. Fucking hands down. The PvP aggressors

[@seanrobinson7464]

Jared Adams not if it's utterly useless. If the characters involved in this sort of thing are given ulterior motives by the GM, then that could be beautiful storytelling at some of it's finest. However, if a fighter in your party decides to take your unconscious character and bludgeon a goblin with it, only killing your character and still failing to kill the enemy, that would be grounds for immediate karma in the form of some *VERY* heavy rocks positioned *JUUUUUUUUST* right, if you happen to catch on...

[@conanedogawa4798]

The game can be pretty fun if the DM lets you apply a clever solution they never even thought of. There was this one time the DM designed an impossible room where there was a HUGE treasure chest on the other side of a pit of super strong acid that filled the entire room with thick and slick walls. The DM designed it to be an impossible room, beings it was for a Lv. 3 party. What we wound up doing was we looked at the map and realized there was an adjoining wall in another part of the dungeon to the platform the treasure chest was sitting on. We had the dwarf with a war hammer bust down the wall, and we just dragged the chest into a completely safe room. The DM literally did not intend for us to solve the room, but we were clever and just came up with an outside the box solution, and then hearing the DM had this as an impossible room just made us feel even better about ourselves for applying this ingenious solution.

[@Vinemaple]

And he let you do it... good for him!

[@williamw7916]

DMs who actively try and look for ways for players to mess up. Had a DM who would constantly do this, one time he reminded a player about a spell they could use while we were hiding in a cave. Immediately after the player casts the spell he asks for a stealth check because the spell had a verbal component and he had specifically said that even the faintest noise echoed off the cave walls. Player was like oh ya I I forgot about the verbal component but I would know the spell would make noise so I don't cast it, DM was like no you try and whisper but you fail a dozen duergar turn towards you and attack.

[@travisrussill]

william w I had a DM like that. He was so petty if you did or said something in the real world that he was disgruntled about he would take it out on players characters. He would then leak story details to other players and have them turn against the player he was upset at...or my other pet peeve DM's that dont know how to deal with characters abilities so I have them robbed of all the gear that enable that characters abilities making them basically a commoner fighting monsters within first ten minutes of group being assembled. Or a DM that wants to play as well but make the most OP meta character....DM's DM let the players play.

[@ShiningDarknes]

My GM is great, if we the player do something stupid on our turn but immediately realize "wait my character would have known not to do that" he allows a ret-con if it was still our turn and nothing actually happened yet, happens all the time with stuff like "I made that knowledge check and know it is immune to mind effects, I accidentally said I was casting a mind-effect spell I would like to have not done that." So long as it does not happen too frequently we are all fine with it, though we usually show the same courtesy to the GM if they are controlling like 20 enemies and forget that guy waaaaay over on the side that he was having stealth over and we notice the token has not moved for several rounds.

[@travisrussill]

Shining Darkness I would like to get back into DnD but don't know anyone in my area that plays. Do you know any good online e groups?

[@ShiningDarknes]

yes

[@travisrussill]

Shining Darkness ....link?

[@jakubjanicki3989]

My personal pet peeve are rule lawyers, but not normal rule lawyers, but a special subtype: rule lawyers who are wrong and cannot comprehend and accept it no matter what.

[@geoffreycannon2197]

Jakub Janicki we have a player in one of my groups that “knows all the rules.” He can tell you anything you want to know out of any book.. but if there is any question, he will spend hours looking through books to find the answers. He does this as a player AND as a DM-grinds the progress to a halt as well as a brick wall does to a car.

[@CeltiesSin]

I think that’s just a shitty person in general

[@yuuyiatakahashi1943]

This is one of the things a player that I had asked to leave was somewhat doing... in my comment earlier I stated several of the things on the list that he was guilty of.. and the straw that broke the camels back was just before we took our food/bathroom break he wanted to TALK OVER ME interrupting what I was saying to a player that rolled a 1... In my games in or out of combat 1 is a failure, 20 brilliant success. (this rule was spoken at our first session, he brought it up a few time elsewhere in the campaign) but once he got to talking louder to the player I was narrating the failure for then I was to "explain the rules" I had to call him by his REAL name 3 times to get him to stop talking... to which I responded with "This is a house rule I explained in the first session, you've brought this up several times, and each time I've said that it's how I play, it's MY GAME and if you don't want to play by MY RULES, you're welcome to leave the table."

[@BH-iu3sj]

I know a player like that. They’ll either confuse 5e rules with Pathfinder and try to argue or they’ll pull something out their ass and try to play like they think it’s a rule (just so they can do something that gives them an advantage). Then they pout for half an hour when the dm shuts them down. -__-

[@Grixis_Teller_of_Tales]

Jakub Janicki I leave groups like that

[@jonathanowen9917]

I watched this with two other players from our DnD group. We’re new to DnD and found it helpful and informative for our future play.

[@VellanShadow]

When the GM describes a situation and I decide on an action. Then he tells me something about the situation he hadn't before which would make my decision absolutely sub par or out of character, but then he doesn't let me retcon my action

[@GuardianTactician]

Sometimes that happens when you roll poorly, if the DM is attempting to narrate your rolls effectively. If they are doing it to spite you, then I agree.

[@VellanShadow]

No I mean, and this is a crude example, if he narrates that there is a bridge crossing a canyon and I tell him I cross it. He then tells me the bridge looks extremely fragile and would likely collapse if one would walk it. I've had GM's who wouldn't let me (or other players) retcon actions like that

[@charlesmartin6673]

Sounds like either the GM is being a dick or is kind of ticked off that you wont let them finish explaining what you see.

[@b_hollow_]

Vellan Elessar yeah that's a DM I mean a Dick Move of course lol I think it's shamefull dishonest and imbalanced behavior!

[@ketrava0425]

We had a GM do something like this to us. It's really frustrating when it's especially easy to know facts that are characters would know. In this case the GM didn't let us know that the days were 36 hours long instead of 24.

[@thehound6126]

I hope you agree with me, but DM's that try to kill the party on purpose. Sure the DM is playing as everyone who isn't a main player, but they still shouldn't have the intention of murdering the entire party right out in the beginning, so infuriating. I also hate DM's that are shit at improv so they plan everything out step by step and expect everyone to follow the imaginary itinerary, and then get super pissed if the players out smart the DM. For example, "hey there are 5 orcs down in the cave, what should we do?" "Well, does anyone have an oil flask?" "Ye", "alright, let's smoke them out and surprise attack them" "GOOD IDEA!" As the DM gets pissed because he was expecting them to blindly run in the cave without planning a course of action. Makes me so angry.

[@NagemYelmul]

At that point, it's a huge miscommunication between what the DM wants from the game and what the players want/expect. The DM should be upfront about what type of game they want to run. If they just spring it on you....they're a dick.

[@digitalmoonbooks]

I like when players do this. I hate when they later say, oh, that was too easy. After their pretty cool plan works, and I adapted everything to deal with the consequences. then they say "oh, it should have been more challenging. "Okay, next time, charge in frontal assault guns blazing." "No, that would be stupid." "Okay then how about you be the DM." "No, it is too much work." "Agreed. "

[@adhdseaweed8701]

Some times it is okay to try to kill the players. I have a campaign planned involving a demigod betraying and killing most if not all of the party, only to have then brought back by the goddess of death with a quest from her.

[@thehound6126]

No I mean, make each NPC hard to kill with made up attacks that are bullshit. He made this one attack called "Rally" which made every enemy in the room attack for free, it didn't even count as a turn, meaning the enemies would attack once again as their real turn. Your campaign makes complete sense because you eventually bring them back if we die he would have us restart the dungeon or area. Yes, I agree with you, if you can execute it succesfully then go ahead, but if you're only doing it to kill the party and to try and make your dungeon seem hard even though the enemies and abilities are BS then shove it.

[@jamieslingsby9907]

'lets smoke them out and surprise attack them' sometimes a good idea but then a player i played alongside decided to do it to smoke a creature out of the hole it had burrowed into the cities cemetary with. he set fire to a cemetary in the grounds of a major temple to the god of death!! and then got pissed off with the Gm when the priests called the town guard and had him arrested for blasphemy and had him flogged.

[@JesseLewis314]

When a player tells me during my turn what I should do during my turn. When a DM allows a player to have grossly overpowered homebrewed items or abilities that make the other characters useless. When a player can't remember what modifiers they need to add to their attack and damage rolls (even though they are literally written directly on the paper). When a player doesn't write down the modifier for their skills and has to calculate them every time they make a roll. When a player thinks it is funny to be rude to other players (not that their character is rude, but the player is mean to other players). When a player plays a character that is not fun to play with for others (like playing a character who is a jerk). When a player consistently interrupts and talks over other players. When a player chases down every single little thing that the DM mentions as if it all holds equal importance. When a DM is overly protective of saving the players from death.

[@milkshaketurtle7937]

One of the most annoying players to me are the ones who don't want to develop or grow their characters. Even if you start with a simple backstory, you can always have in game events effect their views. Okay, so you were just the only survivor after the party got wiped? "I happily join up with these new characters." "I walk into the place where I almost died 2 days later with no reservations or fears whatsoever." Give people fears. Give them aspirations. Give the DM SOMETHING to work with. I don't expect you to know their ability to juggle or their opinion on vegans. Just give them some kind of niche or unique trait that can improve the experience. I once played in a campaign where my character was the ONLY one who didn't have their parents murdered. There were 3 others.

[@Hrekto]

Another aspect of this, players who may or may not have a decent backstory, but who aren't engaged at all with either the mechanics of their character, or with the story, or both. I hate reminding players sessions later that "hey, we leveled up, you should probably pick spells" or "So, what barbarian path were you wanting to take?" after going over all 3+ of them with the player 1 on 1...

[@bainbonic]

Murdered parents are a bit overdone. Really so are tragic backstories in general. One campaign I'm doing now has my character and another PC who I have a joint-backstory with having a pretty good life before the campaign started. One of us did have parents who died a while back, but that was years ago and the grieving process is long since done and now we're living happily running a weapons shop. The GM is having a right old time getting us to do stuff, but in a good way, we're not ignoring plot hooks, we're actively hiding from them and the local situation ultimately built up to our city getting destroyed which finally made us do something, which just made for a generally better plot overall which both players and GM were happy with.

[@Lee-wr2ts]

Now try playing a system with a sanity bar.... A pacifist player slits a shopkeepers neck , when i tell him your hands and clothes are covered in blood , As this is the 1st time youve killed so ruthlesly you cannot dope with this so you storm out to clear your head . Then when i tell him roll A d3 SO WE SEE HOW MUCH IT AFFECTED YOUR MENTAL STABILITY he asks , Why would it affect my mental stability.

[@ademiranda2]

@@bainbonic "Murdered parents are a bit overdone..." yes but when you murdered them? That is the backstory of one of my characters.

[@bainbonic]

@@ademiranda2 Interesting twist on the trope, I like it.

[@Zarl451]

Players who tell me what my character is doing. It's my character; play your own damn character and leave me to play mine!

[@markbyrd7710]

Hahaha that is weird. I can see Player Characters making suggestions to another character in game, but not actually describing your actions for you. I've seen DMs do this though, and it's pretty frustrating. The player says, "I want to punch him in the face so hard that he just stands there, then I look away as he collapses." and the DM says, "no, you punch him and he falls down so you get above him and crush his face until it's unrecognizable." like, really?? Why was the player's idea not good enough? I thought it was cool.

[@rageoftyrael]

Mark Byrd - Well, when you roleplay, you can only roleplay for yourself, so you wouldn't actually get to pick what happens when you do something. What you just referred to would be godmodding, or some such other name, where you explain your action and it's effect. You don't really get to pick the effect, only the action. Now, the gm picking your actions? Hell no. I'd just say "No, my character didn't do that, I don't care if your the gm, I control what my character does." The only way it's acceptable for the gm to control your actions would be if your were hypnotized or charmed or some such. The gm merely deciding his thing was cooler is blatantly stupid and I'd be out the door pretty quick to any gm who did that.

[@MrBoltstrike]

Mark Byrd This reminds me of something else that gets under my skin: DMs who treat failed rolls as your character being inept and incompetent. Nat 1 means my Fighter tripped and fell onto his own sword. Please stop, DMs.

[@joeincal3125]

It's like they want two turns, theirs and mine.

[@assassinlin851]

I had a DM do that to me. She also dictated on what I could and couldn't do for the class I was playing as. I can understand a magicless ranger, but taking out major things that make a ranger, a ranger (ex. can't use tracking) is no fun. What I could do was attack, and that is it. She also was dictating what attack I should use or not.

[@xAnonymousComedia]

The worst thing are the people who take 10 mins to play their turns smh. Also another thing that annoys me are players who argue with the DM.

[@lukejohnson260880]

Players that create characters with too much lineage just to min/max. "Yes, I want to be a half angel, half demon hybrid with dragon blooded ancestors and a werebear tribal tattoo that gives me +20 to everything and I have retractable cybernetic wings because the originals were torn of by a vampire who now grants me access to a huge necromantic library.....plus a ring of invisibility and a sword of world shattering." What the actual hell? In this scenario the GM would be well within his/her rights to turn you into the village idiot.

[@Amrylin1337]

Typically this is the action of young or bored players that aren't interested in playing a fun game for the same reasons as the other people involved so...it's easy to either discuss it with them or not include them. I'm not shy to say that the DM turning people into the village idiot is a DM no one likes. Nobody likes that kind of arbitration. Nobody.

[@Underleaf76]

Hahahahaha... I have a guy in my group that does that shit, his character in our current iteration literally only started out as a 1st level Paladin, yet somehow his Dwarf is 350 years old and in his backstory he has battled demons and dragons beyond the wall and already traveled half the realm and apparently has several scars to prove it. He also likes to constantly remind us of these things throughout the campaign, and not to mention he is the son of a very powerful King. That kind of stuff amuses me and annoys me at the same time, but I know he just has a lot of free time and also likes to make his characters rich in lore, so at the end of the day i just let it go.

[@droxictoxic2624]

@@Underleaf76 That dwarf is just a late bloomer is all. being a novice adventurer who has adventured around the realm I would ask who's squire he was the entire time, or things like that. I'm not a jerk player, but I call out things that don't fit usually (so i'm sometimes a jerk I guess, even to myself out loud). I was playing a pathfinder game once, A player made a dwarf of the Battlehammer clan (We were not in the forgotten realms). I was playing a Dwarven cleric of hanseath. When he introduces himself to me he says "You would recognize the name as me being a noble of Mithril Hall, and would have great respect for my character", My response was "Actually I would not as i'm not from that plane, and even if I was my deity is kind of rebellious" Followed by "If you wanted to be from a respected noble family, you should have researched this campaign setting instead of using something you know but doesn't matter here............. or talked with the DM about it". I could tell by the DM's look to the other player, that he already had this talk with him. To be honest got along great with him in game. Funny mistake I made once was playing the oriental adventures 3.5 stuff, I mistook the mask stated for scorpion clan to be a metaphor. So 3 sessions in I finally realized and had a hilarious DOH moment.

[@firefly7076]

Half demon half angel? Those conflicting alignments really would make a character crazy!

[@satibel]

@@firefly7076 that's what the nephalem are, and they are pretty powerful, and maybe a bit crazy too.

[@SkeptiGed]

Players who daydream about their next character, 5 minutes after they have begun playing their newly created one.

[@markbyrd7710]

Skepti-Ged I constantly create new characters. Maybe outwardly vocalizing your new character during a campaign with old characters could get annoying to fellow players, but there's nothing wrong with continuing to be creative and being excited about potential characters in your own time. I actually think having a few characters in reserve is great for the rare circumstance of losing a current character. Especially if you play a campaign with permadeath.

[@SkeptiGed]

I agree with most of that, Mark. I used to play with a guy who made several reserve characters, and there is nothing wrong with that. He just tended to always lose interest in his current character very fast, after creating his first reserve character. My group and I always felt that hurt the game for everyone involved when you have one guy not interested in his own character, and just wants to go on to the next one, and the next, and the next, etc.

[@markbyrd7710]

Skepti-Ged that's fair. That's why I make sure to always create awesome characters. Haha that way I love them all. I'm sure when the time comes to play my new one, I'll love it, but I'll miss the old one. I basically form a hall of heroes, each unique, but equally amazing and deep story-wise. If someone told me I'd be playing my current character for 6 years I wouldn't be disappointed! Even with several more in reserve.

[@Mackinz92]

I have a mental library of character concepts I'd like to play out. I have been building it since I made my first character for a Tomb of Annihilation campaign. I still RPed the fuck out of that character, a Tabaxi Knowledge Cleric/Monster Slayer Ranger, up until he was killed by a combination of horrible factors. Now I have my second character, a Kenku Archfey Warlock, and I am having a blast RPing her - even though I still have my list of character ideas, like a Variant Human Glamour Bard, Firbolg Four Elements Monk, Centaur Cavalier, etc. The character I portray is more important than the characters I plan.

[@Canadian_Zac]

I'm very bad at that. I call it 'Ohh-Shiny syndrome'. I'm aware i do it, so i tell the GM, don't let me switch character in game. No matter how much i ask, don't let me. It's just the Ooh shiny, i'll stop after a while.

[@flamesofhellstudio]

I've had exactly one DM who ignored rolls, but only for himself, and only when the roll was an outcome he didn't like, but then demanded the players roll for every little thing. "I want to open the door" "Ok roll a d20" "Why, I'm just opening a door? What is it heavy?" "just make a roll" "ok....*rolls a 3* "Ok you open the door". But he would routinely just not even roll during combat and just say a monster hits and deals damage. Didn't stay in that game for very long. It was tedious to have every little thing we wanted to do as players require a roll even if rolling a nat 1 the DM would still say we succeed, but then just not even roll for anything they did, so we were just puppets for the DM to tell his story.

[@tggdan3]

Dms who base the dc on the naked die roll not the modified one. I have plus 20 to search. Got a 5 on dice, so 25. You don't see anything. But someone gets an 18 on dice with plus 3 can see everything. Dc was based on whether you seemed to roll high

[@shikiaura]

Honestly, the pet peeve I'm dealing with is either clear favoritism or clear discrimination on the part of the GM. One of my groups has gotten to the point that half the players stopped even trying to form any relationship with an NPC, romantic or not, because the GM's favorite is their sexting buddy and they'll always trump anyone. The cherry on top is when the GM complains about nobody else wanting to get romantic with NPC's. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not interested in putting effort, (roleplaying, mechanical, or otherwise), when that one player can just come in and instantly get it. Gold, magic items (had one campaign with this one), etc. It's no wonder I prefer the Monk and Soulknife classes.

[@aaronghunter]

This is a major concern. As a DM - and an organizer for games in general - I find it is imperative that one shows a shifting and equitably distributed attention to and affection for all players, regardless of relationships outside the game. However, individual players may want more than you can readily apply - again, regardless of relationships outside of the game - so I also want to maximize the attention I can give, so everyone feels they get a good amount in itself.

[@thisismetemptingfate]

I was once in the receiving end of this, much to my frustration. I was actually the first person to leave the game.

[@kenanzafarrai9765]

The only way I would accept that one player would've gotten more magic items than others is if the player has the fewest magic items or if the DM rolled for the loot and the magic items in the loot happened to favour one or more players than others. When rolling for the loot, the DM can't really fudge the dice too often without it being chaught by the players.

[@ziggy78eog]

My old GM started off this way. He had a favorite, his girlfriend, now wife. She got the bulk of the role playing time, all decisions on what the group should do, went through her, what kinds of interaction we would have with the NPCs, ect. It got to the point where hardly anyone was engaging in the Game, at all. He go so frustrated, and fed up, that he sent a group email, telling us about his frustrations, about how no one seemed to be interacting, or doing anything in his campaign. Well, I immediately, but respectfully, pointed out, in my response, that the main reason why no one was paying attention, or engaging, in his campaign, was because he was only letting one person do so, his girlfriend; we tried several times to do so, but he kept brushing the rest of us off, and focusing on her, only. That was his wake up call. The next session, before we started, he apologized to us, saying that he would endeavor to try and make sure everyone got equal time, when it came to role playing, and interacting with the story. To his credit, he did, and our gaming sessions improved immensely; now, the girlfriend was not too keen on this, having been used to be the center of attention, all the time, and occasionally would pout in her little corner, but that was an entirely different problem.

[@AshenAlbaz0079]

@@ziggy78eog well, as shitty of a thing he did, props to him for trying to improve

[@hippocampus6514]

Being consistently half-an-hour late, having poor excuses for it, and then getting defensive about it- like yes, this is a hobby / game, but like an organized sport, it takes planning. We have to schedule our free time to accommodate everyone and YOU ARE WASTING OUR TIME.

[@CeltiesSin]

Hippocampus fkn thank you

[@d.roelofsen2588]

Maybe make a rule that if someone's late their character is dragged along by the rest? It sort of works sometimes :p

[@gotmilk2123]

Usually my group just starts without me, and I show up after work, or whatever I've got going on.

[@Donzapp]

we do autofollow if you arent there and you bring cake if you are late and havent said so like a couple of days before

[@andreazaltron6850]

Im always late because i go out and bring snacks

[@Kizzy-qb9si]

I used to do this until I started playing classes that healed. The entitled players that demands to healed by the cleric or who ever plays the healer. This one is personal but players who don’t know their character sheet and what they can do.

[@adhdseaweed8701]

Yeah, but you ever had a player fall asleep under the table mid session.

[@DoubleMcZombie]

We play online via voice chat and I'm a mom of 2 kids, I did one time fall asleep during a session while my party was at a tavern. SO my DM had my character get blackout drunk, and the next campaign featured everybody laughing while I played The Hangover, Shire Edition to find out what the hell happened and why I woke up naked in a barn on the far end of town; meanwhile the others were on a different side quest.

[@robertdubois3448]

I had one player pass out drunk before the game started.

[@DoubleMcZombie]

@@robertdubois3448 oof.

[@DoubleMcZombie]

@@robertdubois3448 Frankly, in an instance like that, that player would be banned from the table and might even have the authorities called on. That's not just wrong, it's illegal.

[@robertdubois3448]

@@DoubleMcZombie Yeah, after I determined it was NOT just a bad movie I told him it was time to game and to shut it off. Naturally on the way home I informed all the other players we would not be repeating that experience again. I should have informed my parents as well considering the further fallout that happened around that particular individual.

[@1221shadowdragon]

My big pet peeve is salty players. The people who get upset and cry bull crap when something doesn't go their way. The villain laid an intelligent trap for them, their spell didn't go right, they play second fiddle during a character quest for another player etc. They can be great players every other time of the day, but when they feel like they are being made to do something, or something goes wrong, the salt comes out and it makes other people miserable.

[@CeltiesSin]

Paul Cornett even more frustrating is the player who insists they aren’t salty, but everyone knows they are

[@trickout42]

I had a player yell at me that he hated me.....all because the big baddie had Ray of Enfeeblement and used it on his barbarian. Every single combat with him, if I didn't let him just dominate and not be targeted by anything, then I was "singling him out" and trying to ruin his fun. It got old real quick.

[@apocalypseman1407]

when your player's plan fails and they call you out saying you're targeting them... wut .... you decided to attempt to rob a powerful wizard, you mean to tell me that this wizard isn't supposed to attempt to disintegrate you, when you are literally in his home, stealing his magic items, killing his minions and destroying his property???

[@DanIsAces]

To be fair, some gripes are legitimate. One-shotting the same player's characters twice in a row in ways, by your rules, they could not avoid, both just barely into level 2, is a bit much. Having one's first two characters in a campaign unavoidably one-shot less than a handful of days into their lives as player characters is not fun. Though, it's important to note that you should never just flip your shit at the table. After the session, even if it means refusing to roll a new sheet until its been addressed, you pull your DM aside so as not to cause a scene and you talk it out. If issues remain unsolved, you weren't going to enjoy that campaign anyway and its best that you seek another table rather than stay just to ensure everyone else is just as miserable as you. That's when you become the asshole. Don't be that guy.

[@MrBoltstrike]

Guilty...but I'm getting better! I wanna be the guy, 'nuff said. So when I get KOed from being in a 1 vs 4 situation, miss multiple times, or fail rolls to do clever things I cry inside. If anything, D&D teaches that not everything will go your way and you have to deal with that.

[@justinpriebe6737]

Bard: "Ok so we're gonna make this plan, we'll talk to the ambassador and i have a sick argument to convince her to our side. Rogue: "while the diplomats of the party are doing that, i'll use this as an opportunity to sneak into the archives and find the scroll we came here for!" Barbarian: *with a tongue hanging off to the side like a neanderthal* "I PULL OUT MY AXE AND CHOP OFF THE AMBASSADOR'S HEAD!" GM: "............why? Why would you....you're actually hurting the party's potential progress" Barbarian: *"I CHOP OFF THE AMBASSADOR'S HEAD!"* players who find excuses to hurt or hinder the progress of theor party's plans for whatever *FUCKING* reason, is absolutely infuriating. As a GM, i know the players will throw wrenches into my plans. That's ok, what's not ok, is when one of the members of the party does something to completely destrpy the plan for the huge reveal i had for another character's story, or in general, fucking up the player's plans on the basis of "i'm the combat min maxed character and i'm not getting enough combat!" That is selfish, and unacceptable behavior. And i've had a lot of patience until recently. But from now on, my resulution for a player who does that is, i'll outright kill them, and make it painfully obvious i'm not dealing with that shit. I will have Tianat or Bahamut appear momentarily, unleash an attack on that specific player, swallow them whole and instantly kill them, and have the monster disappear, all while staring that player in the eyes. and hold my hand out expectantly. "Give me your character sheet. here's a blank one." "Ok, so start back at 10th level right?" "AHAHAHAHA no. 1st level." "BUT HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE COMBAT NOW!?" "Well, should have thought about that before you decided to ruin the fun for everyone else. It sucks having someone else take away what you worked for, doesnt it?"

[@MayHugger]

The problem with making them use a lv1 character, is that you are now indirectly punishing the other players by making them babysit this now useless hunk of flesh.

[@justinpriebe6737]

@@MayHugger true, but it works because the other players don't really work hard to protect that player until he learns to get his act together, and in the meantime, the encounters are scaled around the new party. and if the new guy dies again, he gets asked "have you learned your lession?" and if I think he's suffered enough for fucking up another player's reveal, I'll let him swap out that character for a level equivilant character and rejoin the party at their level glory. it's been a process in the making, with its fair share of roadbumps, your example included. Still, i thank you for this insight. Dude's changed his tude, made a new character, not one minmaxed for combat and actually made something that fits the game and has been a lot more helpful to the overall party, and as a reward to him for that, I've added more combat encounters to suit his likes. it was a very rough process, and he and i actually screamed at each other, but in the end, we all remained friends, and i think we're actually having even more fun now than before

[@sirundying]

@@justinpriebe6737 looks to me like you went on a huge power trip when you could have just prevented all that either in game with npc actions or out of game by talking to him.

[@justinpriebe6737]

​@@sirundying I will very much admit, looking back on that, I could have handled it a lot better. I still stand by the fact that people should use common sense and not get in the way of progression the others of the party are trying to accomplish. from my viewpoint, if one player screws something else up for another player, especially if it has lasting in game consequences, it isn't fair to that player who worked so hard for that goal just for it to be snatched away like that.

[@deanreaver3268]

My god, this man would go on a killing spree at our table. My group would be gone.

[@jodaman1000]

I think I've done most of these things

[@bexh6181]

It bothers me when DMs play absent player's characters really badly. DM: "ok this person casts fireball centred on the enemy". Player: "but that would hit 4 of her party members" DM: "well that's what they do" Players: "but they wouldn't do that! they've never done something like that and have no reason to!"

[@skippyzk]

Omg. We got to a pit. Baddies on other side. Melee jump across. Cleric is perfectly safe on the other side. DM says he tries to jump across the pit and ends up falling in and getting attacked by an ooze and dieing. DM tells us the cleric was just a doppleganger to retcon his own mistake.

[@quotablegnome8621]

My dm does it the other way around: DM: "the absent wizard runs and hides" Us: "no, she casts fireball, she always casts fireball" DM:"Well I don't want to use her spell slots and she's a squishy wizard who would hide from the big scary thing" Us:"she is lvl 11 with several spell slots with which to cast fireball and several other higher lvl spells. And name one fight where she has ever spent a turn hiding and name one fight where she has NOT cast fireball" Dm: "...well she isn't here to tell us so she hides"

[@michaeld6761]

To be fair as a DM it annoys me when people don't show. If you want to be mad at someone be mad at the player for not showing up. Creating a game takes hours of work and doing a great job should take all of your effort the last thing you want is to play a PC personally I just write the character out and the party can get mad at the player or just suffer. DMing done right is a lot of work lets show a little love for the effort.

[@xandosreign]

Even though it can kill emersion a bit, when I have a missing player they just don't exist for all intents and purposes until they are back. I'm of the opinion that real world takes precedence over game so as long as they are serious about playing, their character stays with the party. No reason they or the other players need to be punished due to a cold or family emergency.

[@Vinemaple]

Ooh ouch

[@marshalleastin1753]

I think Guy sprouted about 50 grey hairs making this video.

[@Sporner100]

Morleond The Mystic true, i think i've never seen him this agitatet for so long...

[@Gotrek65]

Nah I think his camera is overexposed.

[@matteussilvestre8583]

Maybe he saw a ghost.

[@thatonepersonyouknowtheone7781]

"Yes, Insert a Giant banana if you must" The best out of context line ever

[@timbuktu8069]

"I'm Chaotic Neutral. I can do anything I want." says the most Lawful Evil character I've ever met.

[@Robodragonlord]

My biggest peeve is when a GM doesn't give a player's character a chance to shine or gives one player's character too much time in the spotlight. I've had this happen in one of the first games I was in. It was a pirate campaign (3.5 edition) where I played as a halfling shadowdancer and I had a friend who was a half-man half-construct monster hunter. For most of the sessions, it seemed as though my GM put the group in situations that were meant for my friend's character, not everyone else.

[@NagemYelmul]

Alternatively, having a player who hogs the GM's attention to do things and doesn't let the other players do anything. Have had this problem a couple times in a campaign I'm in currently where I was trying to learn some more information by visiting a library, but another player jumped in to go to a brothel or something and wouldn't let me get my research done until they were satisfied.

[@richardmorris9076]

oh yeah! I have developed a way to fight this. I keep a worksheet that describes where the players are at the end of next session, what is set up next to do during next session and then make lists of encounters, role-play moments and times-to-shine for each PC and make sure that they get to at least one each during the upcoming session.

[@VndNvwYvvSvv]

Or make your own time to shine. Don't wait for someone else to hand it to you. Life doesn't hand you things unless you just got lucky.

[@jnever9768]

yeah this must be hard for a DM. but it's pretty important for ppl to enjoy the game.

[@theenderminecart4126]

Honestly for looking up rules, I’ll pull up my phone and do a quick search, if I can’t find something fast I’ll say I will look more in-depth after the session, this is just my personal GM rule

[@AceTycho]

That's the right thing to do.

[@samhhaincat2703]

All of these videos are just making me realize how grateful I am for my group. We have no drama, good communication, and SO MUCH FUN. I'm still pretty new though so I appreciate these tip videos to improve my own play :)

[@bakurastalker]

Players that try to over rule the GM, I'm a new GM for a few players who are very experienced with an older edition. Our first few sessions would grind to a halt while they argued with me, I finally just said thery we're house rules and, taking Guy's advice, promised to look it up later so we could keep playing. Thanks so much for your videos, as a newbire you've really helped me be a better GM and be more confident in my abilities. :)

[@oz_jones]

Their characters could always be hit by a lightning. Or a thousand. Or be crushed by a whale that falls on them.

[@CeltiesSin]

Ooohmg yes

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

I have a nasty habit of turning PC's into gerbils and rats for crap like that... It's particularly effective against a lone-PC who disrupts everything else in the game with attempts to usurp GM-hood while I'm running... AND whenever anyone joins the table, I have a "private" session-0 where we go over the character sheet together, so I get to copy off the inventory... to keep tabs... It is a bit more personal effort, BUT I've found with some Players who jump in "late" in an adventure or join "off the street" (regardless of invites) it pays off dividends. ;o)

[@DinJaevel]

We used two methods, back in the days (some 25 years ago) to get the overrulin of the gm out of the group. 1. The GM had the biggest, hardest and heaviest dice and it's sole purpose was to hurt the disrupting player. 2. The thunder and lightning entrance of the great gm into the world. And the sound of him tearing the fabric of the world to shreds, enraged.. oh, it was the sound of the character sheet, not the fabric of reality. Both methods worked very well back then and we got it out of the group quite fast, but I wouldn't use them today. Except maybe the dice throw, as it was quite satisfying.

[@Mathignihilcehk]

Rule zero: The DM is always right. Period. No discussion. No exceptions. Ever. You want to ask a question, fine. You want to make a suggestion, fine. You try to order the GM around, and you're going to get murdered horribly. If the GM says all the rules just changed retroactively, or the 20 you rolled is actually a 1, guess what. The GM is right. That's rule 0, and if you don't like it, the door is right behind you.

[@YoriDoriVO]

What really peeves me are players who act like they are the DM. It's horribly disrespectful and undermining towards the actual DM. It is one thing when a DM is just learning the ropes of running a D&D game and look to players with more experience for guidance. However, it is a completely different story when something like this happens: Player 1 (A new comer): "Hey Miss DM Lady, what should I roll for if I want to handle my liquor?" Me (A DM): "Okay, for that you will have to-." Player 2 (An experienced DM): "Just roll a Constitution Saving Throw." Me (A royally miffed DM): "McScuse me, but who's the DM here?"

[@DarthSironos]

That is just explaining mechanics.

[@notatoy3756]

Any player who answers a question directed at the GM should be bitch slapped hard and fast for doing so. As that question was phrased I could call for an INT check to check if they were smart enough to stop drinking before they reached the point they could not handle it.

[@genewirchenko5305]

I had a bad case of that once. I didn'[t even get to finish asking my question before the faux-DM started answering. That was after other cases of that earlier in the session. It ended the campaign, at least for me.

[@nathanmitchell9752]

I'm actually quite bad for that. My DM will say "do this" and I'll say "isn't that normally done like this?"

[@tangyhyperspace2217]

This is a race of players known as "Backseat DM,s"

[@avalon5957]

15:30 that is *EXACTLY* how one of the player characters died in the *very FIRST campaign* I had ever played. At lv 2 or 3, we were going to a cave to collect mushrooms and standing at the entrance we/I heard snoring, and I as the rogue, rolled for stealth to sneak in and check it out silently and carefully, but then while I was just beginning to sneak in, another player (orc barbarian) just totally unmotivated, charged in and ended up standing in front of a troll and his 2 ferocious bear pets, before any of us could react. He rolled poorly on initiative and ended up being gauged by the two bears first and when the rest of us came in, the troll knocked him to unconscious and then killed him... Think it was our third session (we started at lv 2.) And I was so excited to finally play D&D after many years of wanting to try, that I had made a fully fleshed character, who I had spent a long time making and creating personality, quirks and backstory for, and talking back and forth with the DM over a week in advance to plan my character to fit the world, and even made a portrait for my character. And I had also made minis for all of us, since I had polymer clay, am a creative person, and would like something interesting to look at when we were in battle. And just having dice or ludo pieces for monsters and so on. -- Anyway, then the rest of us slew the bears and ogre/troll thingy, failed to collect the damn mushrooms due to bad rolls, took his body back to the town to try and resurrect him (with Mercer resurrection rules and which cost os a fortune, basically all our money and valuables) and THEN found out that the orc barbarian's spirit apparently " _didn't want to return, because he had died an 'honourable death_ '". which HE as a player, didn't tell us until we had spent that _fortune_ . And I mean, WHY would you want to kill your character? And why so early? And risking the lives of the rest of the characters as well. It was *SO* annoying! I was *SO* disappointed in the way he played. Then next session he had made a different character of different class for us to stumble upon. I mean, why hadn't he thought about what class and race he wanted thoroughly before starting, and if he really wanted to change a character since he wasn't satisfied or regretted the choice, why not just tell us (the other players) so? Then we could agree that he could be written out and change character. And this guy wasn't even a new player like me. He had been playing it for *years*.... *facepalm* it was just... gah!

[@avalon5957]

Also, my character who was a Kobold, got drunk for the first time, and the DM had him black out and wake up in some random orc naked lady's tent, and I was like whaaaaat? I had never had my character behave in any sexual maner at all, never specified his sexuality, and had kinda thought of him as asexual, since according to kobold lore, they only mate to breed and expand the clan. And the eggs are collected and nursed in a community nursing nest, which really doesn't make them sexual creatures, but rather creatures that only has sex when they need to reproduce. Also Kobolds can change sex according to their surrounding environment, so if they are in a group of only males, they will change their sex to be able to reproduce. And my kobold was sort of aloof and more interested in shiny things and collecting than anything else, plus the rest of the party was males. So that DM ruling really weirded me out. I mean, it was kinda funny but in a weird way and it made *no* sense what so ever.

[@Vinemaple]

You mean the whole thing was his way of saying, "Can I play another character?"

[@jurgenstoll2394]

@@Vinemaple Maybe. Once we started a new campagne with new characters, the DM forced us to roll for each stat and use it as it was roled. No way to change. I wanted to play a knowledge domain cleric. But with INT 6 and WIS 8? Not really funny... So I told the DM, I want to roll another character but - again - was forced to play the weakling. So from the first moment on I played him suicidal and threw him from the next cliff. The DM was shocked and asked me, why I have done that. I just replied, that he forced me to play this character, but he can't force me how to play my character.

[@jameskyle7943]

Rolling your metal dice over and over again on a wooden table to "get the low rolls out".

[@IHateNumbersOnNames]

James Kyle Travis is that you?

[@SophiaAphrodite]

Lol. I have a d20 from back when I bought the original Expert DnD set decades ago. The dang thing rolls a 20 about every 5 rolls. But it also rolls a 1 about every 6-7 rolls. I save if for emergencies. Glorious, glorious emergencies. I do not believe in "getting the bad rolls out" though. That is just superstitious nonsense!

[@andrejones8834]

James Kyle man...mine does the opposite. whenever i just randomly roll it, it always rolls high. whenever i'm rolling for the game, i roll a 3.

[@bobjoe109]

I would recommend a tablecloth lol. They're cheap

[@e.forowun]

Lmfao that person is totally in my group.

[@awmperry]

Ive had a player in a campaign I ran come charging halfway across the map because he wanted to be involved in (which in his case meant “completely take over”) a scene that another character was role playing well several hundred metres away. His character had no way of knowing it was happening, he just couldn’t differentiate between character knowledge and player knowledge...

[@SophiaAphrodite]

That would require multiple checks. Intuition, heightened hearing, direction sense. Then MAYBE.

[@Oban2006]

Meta gaming

[@awmperry]

Exactly. Or as I would put it, "bloody annoying".

[@CrystalCoyoteX]

awmperry oh my god all of my this. It's the most obnoxious... I've had a few players try it, then I put them back. I say, "no, bad" so they decide to explore that area... 'innocently' and "oh hi you're here?" I give them a look. _The_ look. Alternatively, having other NPC's note their absence of self-control (in cases where their interruptions and self-injections could be viewed as outright rude) is a good way to curb this. It's always better to find a real explainable reason for why their habit isn't necessarily as beneficial as they thought.

[@awmperry]

@discoandherpes Taking over a scene that another character is handling and that his character couldn't possibly have known about? Yeah, that is bad. It ruins the fun for other players who are actually trying to stay in character and play the information their characters know. It's across that line into disruptive.

[@moisedieucaryoteescholecte8439]

Even more irritating that players not planning : players planning for hours only to ignore the plan anyway... happens all the time T-T

[@michaelminugh5357]

A player in my party will say shit like "Oh he's powerful, that's a 5th level spell!", or "It's only a young dragon because it's this size". Sure. Your PC might know a lot about some things, but every damn thing?! How's about some mystery!? I knew we fought a Slaad, but nobody else did, and my PC sure as hell didn't so I keep my mouth shut about it. Let people enjoy the unknown. Worse as a GM, I ran a one-shot with a world were noone had seen an Elf and lived to tell the tale. People know of the Elven forests, but nobody's actually seen an Elf. Very folk-lore'y. The PCs enter an ancient ruin, and as I describe the giant spider with a humanoid torso where its head ought to be, someone says "Ah, it's a Drider!". Well Laaa-dee-fucking-daaa. You fought a Drider in 2nd Edition. Never mind the fact that the PCs have NEVER heard of giant spiders, seen elves, and NOBODY alive has even thought of the notion of a Drider!

[@ColArana]

In your latter example I think that sort of thing depends on two things. #1. Whether it's the player saying this out of character (I often do this with some of my GM's albeit mostly in a "Oh we're so screwed" manner-- eg. "Oh bugger, that's a Displacer beast isn't it?") and then playing character appropriately (my character gets confused when his attacks aren't hitting the Displacer beast until he figures out its tricks), or #2. In longer adventures when characters have time to get desensitized to these sorts of things. My GM made a similar complain to you once in a Dark Heresy campaign, when my character expressed almost outright apathy, and only mild irritation to the party getting attacked by a pair of Spectral Daemonhosts. My answer was essentially; "By this point in the campaign, my character has seen and been attacked by eight foot tall green fungus men, elves, zombies, giant centipedes with cerberus-heads, some horrifying abomination made up of way too many corpses, living shadows, parasitic worms with lamprey mouths, actual demons, and Chaos Space Marines, among countless other horrible things. I think he's seen enough that I can justify this is just another Tuesday to him at this point." It's definitely a valid pet-peeve if this is a relatively fresh campaign and the players are actually meta-gaming though, I agree.

[@Underleaf76]

It's hard for people to separate themselves from the knowledge they have IRL, I wouldn't get to upset about it, it happens all the time. Just gently remind them that their characters have never encountered said creature. Also remember that legends exist in that world too and people could have heard of such creatures in tales. It is possible to know what something is even if they themselves haven't encountered it, just like I would know what Bigfoot was if I managed to see one.

[@wulver810]

"That's a demogorgon just like in Stranger Things!!!" says the noble Gnome.

[@crocodilerock4662]

It’s a Ghoma!

[@hopejohnson6347]

Easy answer: "does your character have knowledge (dungeoneering / religion / nature / whatever...) and can actually know these things? Yes? Roll for it - if the check is passed - great it's PC knowledge and perfectly in character. A Character doesn't need to have encountered everything in order to be able to know about it. I sure as hell have never seen a blue whale, but I know what a blue whale is. If the character has no such knowledge skills or fails the check - shut up.

[@theDMLair]

12:20 DM who tells a boring story... I was a player for one session with a DM who had us role-play CROSSING A RIVER. It took us about 1 hour game time to role-play it. He made a big deal about knowing who went across first, who was on which bank when, etc. I was thinking, "Surely we're going to get attacked and positioning matters! Cool." NOPE. Just role-playing crossing the river. SO LAME. Same DM let a wizard take about 20 minutes on her turn in combat because she didn't know which spell to cast. ALSO LAME. Needless to say, I played one session with that DM and never returned.

[@markbyrd7710]

the DM Lair it took my party a whole 5 hour session to cross a river.. Then the hydra we were fighting snapped the chain to the ferry we were on, and it sent us back to the side we started on.. Hahaha so we made no forward progress in 5 hours. But had a heck of a fight with that hydra! Plenty of XP.

[@Mathignihilcehk]

"Same DM let a wizard take about 20 minutes on her turn in combat " I quickly added a rule that you have 60 seconds to make your turn. It's a 6 second period, and if you're going to take longer, you're going to be skipped. My Wizard was super flustered, it was great. But he never took longer than 2 minutes.

[@theDMLair]

mathig, that's exactly how I do it when I'm DMing, too. My players almost never take longer than a few seconds to tell me what they are doing. It makes the game soooo much better. And combats don't take 20 years.

[@AlderBoyBlue]

the DM Lair my DM had us repeatedly wasting hours falling into the same damn river on the same damn bridge. As if we- as the players- wanted to endure a potential TPK from drowning. Left that group. I feel your pain.

[@theDMLair]

Mark Byrd Yeah, that's awesome! I was expecting some sort of cool encounter while we were crossing the river, too. That would have been badass, just like your hydra battle. Apparently, though, different folks have different definitions of fun... 😕

[@CatHasOpinions734]

The saddest thing about "well I just charge in because we'll be fine" players is that YOU CAN DO THAT WITHOUT BEING META. For example, our party was recently outside a powerful witch's home and debating how we wanted to address her, when the barbarian learned that she kidnaps children. Being neutral good and having an int of 6, he immediately flies into a rage, breaks her door into splinters and charges in (because that's precisely what that character would do in that situation), and the rest of us figure it out rather more quickly than we would have.

[@hachnslay]

"Are there any chickens?" " Well, yes - there are some chickens-" "Are they being watched?" " I don't Know where this is going, what are you planning?" "If they aren't being watched i put one into my bag of holding" "It's gonna die in 10 minutes, you know. Are you sure?" "Yes." ... he kept doing this a few times while in the town. He used them as food during rest. As distractions. As basically Deus Ex Bag of Holding Chickens. It was funny when he applied dead chickens for the first 3 sessions, but ... -.-

[@ReptillianStrike]

thats hilarious Sounds like something I would do

[@Underleaf76]

Thats cool, the person is putting the sandbox aspect of the game to use and exploring its boundaries.... I would not penalize them for trying to have fun, unless of course it starts detracting from the story or becomes a theme which could land the party in trouble, Player: "Oh, is that a chicken?" DM: "It sure looks like a chicken." (A Cockatrice). Player: "I grab it and put it in my bag of holding....."

[@ivorymantis1026]

Then you have a small group of Druid animal activists or a party of tracking rangers hired by the farmers who've gone hungry due to their lost livestock.

[@anonanonymous1988]

@@ivorymantis1026 PETA druids, that's scary.

[@droxictoxic2624]

Farm animals can save lives! I once played a half howl dragon, who had an obsession with sheep. Secured sheep so he could drag them with him wherever he went as a snack. Went through a door, found it led to a ancient red dragons lair (party secured the door behind me, jerks). went back and forth with the dragon, eventually ending up on "leave all your stuff, and I'll let you leave". By this time I had noticed that there was another way out way above, So I started flying that way. Several real lucky rounds of being chased by the dragon, who kept rolling low on attacks, damages, and even minimum damage on his breath weapon. I'm at 0 hit points and the dragon is going for the swallow whole attack, I notice and go to "lodge myself in it throat, to choke it out". It chokes to death, but only because of the secured sheep that didn't get swallowed and yanked me into place like a fishing hook of dragon slaying!

[@Ethanerd]

I think a lot of these problems stem from the players just not caring enough about the game.

[@ketrava0425]

Ethanerd or forgetting that the game is about everybody's fun not just theirs.

[@Ethanerd]

ketrava0425 Agreed.

[@theDMLair]

Ethanerd Totally agree. This is one reason I like forming groups from strangers over friends. In my experience, strangers seem to take it more seriously because they show up to play DnD, not just to hang our.

[@theDMLair]

Anonymous H Yes. Everyone at the table should be willing to let everyone else have fun, be in the spotlight. Otherwise, yeah, they should play on on one or go play Skyrim or something.

[@lavvgiver]

"I want to steal from X player..." or "I slit player Y's throat when he goes to sleep."

[@hottea6630]

When the GM tells too much about things that should be kept secret from the players as well as shame you for not knowing those secrets. An example would be that in one session, one of the players decided to wave and say hello to a friendly NPC in the woods since it was apart of their character to do so (they were playing a dwarf paladin). The DM then went on to say that the NPC was a side quest and complain how the player shouldn't have said anything to the NPC for "time reasons", even though the player did not know that it was a side quest and was just playing in character. Another is when everyone is under the impression that D&D is like Skyrim (walking around aimlessly, leaving out of nowhere, fighting whatever crosses their paths, etc). Worse still is when the DM has this mindset and throws the party in a sandbox-like environment hoping they walk the right way to story related missions. EDIT: After hosting a recent session as the DM, I've collected more problems to add to the dumpster fire. Firstly is when people interrupt or ignore the DM when they are describing the environment or important plot points. This situation speaks for itself as players can unintentionally miss inportant clues and make actions before the DM can set up the scenario, leading to either somebody walking into a room without knowing that a pack of gnolls are sleeping not too far away or accidentally setting off a trap. Another is when a player makes a roll without consulting the DM or asking the DM to do so (it's especially easier to happen when the DM is quieter than the player making the roll). This ties back into players ignoring or hastily rushing to make an action before they know the scenario the DM's describing. At one instance, I was about to describe the innkeeper in an conversation before a player wanted to seduce the innkeeper and yelled at me and said that I wasn't going to stop her. She then went on to laugh at her inevitable success and rolled a 23. After that, I then finished describing the innkeeper as a middle aged balding dwarf with a twitchy eye and a graying red curly beard. The player, who assumed the innkeeper was much younger, wanted to retract her roll only to be stuck with an old dwarf pining after her.

[@caterenacat]

@@kevinsullivan3448 they really shouldve put those warnings in the beginning of the module

[@OnTheBackOfBullets]

I really dont mind people talking out of character during a session. Unless theyre sitting there carrying a completely unrelated conversation while somebody is having an important turn, it doesnt really matter. In fact I find it uncomfortable when people expect me not to talk unless I'm pretending to be someone I'm not. As long as youre being conscious of when youre talking and respectful of other players, go for it and pass me a beer.

[@Vinemaple]

And that is exactly what he meant by talking out of character.

[@thevebis6392]

Players that don't accept their dice. Scenario: You walk through a dungeon hallway, which ends in a door. Player 1: "I check for traps. 7." DM: "You don't see any traps." Player 2: "I check for traps. 10" DM: "Still no traps." Player 1: "Can I check once more?" This goes on and on, untill they get a high enough roll to convince them that what the DM is saying is the truth, or some other player just opens the door. If you check, and get a bad roll, your character is convinced there are nothing there.

[@windriel]

Aww, as someone who just finished my first campaign, sometimes I hoped that maybe my Rogue hadn't looked hard enough or only looked in a half-assed way and wanted him to look better. That makes a lot sense when it's put like that., I'm glad I never pushed it to any kind of extreme like that.😅

[@tggdan3]

Roll for them and add their modifier

[@headphonic8]

why would you allow them to roll multiple times?? that's literally just cheating. tell them they already did and refuse.

[@daltonprather6649]

I think all and all it comes down to 2 things. Dms who do not put in enough effort to have a good game. They dont plan out a story or come up with plots or read the rules. They just sit down and put monsters in front of the players and expect everyone to have a good time. And players who dont put in effort. They dont give their characters personalities or read the rules or attempt to roleplay. They just sit down at the game and attack monsters. If everyone put in the effort and attempted to do more than just roll dice, people could have a wonderful. It is a roleplaying game. Not rollplaying game.

[@rageoftyrael]

On the flip side, if you have lazy players, or players who just want to kill things, there isn't anything wrong with a gm giving them what they want. If they don't need some grand story or motivation, why bother? If you as the gm WANT their to be something more to it, you can have the players be traveling mercenaries, taking whatever work they can find. They aren't adventurers, looking for adventure, they're people looking for work so they can get gold and survive. A good gm could make this more interesting by spicing things up a bit here and there, but if your players just want to bonk heads and collect gold, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

[@daltonprather6649]

rageoftyrael i agree but in my recent games it is the other way around. I am the player and i want to interact with the world and engage in a story. Yet the dm does no preperation. All he does is put monsters in front of us and expects everyone to have fun.

[@allys.8629]

Having this exact problem rn with my newest group. The dm hasn’t even read the campaign book yet and we’re about to have our second meet. The first meet, I was the only one on time, with a prepared character sheet, and extra dice. We started 3.5 hours late because people were late and unprepared and the nine of us were sharing my 4 sets of dice. Everyone was talking about random shit, leaving randomly mid game, not listening, and only two other players were actually role playing.

[@nickwirth6427]

People that try to be the main character of the story.

[@joeseatat]

How many times can I thumbs up this?

[@ThePadsta108]

To be fair for number 3, I once played a game in which my character was a late joiner to the party (I missed the first 3 or 4 sessions due a to a holiday) and the campaign was involved with a kind of underground conspiracy of drow and such, where we were doing work for a shady individual. The DM took me through a quick 1-on-1 one-shot combat encounter to establish my character's reason for joining the party, but the shady character never told me exactly what my mission was after that. They purposefully told me just to join my new companions in the next town and aid them in their endeavours. When I arrived during the next group session, they told me we were looking for an ancient sword. I wasn't told until 3 or 4 sessions LATER, that our real objective was to plot to murder the king, so.. Sometimes being clueless as to what's going on can be part of the character or story. It was in my character's nature just not to ask questions(being a warforged soldier).

[@DaleyKreations]

That's not what he's talking about though. He's talking about players who aren't paying attention on an immediate level, in a way that has nothing to do with their character, such as: DM- Player 2, your turn. What do you do? Player 2 *having been looking up memes on his phone and no paying attention to the combat* "I umm I fireball the Orc" DM - Player 1 just killed the Orc on his turn. Player 2 - oh, umm i..I... *then takes 5 minutes trying to decide what to do*

[@sangheilijedi]

from now on every time someone says something off topic to me I'm gonna go "the elves are going to war!"

[@mortalLP]

That's amazing. I totally support this call to action.

[@SophiaAphrodite]

Pound your fist on the table too.

[@tangyhyperspace2217]

Just sign a peace treaty that bans one of your gods

[@Team_BaM]

I can understand someone not being able to remember the specifics of all their abilities but if you have trouble remembering it you could get a print out of specific things you'll use.

[@adnamafett7862]

You ever just..... (Me) Paladin: I buy a pint *Its a few silver pieces* *after awhile we leave* Paladin: *looks through the window to see the barkeep injured* Rogue twili edgy guy: here’s your silver back. In that same campaign I was the only one allowed in a church and the chaotic members of the party burst in and rip out the nuns heart. It was our first game and our first game together so it wasn’t the best. Hilarious but our group dynamic...

[@Stofzuigerr1]

That does sound like a fun group though!

[@adnamafett7862]

Dylan de Wit yeah we play all the time with a lot better co-op and less chaotic characters

[@pakidara2000]

My biggest pet peeve is arguing with the GM. The only time I can really tolerate it is when in-game positioning comes into question (aka playing without a board / map). Beyond this, don't do it unless there is a serious rules issue that needs addressing. As for ignoring rolls, I've ignored quite a few. Examples include attempted jedi mind tricks in D&D, attempts to make thermite with stuff found in an abusive 1930's era insane asylum janitor's closet, attempts to weaponize a bag of holding. Rolls I probably should have ignored include; intimidating a chain demon (nat 20 roll), using aforementioned scrap-metal to "disarm" a trapped hallway (ricochet rolls got every trap), letting players roll their own loot on a loot table (laziness on my part), any number of "taunt" checks (basic charisma). Although I will have players make "yell" checks when yelling in game. A bad roll results in a comedic squeak while a good one yields "This is Sparta!" No effect on actual results though.

[@natethetoe386]

What do you mean by "Taunt checks?" Thank you. I ask because I have a player that wants to Taunt everything like he is a tank In World of Warcraft.

[@worldwar1flyingace645]

I play in a public group at my local game store. Everyone is great...except That Guy. I'm starting to think he actually trained for it, because he ticks every box for being That Guy. He metas like crazy. He min-maxed his race and class combo. He peeks over the DM's screen. He argues with the DM over everything. Answers questions for the DM that were not directed to him. He gets up in the middle of both combat and exposition to have a smoke. He whines about getting picked on when anything doesn't go his way. Decides to be useless when he runs out of spells (which he is constantly out of because he wastes spells). He has decided he is the de facto leader. He lone wolfs. And when he actually chooses to role play, his character acts like a total bitch. He is visibly wearing on our soft-spoken DM.

[@yurihageshi8008]

Jefferson Robsion grabing a smoke during play? He should be more into the game

[@SophiaAphrodite]

The game store situation is a tough one. You do not want to ostracize patrons. Even if they are annoying and suck. He is likely to stir up more trouble if you give him grief than others. My best advice would be to get your 6 players beforehand so when you show up, just tell him the party is already full. But he can hang out and observe. Then if he gets annoying, he is the one who is likely to get into trouble.

[@worldwar1flyingace645]

unfortunately, it's Adventure League and each player was assigned a group. there isn't anything anyone can do other than the DM, and I don't know her well enough to predict what she will do.

[@cwimalas]

Well if he gets up to smoke, should have his character NPC'd and knocked out/killed. =)

[@gabrielcorvis]

Speaking as an ex-smoker, that is NOT a good enough reason to be killing someone's character. In fact, it's kind of bitch-made. Granted, guy should grab a smoke during a natural lull, such as a bathroom break or take a quick couple drags during someone else's turn on combat, but that's not a reason to kill him. That OTHER behavior, however, means that dude needs to fry.

[@jarerum3840]

We got a thief in our group that pockets everything and at one point was entering combat when everybody else was trying to deescalate. At one point we were escaping a dungeon and the thief was in another cell and the party honestly considered just leaving her there. It got slightly better after we talked at the table, but my character still likes the thief least and does not feel any particular loyalty towards her. Talking about disagreements at the table is worth a lot.

[@cryam6428]

To quote 'Uncle' from Jackie Chan Adventures: "One more thing..." I hate whenever one person is dominating the night with the DM. If your DM wants to interact with you because the narrative dictates it is not what I'm saying, if your trying to do a thing but it's hard to explain so your picking your words carefully that's not what I'm saying. But when you want to do 5-10 things in a row simply because you have the DM's attention or because your chaining the results of the previous action to dictate the next. At best your not playing with others and excluding others from a fun narrative way to help you. At worst it simply puts everyone else with their phones in their hands wondering when your going to shut up.

[@roceb5009]

*cough*tiberiusstormwind*cough"

[@lyrainealei7848]

Omfg, yes. Yes!

[@shrilleth]

Paul H I remember Jackie Chan Adventures. I accidentally downloaded malware when I was young, and some anime player popped up one day and I started watching that show. The Mac soon fuckin died and I havent watched it since

[@donovandirk6063]

Players who want to be the "Hero of the team" one time my ally monk ran into a cave and my Drow necromancer had to run in to stop him from killing himself. At which point a gate had shut behind us and we had to fight a minotaur. A challenge designed for our third member who was guarding the entrance whilst I tried to stop the monk. We only survived because the GM had mercy. Same thing happened again in another quest to a shaolin temple, he would not coopoerate with me or the third member and instead acted off what he thought was heroic and made it absolutely boring for the rest of us.

[@ujlt7198]

Bless GMs who have mercy to us who fall victim to another player's stupid decisions.

[@patchbunny]

You're a necromancer. Let the monk die, reanimate him, and now he'll do what you want. :)

[@xandosreign]

This happened in one of my games with a Barbarian. He'd previously been over powered by the crew of a ship and precariously tied to the rear of the vessel while it was at sea, due to overly aggressive behavior. He didn't learn from this so in the next city when he chose to attack the guards the other players were conversing with they walked away and left him to die. I gave him one last out to just yield and save his character and hopefully grow and develop. He just wanted to attack. I told him, you've got the next fifteen minutes to come up with an epic death, I'm going to continue the other players' stories until then. Fifteen minutes later I let him whirlwind like a video game killed twenty some odd soldiers and was promptly killed by the rest of the army he was assailing. The sad part was the other players thanking me. It is painful to see someone missing all of the queues of their party that you're not only upsetting their characters but the players themselves.

[@Vinemaple]

Or the boss of the team, always telling everyone else what their character should do

[@paddlesawtactic9788]

Nothing was more frustrating to me than me being the only one that made decisions. We were playing D&D 5e, Curse of Strahd, and my Elven Nature Domain Cleric named Monty started as a lawful good character, who basically became the defacto leader of the group. He would always ask for feedback, and the response from the rest of the party was always, "I guess we can do that". After the death of a PC, who was Monty's closest companion, I role played Monty as someone who snapped, and the stress of Barovia turned him into a Chaotic Neutral whose only goal was to kill Strahd and go home, by any means necessary. I made this very clear to my group, even in character, and they still left all decision making to me, then got mad at me, the player, when my character made a decision that hurt some NPC's. They didn't confront the character in game, they confronted me for making a selfish decision, even though I had made every decision for the group for the past three months. If your group naturally has someone who acts as a leader, that's fine, that's how humans work. But for God's sake, take some agency in this game. Make you're own decisions, or help the group reach a decision together.

[@EmilyChuu]

Players who don’t shower/Have greasy hair/ or are generally unkempt. Please take care of yourselfs

[@badmoon4044]

weird one, not related to actually playing the game, yet I totally agree with shower part. It is hard to focuse on RPing if the player next to you smells like a dump.

[@seanheath711]

But I'm an Urogalan grave cleric! We are barefoot and our temple has 6 inches of dirt in it. Embrace the earth!

[@HCLogo]

My god, does that actually happen?!

[@Here_is_Waldo]

Slip them a hint to see a psychologist. They might have severe depression if they're letting themselves go that badly.

[@stineandscott]

@@HCLogo unfortunately yes, we have a friend that has been coming over for years for RP night. We have tried everything for him to get it. And we have lost good players as well because of it.

[@starwalker9188]

I feel like the first two rules are a little unfair, because even with new players or new GMs, not everyone is going to know the rules perfectly.

[@ShiningDarknes]

yeah the first two are situational gripes at best. We play to have a good time BUT we also like doing so within the rules and ours is a pathfinder group so I guess we are just conditioned to like rules and like to look up vague rules that rarely come up. Doesn't help that spellcasting is THE thing that bogs down combat when the party has 3 and you are fighting enemies that also have spells that is just a lot to look up and if I am looking shit up when it isn't my turn I am not paying attention to what is going on and thus not having fun. It always helps to find a group of similar minded people that are really just there to hang out and don't care how long the game takes. Why do you think so many great games go on for a year or more? It isn't always due to the actual story taking that long it is the fact that combat slows everything down, I mean a turn is 6 seconds and most combat is over in 5 or so turns but those 30 seconds take at least as many real-life minutes.

[@LightingInvoker]

I'd agree with this, too. Like most people will wait for their turn to talk and ask questions about what they can do.

[@runstygge]

We still ask and the DM look up, its fair... ruin the game more if we mess up

[@mistervoid9161]

@@kevinsullivan3448 my problem is that if I am looking up a spell then I don't know what is happening in the combat the reasson I dont have the spell all set up is becuase I need to see if my plan could still work

[@1goofydude]

Thankfully googling keywords to rules can get you an answer so much faster nowadays.

[@gambits.protege]

I just stumbled across this video. I have never seen any of your videos before, but based solely on your voice in this one video I need you as my GM. Love it!

[@Comicsluvr]

I am guilty of many of these. Hearing them here will prompt me to try harder. That being said, some of my pet peeves include: 1) Min-maxing simply to dominate combat. I like to build capable characters and to me, it's important that if my character says he's the best tracker in the area that he actually BE good at tracking or whatever. I also like to be very good at my preferred style of combat whether it be archery or sword and board or whatever. However, the player that has a character that is only good at ONE fighting style or situation who moves Heaven and Earth to force that situation on EVERY fight makes me nuts as a player AND a GM. 'No, Stan, you CAN'T find a narrow corridor in the forest to set up your perfect Polearm Master technique.' 2) Players who try to do something expressly laid out in the rules, knowing and admitting that it might be out of bounds, and not accepting a ruling that they can't do it. Look, you agreed that what you wanted to do was sketchy anyway. You SAID so when you asked for a ruling on if you could do it. SO WHY are you griping when the GM says no? 3) The GM who can't resist letting the players win. He doesn't try to KILL them but he spends quite a bit of time setting up the situation, then the players do something clever and the GM gets torqued because his hour-long plan was just dismantled by 5 minutes of 6 people using their heads. Look, you KNEW the players gained those abilities when they leveled up (whenever one of my players gains a level I ask them if they learn any new skills or abilities, raise stats etc). You can't expect them to NOT use their shiny new thing the minute the opportunity arises, especially when they told you about it last session with a wicked gleam in their eye.

[@markbyrd7710]

Comicsluvr so are you bothered by GMs that let their players win? Or ones that don't let their players win? The wording is a bit confusing in the beginning of your comment.

[@Comicsluvr]

A perfect example of 'don't post when tired.' My intended meaning was when the players out-wit the GM and he insist on making more of the encounter than was originally planned. I understand that this was your BIG plan and it's supposed to be the finale but we outwitted you by thinking outside the box...something the GM encourages us to do. So, why not LET us chalk up the win, take our victory lap and go home? Instead, he comes up with BS sidebars, spells or other machinations to prolong the big fight.

[@markbyrd7710]

Comicsluvr gotcha! Yeah that makes sense. If a GM is running a scenario in order to "win", it's already set up the wrong way. Rpg is cooperative storytelling, and it's way more fun when it's not player's vs GM.

[@rageoftyrael]

You're forgetting that the gm's enjoyment is just as important as the players. If the players figured out some clever way to destroy 6 hours worth of work in 5 minutes, just how happy is the gm supposed to be in that situation? Of course, as a gm, I'd never let on that my plan had been destroyed. I'd simply change a few things on the fly to make it work. The players won't feel cheated, because I won't grouse about how easily they outsmarted me, I'll simply god a few details and bam! we're back on track. Of course, it's never about winning, it's about having a good time, and I doubt most players want their last epic scenario that was supposed to last the whole night simply unravel after 15 minutes because the dm missed a detail. A good example would be that I had created a well crafted dungeon, laid out with enemies and heavily laden with traps. Unfortunately, my traps were originally intended to be fairly simple, based on stepping on a certain spot, or tripping a wire. The players figure out that the dungeon is heavily trapped and they have a "brilliant" idea. They're going to use a random enemies body to set off traps! Oh crap.... that didn't occur to me. Well... I guess these guys are going to just breeze through my dungeon, and fight against an underpowered boss that would have been a perfectly good challenge had even a few of the traps done some damage to these guys. Instead, they steamroll the boss without any effort. Fun. No, what a good gm would do is figure out a way to stop this cheese in it's tracks. 1. Change the traps. The players don't know what this place looks like, or what's coming next, so you can happily interchange things so that the traps aren't so easily set off with the corpse cheese. 2. Destroy the corpse with the trap. They get their cheese, but only once. Of course, these players may get clever and decide to go back and get another corpse. Whoops! There's a dangerous monster in there, gnawing at the dead bodies. I'd make it clear it's quite dangerous and they should probably avoid it. If they decide to attack it, I've got more options. I can either keep it quite strong, in which case it may well do the work I wanted the traps to do, or I'll give it some kind of acid attack that will be destroying corpses left and right. By the time they're done, there aren't any corpses that are usable for cheese, and the monster itself will melt away, as the acid in it's body will devour it. 3. More obvious, but if done right, still interesting, just hurt them immediately when they get to the boss room. They walk in and are immediately assaulted with a flame attack, as the boss knew they were coming and waited until they'd all come in to surprise attack them. This will get those pesky hp's down to a level that makes the fight close and enjoyable, and it could just be a cool moment. Long story short, a decent gm can change things on the fly without the players ever necessarily needing to know that they're doing so.

[@williamw7916]

Had a DM who attacked our lvl 2 party with 12 drow intending to have us all knocked out and taken to the big boss to set him up, then are given a chance to escape. But when the drow come down on us the cleric and fighter just take dodge every turn in the front while the ranger wizard and rouge run back and take them out at range. The drow just couldn't get the rolls to hit at all so he has them start hitting us with faerie fire to negate the dodge. The first Dex check is a 14... DM says fail. I'm like these guys have a spell DC of 15?? After the game the DM was like I bumped their stats cause I needed you guys to get knocked out and I just remember thinking you could have improvised some other way for us to meet the big boss instead of punishing us for using an effective combat strategy.

[@OrochiKitsune]

I've got 2 to add. 1) Players arguing with the DM over their decisions/story hooks to the point the game is derailed. 2) Players accusing bad rolls on everyone conspiring against them. (I've had this in 2 seperate groups.)

[@markbyrd7710]

Seon Arikale how can they blame bad rolls on someone else?? Haha that makes zero sense. Also, when a player misunderstands their spell effects, but uses it anyway, and gets upset that it didn't work the way they wanted it to..

[@OrochiKitsune]

Mark Byrd the players in question would get mad at constantly rolling low. One of them accused one of the other players for lending them loaded dice, despite this happening whenever anyone lent them dice. The other was convinced we told them to play a skill heavy character because we knew just knew they would roll low everytime. Somehow.

[@SophiaAphrodite]

With that kind of behavior. I might fudge my rolls to fail helping them too. Who needs drama queens.

[@VidelxSpopovich]

That's like this time I introduced my level 3 group of 4 to a single Spectator. I described it to themand without thinking about the actual description they start actually screaming "WHY WOULD YOU MAKE US FIGHT A BEHOLDER, IT'S WAY TO STRONG!" It took them all of three turns to kill it...

[@AlvorReal]

I had one player who didn’t speak English as a first language and struggled a lot with some of the more esoteric rules. The whole party was patient with him to his face and were glad to help him with his RP, even if they, discretely, asked me to sit down and help him with it. Everyone involved was incredibly well mannered and polite. Half of them got poached by another DM when he saw how well behaved they were. THAT pissed me off.

[@awesomlawson]

players who play like they're a lone wolf instead of in a group of 3-5 players grind my gears

[@Leivve]

People who dominate every scene. It's fine to have your moment in the spotlight, especially if the rest of the players in the game like to follow your lead for one reason or another, but you should make an effort to try sharing the spotlight, and letting other people get a moment to shine.

[@markbyrd7710]

Leivve this one is easy for me to fall into.. I am just an outspoken person. And the other day I finally realized I did it when a friend's character had this AWESOME speech (he usually doesn't talk much) , and I had my character stand up and cheer for him afterwards, but it was perceived as me trying to add to his effect on the crowd.. Luckily I rolled well or I could've steamrolled his experience.. I'm still new to dnd and I'm learning. I would hate to make someone else have less fun by stealing the spotlight, even for a moment.

[@TheObzfan]

I sometimes accidentally do that, but when the others just do not really speak up in any way, someone has to. (Doesn't help that my character has alterior motivations for stealing their spotlight-...But they don't seem to ever complain.)

[@hippocampus6514]

Gosh, I hope I don't do this as much as I fear I do.

[@DanIsAces]

One of my current characters does this on purpose because it's part of their, well, their character. My aim is for him to learn to stop doing it but that requires a catalyst in the form of others taking charge or simply speaking up in his stead, instead of just getting pissy about it and letting it continue to happen. This is directly after a previous character who was mute and, decreasingly over the course of the campaign, timid. Nobody in my party has complained about how I play this one yet, to the best of my knowledge, but you're an example of some who would. To you, I say step up. People like that exist in reality, do you let them walk all over you, too? If DnD isn't teaching you something about yourself, you're probably playing a very boring campaign.

[@MrBoltstrike]

I once was going to do a noble sacrifice as an excuse to leave the game in a proper thematic way and the scene stealer was *still* trying to be the center of everything. He had no reason to stay and die at all.

[@sonofbelz]

Players who complain about there not being enough roleplay, but then make absolutely 0 effort to engage with the world are just the worst.

[@adakahless]

There is nothing more aggravating than players who work against the party...and players who don't know how to play evil, which is likely why in League play you can't play anything evil.

[@leafwynmaer3716]

Adalaide Kahless it depends on how they act against the party

[@alcandersliver]

I wouldn't limit it to evil but rather people who don't know how to play their alignment.

[@leafwynmaer3716]

alcander sliver ah, that makes sense and in that I agree, but I had a player who would occasionally act against the party when the game got dull so I had to ask

[@leafwynmaer3716]

alcander sliver minor correction: had to seek clarification

[@eWarriorDLC]

I've rarely seen evil well done in a d20 system... Maybe twice in the span of 15 years? These days, when I see someone who wants to play an evil character, I always ask, "what is your definition of evil for this character?" In contrast, I've seen individuals in GURPS that would be labeled as evil, who were played very well because they have parameters.

[@SHAWN94ITA]

I personally hate (and some of these I've actually done them myself, even if I try not to do them again): - Players who decide to charge and attack at every chance. - Players who aren't listening to the GM and instead are drawing, playing on their phones, or staring into the endless void. It's disrespectful of all the work the GM has put into the session, or all the work I've done as a GM (actually happaned more than once on my first campaign as a Master). - Players who make the same characters again and again and again. Fine, I understand, you liked that character, but now it's time to move on. - Players who argue a lot with their GM over stupid things (Example: Can I make a kamikaze warhorse? Can I have four arms? Can I do this nonsense? Can I do that nonsense?) Sorry if my behavior may have hurt your personal feelings, but it's been a rough year for me, both as a PC and as a GM. I really needed to express all my feelings about this argument...

[@Mathignihilcehk]

> Players who decide to charge and attack at every chance. This was my DM PC for a few sessions. It was hilarious. Everyone loved him. He was a lawful good cleric, on a mission to exterminate every goblin ever. So the party would KO a bunch of goblins and try to interrogate them. NOPE. I'd run over to coup-de-gras every single one. They tried to stop me once, and I had knocked out 3/4 of the party before the final one managed to tackle me down to save the goblin. It was amazing.

[@DanIsAces]

Are you suggesting there is something inherently wrong with any of these things or just that you dislike when they occur? If the former then some of them are rather narrow-minded.

[@MrBoltstrike]

I will object to the same character thing as far as builds go. I like my edgy Fighter/Warlock, that's just my ideal fantasy. However, characters using the same backstory, personality, or god forbid stat rolls need to move on.

[@Rob_Kankerboef]

I always tell my players that nearly nothing impossible for them too achieve, but if they just drop something midsession and im not prepared for it, its not happening. Talk with me before we play and i can work stuff into the story and if needed i can design gameplay mechanics around it

[@droxictoxic2624]

What about barbarians, characters built to take all the damage for the party, and characters built to do damage on a charge, is "charge and attack" still annoying then, because it literally is part of their roll in the party. or did you mean players that solve everything by "I attack"?

[@marcacroftmore4699]

Long time plyer first time DM. Your videos are helping me set up my very first game for my little sister who will be a first time player. I'm so proud of her! Thank you so much!!

[@XanthIllion]

Players who don't just cancel last minute, but cancel after the rest of you have been waiting half an hour for them.

[@Rikaisupcom]

Oops sorry that is me... Often. :S

[@abberbabylon]

You know what really grinds my gears!? Players that build a character that specifically counters or conflicts with your character. 🤨😤😡

[@shikiaura]

I have a player in one of my games that did that for a while. What was worse was that he'd also borderline copy qualities of my own character. I make a prince that becomes a Vigilante class in order to serve justice to every tier. He's rough when he needs to be, but always tries to assume innocence before guilty. He tries to work with any aligned characters, yada yada yada. That Guy switches characters into a lone wolf prince that edges out everywhere and threatens every character we run across, as well as constantly trying to pick fights with my character.

[@abberbabylon]

@@shikiaura ugh lol it's the worst

[@jamieslingsby9907]

That would be annoying, but when it is totally unplanned it can be crazy awesome. did a game of the warhammer 40k Rpg dark heresy, we never discussed what kind characters we were going to play beforehand. I played a psyker (40k mage) and one of the other characters played an 'untouchable' who can essentially block all psychic abilities in the area around them. it made for some interesting Rp, especially how the untouchable was also rather sadisticly natured, she'd occasionally deliberatly come into physical contact with my character because she knew it'd be very uncomfortable for him to be touched by an untouchable.

[@GlitchTheF0x]

Me and my friend deliberately set up our characters with opposing views but compatible personalities. They had sex before finding out about those views, and then everything got complicated because one of them still liked the other. Like, one was a terrorist conspirator, and the other was a knight raised from birth to protect the king. Of course, we discussed it beforehand so that's probably why it was fun for us.

[@Blackwing2007]

Currently in a homebrew class game of 3.5 edition. My character is a warrior mage hybrid, specializing in enchanting weapons... My character was the first concept put forth, and approved by the party... all but 1 of the other players made characters that have no need of weapons, enchanted or otherwise, created by a smith. One of them travels with animals that do all their fighting, another carries around a unique crossbow, specific to their class, that cannot be replaced, and another literally summons his weapons at random from a list that improves as he levels up, while the only other character is a spell user that only needs a weapon as a back up. Thanks for considering the traits of the first character that the party agreed to, when deciding what you were gonna play guys.

[@nottelling9581]

Our planning is pretty much: "Frontal assault?"" "Yep" "Yep"

[@corbinmulholland9244]

The one that really annoys me is, for the quest I DM, 3 of the players are triplet siblings. They bicker tones out of character and a lot of meta game conversations and decisions leak into the game. For example, the chaotic good monk refuses to help save his brother from a trap or from an enemy or from (enter normal D&D thing here) because something hurtful was said in the car on the way. Or 2 of the brothers will try to zone the other brother out from the story line even if he is supposed to be in the limelight. That is my biggest pet peeve as a dungeon master.

[@Vinemaple]

Aargh...

[@roceb5009]

Headcannon: all of Guy's dice are normal-size and he's actually a Borrower.

[@thunderstruck206]

Headcannon accepted

[@ottokarl5427]

As a DM I just recently discovered a new pet peeve: Players playing their characters against their stats. To give you an example: My players encountered a group of enemies who attacked them because they didn't give a correct answer. Because of their own reputation, three enemies decided to flee (it was just me showing them "look, your roleplay in the past made your life easier now"). One player wanted to do a charisma check to motivate those three enemies (who are guards btw) to join them and fight against their fellow guards and their own commander. He wanted to make a big and epic speech to convince them. I didn't allow it, because they were already getting charged at by multiple enemies, but that wasn't even it. In the ruleset we use (homebrew), there are multiple talents for interacting with people. Manipulation or intimidation would be two of them, but I think in total there were like four different talents that could apply in such a situation. That player had not one of those, because he decided to play a "lone wolf" character. So he neither had the time nor the skills to actually deliver such a convincing speech, so I declined the wish. And then I got a very annoyed "well, the DM OBVIOUSLY doesn't want us to do this" as a response. Btw, this was in the very same session the group made a plan for a sneak attack on a patrol, which made me so proud I didn't even mention that none of them had any stealth skills, because I felt like this was a cool moment and it would just spoil the fun...

[@lowwattedbulb4641]

My absolute two pet peeves are One, Dms that don't have consistent rules. If they want to make up rules fine, but be consistent! Two, Players that make characters to grief the party. They steal, do bad things and laugh at the other players because their special character has a messed up back story so he can do what ever he wants with no moral consequences. Fine, play a mean character if you want, but don't play a character that takes away the fun for other players for your own amusement!

[@ketrava0425]

Low Watted Bulb your second example is every version of chaotic evil I have ever seen at the table. I really wish people would stop using chaotic evil like it's an excuse to be an asshole. I also agree with your first one because it's frustrating to have a character design based upon the way the rules work and then the GM changes that without telling you and all the sudden your character is crap.

[@lowwattedbulb4641]

ketrava0425 It's less chaotic Evil, but I've had players that just make messed up characters that murder hobo esk or will do things just because it will make the other players mad. The main rule thing is a lot of dms like 5e, but they keep using pathfinder/3.5 stuff that doesn't gell well.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

TOO many Players don't (and haven't) bothered to READ the alignment mechanics... SO too many play "evil" as Brain damaged... Okay, I know in your (Low Watted Bulb) experience, it's not even exactly an alignment thing, but psychotic or socio-pathological is still Brain Damaged... Backstory doesn't excuse it, any more than modern (IRL) society is willing to put up with it. In the fantasy world, I tend to delight in murdering such PC's... from either side of the screen. ;o)

[@lowwattedbulb4641]

gnarth d'arkanen Here's the thing, they say since their character sees it as necessary, it's not actually evil for them. And the dms I've had ok it most of the time. (Because they are friends in real life, if I tried it, if get yelled at, though I often play paladins.) The only evil I have played is lawful evil, the only evil I think could work in a party.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Okay, Low Watted Bulb... There's a lot of misconception that goes around about it... so no disrespect here... AND Gygax started the disservice in his choice of "colorful narrative terms" over substance of the mechanic... "Evil characters do NOT actively engage in harming or taking advantage of others. They are motivated entirely for their own interests." That's a quote directly from 1e AD&D DMG... SO while "Good" characters are interested in the benefit for society in general (or society around them, like tribal campaign settings)... "Evil" PC's are motivated for their own "fortunes" however they justify getting them. The technically correct terms would've been... Evil is "Ego-centric" and Good is "Socio-centric"... And the mechanic basically writes itself. NOW... You are talking about a 5e setting, BUT even WotC only further obfuscates the mechanical terms to a degree that Egocentric and Sociocentric are almost nonexistent. It's like they didn't even try in this edition. I read it... It's awful... but it doesn't change the principle. Lawful (of course) as you know is "Structured" by some code, whether moral, ethical, or regimental... it's a code of conduct and the character follows that. Chaotic (obviously) has no structure, preferring a fierce individualism... and faces obstacles and questions on a case by case basis. Neutral... well, these are best played as either ambiguous or apathetic about their particular neutrality issue... be it regarding conduct or centric nature... To the GM's who allow "psychotic" behavior as whatever, and not deteriorate the alignment on it, I would argue that there is NO mention nor excuse for psychotic... In Gurps (for instance) there is a "Psychosis" disadvantage, and you get Character Points to spend for taking it... BUT it's also up to the GM to drop consequences on your PC when you don't RP properly... so Players adventure at their own peril (especially in games I run)... simple as that. The excuse that "because it's necessary in his eyes" doesn't make something a non-evil act. He HAS to answer "Why does he see it as necessary"... If the answer is a personal goal, ta-dah, it's an evil character. In accordance with the DMG. If it's for society, he needs to legitimately make logic for benefiting society by making you personally miserable... THEN you can coerce the GM for rewards for NOT murdering said character... These are kind of advanced RP-techniques... ...AND I've quietly refused to join tables after "piss poor GM'ing" myself. Even my patience has limits with friends. AND sometimes, a hiatus is as effective a cure for "piss poor GM'ing" as punching someone in the nose (I've seen that as well)... ;o)

[@ryangrubbs6813]

Players who try to be a dictator to the party and get mad when people don’t want to follow them

[@megaflamer]

the opposite can be equally irritating, when 'no one' wants to decide what to do next

[@kinosaga21]

Those players are a reason why I like playing adsasins

[@nekomaru856]

This reminds me of this one campaign I once played in as a druid. It was me the DM and a guy I will call J. As I said I was a druid of a custom order that gets a much stronger wild shape, but not until level 9; and J was a anti-mage Templar who made heresy/deus vult jokes and threw leaches at anyone he suspected of being a demon. We joined forces to help King Ragna The Unreasonably Bias (bonus points to anyone who gets that joke) and we set out to help young villages with there problems. Well J took one look at me and decided I was "a little to magey to be good for anyone" and started to mess with me. Firstly he insisted that I, the glass cannon, take the lead when in potently dangerous places (i.e. a cave that makes screaming noises when you make noise near it, a portal to a ancient wizard's abandoned domain.), also J decided he should get an 80% cut of all quest rewards instead of the current 50%. It slowly got worse as we were captured by pirates, J decided to tell them that I was a necromancer trying to rule the country. The pirates ignored that and made a deal that they would let us go if we helped them loot a old treasure trove, and they would even let us keep two pieces of loot each. When we got to the trove J and me picked out our loot only to see a clearly evil bowl of ever refilling with demon blood of corruption (trademarked). J then succeeded in intimidating me into taking the bowl as one of my treasures so he could take it to a church to destroy it. Then he made me pay all the road/village tolls on the way back whilst also carrying this massive evil bowl (I was a small race). Eventually I got him back though, when I got wild shape I turned into a kitsune, cast enlarge creature on myself and picked up J's character and demanded that he show me some respect under threat of my new power spike; he fearfully agreed. That was the last session of that campaign we ever played. >:T

[@kinosaga21]

of course, surely because the powerhouse now knew that he could not mess with you so cried with a tail behind its legs, happened to me several times, thus the assassin, lol good stuff.

[@nekomaru856]

The funniest part about your comment was that J was playing as a furry race.