D&D Players, What was the best way you saw a DM shut down "That Player"? #2

[@erictoncray966]

“Perhaps the door doesn’t swing that way.” Mic drop. Game over. The DM wins.

[@misterhyde2817]

Puns

[@vadaritis]

Thats exactly how it happened XD

[@BrianVaughnVA]

IT'S A TRAP... DOOR!

[@pogggaming4470]

I can imagine the door legit slamming on the bard’s balls, adding insult in injury

[@d1nodray]

I'm just gonna be that one annoying guy who asks for a timestamp.

[@Seydaschu]

I'm now imagining a point-and-click adventure game where you play as a bard. There are commands for walk to, look, use, but also seduce. So naturally you click it on everything to see what happens. You click on the door, then the sarcastic narrator says "it occurs to you that perhaps the door doesn't swing that way."

[@hiro4344]

Makes me think of the "King's Quest" Remake. Gram's narrating as things happen so when you do something wrong he says things like "I didn't do *that.*" When you get an ax and try to swing it at everything.

[@OlySamRock]

disco elysium

[@MissCaraMint]

It’s a great line. Defense one that would fit into a good old school video game.

[@loganreads90]

Sounds like a line from Leisure Suit Larry.

[@pogggaming4470]

And then the door damages and takes away your hp

[@kaboomluong9373]

"The door doesn't swing that way" is going to fucking live down in history

[@The___Rat]

“Perhaps the door doesn’t swing that way” that is a joke straight from a Toby Fox game, which if you didn’t know, is where some of the best written jokes ever conjured have spawned.

[@bradwolf07]

Your Captain Edgelord comment reminded me of a friend. He is a DM who had a NPC he called Captain Edgelord. He played on the tropes and apparently his players found him hilarious. Captain Edgelord had a custom feat that made it so, regardless of time of day or weather, that when he stood at a window, it became a stormy night with his cloak billowing behind him. I found it hilarious when he described it to me.

[@laprinceproteiforme]

First story in and I already feel like this video is a birthday gift from the universe. That pun is absolutely incredible, the perfect shut-down no matter how aDOORable the bard’s player thinks he is. And I loved hearing from the female DM, and Brian, your support of female DMs made me smile and just feel a bit safer. Thank you for the lovely video and for the positivity you create 💖

[@LocalMaple]

The video’s success hinges on the first story. It was pivotal to retention!

[@ShadowDude6488]

Not me, but an ex-roommate of mine. He was supposedly a "Lawful Neutral" Wood Elf Monk and was tasked with meeting up with the party on a mountain range. I had my character with him since I was DMing the group prior, who was a Chaotic Neutral Half-Orc Barbarian. We decide to get ourselves some horses, but I already had a horse and waited for him to join up. He goes to try and steal a horse (Lawful?), but failed his stealth roll and got caught by the farmer. He fights the farmer and knocks him out (Neutral?) before throwing a lit lantern onto a bale of hay as a distraction when he stole the horse. (Lawful? Neutral?) He tells him that the barn quickly catches fire along with the unconscious farmer, catching the attention of the guards. He tries to go back in to put out the fire, but it's already spread like crazy. Then they heard the children in the loft above calling for their father until the smoke got them. My character already left after he lit the place on fire and made it to the party. That Guy however was arrested and beheaded with no trial for his crimes, then told to roll up a new character. To this day we know him as the "Lawful Neutral Murderhobo"

[@CiaranMaxwell]

Lawful is about following a code. If it's consistent with the code he follows, he remains lawful. Batman is a good example. Does he break the law doing what he does? Yes. Is he lawful? Also yes. Because he follows an _internal_ code, not an external one. The mafia is also a good example. Organized crime is, in general, lawful. Your That Guy definitely wasn't neutral, though.

[@tyrrollins]

@@CiaranMaxwell what if your code is to be as chaotic as possible? That isn't what lawful means. The alignment system is attached to cosmic powers. They are not abstract philosophical ideas but quantifiable forces. If the game world doesn't contain these cosmic forces the alignment system is utterly meaningless.

[@Leongon]

@@CiaranMaxwell Lawful is abiding by society rules. Batman is neutral good.

[@CiaranMaxwell]

@@Leongon I disagree. I'm pretty sure this is up to personal/DM interpretation, though.

[@ganymedemlem6119]

Was at a local tabletop store for one-shot nights with a kid who ended up in a couple games with me, including a campaign that he single-handedly ruined, but that's a story for another time. It was Halloween and the DM made up a story about a scientist having kidnapped the daughter of a local town's mayor and we needed to rescue her. There were 5 of us at the table and 4 of us had a great time making jokes, fighting monsters from the DMs mini collection, and exploring, including a trap room (*hint* *hint*) that we ended up skipping because we only had 2 hours in the store (again, *hint* *hint*) and all through the session the kid was disruptive. He was constantly interrupting to ask the DM about "valuables" in this abandoned house that had been converted to a laboratory. Gets to the end id the session and our characters defeat the mad scientist, rescue the mayor's daughter, and start to make their way back to town with less than 10 minutes before the store closed. But this kid decides that he's not done. He starts getting to convince the other players to go in and help him loot the place. We're all telling him the game is over, the store is closing, and we're not gone use the characters again because it's a one-shot so looting would be worthless. He goes back to the DM, who at this point is half done packing his stuff, and says "I go back inside." Starts arguing with the DM to keep going. DM relents and tells him he can go back in. Kid says he rushes back inside and goes to the nearest room. DM: The door is closed but not locked. Kid: I open it and walk inside. DM: Make a dex save. Kid: 11 Now it's at this point I went to mention the contents of the trap room. The player who went in have their dex save and avoided the rug of smothering, pulled the door closed, and told the rest of the party not to go in. But the kid was too busy trying to steal silver spoons to remember. DM: You fail to get out of the way before a rug of smothering grabs you. The door closes behind you in the struggle and the party is too far away to hear it. You die. A couple of the players have a chuckle as they walked away. The kid was dumbstruck. The DM closed his bag, threw it over his shoulder, and walked away.

[@pyronicdesign]

I had a player once throw a chair across my living room. Not for anything on game. Backstory: I lived in north Florida, and we had a little apartment on the bottom floor of a complex. And the night of the game it was absolutly storming. The lot was flooding, and I called off game, because it was a freak storm and I didn't want anyone getting hurt travell8ng in it. But everyone was already almost to the house, so we all decided we would make burritos and play game all night until the storm stopped. This guy showed up last and he was soaked. My wife felt bad for him and ran to get him towels and a change of cloths. The guynlooked miserable. And looking back he had probably already had a shitty day. Everything was cool, and he went to go sit down in the leather computer chair without thinking. Right as he was sitting down my wife came in with the towels and asked him nicely not to sit down yet. He jumped up.like the chair bit him and shoved it across the living room, where it slammed into the wall and knocked over the trashcan. Everyone froze, my wife got scared and I jumped up. But I took a mo.entbto look.him over and just asked him. "Are you okay man?" He left, very embarrassed and never came back to game. My wife never wanted him ba k anyway. Looking back, I'm glad I never got mad at him, because I think he was going through some very difficult times.

[@Scarletraven87]

Backstory: I live in north Florida That explains everything. I have read enough.

[@gangstablook5846]

"Somehow his good side and evil side separated" Heresy, Vergil would never act like that

[@robotdude2206]

Man, Suwako Pepe in the thumbnail is amazing. I always appreciate an unexpected Touhou.

[@Daniel_Coffman]

Hearing about the "Dissociative Identity Disorder" character in the Waterdeep campaign, it makes me have to wonder about times in which the disorder is done right in D&D and other such RPG's, and not just as as an excuse for, "Just let me do something someone in my character's alignment normally wouldn't." Though, I wouldn't be surprised if, if someone were to do it justice, it would have to be someone who knows the actual psychology behind it. If I could really get into psychology, myself; and actually for once have time to play D&D; that might be an interesting kind of character to do if I myself could do it justice.

[@DBfan106]

Not sure if this counts but one of my players (I'm the DM) has a character that had their personality split into 4. so one personality is very happy and fun, another is more reserved and aggressive, one is very mischievous and like pranks, and the last one is pretty reserved (if I remember correctly, it's been a while) and honestly it's done SO WELL. they all feel unique and are enjoyable, and none of them do things that conflict with their overarching morals.

[@genericname2747]

I like playing Eladrin as a system trying their best to not die.

[@Daniel_Coffman]

@@DBfan106 I'll count that. I'm glad that person did the split personality thing so well!

[@C.G.Gaster]

see we played a one piece dnd, and one of the players had that. He had like 4 personalities, it didnt affect his alignment, but his behavior. Instead it would be a roll (d4) and only when the dm said so and he would change from like happy, excited, mad, or timid. Eventually he lost that with them all combining back together so he could get haki.

[@Ailieorz]

The kind of character Liam O'Brien would absolutely nail, and I'd love to watch it

[@ericb3157]

5:43 reminds me of a gag in the webcomic "order of the stick": "wait, when you said there would be a skeleton crew, you didn't literally mean-" "[name], PLEASE." "what? look at the world we live in, it was a reasonable assumption."

[@adoaboutclaire]

oh my god I haven't read order of the stick in nearly a decade. Thanks for the reminder to check it out again!

[@dragonstryk7280]

Me. So we had a guy in the group, playing a Rogue, and he was *quickly* getting on my nerves. It was all the old crap, he would steal from the party, pick fights with NPCs the group needed aid from, and belittling other party members. When questioned on why he would do this: Rogue: "It's what my character would do." Me (DM): "Okay, everyone save Rogue take a bio-break, five minutes while we resolve this." The group shuffled off, rather cross, save my buddy, who saw me crack my neck when the Rogue spoke, and he was nearly laughing as he exited the room. Everyone cleared out. Me: "Okay, so you are going to explain to me, here and now, why *you*, the player, decided to design a character that would betray their own party, and rigorously crap on people that have saved his life multiple times. Let me be clear, I am not asking for character motivations, I'm asking *your* motivations." Rogue: "Come on, I'm just trying to have some fun and play the game." Me: "At the expense of the other people here trying to have fun. It's not an excuse, and are you trying to tell me you have no way to have fun in this game other than to he horrible to other people? Rogue: "It's just a joke!" Me: "No. Jokes are funny for people OTHER than the one that makes them, and did anyone seem like they were amused with this?" Rogue: "I don't-" Me: "No, I asked a question, answer it, or leave. Those are the options." We kept going at this for a minute, and he finally relented. I had him draw up a new character, one would not be antagonistic to people for the sake of it. I attached stipulations, such as he had to be of good, LN, or TN alignment (CN gets used as a copout alignment), and while he worked on his character, I called everyone back in. We retconned the last little bit of game, I wrote his character out (nothing terrible, he caught on with a local thieves' guild, and decided to make a go of it), and when I read over and approved his new character, he rejoined the group, still a Rogue, but just not one who was going to screw things up for the party. He was quiet for a session or two, but started getting into the flow of things. Months down the line, it came out that he had just assumed his way of playing was 'just the way it was done', and when he named his prior DM, I just went "Ah". I asked him to trust me, and told the group that everything he'd learned about TTRPGs had been from this DM, and the entire group groaned as one.

[@herke7237]

Who was the DM and what's wrong with them?

[@meisterschwert]

I wasn't ready for the Suwako hat Pepe. Doesn't stop me from loving it.

[@b.w.s3165]

You and me both.

[@zodiacshinywhimsicott1386]

I would be surprised if anyone was. It's unexpected but definitely a good surprise.

[@Chitose_]

next up we have kanako pepe-

[@momiji_number1daughterwife]

hello, my comrades

[@glarak9819]

Evil characters can work extremely well, Split character too. Done both of it. My evil character is mainly a guy without morality what so ever. His thing is calculating the best course of action to keep him alive and his family well. He just knows that the best course of action is to not get on the parties bad side as they are his life insurance. Split personality is a character I have yet to play but will be funny. It is a Ascended Dragon Monk who has the Gift of the Metallic Dragon Feat, which lead to the Split. One side is quite shy and a bit clueless in social situations as they lived in the monastery their whole life and the "Dragon imbued side" is very confident and a little bit of a charmer. Not in a way that he wouldn't except a no, just a little playful. They keep a Journal so each side knows what's going on. You can make most concepts work if you just think how to keep a good synergy with the group

[@lulospawn]

Me and my m8s were ~14. At the matinee at a danceclub we met some girls and my friend that was DMing for us (2E or better put our understanding of 2E) invited the girl he liked to one of our games one day. We had a new player at the time that was not in our friend group and was a bit of "that guy". When he saw a girl at the table he went batshit. Oblivious to the fact that the DM had "dibs", he made his character pester the girl's character. It was her first ttrpg experience ever, so it was bad. Anyway at some point that guy wanted to pull the "i sneak into her tent to snuggle struggle" move and the DM just slapped him. Without getting up from his seat. He reached his arm out and stockton caressed the guy into a tearful exit. My memory may be a bit biased but it was the epicest put down I've seen in my life.

[@sherylcascadden4988]

Hey Brian, I'm a female player who has DMed a few times, fortunately no "that guy" stories while I was DM Subscribed a few weeks ago, liked this video, and I've heard leaving a comment helps the You Tube algorithm, so here you go!!

[@BrianVaughnVA]

Grateful you ain't got a "that guy" story. We've had horror stories of men and women (sometimes couples even) being absolute terrors on the tabletop. It's nice to see more gals coming out of the woodwork to say hi and talk about things too, good and bad. All the love to you Sheryl.

[@Gunnergamingyt2]

Oh hey Brian

[@cuddlebloops5217]

Brian vaughn VA aggressively handing out blessings

[@BrianVaughnVA]

AND YOU GET A BLESSING...

[@Runtsymunts]

I was that guy. It was my first character and my background with rpgs as a whole was video games so it was very much a situation of numbers-over-flavour which I have since risen above. Our party was leading an assault on a fortress and on the way we looted some gunpowder barrels. I had the idea of using the barrels to blow a hole in one of the walls to lead in the army (completely forgetting that most fortresses have a gate and potentially multiple entrances). One of the other players wanted to use the barrels for something else spell related and I just wouldn't budge. Now a smart thing to do would be to talk with the group about what the plans were and talk over and agree on a strat but naturally I just wouldn't allow anyone to usurp me. I lit one of the barrels sitting next to the other player (I still cringe to this day). It did moderate damage but I forgot Newton's third law and got smacked with a 6th level cast of blight from the other player. I died but so did my shitty attitude and I'm thankful my throw away character was one of the biggest lessons learnt. edit: my character and the other player's character

[@blakeetter280]

One character just kept picking fights constantly with everyone. Thought he was the parent of the group but was actually the murder hobo. Dude had to have his alignment changed to evil too after executing prisoners. Throughout the campaign every time he’d start a fight or something I’d use sleep on his to knock him out. At the end of the campaign my character sacrificed himself to kill the BBEG but got resurrected because I’d made plans for it months ago with the DM. The other character then tried to blame my character for… something, and drag him off like a child. I used sleep and ended the campaign and his character by putting him in a time out. He got mad Irl and said ‘I just want my character to experience consequences’. I replied ‘I am consequences’. Shut him right up.

[@NeonBlacklightTH]

Not really a "That Guy" story but a story none the less So I've recently entered in my first ever D&D campaign as well as my friend who is also our DM. Our party consists of me as a Tiefling Rogue Warlock, a friend of mine playing as a Shifter Swiftstrider(Monkey) Monk, the DM's coworker playing as a Half-Drow Nature Cleric, and her eldest son playing as a Dwarf Hunter Ranger. In our campaign we recently visited the Elven King telling him about the return of an evil lich, only to then encounter the leader of the Thieves Guild who my character knew well given his backstory and asked us to meet him at his bistro down by the docks. After we arrived he informed us on what's going on in the world, from my character's father being imprisoned for false accusations, to the homeland of the Dwarves being taken over by a Tyrant King preparing to make war, and that recently someone had planned an assassination on him and believes that it was a rival gang of thieves who planned the hit. This gang owned a nightclub in the city and we head there after a good meal. Originally me, the Monk, and the Cleric tried thinking of a plan to somehow sneak in. The Dwarf on the other hand...had other ideas. The Dwarf decided to simply walk right up to the nightclub, the bouncer having full view of this mind you, and just sees this Dwarf cladded in armor trying to climb onto the building. The bouncer calls up a few other bouncers to try and stop him and combat was initiated with the Dwarvf vs. five bouncers. Now at the time, we are all at the time LV4 while these bouncers were I think CR7. Now here's where the story gets interesting. For you see, the Dwarf wasn't stuck in combat with the bouncers...the bouncers were stuck with HIM. For you see, the Dwarf made his character pretty damn well. Not only did he get himself armored to the point where he had I think 20 AC, not only did he specialized in dual wield battleaxe combat, not only was his Constitution was his highest stat, not only was he a HUNTER RANGER, but the bouncers were just having super bad rolls as the Dwarf just slaughtered them! The DM then threw in more bouncers, twelve bouncers total and still nothing. Even if the bouncers managed to hit him, they did absolutely piss poor damage due to the DM's bad rolls. Our cleric did decide to join in the combat, but even she was being afflicted by the bad rolls. As soon as she drew out her rapier, she rolled a nat 1 and just send her weapon flying all the way into the nightclub's open doors, leaving her with just a crossbow which she was infamous for having bad rolls with that weapon. Meanwhile me and the Monk snuck inside while the Dwarf was on a rampage, it wasn't until he used Thunderclap with his magical lute did he send half of the entire city into a panic, drawing in the guards but not after the Dwarf gone and killed 9 bouncers by himself and receiving only just a mere fraction of damage. We discover that the assassin in question wasn't hired by anyone and instead has gone rogue, and what worse was that this assassin wasn't targeting the guild master of the Thieves Guild, but my character specifically for plot reasons of the campaign. Moral of the story, if you need a distraction or if you're faced against a horde of tough ass enemies; Release The Dwarf.

[@cyanideytcuriousseadoggo]

Giga tanks. Don’t mess with tank builds

[@Jessie_Helms]

Session 2.5 of the campaign, a short session with 1 of the original group and the 2 new guys set in the town while the rest of the party “rested in the inn” (weren’t present cause it wasn’t our usual day). Anyway, to stay brief, I worked with Zyn, one of the new PCs, to say that he was one of the guards who helped the party fight off the duergar last session, and the militiaman who died was one of his longtime friends. That’d bake his motivation into the party and give him an in-character in with the party. I decided to have a brief combat, so once the Warlock meets the wizard and ranger (That Guy) they’re mugged by the brother of the dead guard who blamed Zyn since he “didn’t do enough to save him.” The party was actually getting beaten up way harder than I expected (it was the 3rd combat I’d _ever_ run, and the first ever not from a module), so the barkeeper threw out some magic missiles to down half the thugs the same round that the wizard finally popped off a spell that knocked the Brother to like 3 HP. Zyn proceeded to kill the brother- intentionally dealing lethal damage- while the rest of the thugs ran away. Warlock and wizard dust themselves off and start to take stock of what happened, only to realize Zyn ran to the door and tried to shoot _the fleeing thugs, people who in a town of 100 he certainly personally has known for a decade, in their backs_ before only taking a single shot. He then pulled the edgy “no one can know my secret!” The wizard thought maybe he was just confused and said in character “I mean we were very clearly ambushed and it was entirely self defense. I don’t really see the need for secrecy.” But Zyn insisted on secrecy, so the buff, obviously magical barkeep asked (half jokingly), “what’s it worth for me to be quite?” He responded with, “how about I don’t kill your!” I was stunned for a second. This character has lived in a town of 100-ish for about 10 years and integrated into the community. He just lost a fellow guard, killed the friend’s brother (understandable given the situation, but still odd since he had the choice of nonlethal), and then threatened the life of his _only_ barkeeper. I asked him to roll intimidation. “Nat20” (I didn’t buy that for a second). “Cool, well he rolled a 23 on his strength check to see if he’d be scared, so he isn’t intimidated. He casts 3rd level Magic Missile at you with intent for non lethal damage. You take (I think it was like 15 damage, while he had like 5 left from the fight).” The wizard threw the barkeep some gold and drug the unconscious ranger out of the bar.

[@Serperior-Deoxys]

Only dealt with one in my now 6 years as a DM. They had Main Character syndrome because the patron that chose them was a powerful lich caster, one that could channel pure magic to erase things. Gave the player the info, "You can cast a variant of Eldritch Blast called Voidal Blast. It erases what it touches in a softball sized sphere. If you use it though, it has adverse reactions ranging from speeding up the world ending cycle, or limiting your magic for a period of time." Two sessions later, they used it not once, not twice, but 10 seperate times. When I reminded them of its limitations and repercussions, they said it wasn't in writing anywhere, so they weren't told about it. Yeah, they had their "Magic License" revoked and the group stopped meeting shortly after cuz peeps had to heed off to college.

[@pogggaming4470]

It be funnier if that guy is also erased in-game

[@Serperior-Deoxys]

@@pogggaming4470 Oh, they're the only character that canonical does not exist in my world anymore

[@pogggaming4470]

@@Serperior-Deoxys so your implied not only they lose their magic licenses, but the lich hated them so much that upon using it, they are also erased as punishment

[@Serperior-Deoxys]

@@pogggaming4470 Bingo. They were erased from every possibility of the world.

[@shadowfox27]

Not the me, but a classmate of mine. This was pretty much my first game and we were just doing a five-party one-shot. My party was all level three, consisted of Alcaine-Sho (me, an urchin rogue assassin), a human cleric (light domain), and a tiefling paladin, and I was the only inexperienced one at the table. We were in the city of Kent, which was currently under siege by orc and goblin armies. Our party's starting point was in the the underground waterways, with the task of clearing them out to so a militia plus a minor army, could safely use them as a secret infiltration route. We started at a stair case that led to a short hallway. The two experienced players moved forward, and naturally I lagged behind. After briefly exploring a 15-foot dead end hallway, we'd made it to the first chamber. Inside that chamber were two giant spiders, and a few masses of webs, two of which held large spider eggs. For a normal group that wasn't pure chaos, it wouldn't have been too much of a problem. The first thing the party chose to do was have the cleric use scorching ray to burn the spider eggs. Then the paladin just charged one of the giant spiders, and attempted to grapple and succeeded. The round goes by as the cleric and I focus on fighting the other spider. Paladin: "I'd like to restrain the spider." He rolled a 17 and the spider was restrained. This is where shit goes wrong as I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing. The paladin decides to attack the restrained spider. He rolled a NAT 1, and ended up setting the spider free, and ended up being attacked by the spider. He came out of the incident with 17 HP, but it wasn't over. Somehow, everyone got downed to mid-health or lower, and the spiders were barely harmed. Naturally, feeling my videogame instincts kick in, I ran back and safely disengaged into the dead end hallway. Its at this point that the paladin attempts to grapple the same spider again. He fails...twice. Came out of that with 4 HP, but he didn't care. He attempted to grapple one more time, and this time, he rolled a NAT 20. Nearly beaten and poisoned to death, he welled up his strength and crushed the spider into two pieces. He proceeded to act like he saved the party, until the second spider, broke away from the cleric, and knocked him out, plus some due to the poison from the bite. The cleric takes the opportunity to retreat, to heal himself, since he was almost down himself. He joins me in the hallway and we come up with a plan. Completely forgetting to heal himself, the cleric charges in and makes a decent attack on the spider, but went down himself during the encounter. Amid said encounter, I, using assassinate + sneak attack with a short sword, deliver the final blow with a NAT 20 attack. I slid under the spider and, cut open the abdomen using the momentum of my slide, then proceeded to jump over the spider as it started to collapse, and drove my sword through the head mid-fall. I proceed to use one of the two potions of healing our DM gave each of us as a complementary health aid to heal the cleric, since I was already tired of the paladin's grappling nonsense to the point that I honestly didn't care if he lived or not to even consider giving him the potion. What a way to start my first game, my, so-called, "experienced players".

[@OldKnightSai]

I had not one, but two people, being "That couple" at my table. Every IC interaction between them was lewd groping and innuendos or just flat out ERP to an extent I had to remind them this wasn't "ADULT CONTENT HOUR". It had gotten so bad so quickly by midway through session 2. Not 5, not 4. The 2nd Sesson: they started up again and I just stated "Okay Give me a constitution save." They both rolled high, with a 14 and a 17. My reply was "OKay, that's 17 minutes of ya'll @#$%ing in your room. We'll Fade To Black there, ya'll are out of these session until your characters are done. The rules states every round is 6 seconds, so that's 10 rounds a minute. When 170 rounds have passed, you can join us, until then I'mma have to ask you to leave the room so you can't metagame." They never came back. Legends say they're still going, even to this day.

[@zackOOO-nz9rh]

not saying this didn't happen, but i've seen this like 10 times with nearly the same exact wording

[@EaizePeazy]

Thank you for reminding me why i keep a taser in full view of new players. I never have problems.(taser dont work, but noone has ever "found-out")

[@russdarracott395]

I hope that more female dms do more stories about the what happens at their tables.

[@Ailieorz]

Oh man... are you sure you're ready for that?

[@BrianVaughnVA]

We've had some female DMs and players talk about their experiences, but the funny thing was that they gave us more stories in the "worst female player" video than anything. It was a really big fucking awakening to hear some of those stories.

[@DkKombo]

@@BrianVaughnVA so wait most female players are like, really bad? Sorry am I reading this wrong?

[@Ker-f4o]

@@DkKombo Keep in mind, Humans as a whole are all capable of being trash. Whether or not one has a penis or a vagina, does not really effect that truth.

[@briaseis]

In all fairness, I think a not-insignificant number of submissions could be coming from female dms or players who just don’t highlight that they’re women unless misogyny / other gender-specific behavior is actually relevant to the story.

[@shaynewalker3248]

This is the "and then everyone clapped" episode of Mr. Ripper

[@BrianVaughnVA]

Fuck dick wads, we kick'm all to the curb.

[@pokefreak480]

Shadow monk guy is definitely "thay guy" "Oh you guys want to do somwthing my character doesnt? Thats ok i can TPK you guys. You should just listen to me :)"

[@employee4272]

My DM had a character break the 4th wall to call out a That Guy. Not even in a marvel comics way, but in a genuinely unexpected and spooky way. It was great.

[@metalclawsteelheart]

You can't just say that and not give the story!

[@scribblerstudios9895]

Yeah if you still have it, could we hear the story?

[@spl420]

Guy legitimately made most clickbaity comment and never elaborated.

[@kylebeardsley6200]

Regarding the "real life implementation of the rules" guy: if the attack roll misses by less than 2, then you've hit them with the handle side of the axe. There, problem solved.

[@kaseymathew1893]

GM in that first story casted Vicious Mockery IRL.

[@BrianVaughnVA]

I feel for these people.

[@treepotion9249]

Suddenly Touhou thumbnail!

[@TheNoobRapter]

I once had a player that would try and make Call of Cuthulu more like dungeons and dragons. Like ask for magic potions, try and be a race other then human, and tried to be a horny bard. The party learns about werewolfs in the area and that player thinks they can get lycenthropy and be like the werewolfs in werewolf the apocalypse (clans and all). So when the werewolf came to attack the party, that player trys to roll suduction. Mid roll I just say you get mauled to death, giving the rest of the party time to run away. That player got angry at me and asked why am I not playing this game like D&D, and I just told them, "This is not D&D, this is Call of Cuthulu. Ether you play Call of Cuthulu or you leave". They left and the game ran a lot more smoothly.

[@Wanderingsage7]

I keep hearing the intro as 'Brian von VA' and it makes me smile. Don't have anything related to the topic, have not really had a 'that player' so I thought I'd share that little anecdote to maybe make someone smile.

[@BrianVaughnVA]

I swear no one knows how to spell or understand my name, has been this way for years lol.

[@Wanderingsage7]

@@BrianVaughnVA I can understand the frustration:) the alternative makes you sound like a Baron though, so there's that at least.

[@sn0wy88]

I was today years old when I learned the VA said “Brain Vaughn: VA” and not “Brain von VA”.

[@hepic2874]

Once I was trying to get a god to give me healing potion (the DM had a running joke of not giving me one) I tried and had to roll performance Nat 20 I got the attention of a god. It was the god of murder. And my last words were "hey, god of-" So yeah that did get retconned as he said that was what would happen if I did try but that was funny.

[@snarglblargn4986]

I just remember matt marcer telling Orion that "yes, teaching someone to be quiet IS a good thing"

[@nopenopington2880]

SUWAKO IN THE THUMBNAIL POG!#TouhouTakeover

[@theapocasmith]

I enjoy these videos. It helps give me ideas on what to do and try to handle stuff in my own campaign

[@BrianVaughnVA]

And you have a community of equally nerdy folk to ask too!

[@natashafeuchuk3054]

I'm a female DM and I did my first session a while ago. It was fun and I'll figure out how to write that story out soon and post it on the subreddit!

[@LauraSti]

Fellow female dm figuring out the ropes! Running a one-PC campaign with a sibling to help me figure out what the heck I'm doing. The first combat she didn't give the monster a turn; it was gone immediately. OK, I thought, we can scale up a bit for the second combat. She almost got one-shot by a reanimated warhorse. That'll teach me about balancing low-level encounters, I guess?

[@natashafeuchuk3054]

Aw god I nearly killed my first player trying to scale a one shot too 😆 It’s a good thing the oneshot recommended you give any parties that don’t have healers a couple potions so you don’t murder them instantly

[@jrex3]

I don't know what the last guy was saying it must have been pretty bad but I don't know how fun it would be to play with a group that wouldn't let your character be flirty if that is what you wanted.

[@StinkerTheFirst]

Main-Character Syndrome post. I was in a campaign that had been going on for a couple months. Then this guy comes along just as we were about to infiltrate the lair of a kraken cult. He asks everyone what they can do, and I don't believe he asked for names, just skills. He tells the other players that their skills aren't useful here, tells one in particular that his character makes theirs redundant, and then tells the rest of the player to follow his lead. He really was asking like the player character choosing NPC allies. The player shouted at him over this, and the others didn't go along with him. I don't recall what the DM did. Whatever it was, that guy didn't show at the next session.

[@scattershot666]

I’ve only been in a couple of campaigns (both completely custom that ended poorly) and I was actually more annoyed with the DM than I was with the problem player. Instead of killing him off or just making him leave, he decided since it was my first campaign ever and I was extremely new to the game, to trap us all in an “invisible gas chamber” knowing I was the only one with detect poison in our party and would be too new to the game to realize what was was happening. Because I didn’t notice and didn’t warn everyone to hold their breath, it ended up killing the entire party. I would love to join a game again but don’t know enough people to do so without involving the people I played with in that campaign. Edit: The last straw to cause the party wipe was that “problem player” was lawful good and suggested we build a goblin baby grinder, I do not remember the reason or context.

[@thatoneflowergirl9776]

TW: mentions stuff to do with certain unwilling removal of body parts. Also, this is long one I’m a female DM, but I don’t think that has anything to do with this particular story. And in the end, it never came to fruition, but I still liked my plan on how to handle it. First time DMing. I had the idea for my campaign a year before I decided to run because I wanted as much experience with DnD as i could get. I decide i want to have a one-shot with each player so we can RP the specifics and important things in their backstory. One guy is playing an Elven Fighter (with like 4 backstories in 1) but the point is that he was a very physically intimidating guy, and now had a wife and children. I made them RP his first interaction with his future son-in-law, who was about to take his (adult) daughter on their first date. I explicitly told this player that the guy was very shy, very nervous, very polite to him and his wife, his daughter had only ever said good things about this new crush of hers, and that the guy looked like he could lose a fight with a kitten by accident, not that he would ever fight a kitten. I knew what was coming; it was something the player was excited to RP out, ever since coming up with this scenario many months ago. PC asked this young man to come with him to the next room, and the guy obliged. PC asked the guy about himself, about his daughter, the guy gave very respectful and kind answers. The PC then tells this man, who he knows is a genuinely nice dude and will go on to marry his daughter and have kids with her, that “If you hurt her, I’ll cut your dick off.” Roll intimidation. Nat 20 +5. Better than I could have dreamed. Daughter comes downstairs and the two leave on the date. PC proudly announced to his wife what he’d said. His wife tells him off because joking about genital mutilation and castration is a horrible and sadistic thing to do. PC, again proudly, announces that he wasn’t joking and he just wants to protect his daughter. They were falling into my trap. Now I had made it clear to this player outside of the campaign that I *strongly* disagreed with that one minor part of the backstory they insisted on, as having one’s genitals mutilated is a very horrible and traumatic experience that many people do have to go through. They didn’t listen, insisting that they found saying “I’ll cut your dick off” was funny. Right then. You might find it funny, but I don’t think many other people around you will, my guy. When the campaign began and the PC went into a country with a magic barrier to keep everyone in it from leaving, the son-in-law immediately filed for divorce from the PC’s daughter, citing that he was forced into the relationship and subsequent marriage by the PC threatening bodily harm should he break up with his wife. He insisted that he still loved his kids and cared about her, but after a few dates, he felt only platonic affection, but felt he couldn’t leave because of what the PC would do to him. The PC’s family that he had longed for all his life were either disgusted, heartbroken (in his beloved daughter’s case) or they believed he wouldn’t do that, causing a civil war to break out, dividing brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, and most impactful, the divorces of the PC and his wife, and obviously, the daughter and son-in-law. The way this would be brought up would be a member of the family who believed him, his son, would travel to the country where he cannot leave to explain to the PC what’s happening, and all he has to do was tell the truth and say it never happened over a sending stone he’d brought with him, and everything would be fixed. The PC would then have to explain to his son that he did in fact threaten to mutilate his son-in-law, and watch as it breaks his heart. After all, his son had traveled to an inescapable country to prove his father’s innocence, only to learn his father really is a bad person, and he now cannot return home to his own family. And to hear that your father would have been willing to do that to someone you cared about, and who is your friend, it’s wrecking for someone. Unfortunately, most of that fallout never came to pass because of a irl fall-out which meant the player dropped out (and honestly, I’m happy about it, though sad because I wanted to see this all through). But I still do hold onto this as a potential template, for if I ever come across something like that again

[@mikewinans5091]

My thought at 11:30 regarding sexist trolls was “fire keeps trolls from regenerating. Burn the creep at the stake.”

[@MissCaraMint]

I did get an idea of a really cool concept for a split personality type character though. Classic good and evil situation. Good side in control most of the time. The twist? The DM gets to be the bad side. Or rather decides when the bad side comes out and what it does, and the player has to act it. I think that could be pretty fun in the hands of a good DM.

[@SpeedyCheetahCub]

This has been done. There's a podcast called Just Roll With It that has a campaign called Apotheosis where one of the characters is possessed by a Biblically-accurate angel who is evil but his goals start out aligning with the rest of the party and slowly deviate from them. The character is a warlock with the angel as his patron, and the player for this character does the voices and actions for both, except actually the DM controls the big decisions that the angel makes as well as some other specific things by sending discrete Discord messages to said player. The whole thing culminates in a battle of the character vs. the angel inside of the character's head, with the DM fully controlling the angel and the player fully controlling the character.

[@rainbowhero8132]

I had a one shot where it devolved into everyone trying to kill each other, the DM was cool with it, but I did have an annoying incident that I had quite a part in. I rolled, after being instakilled by a Goliath barbarian. Not happy with that death, I asked if I could roll to become a ghost, I argued I wouldn't be physically fighting, but I would be disabling the barbarian from slaughtering all our other party members. A few turns later after one of our party members had been Crippled by the barbarian and thrown into the sewers. The barbarian asked to light a match and light the methane in the sewers. Cue the ghostly apparition lifting up his fingers and rolling to extinguish the match. In character he doesn't know that there is a ghost that is extinguishing his matches so he tries a few times and watches as they are all extinguished. Got pissed and went ghostbusters on my character. quite a few failed rolls, because that particular DM had a rule of "try, try, try again", meant that he continually tried to remove my power while the guy in the sewers tries to crawl away. I eventually failed against his roll, but it went down In my mind as my most annoying moment.

[@vlover15OO]

I like the idea of doing a chacter with multiple personalities. I think it would go perfect with multiclassing. Imagine finding out that your martial fighter has an evil personality that (unknown to his normal self) studied sever fire damage type spells. 1st thing i think of is james macovy in split. Giving them different postures or triggers as to when one personality shows up. As a dm i wouldnt might letting you slightly switch stats to make sure you dont fall off. I think it would be a great character to play

[@SteveB-nx2uo]

many moons ago when minecraft was newish, some friends and I played on a moderated server. 'that guy' lived way out in the middle of no where, isolated from everyone else to be sure "nobody ruined his perfect castle" he eventually showed it to me on the condition I tell noone else. it was a cherry bit of real estate, a huge forest with a chunk carved out for his tower, a copy of some youtubers Lord of the Rings tower. he was mighty proud of it. when he logged off, I went back over and burned down every tree shrub and plant in visual range of his house. I turned Lothlorien into a charred pile of ash. kid was overly pretentious, with the "never been hit in the face" voice and called himself LORD something or other. he spazzed out when he logged back in, went ape shit on everybody and the mods eventually rolled the changes back. was still funny. another guy was part of our core group and was caught stealing from others and lying about it. so, we positioned a lava lake above his wooden house, forced him to sit on an island in the sky while he watched lava drip onto then burn down his entire holdfast (all wood)

[@addison_v_ertisement1678]

YTAH Oh, sorry, wrong website.

[@NightFuryis11Official]

_Meanwhile, I'm just trying to figure out why Pepe is cosplaying as Suwako Moriya._

[@SamWeltzin]

Lucky enough to never have had a major "that player" experience in my own tabletop adventures. Lots of weirdos, and a bunch of disruptive folks, but no one outright malicious or nasty. Worst players I've encountered are simply those who don't pay attention, and that doesn't hurt too much other than wasting time, and usually they leave.

[@SpiritoftheWolf28232]

Had a one shot where a meme-lord thought it would be funny to make his character racist af. Not like, fantasy racist. Racist racist. DM and us other players asked him to chill out and calm down about 20 times before the DM finally asked him to step outside for a private side bar. On the way to the door the DM grabbed the guys keys, and after letting the problem player out first, tossed the keys over the rails his apartment landing, slammed the door and locked the deadbolt. His apartment was on the 3rd story.

[@addison_v_ertisement1678]

His keys coukd easily be stolen. Your DM was grossly overreacting like a child.

[@o.Froggy.o]

"It occurs to you that perhaps the door doesn't swing that way." Holy shit, that was amazing

[@b.w.s3165]

Touhou reference in the thumbnail detected. (Pepe dressed as frog god Suwako Moriya) Opinion tolerated.

[@dwall0059]

I always love to hear the endings of these videos. Mr Ripper, you need to be a motivational speaker

[@benjaminfugate4031]

Played with a female GM twice, both times she ran Out of the Abyss. First time I played an Elven Fiend-Pact Warlock, who had the whole good and evil thing going on. His "Evil" towards other players was mainly gestures...like my hand wanted to start a spell, but then my other hand would bat it down. The 2nd time she tried running it we had "THAT GUY" who proceeded to try and murder all the allied NPCs and/or do things to their bodies....living or dead. My goblin ranger and two there players effectively eliminated him from the game and he ended up getting banned from the store we played at. We were not gonna have our GM have to deal with it alone. Myself, one other player, and the store employee escorted him out of the store. That GM was a very good GM, I wish that life didn't interfere and end up causing both games to fall through

[@dianaferreria]

I had a "that guy" moment, my bard was in a tavern hating in the bard performing in the place, just because he was from a different college than me. Other PC came to tell me we had to go. We had a quest. Then, by pure stupidity and in character hate I stole a few silver coins. My friend's PC took mine by the shirt, making them trip and the whole tavern laugh. For the next days my character would be annoyed while in town because of the song the other bard composed from that moment. At least I got to keep the two silver. Now after a few scary stupidity moments my character entered a redemption arc which involves going back to that other bard and apologizing. Lesson learned

[@broke_af_games9661]

Way of the shadow monk. Am I missing something here? It sounds as though he is both the DM and the main character because the campaign revolved around his backstory. And when the players deviated from that story by joining the bad guys he reminded them that his character can tpk the party..... Am I mixing something up here? I listen to it twice.

[@ericsanders9847]

Way of the Shadow Monk sounds like a great Asian martial arts movie with English dubbing

[@matthewcallus]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, it does start off with saying they had a "that guy" moment, maybe they're admitting fault?

[@benthomason3307]

"can you suspend your disbelief for a moment, please?" "absolutely not. the earth is flat and I need to know where the aliens are."

[@darthremy1802]

Oooo I’m a female DM running Dragon Heist Waterdeep, I also had to remove the half Orc Yagra Stonefist from the game cause she kept being a target of sexual harassment, my player wouldn’t stop touching them, STRONGLY making advances towards them, claiming them as their gf, and the straw that broke me whilst the party was trying to do peace negotiations between the harpers and a gang of dopplegangers in the kitchen they crawled under the table in the tavern and began well using their mouth on the half Orc, I’m not very good at standing up for myself so I sat down and explained a number of issues I was having and considering quitting the game and they left…since then me and the other 3 players have had a ton of fun they should complete the module in the next two weeks

[@edamommy]

As fun as these stories are, I generally step in before tomfuckery pops off. I know it's good for a reddit story but player fun is #1. I generally text a player that people are uncomfortable and 9/10 it's resolved. 1/10 of the time I ask them to take a break from campaign.

[@TheSimpleMan454]

Gods, but I've never seen "multiple personalities" end well. This as someone who played a character with an entire other soul embedded in them who they had to contend with (Think John Scott in Fringe. "These- these memories aren't mine. They're John's... Aren't they?") Who dropped the bit and rolled up a new character because... It was just a bit too much to juggle. As a more experienced player I might be willing to try it again. But my character's John Scott would have to be in the background. I couldn't begin to try and play both...

[@Xazyv]

It's been a while and I'm still Salty about this one though idk how well it fits this particular prompt. Tl;Dr, a player forced full party pvp at lv 1 and actively ruined a really cool idea my DM spent a looooooong time designing So my DM had a really cool idea that he'd been very excited about for months. This was a long time ago so I forget some details but he wanted the four players, myself included, to make characters that were inclined to work with strangers. All of us had no memories of our past, and when we got into our first encounter THAT player got a little too aggressive and rolled too poorly and died. A few turns of combat later it was like the whole world reset, the character was alive again and we were in an entirely different place after having a weird dream where one of many candles went out. The player decided his character would have some sort of a crisis over this, though...he started trying to commit suicide. We didn't realize at first, just trying to solve the new puzzles put in front of us until suddenly he was dead and this new area just... Reset itself, complete with dreams of a second candle going out and the dead character coming back. The characters who saw what happened called him out and tried to talk to him but the player didn't want to listen to our reasoning and kept going. Another death later and suddenly it was an all out brawl trying to stop him from killing himself. He realized he was a cleric with a very powerful touch spell, that he was able to use on either himself or us to basically immediately kill us so this became a VERY one sided fight despite being 3 on 1. The DM obviously had no idea what to do in this instance, candles were going out fast and we had no idea what would happen if they all went out, and frankly the more we tried to stop him the more frustrating and upset we all got at the player... Who kept insisting it's what his character would do. I sort of just went "fuck it" and tuned out at that point, everything I'd personally had invested in the campaign at that point was thoroughly fizzled out. I remember by the end of the first hours-long session (functionally like 30 minutes into the campaign itself) we had one or no candles left, THAT guy was tied up and knocked out, and we'd just barely met someone who was supposed to be a new player who wasn't able to make session 1, and I never went to session 2. It was put off for a while and I really have no idea what happened after that because I had to move out of state. It's just really sad that a really cool and mysterious idea was thrown out the window because one guy decided he wanted to just die instead.

[@wolfofthewest8019]

I've been playing RPGs for 34 years and in that entire time have only played in one game run by a woman. If I were a cat, then that experience would have turned me off ever considering playing under a female GM ever again. I got invited to her game by one of the other players. She as running a "World of Darkness" campaign in which you could play "anything." I was told to make a character and just show up, she'd find a way to work me into the session. Game day comes and I show up at her house. She's a goth chick with a shaved head. She has a pet crow that jumps around the room cawing. The guy who invited me to the game basically does all the out of game talking. She only ever talks to me in her role as Storyteller. Sometimes she caws like her crow, like this weird tourette's tic. The other players *never* talk. Let me reiterate that: Two and half hour long session, seven people in the room, four of them *never say a single word the entire time.* Session begins with my character at the bottom of a 30' deep hole in the dirt. No explanation of how I got there. The only answer I get to any questions about how I ended up in this situation is "You don't know." In the entire two and half hour session we never changed scenes, never involved any other players, just me in the pit. Absolutely nothing I did was effective, there was no way out of the pit. Nothing happened. So after two and half hours of this, I made up an excuse why I had to leave and just left the session. For the next two weeks, dude kept calling me asking me if I wanted to come back to the game, until finally I flat out said, "The storyteller is a weird freak, the other players are weird freaks, and I'm like 99% you're all some weird cult that just wants me back so you can sacrifice me to Satan. Stay the fuck away from me and never call me again." Still, to this day, the most unsettling and disturbing encounter I've ever had as a gamer. And the only female GM I've ever encountered.

[@SpeedyCheetahCub]

That story sounds like an AI-generated Edgar Allen Poe story. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience!

[@Malkuth-Gaming]

In the Three campaigns I´ve been a player in I've encountered a total of 5 "That Guy", First campaign there was 2 players who worked together to cause as much chaos as possible while trying to come off as innocent children ( Yes, the paladin was basically a 9y/o Aasimar) One player quit first session. Second campaign we had a player who stated that he had been reading up on the BBEG and started telling everyone at the table what he was weak against and how to protect us from his abilities, DM didnt shut him up right away so I had to almost shout " spoilers!" to shut them up. then when I confronted the DM he said he would talk to the player, next session came and he had not bothered to talk to him and when I shut that player up again for spoiling stuff we shouldnt know he got the green light from the DM,, so I kinda left that game after playing for 6 months. Final game we just had a player who never was on time, he completely "forgot" sessions and he would then the day after say that he couldnt play because reason X or Y. he then just.. dissappeared :P

[@marcoflorian5182]

The evil personality could work, but you cant let the control of it to the player, the dm should tell you wen (whit a wisdom saving trow or else) wen the other side comes out, and in case deciding if the player controls the evil side or if this a npc

[@sherylcascadden4988]

Nah, player decided that the personality split actually split the character. I'd say 1) you didn't ask permission 2) you aren't the GM, so you can't do this unilaterally and 3) you said you wanted a new character... Where is it?

[@thomasrichter8973]

Bit late to the party commenting this, but at 4:10 I feel like OP might've been "That Guy" in this situation. The entire story can be summed up as "the rest of the party did a thing I didn't like, so I TPK'd them, and strong-armed them into doing what I wanted."

[@darlinghippie2736]

Im glad someone else was getting this vibe. Like I know it sucks to have your plan derailed but a good dm would roll with it.

[@godrod2]

I'm a forever DM this was a few years ago. I had a party of various ages.(no one under 15 is a general thing for me because I rather a more mature game) so one of my players was a highschooler that we met online (that player),one was another online adult friend who we unfortunately lost contact with, two were my own in person friends sitting in the same room, and one was another in person friend that couldn't be in person for this specific session because his baby was sick. Anyway while playing the player taking care of his child had to mute himself because the baby was crying. our highschooler player made a comment about putting something toxic in the baby's bottle. he was immediately kicked from the game (this was the last and largest straw in a long line of poor choices on his part)and his character was brutally killed in the next encounter.

[@kitemaywilder1792]

my DM gave the guy a hammer literally called "super op hammer" that lived up to the name... but had tons of curses too , like never being able to use anything but the hammer (not even passive skills) never being able to bring a foe below 50% health, and he had an super strong impulse to always use it to save others... at first he raged but he slowwwly grew to enjoy it so much he still has it 3 campaigns later XD

[@17joren]

It is possible there are many female DMs telling stories in your videos, but this is just one who pointed it out (because it is relevant to the story). It is the bias many of us have to assume male DMs.

[@The_AuraMaster]

I don't know if it counts, but whenever the DM would have us go to a new area and talk with each other, if there was nothing serious going on I would have a running gag where I'd say "So have you ever heard of Crypto?" or "So have you heard of NFTs" and after the third time I had done it my cousin (The DM) got sick of it. He wasn't angry, he just wanted us to talk about something else. The next time he let us have an unimportant conversation he said "You can talk amongst yourselves, just don't talk about Crypto or NFTs, or any modern shit that doesn't exist in this universe" He laughed a bit though. He knew it was all in good fun, but sadly the running joke had to come to an end. I'll probably find another joke to sneak in some time.

[@lunatic0verlord10]

Who else got lured by the thumbnail?

[@pLanetstarBerry]

Female DM here- sometimes the best way to shut down a That Guy is just to tell him "no" and stick to it, no matter how much he whines or insists. It's not as witty or as flashy as other methods, but it let's them know you aren't fucking around. For me, this was Tomb of Annihilation. We were figuring out some downtime activities in Port Nyanzaru before the party set out to start the main plot. Some players wanted to prank a local merchant prince that tried to sabotage them during the dinosaur races. Others wanted to network with some other merchant princes and drum up some side quests they could complete on the way to the titular tomb. The rogue? He waits until everyone else is occupied with other off-table stuff and looks me dead in the eye. Rogue: "I'm going to find an NPC to r*pe" Me: "No, you're not." Rogue: "Yes, I am." Me: (firmly) "No, you are not." For a moment, neither of us say anything. We just stare each other down. I don't blink the entire time. I've been told I can have a scary resting bitch face when I need it, and this was a time to take it out of the closet and dust it off, just for him. Rogue finally accepts it, and moves on like he never suggested it in the first place. I'm still baffled just for how out of left field the request felt. He never pulled anything like that again, but looking back I should have kicked him from the game for that alone because he proved himself to be a That Guy in so many other ways. He's worthy of his own horror story, but that's for another day.

[@viennasavage9110]

You should make a ruleslist to refer to.

[@pLanetstarBerry]

@@viennasavage9110 to be fair, I have a set of rules now, but I was new DMing at the time of this story, and until That Guy pulled up with his bs, everyone else behaved themselves enough that I didn't need these rules. But sadly, these things happen. 1. We all need to agree on the tone of the campaign, including what PC and NPC actions are okay/not okay. For example I was running a Curse of Strahd game, and a unanimous "no" during session zero was onscreen harm to a child. CoS is a very bleak setting that could potentially have a lot of that, but thankfully we also agreed on the campaign being a horror comedy, so the rewites for those moments could be toned down without messing with the campaign too much. 2. I allow situational PvP, provided both players agree to it, the conflict is nonlethal, and they aren't doing it to settle an off table conflict. In one game, two of my players wanted to be introduced to the party this way in a "we fight until we realize we're on the same side" sort of situations. I approved it, and since they held up their ends of the agreement it ended up being one of the most entertaining sessions I've had the privilege of DMing. 3. I'm more lenient on this rule for one-shots, but no alcohol or drugs. Show up sober to the session. Most people I've met playing DnD usually cannot play while they're inebriated, and I've had to cancel sessions because one player was either too drunk or too stoned to play. 4. DnD is not a substitute for therapy. I am not a licensed therapist, and will not be treated like one. I know we as a community joke about it, but 9 times out of 10 when a player is using DnD as an outlet to the point that it's making everyone else at the table uncomfortable, that's when they need to take a break and get professional help. 5. I know this next rule relies on a lot of trust towards the DM, but if a player needs to talk to me about something related to the game (a problem player, I goofed on a ruling or forgot to to give them more spotlight, etc.) I want them to talk to me about it. If it's a conflict that can be fixed with a conversation, it needs to be brought to my attention. If I accidentally step on a trigger a player didn't know they had until we got there, I can apologize and ammend the list of what's not allowed in that campaign to include that. And I know these rules arent perfect, but that's the gist of what I have so far. It's a long story, but rule 4 (and partially 3) is in place because of That Guy. The short version is he had a stressful job that caused him to vent and lash out about it in DnD. He could afford therapy, and definitely needed it, but fought against any suggestion of it. He never apologized for his behavior, he only made excuses. I don't play with him anymore, and haven't spoken to him in years, but I genuinely hope he realized he needs to work on himself or he'll keep nuking his social life. Sorry for the rant, I hope anyone reading this has a good day and learns from my mistakes.

[@viennasavage9110]

@@pLanetstarBerry Sounds awesome! I don't mind the rant at all. You set boundaries before the campaign and made the experience healthier for everyone participating.

[@MaxMalzahn-r1e]

Not happend yet but an idea I did prepare. If I had an murderhobo in my party, or someone who just killed I always search out those players characters and place them as retired NPCs so when he would kill yet another Barkeeper I would describe how he would call for his party out and apologize for dieing and then give the murderhobo player the job to further play his fromer character dieing and apologizing to his party that he would die just befor being able to get to their last adventure. .... I would then give the current character of the murderhobo the posebility to help. Would you help?

[@inkdragoon4547]

Oh boy, I've got one for you. This was a friend of mine who I've played with twice. Outside of the game, he was a really nice guy. But in the game... Oh boy. The first time I played with him was when he was booted from the campaign he was playing in for general bad behavior. He joined the game I was in and didn't take it seriously. At this point, the DM, who was also a really bad player, had tried to kill the entire party by opening a gate to the water plane, essentially dropping an ocean on us. My friend appears and saves us by dancing so hard that the portal got scared and closed. Then he started playing cringy music, despite several people telling him to stop, demanding overpowered abilities from the DM, and tying me to a tree so he could murder me. Naturally, he was kicked from our group too. The second time, I was the DM. He decided he wanted to make a homebrew slime race, despite having no idea what he was doing. He decided not to even finish his character, and his racial traits were so vague that they became overpowered. The very next session, he decided to play a different character. He decided he wanted to play Sun Wukong from Journey to the West. He decided to actually build a Monk/Bard that had no resemblance to Wukong aside from being a monkey because he didn't want to work to gain immortality. He also claimed to be a pacifist, despite brutally killing several cultists earlier. He also deliberately tried to stop the party from completing the first quest. They were sent to kill a dragon, and this guy decided he wanted to become friends with/seduce the dragon so that he could ride it into battle. He straight up jumped in front of everyone's attacks and attacked the rest of the party over it. The other players also constantly caught him fudging his rolls. The next time he actually bothered showing up, I was going to give him a magic item since the other players also had magic items. He saw a homebrew item I had made that was an overpowered artifact level item called Ruyi Jingu Bang. Ruyi Jingu Bang, as you might know, was Sun Wukong's weapon in Journey to the West. Naturally, he wanted it, not because he was playing Sun Wukong, but because of how busted it was. He got really mad when I gave him a pair of Winged Boots instead. The very next dragon they encountered he tried to befriend/seduce again, despite the dragon's obvious discomfort, disinterest, and warnings that if he didn't leave her alone she would fry him with her lightning breath. She actually did, but he still kept chasing and harassing her. At this point, the other players even wanted him dead. Like I said, he's a really nice guy out of game, but give him a character sheet and a set of dice and he goes full main character syndrome and anime power fantasy. I'm still friends with him because he's a guy I genuinely like hanging out with, but I refuse to play D&D with him again until he gets his act together.

[@agr0nianTV]

Fair enough

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned in.

[@abyssalreclass]

"It occurs to you that perhaps the door doesn't swing that way." Ah, so he is trying to push a pull door.

[@pogggaming4470]

I like to imagine bard is using his body to push the door, only to look stupid and is humiliated by the other teammates

[@alonzowortley4157]

I'm a new player and my fiance's family started a campaign and so it's just them, me, and one of my friends. We were doing an obstacle course and at the top was a ritual that drains HP from some players and other players had to control how much HP was drained through a ritual. Before it started my character (a dragon born that's level 1 barbarian wizard) rolled for arcana. I was at disadvantage so I only ha d amplifier of +2. With a DC of 18 to beat my first roll was a 19, my second a 17. The DM face absolutely dropped and had to take a moment to recover. Also in another session of the same campaign I rolled a natural 1 on an unarmed attack and ended up smacking my characters head so hard against a wall that I had to sing narrate everything I wanted to do for 2 rounds in my characters voice. I chose the voice to be Kermit the Frog and let's just say it was a mistake

[@dafilmz9426]

I was asked by the DM to play as a support level 10 bard character while my character was playing priest in a church. (he was more or less brainwashed by a cult) Our party had a new member, a friend of the DM who played a slime character. Not much happened but when we were trying to get into his backstory or reasons for joining the party or any goal what so ever, He's response was "I don't know. I'm just a slime". it's fine I suppose but he used this as a cause to do something ridiculous and kill the support PC I was playing. Shortened version. Support PC was old and could die any moment, They found a magical machine that could change DNA and reverse aging if you got a lucky roll. Old man jumps in, Fails his roll comes back out still old. Then the slime jumps in with a dragon scale he somehow had, No roll needed and turns from a small slime to a large red dragon. No transformation sickness or anything. and just uses fire breath on the support bard. Later they go to the now dead bards family, My party don't have the courage to say what really happened with the protentional fear of getting their 1 year old characters killed by a guy who joined the party 2 weeks ago. To say this pissed me off was an understatement and I'm no longer in this campaign.

[@viennasavage9110]

5:00 this belongs on r/thathappened

[@KriegMarshal94]

Hold up, was that a reference to a George Carlin joke? ... Bro. Dude. I love you even more now.

[@BrianVaughnVA]

Love me some GC.

[@KriegMarshal94]

@@BrianVaughnVA I'm just glad I was right and it wasn't just a weird coincidence. xD

[@shaderax_storm6165]

I had a campaign fall apart due to the players being slightly unhinged. Wizard geomancer wanted to craft new spells and use them to defeat all foes with his superior logic. I was happy to a have a super invested player at first and home-brewed a spell or 2. Then the text started coming at 2-3am about combination magic items, storage spell bombs, mega tasers. The guy was adamant that his superior intellect meant that in a world of pure imagination he should be king... I attacked him with 4 bullywugs and dragged him under water in a boss fight. Same group 2 brothers playing, one of them stole the others girlfriend, barmaid who was playing seemed to have multiple boyfriends depending on the time of the night and who was there, whilst her official boyfriend played a ranger. The game fell apart when everyone found out each others secrets before we got to play in dinosaur land... I have never seen so much drama in a DND game.

[@goawaygosh]

So here's a question, how can we help fix a "that guy"? Maybe fix isn't the right word, but what can we as DMs and Players do to make "that guy"s become nicer to have at the table?

[@BrianVaughnVA]

What you have to understand is that there often is a process before someone just straight up kicks someone out. Usually the players or DMs will actively try and communicate with "that person" (because it can be a man or woman who are terrible human beings) - communication is often the most important part to any recovery from the big stuff to the little stuff. If "that person" won't communicate back or isn't listening, then you have to remove them. You can't fix or help someone who refuses to listen or talk to you. You can only give them friendly advice and be kind. If being kind and friendly fails, then don't be mean or rude (as they're already used to that behavior), simply turn them down, shut them off or take them away.

[@goawaygosh]

@@BrianVaughnVA Thanks for your reply. I absolutely agree with you on communication, but I can't agree with you about kicking them from the game, at least for the situation I'm in. For pretty much every campaign that someone is gonna be running then yeah, it's completely acceptable for a DM to kick a player that is making the experience worse for everyone else and refuses to listen to advice. But my situation is a little different. I won't give too many details, but I've been asked to run a D&D campaign for a group that is focused on helping people with low socialization to connect with others. So I can't really give up on anybody as the goal is to help them. You've mentioned being kind and friendly, which is a given, but if the situation calls for it I feel as though a firm approach and setting strict boundaries could have a positive affect. I'm just not sure how to go about doing that if the need for it arises. Thanks again for you comment.

[@GrimmBones]

To be quite honest, the "sexist multiple personality" character legit just seems like a self-insert. Since that fucked up side of the player ain't really morally acceptable irl, he gets the kick out of it by living out his fantasy by vicariously living through his DnD character, while also having the excuses of "it's just what the evil side would do" and "he's actually good, just has an uncontrollable, fucked up side". Or, well, at least I assumed it was a self-insert, but the bit at the end where he threw those sexist comments and insults at the DM out of frustration just kinda told me "Oh, yeah, no, that was DEFINITELY a self-insert".

[@enderwarlord3226]

Stabbing an unsuspected goblin 10 times to die is ok with the players, but the moment you use weirdo pick up lines you must leave the table.

[@exxor9108]

I was unfortunately one of those guys with the main character syndrome. lol I learned the hard way to not do any of that, so I just roll with the punches. Some stuff might not get done, but you're having a blast all the same.

[@TheSimpleMan454]

"I'm holding the Jarl's daughter until he triples our pay." *The rest of the party stares in shock.* The Jarl makes an opposed CHA roll against the player and hits it with a Nat 20. The player rolls a 9. The Jarl's whole family makes it their mission in life to have this wrastrel's head on a pike. The rest of the party backs the Jarl. After a standoff (in character and out), that guy drops his eyes and mutters "You know what... Fuck. Nevermind." The Jarl has him imprisoned. The rest of the party refuses to pay his bail.

[@addison_v_ertisement1678]

How is this player a "that guy"?

[@Sephiroth517]

4:24 Not sure who was the actual "That Guy" in this case....

[@mittri1990]

I had that one stereotypical bard player only once and he came to a grim end. One thing I always put out to my players is that it's a sandbox you can do anything you want to but just remember actions have consequences. Sometimes for the better and some times for the worse. Personally speaking I have no problems with people playing horny seductive character but be careful what you wish for. The bard in my campaign along with the party one day discovered a dragon lair as a green dragon was the chief of a hoard of lizard folk working for him that they thought and then tracked down to a foot of a mountain where the dragon lived. Before the party could even enter the dragon flew out to attack them as it's easier for the dragon to kill the players out in the open rather than a confined space. The bard first turn tried to seduce it and rolled a nat 20 ofc before even combat started. The dragon thought the person was handsome and good lucking and rather than having a hole ordeal she invited the bard into the lair being a bit shy to do the deed in front of them and lead him into the cave. The dragon ate the bard in private as she thought the bard was good looking snack ;)

[@guyfawkes8873]

I will never ever understand the ‘roll to seduce’ thing… does it say in the rules that that’s an option? No. It specifically says that it is always the GM’s call whether a roll should be made… also it would be ‘persuasion’…. Last I checked persuasion wasn’t spelled s e d u c t I o n…

[@vampire9545]

Idk if I was being an asshole or not, you touch me I'm pressing charges.

[@vincentstuart9562]

Idk why but that first story made me thing of that time I ran a Lore Bard that was part of the imperial family of another country, he was even a former Emporer for a brief time because his brother got assassinated and they had to wait for the son to be of age to take the throne. He also owned the second largest library in the world as a Dragonborn the joke was that he hoarded knowledge and political blackmail on people. Despite what people assume about bards and politicians, Fafnir was both pretty easy to get along with and actually threatened a few NPCs and one other player for questionable acts towards women. Everyone liked his character except for the Necromancer who climbed on his back and then got upset when he threw her onto the floor and pulled a weapon on her for the whole trying to climb all over him without warning or permission bit (and this was not during live combat or anything like that).

[@ericsanders9847]

That was a good door pun

[@honkeykong4049]

Last story never happened. Guaranteed.

[@imaplaygames633]

The axe guy was just being stupid, if you miss the axe throw then maybe it did hit the target... handle first... a miss is not always "Your swing does not connect" it will be dependant on the armour type of the target, big bulky natural armour of a boar? Your weapon doesn't bite. Sneaky rogue that you just can't hit? They're a fleet footed little rat and you just can't hit them.

[@dubiousdevil9572]

Guarantee that last one never happened

[@jetpackdog3427]

I feel like i qualify as "that guy" but only when i play chaotic characters

[@dadatheartist-pt4th]

Imagine a character named "Donald Terasque Imatet" or don.t.imatet all the examples of what not to do.

[@mangouschase]

Why is Suwako pepe in the thumbnail, one god was enough 9:53 (sexist person, then character) He swung the halfling in offensive armor with a nat 20