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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Let's see here...what kind of things does my group do....
1. Late players. Usually me, because I'm bad with time management. I was once several hours late to a session because some schoolwork I had to finish took an hour and a half longer than expected.
2. Greedy players. We had a Duskblade who dominated every encounter and took all of the loot. He justified it by saying his character used to be a pirate (Not the best roleplaying, but he's new to D&D). He also criticized my rogue for being ineffective in combat. I started keeping a kill count and was about to make a new character when the DM fixed the problem with Explosive Runes. :smallamused:.
3. Reading sourcebooks in the middle of an encounter. This is all me. I'm a compulsive reader, and will read almost anything set in front of me because I feet like it. I have a bad habit of picking up a sourcebook (Arms and Equipment Guide is my favorite) in the middle of an encounter and looking at the wonderful toys and how I could use them. This has come in handy on occasion, but many times the other players have had to remind me to stop fantasizing over what I could do with a given object.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
archon_huskie
Ya'll owe him an apology and should honor the original deal. because you are the ones creating the drama.
you are killing the fun in the session.
And you could have avoided it by saying no in the first place.
:largefacepalm:
Scion is the DM, not the player...
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Something that ticked me off a recent session...
The DM decides he doesn't like the party's alignment and kills off characters in a way that there is no way to win such as having the Paladin face a Lich on a Dracolich in a setting that the rest of the party is in no way aware of what is happening just so all the good aligned people are out and he can bring in necromancer NPC's
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Elyssian
Something that ticked me off a recent session...
The DM decides he doesn't like the party's alignment and kills off characters in a way that there is no way to win such as having the Paladin face a Lich on a Dracolich in a setting that the rest of the party is in no way aware of what is happening just so all the good aligned people are out and he can bring in necromancer NPC's
Wow, now THAT sounds like truly horrible DM'ing here. If I had a DM railroad to kill off my PC for that reason, I can't guarantee I wouldn't walk out of the game. Even if there are no other games, I much prefer to not play at all then to play in a game I am not having fun in. Guess it depends on how attached I was to the PC, I might just roll with the DM and show him what REAL evil is :smallamused:
Though I have seen the flipside of this extreme:
Mr. Can't Let Go-This guy was quite attached to his PC, and when said PC dies (completely fairly, not like the above) he completely loses it. Eventually he seems to get over it, but even years later he still takes potshots at the person who was the DM at the time for being a Meatgrinder DM, singling him out, etc.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
this one isn't deserving of a "Mr. blah balh blah guy" title.
but it is one I plan on ranting about for a bit.
and I apologize, this is partiallly off topic as it's more of a "relationship = over" more than a "kills fun in a session" type thing.
spoilered for off topicness
Spoiler
Show
okay, I get that sometimes you're to busy to do something, or heck, you'd rather do thing A rather than thing B.
but as far as I'm concerned, as soon as smoking pot becomes more important than us hanging out, we're done. that's it.
specific example.
I texted a buddy of mine "hey you wanna play dnd tomorrow?"
the word for word response "nope, too busy smoking pot"
my reaction: :smallmad::smallfurious::smallannoyed::smallamused :
so now I no longer have to put up with that particular individual... in hindsight this was probably just a matter of time...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
navar100
Punitive damages, then.
<ducks>
oooh oi!
PUN DAMAGE!
[roll]1d6[/roll]
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Caphi
As long as the punishment fits the rhyme.
oi! and for you as well!
[roll]1d6[/roll]
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shadowknight12
But only if they don't rhyme on a dime.
PUN DAMAGE FOR EVERYBODY!!!
[roll]3d12[/roll]
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Choco
Wow, now THAT sounds like truly horrible DM'ing here. If I had a DM railroad to kill off my PC for that reason, I can't guarantee I wouldn't walk out of the game. Even if there are no other games, I much prefer to not play at all then to play in a game I am not having fun in. Guess it depends on how attached I was to the PC, I might just roll with the DM and show him what REAL evil is :smallamused:
Though I have seen the flipside of this extreme:
Mr. Can't Let Go-This guy was quite attached to his PC, and when said PC dies (completely fairly, not like the above) he completely loses it. Eventually he seems to get over it, but even years later he still takes potshots at the person who was the DM at the time for being a Meatgrinder DM, singling him out, etc.
I've got a player like that, granted, most/half the time the comments are all in good fun. but I stilll hear about 2 specific instances where I killed off his characters.
1st one, human paldin vs "the evil gnomes" they killed him with a ballista. the player now has a nigh genocidal rage centered on gnomes.... good times. we mostly get jokes off of this one.
2nd one, TPK to me misunderstanding a module's statblock. (it wasn't well written!)
we wrote it off anyways as a combo of me rolling a 1 on my DMing check (shoulda kept taking 10) and poor module design.
EDIT: well I just learned something new.... apparently you can't copy/paste die roll stuff from another post...
-grumble-
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
big teej
EDIT: well I just learned something new.... apparently you can't copy/paste die roll stuff from another post...
-grumble-
No, you can, it's just that the die roller is only turned on for the PbP forums. If you posted those roll codes in a thread in Finding Players, for example, they'd all roll perfectly.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
douglas
No, you can, it's just that the die roller is only turned on for the PbP forums. If you posted those roll codes in a thread in Finding Players, for example, they'd all roll perfectly.
I see....
Drat.
Foiled again!
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Choco
Wow, now THAT sounds like truly horrible DM'ing here. If I had a DM railroad to kill off my PC for that reason, I can't guarantee I wouldn't walk out of the game. Even if there are no other games, I much prefer to not play at all then to play in a game I am not having fun in. Guess it depends on how attached I was to the PC, I might just roll with the DM and show him what REAL evil is :smallamused:
Though I have seen the flipside of this extreme:
Mr. Can't Let Go-This guy was quite attached to his PC, and when said PC dies (completely fairly, not like the above) he completely loses it. Eventually he seems to get over it, but even years later he still takes potshots at the person who was the DM at the time for being a Meatgrinder DM, singling him out, etc.
I've gamed with players like that before, I had one guy that ONE time in a game his PC died because i healed another party member first not knowing he was at Death's Door and he went under before i got to him for healing(we were in a party of 10 PC's and I was the only healer). Every session after that he through it in my face and all of his new characters had racial hatred for my healers race just so all his new characters could be jerks to mine and tring to get my PC killed in retaliation...
(Oh we have given that DM a heck of a time since then we do Chaotic Anything to the extreme)
@big teej-That sucks that someone would put certain habits ahead of actually doing something with friends, and if they do that often anyway they should just plan ahead and bake some special cookies ahead of time for gaming nights lol:smallbiggrin: Its what some of my crew does and noone cares as long as they can keep up with the rest of us in the game.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Choco
Wow, now THAT sounds like truly horrible DM'ing here. If I had a DM railroad to kill off my PC for that reason, I can't guarantee I wouldn't walk out of the game. Even if there are no other games, I much prefer to not play at all then to play in a game I am not having fun in. Guess it depends on how attached I was to the PC, I might just roll with the DM and show him what REAL evil is :smallamused:
Though I have seen the flipside of this extreme:
Mr. Can't Let Go-This guy was quite attached to his PC, and when said PC dies (completely fairly, not like the above) he completely loses it. Eventually he seems to get over it, but even years later he still takes potshots at the person who was the DM at the time for being a Meatgrinder DM, singling him out, etc.
I confess, this is me ;_;
In my defense though, it was my first character death and we were up against pretty darn tough/all-but-impossible odds (A low magic, low wealth lvl 6 party of 5 vs a lvl 17 Psion/3 Rogue and a pair of her Astral Constructs played by a DM that specialized in Psions and Rogues).
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Elyssian
Every session after that he through it in my face and all of his new characters had racial hatred for my healers race just so all his new characters could be jerks to mine and tring to get my PC killed in retaliation...
It's seems like the new guy trying to kill the healer is not going to go over too well with the rest of the party...
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
HalfDragonCube
:largefacepalm:
Scion is the DM, not the player...
my mistake. He should have the other players honor the original plan or suffer consquences.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
I've seen this mentioned several times already, but I'll mention it again anyways.
The guy who always has problems coming on the scheduled date, and will never tell you beforehand.
Spoiler
Show
We have a guy like that in our group. We play D&D every Friday, from 6:00/6:30 to 10:00/10:30 (it varies depending on whose house it's at). He knows exactly when the game's gonna be. The day of the game, I get notified by ONE OF THE OTHER PLAYERS that he has a softball game or whatever and can't come.
The ironic thing is that he always seems to need rescheduling due to sports-related things, yet he's the least athletic person in our group. All of the other group members could beat him in arm wrestling while typing on a computer with the other hand and having a casual conversation about the weather. One of our group members could probably defeat the problem player in arm wrestling using only his pinky finger. Yet, somehow, the guy always has sports-related conflicts, whereas the guy who's actually strong and athletic has never missed a session.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sahadeva
Hopefully I'm not digging a hole for myself here...
You know the type of player who has good hygiene, has good social skills, gets along with other people without making a spectacle of themselves, can interact with average people without getting strange looks, and can have a conversation with average people without bringing up something nerdy?
I've never actually met one of those. I'm aware that they exist, because I've encountered them online, or heard them described online, and they do seem to have lives outside of the hobby. But every time I've tried to find a group, every single person I encounter is the opposite of the person I've described above to varying degrees.
I was awkward myself when I was a kid (along with everyone else I played RPGs with at that stage), and I can understand how it is that some people never grow out of that stage. But it's like everyone around here who is a healthy normally functioning adult who might be interested in the hobby is driven away because of the kind of people they encounter already playing.
I think I'd be one of those people you describe (or, at least I hope I am). My social skills are somewhat subpar, but as a whole, I can get along well with people and am not immediately pegged as a nerd every time I speak to someone (well, I often am, but not in a "haha, that guy's a nerd. He has no life." way.
By the way, groups like that DO exist.
In our group, we have one guy who's on the football team and broke several school records in various athletics and one guy who's the lead guitarist in the ONLY good band our school has ever produced.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sahadeva
You know the type of player who has good hygiene, has good social skills, gets along with other people without making a spectacle of themselves, can interact with average people without getting strange looks, and can have a conversation with average people without bringing up something nerdy?
DAMB...almost fit it...If only it wernt for my gorgeous good looks Id have won first prize...
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
archon_huskie
my mistake. He should have the other players honor the original plan or suffer consquences.
What? Make the characters act in a way which is a. boring and b. incredibly unlikely just so that the game-breaking plan could go exactly as intended? Or even make the characters do anything at all? I have a whole world to play with, I shouldn't need to control the group's characters as well.
And really, I gave sufficient warning that the plan was stupid. One should not try to conjure up 25,000gp in a party which has no qualms killing for pocket change. One should not do so without a method of transporting this money. One should not do so in favour of dealing with a group sending assassins after one. One should not do so intending to spend it in the campaign world's city of thieves (even if there are kind-hearted souls who spend their days giving the lot back). That the plan involved each and every one of these marks it as nigh-suicidal. That HalfDragonCube's character survived the trip back into the city is a miracle. That he managed to get away with the party about 20,000gp better off (even if it is all in a magic sword) is something he should be glad about. If one manages what he did I feel it's a bit grating to complain that one did not get to desecrate the corpse having successfully butchered the expected WBL.
Sure, the plan didn't go as well as he wished. On the other hand, it was a very poorly-thought-out plan and it went ludicrously well considering that it had more holes than an octopus' well-worn pajamas. It all depends on how it is observed.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ScionoftheVoid
What? Make the characters act in a way which is a. boring and b. incredibly unlikely just so that the game-breaking plan could go exactly as intended? Or even make the characters do anything at all? I have a whole world to play with, I shouldn't need to control the group's characters as well.
And really, I gave sufficient warning that the plan was stupid. One should not try to conjure up 25,000gp in a party which has no qualms killing for pocket change. One should not do so without a method of transporting this money. One should not do so in favour of dealing with a group sending assassins after one. One should not do so intending to spend it in the campaign world's city of thieves (even if there are kind-hearted souls who spend their days giving the lot back). That the plan involved each and every one of these marks it as nigh-suicidal. That HalfDragonCube's character survived the trip back into the city is a miracle. That he managed to get away with the party about 20,000gp better off (even if it is all in a magic sword) is something he should be glad about. If one manages what he did I feel it's a bit grating to complain that one did not get to desecrate the corpse having successfully butchered the expected WBL.
Sure, the plan didn't go as well as he wished. On the other hand, it was a very poorly-thought-out plan and it went ludicrously well considering that it had more holes than an octopus' well-worn pajamas. It all depends on how it is observed.
That still doesn't warrant sending a 20th level sublime chord to threaten a 3rd level party.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Swiftmongoose
That still doesn't warrant sending a 20th level sublime chord to threaten a 3rd level party.
What makes you think I didn't have that meeting planned regardless of what they did? Sure, I used the encounter to really push the "this is an awful plan" message, but that was just because it was a good time to introduce him - he'd have come up some other time if not then.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
There was a guy I knew a few years back, who thought that my gaming friends and I were the coolest guys ever and that the best way to become our friends was to take up roleplaying.
We invited him to join a little one-off dungeon we were doing, to teach him 3rd Edition and see if he liked it.
He made a monk. *facepalm*
He actually managed to learn the rules quite well, and needed very few reminders of how to do things (attacks, skill checks, et.). The problem? He didn't understand the game at all.
In the first fight his monk had, he did actually kill a goblin, but was stabbed by an enemy when the goblins started running. Only did a few points of damage, and a CLW bought him back to full. For the rest of the adventure, he refused to get within 20 ft of any foe. When asked why his melee-oriented character wasn't fighting, his response was, "He might get hurt again, like last time."
I wanted to scream, "HE IS AN ADVENTURER! Adventurers fight! They kill things! Thus, these things will try to kill them! WOUNDS WILL HAPPEN! This is why we have Stumpy McBandaid over here." *points at cleric*
He never played again.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Vorpalbob
There was a guy I knew a few years back, who thought that my gaming friends and I were the coolest guys ever and that the best way to become our friends was to take up roleplaying.
We invited him to join a little one-off dungeon we were doing, to teach him 3rd Edition and see if he liked it.
He made a monk. *facepalm*
He actually managed to learn the rules quite well, and needed very few reminders of how to do things (attacks, skill checks, et.). The problem? He didn't understand the game at all.
In the first fight his monk had, he did actually kill a goblin, but was stabbed by an enemy when the goblins started running. Only did a few points of damage, and a CLW bought him back to full. For the rest of the adventure, he refused to get within 20 ft of any foe. When asked why his melee-oriented character wasn't fighting, his response was, "He might get hurt again, like last time."
I wanted to scream, "HE IS AN ADVENTURER! Adventurers fight! They kill things! Thus, these things will try to kill them! WOUNDS WILL HAPPEN! This is why we have Stumpy McBandaid over here." *points at cleric*
He never played again.
That's almost as annoying as the character who insists they are a pacifist...during a dungeon crawl.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
We had a ranger once who got hit by an acid attack, and the player freaked out and started crying about how his character would get a scar and his life was ruined or something.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Maximus:Ranger
Ok I got Two, don't know if they've already been posted but anyway...
Guy who leaves early because he made other plans :
I mean I get that we all have social lives but I assumed that we were all putting time aside to play D&D, plus it messes with the game if your character suddenly leaves in the middle of combat!
The Pun-maker:
At first its kinda of amusing, then when puns just keep being made you want to bang your head against the wall
I have had several of the first in groups I've played with over the years, but thankfully none in my current group. I agree that they are definitely annoying.
I am definitely guilty of the second.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sir Enigma
On topic, I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but...
Schrodinger's Player
Until the session starts, you don't know if he's coming or not. Often cancels at the last minute, even when he said the time was OK. Anyone can miss an occasional session or have something important come up at the last minute, but this guy does it as often as not. Makes it really hard to have a consistent campaign, when one of the characters keeps popping in and out of existence...
I have one of these. It's gotten to the point where I notify him of the game, but just don't expect him. I will have a contingency plan for if he actually shows up, but I generally assume that he will not.
I have another guy who is sometimes like this. He goes through phases where for a few months he'll be just fine, then all of a sudden he'll start doing this repeatedly. Sometimes he won't be able to tell me half an hour before game time whether he's coming or not. To compound the problem, he's also one of those guys who has been playing the game for 10 years but still doesn't have the faintest idea how to read his own character sheet, let alone build a character himself or play the character without someone explaining exactly which dice he needs to roll for what. He also barely roleplays, never offers more than a simple generic background for any of his characters, and often pays minimal attention when it's not his turn. We only keep him in the group because we're all friends with him but wouldn't get much chance to hang out with him otherwise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
navar100
Punitive damages, then.
<ducks>
Yes! High five! :smallbiggrin:
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ScionoftheVoid
What?
They had agreed to it. By allowing it to go forward, you as the DM permitted it. By going back on what was permitted they and you have turned HalfDragonCube into the wronged party. And this is as much an IC issue as it is an OOC issue.
The rest is irrelevant details that you are attempting to use to obfuscate the issue.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
archon_huskie
They had agreed to it. By allowing it to go forward, you as the DM permitted it. By going back on what was permitted they and you have turned HalfDragonCube into the wronged party. And this is as much an IC issue as it is an OOC issue.
The rest is irrelevant details that you are attempting to use to obfuscate the issue.
I disagree. PC Plans shouldn't be disallowed just because they're doomed to failure. They're the player's characters, not the DM's. If their decision makes no sense, the most they should get is an, "Are you sure?" After that, they're on their own. They will suffer the consequences of their actions.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Caphi
We had a ranger once who got hit by an acid attack, and the player freaked out and started crying about how his character would get a scar and his life was ruined or something.
On the plus side, at least they were thinking from a role-play standpoint and not a roll-play one.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
137ben
That's almost as annoying as the character who insists they are a pacifist...during a dungeon crawl.
Oddly enough, pacifists can be quite effective if the Book of Exalted Deeds is in play. I remember a game where a player ran a pacifist Paladin, and effectively shut down every combat or converted half of the enemy goblins to our team - when I mentioned the morally dubious nature of using what was basically mind control on enemies, he justified it as a greater good issue. Pretty interesting, actually - the rest of us just adjusted our battle strategy to KO instead of TPK - and I finally found a use for Nonlethal Spell.
The Unwilling
You know this one, I certainly do. This is the girlfriend with no interest in d&d but insists on spending time with her BF during sessions and playing a character. Though we would be willing to accept that she's a new player and teach her the ropes, she shows no interest in the game at all and basically relinquishes total control of her character in combat to him. This, too, would be tolerable if only the entire game didn't grind to a halt every time she had to make a die roll.
Of course, this situation doesn't always apply to girlfriends, that's merely my personal experience.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Squeejee
Oddly enough, pacifists can be quite effective if the Book of Exalted Deeds is in play. I remember a game where a player ran a pacifist Paladin, and effectively shut down every combat or converted half of the enemy goblins to our team - when I mentioned the morally dubious nature of using what was basically mind control on enemies, he justified it as a greater good issue. Pretty interesting, actually - the rest of us just adjusted our battle strategy to KO instead of TPK - and I finally found a use for Nonlethal Spell.
The Unwilling
You know this one, I certainly do. This is the girlfriend with no interest in d&d but insists on spending time with her BF during sessions and playing a character. Though we would be willing to accept that she's a new player and teach her the ropes, she shows no interest in the game at all and basically relinquishes total control of her character in combat to him. This, too, would be tolerable if only the entire game didn't grind to a halt every time she had to make a die roll.
Of course, this situation doesn't always apply to girlfriends, that's merely my personal experience.
obviously this may not work for your group.
but I'm up front with players, as soon as they say something like "hey big teej, can my girlfriend/boyfriend/buddy/whatever come play with us?"
my immediete response is "are they going to play or observe?"
if observe, my next question is "will they be disruptive? and what is the nature of their observation?"
if the answer(s) to taht question are "no" and "to see if they like it"
I"m cool with it, they can come.
if the answer is "yes" and "anything else" no, they can't come
if the answer is "no" and "so they can hang out with me" or something similar, I'll tell them to just not show up and go spend time with them.
if "to play" I proceed immedietly to "are they seriously interested, or just humoring you?"
etc etc etc.
tl:dr I no longer permit "unwillings" at my table.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
The Overly Religious Person--The person likes to role play and participate in such games. They just have one little request: ''Can we not have any pagan false gods in the game, that's just wrong." And not only do they not want to be a cleric, but they want all mention of (false) gods removed. They don't want to see a temple of Bane in the city or run in to a cleric of Mystra. They don't even want other people 'pretending to pray' when they use magic spells or abilities.
They can even get picky and not want to encounter demons or devils(but Slaad or Xill are OK) and they don't even want to 'pretend' to use things like magic circles or pentagrams or such.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gamer Girl
The Overly Religious Person--The person likes to role play and participate in such games. They just have one little request: ''Can we not have any pagan false gods in the game, that's just wrong." And not only do they not want to be a cleric, but they want all mention of (false) gods removed. They don't want to see a temple of Bane in the city or run in to a cleric of Mystra. They don't even want other people 'pretending to pray' when they use magic spells or abilities.
They can even get picky and not want to encounter demons or devils(but Slaad or Xill are OK) and they don't even want to 'pretend' to use things like magic circles or pentagrams or such.
I...I...I don't even...
...um...
...uh...
...what?
Where do you find your gamers? I never want to go there. Ever.
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gamer Girl
The Overly Religious Person--The person likes to role play and participate in such games. They just have one little request: ''Can we not have any pagan false gods in the game, that's just wrong." And not only do they not want to be a cleric, but they want all mention of (false) gods removed. They don't want to see a temple of Bane in the city or run in to a cleric of Mystra. They don't even want other people 'pretending to pray' when they use magic spells or abilities.
They can even get picky and not want to encounter demons or devils(but Slaad or Xill are OK) and they don't even want to 'pretend' to use things like magic circles or pentagrams or such.
Christ on a cracker, that's just bad. I see only two courses of actions here:
1. Ask'em to lighten up (probably not gonna happen)
2. Ask'em to leave.
'Course you could always play D20 Modern or something...
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Re: Habits that kill fun in a session.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gamer Girl
The Overly Religious Person--The person likes to role play and participate in such games. They just have one little request: ''Can we not have any pagan false gods in the game, that's just wrong." And not only do they not want to be a cleric, but they want all mention of (false) gods removed. They don't want to see a temple of Bane in the city or run in to a cleric of Mystra. They don't even want other people 'pretending to pray' when they use magic spells or abilities.
They can even get picky and not want to encounter demons or devils(but Slaad or Xill are OK) and they don't even want to 'pretend' to use things like magic circles or pentagrams or such.
Eeeek. Where do ya find players like that.
It gets even worse at higher levels when you learn planeshift, and they don't want you to plane shift to other (false) planes.