Habits that kill fun in a session.

[Choco]

I was just thinking about what makes a fun session IMO, and found it was easier to list the things that kill off the fun I am having. So figured I would share and we could all pitch in, have a good vent, and make a list of the minor and major things that kill our fun. Here are mine so far:

1) DM who puts the game on pause for 10+ minutes at a time to look through the rules instead of making a judgment call (my rule of thumb is if I can't find the rule in 1 minute I just call it, with all the player's agreement, and carry on the game, and I NEVER consult the rules during a dramatic moment).

2) Players/DM's who take FOREVER taking their turns. At our table you have 1 minute to determine what you do, if you can't then you skip your turn. If performing your action itself takes 10 minutes that's fine (AKA making 10 attacks, each with different/stacking modifiers to take into account, etc.).

3) Players/DM's who insist on always hogging the spotlight. Everyone needs their time in the spotlight, so when it's shining on you feel free to ham it up. However, when you feel the need to always be the one in the spotlight, we have a problem.

4) DM's who completely ignore some aspect of my character that I invested points into. Those same DM's then have a habit of getting annoyed that everyone only invests in things that make them better in combat.

5) High-CHA-PC-having players that never let any other PC talk to anyone else. You want to talk to your own mother? Better have Mr. High-CHA do it else you might mess it up!

6) Low-CHA-PC-having players that insist on impulsively trying to do delicate negotiations without consulting anyone in the party. Of course once they screw everything up, they look to Mr. High-CHA and say "you have all the charisma and social skills, why don't you talk to him?"

7) Chaotic Stupid (often directly related to #6) and Lawful Anal PC's/players.

8) People who are in general not team players. The game is all about them and they will walk all over everyone else to get what they want, but God forbid someone does it back to them (or even tries to stop them from doing it). This applies to players and DM's.

9) DM's who pull Diablos-Ex-Machina out of left field just because your plan is going too well. I don't mind complications to even almost perfect plans, except when it is obvious the DM threw them in there just specifically to not make it too easy for you. At least try to hide it!

10) Players who don't bother cracking open a rulebook outside of the game, and thus do all their shopping/lvling decisions during our bi-weekly session. Of course it takes up the whole session, doing nothing but wasting my time since I obviously need not have bothered showing up. This is especially infuriating when the DM specifically tells them to do this between sessions and they ignore him.

11) When the party splits and they take so long doing their individual things that I don't even get to play during the session and am nothing but a spectator. I could have surfed the web for 6 hours on my laptop at home without having to drive half an hour .

[Vladislav]

Our group generally doesn't do any of those things, except ...

10) Players who don't bother cracking open a rulebook outside of the game, and thus do all their shopping/lvling decisions during our bi-weekly session. Of course it takes up the whole session, doing nothing but wasting my time since I obviously need not have bothered showing up. This is especially infuriating when the DM specifically tells them to do this between sessions and they ignore him.

This. Oh my god, this. I swear, if I ever see anyone allocating skill points during play, I am going to eviscerate them. And I'm not even sure what "eviscerate" means, but I'll do it anyway.

[The Big Dice]

This. Oh my god, this. I swear, if I ever see anyone allocating skill points during play, I am going to eviscerate them. And I'm not even sure what "eviscerate" means, but I'll do it anyway.

It's what Mr Scruffy does here. Though that could also be classed as a disembowelment.

[randomhero00]

yes, yes, yes to all the time wasting parts. Its terrible. And I'll add one. At least one person ALWAYS shows up late. By the time we're done ordering food and eating its 2 hours past the time we were supposed to start playing. No joke. This happens like everytime.

[Choco]

yes, yes, yes to all the time wasting parts. Its terrible. And I'll add one. At least one person ALWAYS shows up late. By the time we're done ordering food and eating its 2 hours past the time we were supposed to start playing. No joke. This happens like everytime.

Dude I totally forgot to add that! Probably because the person that always did this left the group over a year ago, and it has only been a rare issue since, but DAMN did that piss me off. Said person was also the ride for 2 other people. And he had the habit of being completely unreachable, and calling 3 HOURS into the session to tell us he can't make it (if we were lucky and he called at all).

[Tyndmyr]

yes, yes, yes to all the time wasting parts. Its terrible. And I'll add one. At least one person ALWAYS shows up late. By the time we're done ordering food and eating its 2 hours past the time we were supposed to start playing. No joke. This happens like everytime.

That person annoys the hell out of me. I know him all to well.

If you're not gonna show up on time...or at least pretty close to on time, at least have the decency to call. Preferably in advance. Just randomly showing up two hours late screws up everything.

[randomhero00]

That person annoys the hell out of me. I know him all to well.

If you're not gonna show up on time...or at least pretty close to on time, at least have the decency to call. Preferably in advance. Just randomly showing up two hours late screws up everything.

Agreed. Even worse? He's canceled 30 minutes before for the game was to start. I was nearly in my car when I got the text. So so rude.

[Mystic Muse]

We have a player in our group who shows up late, but luckily it's about 15 minutes later at most.

[Tyndmyr]

Agreed. Even worse? He's canceled 30 minutes before for the game was to start. I was nearly in my car when I got the text. So so rude.

What, he NOTIFIES you he's not gonna show? In ADVANCE?

My dude just shows up whenever he feels like it. Sometimes, not at all.

[Vladislav]

Agreed. Even worse? He's canceled 30 minutes before for the game was to start. I was nearly in my car when I got the text. So so rude.

Dure, you're lucky. 30 minutes before?! Try 90 minutes after. Or try not calling at all, making an off-hand comment about how he was busy when you run into him two days later.
Luckily, doesn't happen much in our current group. (fingers crossed)

[Seerow]

"Is the Dragon dead yet?"




I think that one question alone showing up in a session should speak volumes.

[Rankar]

Adding to the list

• Player bossing other players around about how to play their character.

• Player telling others to not metagame but can't seem to stop doing it himself.

• Player attempting to take over the GM's job of describing the world and things that are happening.

[randomhero00]

Oh sorry if this has been mentioned, but I have to rant here:

A backseat DM. SOOOO freaking annoying. Always slowing the game down to look up rules and for some reason thinks he has a right to see your character sheet and judge it.

The "everyone is cheating but me" dude. He's paranoid. He thinks everyone is fudging dice rolls, doing illegal character builds, etc. Very similar to the one above. edit: BUT ironically he seems to roll the most nat 20s...

[Yukitsu]

I've been told a lot of the rest of the party gets this sick, sinking feeling when I say "All according to plan!" then cackle maniacally. Usually happens once every 2 months or so.

[Choco]

Adding to the list

• Player bossing other players around about how to play their character.

Related, but opposite of that:

• Player(s) who, in a group where everyone is at the same level of optimization/tier, do not play their character like they built it and then complain that your character is overpowered. Then when you point out that the only reason it appears this way is because they are using their magic/bow specialized character in melee all the time, they get mad because you are telling them how to play their character.

[Delwugor]

Adding to the list

• Player bossing other players around about how to play their character.

• Player telling others to not metagame but can't seem to stop doing it himself.

• Player attempting to take over the GM's job of describing the world and things that are happening.

Had one of those players join in my group for a while. He kept getting into arguments with me about my Enchantress character not having a war horse. Things with him did not end well at all.

A GM that doesn't pay attention to the players and wont listen when suggestions are made. Damn we are a group of role-players not a TV audience.

Players that don't pay attention to the game. Just because you are not the spotlight doesn't mean you surf, text or read.

Stopping play to look up rules.

And finally being told "You can't do that". I don't mind failing every single time because my character doesn't have the ability but that doesn't mean I can't try.

[Aurion]

I had the worst of those people showing up late problems. Back in our first learning to play, our DM had a nasty habit of being late to sessions. As we got furhter into the campaign, sometimes he wouldn't show up altogether and he would never call whether he would be late or not showing up so we would be left out in the cold. We got tired of this and I took over DMing.... but Moradin was that annoying

[Tengu_temp]

Related, but opposite of that:

• Player(s) who, in a group where everyone is at the same level of optimization/tier, do not play their character like they built it and then complain that your character is overpowered. Then when you point out that the only reason it appears this way is because they are using their magic/bow specialized character in melee all the time, they get mad because you are telling them how to play their character.

Amen to that. Bonus points if they start yelling that you're all munchkins and not real roleplayers afterwards.

The guy who purposely builds an underpowered character and then does everything described above is a similar case.

[Tyndmyr]

A GM that doesn't pay attention to the players and wont listen when suggestions are made. Damn we are a group of role-players not a TV audience.

Players that don't pay attention to the game. Just because you are not the spotlight doesn't mean you surf, text or read.

These two are huge. I think if people show up on time and avoid these two, we can make at least a pretty decent game happen.

[Tal_Akaan]

Firstly:

I absolutly loath the guy that doesn't pay attention. Paying attention is the most minimal thing you have to do to be part of an RPG...

...And their not even doing it.

Secondly:

The guy with the mind set of "We're heroes we need a 9 million point buy for stats, because we're the heroes not just regular people."

Sadly, though this is usually the same guy that thinks they are always supposed to win at everything. Gods ofrbid you, as a GM, put him in a situation that he has to roll someting higher than a 4 to succeed at. This is also the one person at the table that either gets mad or mopes when something negative happens to their character, then makes the whole table listen to how unfair it is. (from my experiance the action that triggerd the negative thing is usually at the fault of that person.

CAN I GET AN AMEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

EDIT: I figured I could condensce this down a bit...

...Poeple that want you, as GM, to narrate the story of their awesomeness, and have them make attack rolls.

[Mystic Muse]

The guy with the mind set of "We're heroes we need a 9 million point buy for stats, because we're the heroes not just regular people."

Well, I don't need to play like this but I like to.

[Dsurion]

What really annoys me is people who don't show up with their character sheets that were just created during the last session, and we specifically took two hours of game time to deal with. MULTIPLE TIMES.

I eventually started making backup digital copies, but it's still an annoyance.

[ScottishDragon]

I have a dnd group and mostly for everyone but me this is their first group(I made it up of my friends) We used herolab for everything and so EVERY time we start,we waste 1 hr to print out character sheets for those that forgot theirs, and to level everyone up.

[Choco]

Got a few more here:

• DM's that out of the blue say things like "you know, I thought we would do <x> today (where <x> is not necessarily even RP related) instead of play the game" at the beginning of the session. You couldn't have told us this BEFORE we showed up? I am all for hanging out with my friends, but quite often <x> is something I do not enjoy in the slightest and would have appreciated the warning so I could do something fun at home instead.

• DM's that put the session on hold for HALF AN HOUR or more to take a non-emergency phone call. Multiple times during the session... Next time the DM pauses the game to do phone tech support for one of his relatives as opposed to telling them he is busy I am just gonna up and leave for the night.

[Vulaas]

When the DM...

• Stops the session ever 10 minutes because it's time for another smoke break. I get it, you smoke, you need your fix, but can you at least wait until between scenes? It's frustrating as all get-out trying to get anything accomplished like that.

• Has a DMPC. I know in theory it can work, but in actuality I've never seen it end up as anything more than "I love this character of mine I made in this old game, so I'm going to keep playing them in this one and you can be along for the ride."

When players...

• Can't make serious characters when you let them know in advance that you're planning on having this be a survival horror kind of game. Because an Aasimar Warlock named Edward with "sparkling, almost luminescent skin" is not the sort of thing I was looking for .

• Deliberately cause conflict in the first session when you're trying to get them together with other party members. I know nobody likes hearing the train whistle, but sometimes for conveniences sake, just assume that you'll be willing to work with other people to clear the rats out of the tavern basement.

[Vladislav]

The guy with the mind set of "We're heroes we need a 9 million point buy for stats, because we're the heroes not just regular people."

Wait, I'm confused here. How possibly can having 9 million point buy kill fun in a session? I was always thinking of stats as "the more the merrier"

[Choco]

When players...

• Can't make serious characters when you let them know in advance that you're planning on having this be a survival horror kind of game. Because an Aasimar Warlock named Edward with "sparkling, almost luminescent skin" is not the sort of thing I was looking for .

• Deliberately cause conflict in the first session when you're trying to get them together with other party members. I know nobody likes hearing the train whistle, but sometimes for conveniences sake, just assume that you'll be willing to work with other people to clear the rats out of the tavern basement.

OMG, that reminded me of....

• Players who, RIGHT AFTER you tell them that you plan on your next campaign being serious, dark, and/or gritty, come to you with a joke character like a deaf/mute bard with ranks in Perform[interpretive dance] and Perform[mime]. When they notice you giving them the evil eye, they simply say "every dark story needs comic relief!" (Luckily, and hilariously, this one sorted itself out: One of the other PC's got fed up and killed the annoying character )

• Players who deliberately provoke PvP (usually by means of stealing, backstabbing, insulting everything the character holds dear, etc., of course using the "but that's what my character would do!" excuse) in what is supposed to be a non-PvP, cooperative game. Then of course when you attack them for it, they cry foul because this is supposed to be a non-PvP game, and don't think it's funny when you say "that's what my character would do!".

[Sarco_Phage]

Stops the session ever 10 minutes because it's time for another smoke break. I get it, you smoke, you need your fix, but can you at least wait until between scenes? It's frustrating as all get-out trying to get anything accomplished like that.

This is why my group smokes WHILE playing. Whoever heard of stopping something fun to do something that you could do while playing?

[Amnestic]

This is why my group smokes WHILE playing. Whoever heard of stopping something fun to do something that you could do while playing?

People who don't play outside and don't want the stench of smoke in their house? My brother - who lived/s on his own - steps outside to smoke for just that very reason.

[Sarco_Phage]

People who don't play outside and don't want the stench of smoke in their house? My brother - who lived/s on his own - steps outside to smoke for just that very reason.

But dude, it's a simple matter of ventilation. Unless you're playing in a basement (unlikely in this day and age) an open window and an electric fan should take care of those problems.

Also, a chunk of charcoal. Yes, my methods are arcane.