Habits that kill fun in a session.

[DogbertLinc]

I'm guilty of that one, but to be fair I was pointing out to the DM that certain things weren't making any sense.

I have done the same. Heck, I even proved the DM's great plot twist was impossible by RAW.

But that was only because he had a hissy-fit when I originally, jokingly called him out on it.

[The Random NPC]

I was just trying to point out that no, Fighters sleeping in heavy armor (with a feat!) doesn't make less sense than Rogues moving spell buffs from one person to another non-magicly as a part of their base class.

[The Glyphstone]

I was just trying to point out that no, Fighters sleeping in heavy armor (with a feat!) doesn't make less sense than Rogues moving spell buffs from one person to another non-magicly as a part of their base class.

rogues can transfer spell buffs? wut?

[The Random NPC]

It was in Pathfinder, but I think he was homebrewing it. Or confused about the minor spell Rogue power.

[Volthawk]

Could've been a Spellthief instead of a Rogue.

[Archwizard]

Someone on these forums has a story of how he created this awesome boss monster and spent multiple sessions hyping it up and getting the PC's (and players) scared of it, then when the fight finally happens the monster goes first rolls 3 1's (or something similar, can't remember exactly) in a row and trips and breaks its neck. Yup, the epic hyped up monster broke its own neck in the opening move of the combat.

Well... there's a reason you roll certain things behind that DM screen!

The Have It Your Way DM-All DM's have to give some ground to the players, but this guy takes it WAY too far: To the point of actively supporting and encouraging Chaotic Stupid behavior. Everything the PC's try always ends up getting the desired result, perfectly. There are no wrong decisions. You know that Chaotic Stupid character that normally gets killed off (or at least put in a bad enough situation to change the behavior) after 2 sessions or so? Yeah, imagine playing under a DM that rewarded the behavior.

That type of DMing needs to DIAF.

Mr. Everything Must Operate Within RAW-This player demands the entire world function according to the letter of RAW, no exceptions. You want to move the plot along by having a villain assassinate a powerful ally of the PC's in one hit? You better be ready to provide detailed character sheets of both NPC's and justify the 1-hit kill according to RAW, cause this player will never drop it. And don't forget you have to roll the dice for the assassin too!

This type of playing too.

Reminds me of another one I'm guilty of actually:

Mr. Assume RAW Until Proven Otherwise-For everything that happens during the game, this guy looks for RAW justification. Not as bad as Mr. Everything Must Operate Within RAW because he accepts DM handwaves, but unless the DM admits to handwaving he assumes everything is operating by RAW. To use the assassination example above, if this guy can metagame that the ally had ~150HP, and the assassin takes him down in one hit, he immediately exclaims "DAMN!! That guy either did a Save or Die attack of some kind or just did over 150 damage* in one hit! Whatever it is, it's way out of our league!"

*before anyone brings up a 2000+ damage per hit build, 150 damage is a big deal in mid/low level low optimization games....

Yeah, I fall into this last one sometimes, but I don't really think it kills the fun. There have to be rules to games, otherwise you end up with anarchy. However, rules exist to serve the fun (not vice versa, which is what the middle example person always forgets), and so if you need to wander outside the rules a bit for fun, then do it. (Which is why you sometimes roll behind the DM Screen!

[The Random NPC]

No, he said it was a Rogue.

[lord pringle]

Kender ... Hobbits that kill fun in a session

May I sig that?

[big teej]

related to the topic.

a group that won't give you feed back while you're trying to organize.

example
send out an email/mass text/whatever

"Okay guys, so I'm aiming for about 3 - 8 at joe's house thursday who can make it?"

no response, not until like 6 hours before the session, at which point you get just enough replies to know the sessions on.


related"
"hey guys, this campaign is going to be driven entirely by your characters, so I need at least a little bit of background for everyone BEFORE WE MEET"

crickets...

[Con_Brio1993]

I recently DM'ed a game based around a homebrew setting, using the Dresden Files system. The game was meant to be fairly low tech, but as a new DM I was the Cavein DM a DM that allowed players to make claims about the world because I didn't want to hamper their fun. However this came to bite me in the ass when one of the players decided to basically derail my setting, and tried to set things up like a spy movie.

Moreover he was Mr. Inconsistent.

He decided to derail the setting after going from City A to City B. In City B he conversed with random people, gave them very generous tips to keep their mouths shut about the meeting (akin to paying the bagger at the supermarket to "never mention this meeting to anyone" after they bag your groceries), refused to drink wine with a stranger at a bar, rented multiple rooms on multiple floors in a hotel and gave keys to strangers to "mix up" the enemy, and then accepted a random glass of alcohol from a random drug filled nightclub in the bad part of town... really? After all that caution you accept a random cup in a seedy nightclub?

Granted he complained when I said it was drugged, and I decided not to drug the cup.

Meanwhile his character background was that he was an android who had been enslaved by humans for hundreds of years, and thus he hated humanity. Cue him making one or two sentences about him not trusting the "human party members" and then never ever bringing that aspect up again. When I mentioned that he wasn't RP'ing his character he gave me some line about "I thought the point of this was to have fun." Gee, I could have sworn part of the fun was actually roleplaying out a character...

\vent

[stainboy]

Mr. Everything Must Operate Within RAW-This player demands the entire world function according to the letter of RAW, no exceptions. You want to move the plot along by having a villain assassinate a powerful ally of the PC's in one hit? You better be ready to provide detailed character sheets of both NPC's and justify the 1-hit kill according to RAW, cause this player will never drop it. And don't forget you have to roll the dice for the assassin too!

Eh, I'm torn on this example. If my character is trying to stop the assassin I want to see the die rolls. If the player is complaining about something that happened off-screen, yeah, that's just being difficult.

[Gnoman]

oh god.... I hate this one, Fighting a construct, who to be fair, was kicking our asses... then the DM springs up and says, good thing I didnt activate it's exploding tail spike attacK!!!

I've done that, actually, ususally to point out that I did, in fact underestimate the power of the monster, or, if the party just rolled really bad, to make sure they knew that I was holding back in compensation.

[Flame9006]

Not sure if this was posted before but
A DM that complains when you...
Do something they didn't expect
Do something that's really ridiculous but completely allowed by the rules

[big teej]

Not sure if this was posted before but
A DM that complains when you...
Do something they didn't expect
Do something that's really ridiculous but completely allowed by the rules

in defense of DMs everywhere.
just because something's allowed by the rules, doesn't mean it's a good thing.
PUN PUN POWERS ACTIVATE!

[Hiro Protagonest]

in defense of DMs everywhere.
just because something's allowed by the rules, doesn't mean it's a good thing.
PUN PUN POWERS ACTIVATE!

Yeah, the first one is so-so, but the second one is definitely not a bad thing.

[Silus]

related"
"hey guys, this campaign is going to be driven entirely by your characters, so I need at least a little bit of background for everyone BEFORE WE MEET"

crickets...

Understandable if your group is known for total party wipes, either PC or DM caused.

It does get annoying to try and come up with new characters and fresh backstories every few weeks.

[big teej]

Understandable if your group is known for total party wipes, either PC or DM caused.

It does get annoying to try and come up with new characters and fresh backstories every few weeks.

actually, over the course of my 3(?) year gaming career.

I've only been witness/party to 4(?) chracter deaths.

of those, only 2 have happened while I sat behind the screen. it's a new group for summer because we're off campus.

and I disagree (slightly) about it being annoying.

I have 20+ characters waiting to see play.
character creation is fun for me.


*in the event that this post is completely or even partially off the wall, I'm very tired and on the way to dreamland. so humor me

[Silus]

Not sure if this was posted before but
A DM that complains when you...
Do something they didn't expect
Do something that's really ridiculous but completely allowed by the rules

Me: "Wait, you WHAT?!"
Player: "I read the book."
Me: *Panics a little trying to figure out what to do, as I never expected anyone to read a large, glowing, floating book in the middle of a Genius Loci house*

actually, over the course of my 3(?) year gaming career.

I've only been witness/party to 4(?) chracter deaths.

of those, only 2 have happened while I sat behind the screen. it's a new group for summer because we're off campus.

and I disagree (slightly) about it being annoying.

I have 20+ characters waiting to see play.
character creation is fun for me.


*in the event that this post is completely or even partially off the wall, I'm very tired and on the way to dreamland. so humor me

In my first group, I was asked to provide pretty extensive backstories, which I did at first. And then my characters started dying. Quite a bit. I think I went through two characters in three sessions. Shortly thereafter, I kinda stopped worrying about backstories and just improved it whenever the issue came up, as my characters were either going to be killed off or the campaign would be scrapped.

[Firechanter]

I never think up much of a backstory before the game starts; imo the character is supposed to experience interesting things _during_ the campaign, not before it. If the DM specifies a character-driven campaign, then okay, I'll whip something up (but not exceeding half a page).

As for meatgrinder DMs, even if they manage to prevent my losing interest in their game, I'd just roll Bob the Fighter, with no effort put into it whatsoever, and keep sending in clones at the speed they are being killed off.

To contribute, maybe it's been mentioned before, but I'll name The Copious Backstory Player. Really, we don't want to hear all of the seven pages you came up with. In most cases, it's either meaningless trite that could be summed up in three lines, or it's a highly dubious setup for a Mary-Sueish character.

[Douglas]

Me: "Wait, you WHAT?!"
Player: "I read the book."
Me: *Panics a little trying to figure out what to do, as I never expected anyone to read a large, glowing, floating book in the middle of a Genius Loci house*

In which gaming system? In Call of Cthulhu, this is completely understandable and the player either isn't very familiar with the setting or is just about committing intentional character suicide. In D&D, I'd view a description like that as essentially equivalent to "PLOT HOOK" written in flaming letters several hundred feet tall; of course I'd read it, what else are you supposed to do with an obviously important book? Besides search it for traps first, of course.

[Gravitron5000]

May I sig that?

Knock yourself out.

[DontEatRawHagis]

Mr. Plays By His own Rules

There has been this guy who has been playing with our group for a while. He just keeps Overpowering his character by misinterpreting the rules. It used to be that we took what he said at face value and carried on, but after this last game he has just gone over the line.

In "Serenity" the closest you can get to a magic character is Reader, so he chose that, and proceeded to do stuff a reader cannot do, such as telekinetically throw knives, send messages to people via telepathy, and know the precise location of someone by "sensing them". Thing about readers all they can do is make better insight rolls than a normal individual, and can use points to ask the GM if the NPC is actually telling the truth. The idea is that the Reader can only read emotions and feelings.

Last game he killed all the NPCs in one move, which I am betting now is weaker than what he told us.

[Silus]

In which gaming system? In Call of Cthulhu, this is completely understandable and the player either isn't very familiar with the setting or is just about committing intentional character suicide. In D&D, I'd view a description like that as essentially equivalent to "PLOT HOOK" written in flaming letters several hundred feet tall; of course I'd read it, what else are you supposed to do with an obviously important book? Besides search it for traps first, of course.

D&D 3.5/Pathfinder in a horror style game.

[HalfDragonCube]

D&D 3.5/Pathfinder in a horror style game.

Which kind: the scary plot themed type or the 'I just bought HoH' type?

[Greenish]

Me: "Wait, you WHAT?!"
Player: "I read the book."
Me: *Panics a little trying to figure out what to do, as I never expected anyone to read a large, glowing, floating book in the middle of a Genius Loci house*

Really, now. It floats. It glows. It's in the middle.

Of course they're going to read it!

[Hiro Protagonest]

Really, now. It floats. It glows. It's in the middle.

Of course they're going to read it!

Yeah. You should prepare for if they don't read it, but you should first prepare for if they do read it. You should also prepare for if they set it on fire, take it without reading it, or chop it in half with a sword.

[Choco]

Really, now. It floats. It glows. It's in the middle.

Of course they're going to read it!

What group of self-respecting adventurers don't first whip out the Artificer's Monocle before handling an unidentified magic item?

Here's one I heard about from a friend, one that would probably make me quit the game after 1 session unless it was dealt with:

The Disbeliever-This guy has been burned by an illusion-happy DM in the past one too many times. EVERYTHING the DM describes, he specifically mentions that he disbelieves. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the windows, each individual book on the bookshelf, the bookshelf, the desk, ... , the dust on the bookshelf, the dust on the desk, the dust on the pen ...

Apparently the DM got sick of this guy and created a room in the dungeon that had an illusion and a powerful invisible wizard in it. The wizard ignored everyone and did nothing until The Disbeliever disbelieved his illusion, then he got mad and killed him in 1 hit, and promptly teleported away.

[SuperFerret]

Really, now. It floats. It glows. It's in the middle.

Of course they're going to read it!

To use an example from a friend's game as a DMing proverb.

"You put the pool of water in the dungeon. Of course they're going to drink from it, and if they don't, the samurai will wash his feet in it."

[Silus]

Which kind: the scary plot themed type or the 'I just bought HoH' type?

A little of both. Imagine having watched the movie 1408 a few too many times and throw in a little of Fable 3's Shadelight dungeon.

The house warping reality, Shadows coming out of the walls in hordes, the 'ol "I thought we were out!" bit, ect. ect..

'Course, the guy that read the book also was the one that decided to go upstairs alone.

Really, now. It floats. It glows. It's in the middle.

Of course they're going to read it!

Well, when it's got The Yellow Sign on the cover....

It was more or less an artifact level Carcosa Codex. First campaign I ever ran, so in the future I'll make it something less Lovecraftian =P

[randomhero00]

This may sound like a joke, but I'm serious. If you need to pass gas you go outside. We usually play in a small apartment. Half the time we order mexican. That is a bad combo if you don't control it!