Common Aggravating Table Behaviors

[The Fury]

1. If I were the GM, I'd make sure the player was looking, set the note down in something fireproof, and light it on fire.

2. If I were the player targeted, I'd get up and leave.


I have no patience for clowns, and even less for pathetic little turds who try to make other people the butt of a stupid stunt.

You haven't even heard the final zinger. When the player asks, "I have The Fury's pants, which have The Fury's pockets... Does that mean I have The Fury's money?"

Mercifully, the answer is generally "No," and I guess it's lucky for the sake of cohesion that I have a thick skin about stuff like this.

On my end... I wouldn't be bothered unless those pants had one of my buffs...

Enchanted pants... what would they do?

[Traab]

The pants thing is something that bothers me a bit on a rule setting. I dont care how deft you are at sleight of hand, if I am standing, there is no way you can remove my pants entirely without me noticing. MAYBE you could pants me (yank em down) without me noticing till I go to take a step and fall over, but get them off over my feet? Not happening. Thats right up there with, "I rolled a natural 20 on my bluff check and convinced the king I was the rightful ruler of his kingdom" type of stupid. I mean, I get it in a silly scenario to be willing to play along but I just think most skills should have a cap on what they are capable of doing.

Like, lets say you want to bluff the prison guard into letting you go. A 20 means he lets you go cheerfully, anything less means he coshes you with a blackjack. If you roll a 35 after including all your bonuses, your bluff doesnt magnify from letting you go into, "He lets me go and even offers me a replacement uniform and gear since I so obviously lost my own that I had to wear prison garb. Oh, and he gives me his sisters address because he thinks I would be good for her." Your high skill level just means its highly unlikely to fail, not that it will let you pull off utterly absurd acts with it.

[Cluedrew]

Enchanted pants... what would they do?

I'm not sure. In the last very comedic campaign I did I, playing an artificer, was asked to enchant the pants of several members of the party. I could never figure out what to put on them and I gave them back (the next day in game) unenchanted.

[Max_Killjoy]

The pants thing is something that bothers me a bit on a rule setting. I dont care how deft you are at sleight of hand, if I am standing, there is no way you can remove my pants entirely without me noticing. MAYBE you could pants me (yank em down) without me noticing till I go to take a step and fall over, but get them off over my feet? Not happening. Thats right up there with, "I rolled a natural 20 on my bluff check and convinced the king I was the rightful ruler of his kingdom" type of stupid. I mean, I get it in a silly scenario to be willing to play along but I just think most skills should have a cap on what they are capable of doing.

Exactly.

In anything outside of a game like TOON, that sort of "but I rolled really well" nonsense has no place.

[Pex]

1. If I were the GM, I'd make sure the player was looking, set the note down in something fireproof, and light it on fire.

2. If I were the player targeted, I'd get up and leave.


I have no patience for clowns, and even less for pathetic little turds who try to make other people the butt of a stupid stunt.

And the DMs who enable them.

[ross]

I think that tradition came from the days when people would commonly play the same character in different games. You'd finish Bob's dungeon and then take your character over to Gary's dungeon.

Tearing up the char sheet symbolizes that you can't take it to someone else's house and be alive again.

Like there's anything stopping the player from printing out another dozen copies of that same character with zero effort. Sounds more like a narcissistic DM wants to feel important.

... Which makes it worse. I was just talking about a character whose story was done anyway, but if you've got a character you take around to several games (ala Pathfinder Society) then it's even more BS to destroy my main record of them.


I play my pen and paper games with a pen and paper, thank you very much.

Which doesn't preclude you from keeping backups in any way.

No, as in, you play the SAME character in different games. As in literally the same person. Games were assumed to be in the same world. If you level up to 3 in Bob's dungeon then you're level 3 in Gary's dungeon.

If you died in Bob's dungeon then you'd be dead and couldn't go to Gary's dungeon with that character at all.

Well that's retarded and also completely unenforceable. Are all the DMs in the town on the same emailing list or something? What about roll20?

[ComradeBear]

Well that's retarded and also completely unenforceable. Are all the DMs in the town on the same emailing list or something? What about roll20?

This was in the very early days of D&D. The guys who invented Roll20 probably either weren't born yet, or were wee babies.

This is literally from the days when you'd have like 6 total people who played D&D in your town, and so the two DMs probably DID communicate, verbally, face-to-face. After playing in one anothers adventures.

This is about Ye Olden Days, not something that is super necessary now.

[ross]

About the tearing of sheets: I've never done that as a DM, nor seen a DM do it. I do, however, remember one player (early-mid teens IIRC) who had a character die. He had been playing the character for months, and in anger and frustration curled the sheet up and threw it in the bin. Then people at the table started talking about how they were ging to resurrect him, and he suddenly felt very foolish, and with shaking voice and hands got the sheet out of the bin.

One peeve I've indulged recently, is about the players who say they'd like to use X skill to do something. No wonder you'd like to use Perception to roll on your success in research at the library, as it's your very highest skill. I can see the way your mind works, but it's mostly working in munchkinry patterns right now. How about you tell me what your character does, and I'll decide what check you need to roll, if any, to accomplish it, eh? A subset of this behaviour is when you ask whether someone in the party has a specific ability, item, or something, and someone pipes up with something else.
DM: "Does anyone have the Light Sleeper trait?"
Annoying player: "No, but I have Keen Hearing!"
That particular thing became a regular occurence. What's s/he sayin 'no' for, anyway? Speak for yourself!

But I'm mostly annoyed at no-shows, late shows, and early shows. And I don't consider ten minutes before or after noteworthy. But much more than that starts to irk me.

Better idea, I'll tell you what skills I'm going to use, and the rolls I get, and you tell me if I succeeded, since that's your only purpose for existing.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Well that's retarded and also completely unenforceable. Are all the DMs in the town on the same emailing list or something? What about roll20?

Well this would be back in the 70s so...

[ross]

It's arrogant, why should she be immune to the consequences for bad rolls?

Besides, isn't it more interesting to be wrong than to not know? It can send you haring off on all sorts of misadventures and create other problems that need to be solved.

Nobody wants to go on that boring sidequest with your ****ty DMPC.

It has to do with making the player's character look like a fool, without the player's consent. Even if you roll a one on your tracking skill, you are NOT going to mistake bear tracks for moose tracks. It's just not going to happen. If the player suggests it, fine. So let the player correctly identify the tracks, but be unable to follow them.

Be fans of your PCs. Cheer (either openly or secretly) when they pull off an upset, or when they see a solution you hadn't planned for. Give them opportunities to be heroic. You don't need to give them opportunities to make fools of themselves; they'll do that all on their own, without help from you.

**** that. The DM is the physical incarnation of the uncaring, openly hostile universe the PCs inhabit. Their lives are meaningless and their actions are pointless. Success or failure make no difference.

I'm guilty of this on a fair number of occasions... And let me tell you, as a chess master player, the worst thing is when someone doesn't do what I say and the encounter then becomes 10x more difficult.

More on topic, players who treat the game as one big joke irritate me, since I tend to be a more serious player. Not to say that casual players are bad, nor that super-seriousness is a better way to play. But, well... This guy takes the cake:
When we agreed that someone needed to cause a ruckus to draw attention away from the rest of the party's stealth mission, the Paladin got drafted in to cause said ruckus. We were expecting trampled tents, a wild chase, and insults to our enemies' parentage. What we got was 15 minutes of him standing around and occasionally shouting Dark Souls references.
His character was like that the whole campaign, by the way. I don't recall a single word of his IC that wasn't a Dark Souls reference.

That player's a genius. There's nothing more obnoxious than a nerd trying to be funny by repeating things other people said, so that was guaranteed to piss people off and distract them.

How did we get 3 pages in without anybody mentioning players who don't pay any attention unless their character is the one currently in the spotlight?

They're elsewhere in town while someone's talking to an NPC; they're on their phone/tablet.

It's not their turn in combat; they're talking about a sporting event with the guy that goes after them in initiative.

Unless someone is addressing them directly about the game, it's like they're not even playing. It's grinds me like a beach towel made of sandpaper.

No one mentioned it because that's every player.

The sleeping guy in my group does that too. Even when his character is in the spotlight.

Have you discussed his depression with him?

I had this problem when I first played a wizard using Sleep. All of a sudden every low level grunt is an elf that's immune to sleep

The alternative is every encounter is trivialized by the sleep spell, everyone loses interest in the game, and stops showing up.

the GM who thinks that if theres no combat it isn't fun......and the player that thinks that ONLY combat is fun. I am getting tired of HAVING to fight in traveller.
the GM who decides that two guards or two security stations CONSTANTLY manned is standard procedure....he wants to make it more challenging but its just freaking annoying.

If your job was ensuring the security of some object or location, would you be okay with leaving the guard stations unmanned?

what's the point of playing the stealth scout type if they get punished for separating from the group though ?

There isn't one. Play something else.

I once had a player who did both - she asked me to help her make a character (and by that, she meant 'make her character for her'), and then she dropped from the game without so much as a hey-howdy-do. That forced some awkward re-writes to the plot, because I'd written it in to help her get connected with the rest of the group (she was a latecomer to a group that was already pretty much organized and ready to go), which contributed to the game dying young.
I've learned my lesson; I am no longer nearly so kind towards new players that I don't know outside of the game.
... Not that I'm bitter or anything.



It's what I'd want if I were scouting. I'm not nearly enough of a sociopath to want to steal everyone's game time like that when we could be doing anything else and have more than just me involved.



What's the point of playing with a group if your main objective is to spend time away from them?


As for common behaviors... Monty Python quotes. I don't like Monty Python to begin with, especially the lines everyone has been quoting ad nauseum as if it were still remotely clever the hundred thousandth time thirty years later.
Seriously, guys, just stop it. You've done it so much that I could quote entire scenes from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail despite the fact that I have never watched that movie. Other movies exist! Quote them! Please! For the love of Arrenji, please quote something different!

No. Don't quote anything at all. Get a real personality or get out of my house.

To each their own, but taking the "don't monopolize game time" thing this far would ruin the fun for me.

It reminds me of a time when I was playing the Star Wars RPG, where my character was a Jawa. We were in the Mos Eisley cantina doing I forget what, something that was interesting to some of the other players but not me. I looked around the cantina and the GM told me that a group of Jawas got out of their seats and left the cantina.

I figured that I'd see what they were up to, so my character left to follow them. I wasn't trying to go on a side quest or anything, just have my character off doing local Jawa things or whatever while the others were drinking at the bar and gathering information from the locals. The GM had my character get mugged and beaten, and then concluded with "and this is why you never leave the party."

And this is supposed to make the game more fun how?

It's not supposed to make the game fun. It's supposed to make you not leave the party.

I try to be tolerant, but can't stop myself from getting consistently annoyed at people who refuse to learn the system. I get it, RPGs are complicated and not everyone is interested in the mechanics, but c'mon, man. I understand if you don't remember how hit dice work, but you can write down your attack bonus so you don't need to ask every round. You can remember that it's a d20 for everything but damage.

As a very personal pet peeve, characters with inappropriate names. We're playing in Fantasyland #294b; your character is not named George. I specifically told you how (race's) names work, and real-world English names are not one of them.

Another common behavior I've seen several times is excessively paranoid players. I know metagaming is bad, and that good GMs make sure not every challenge is perfectly scaled to your level, and that sometimes things are supposed to be tense in-setting, but... I hate when players spend the entire time terrified that one little mistake will ruin everything, convinced that the entire world is a deathtrap out to get them personally, that every plot hook is a trap to run from, that it's better to spend twenty minutes debating the safety of an action. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the most boring thing a GM can do is kill you, and that the basic covenant of gaming is "whatever happens, I'll make sure it's interesting and that there's a path for success somewhere." I'd rather go get into trouble than sit around arguing.

Enjoy your wipe.

No i mean some one who does that no matter what character/race/game they are playing......and deliberately does s%$& to get us in trouble with the police/guard/security. and before you ask: they cant be kicked they are dateing/engaged to one of the DM's in the group.

Leave the group, and recommend to the other players that they do so as well.

Your only power over a DM as a player is your feet. Use them.

First, a confession: I have, in the past, completed some WoW raids while simultaneously in a particularly slow patch of an online D&D game.





I'll try to tell this story quickly to get to the peeves part. A long time ago, when Neverwinter Nights was new, my cousin invited me to his RP multiplayer server. So I made a sorcerer and logged on, but he wasn't online. So I played a quest with the people I did meet there, then hung out by the campfire afterwards. This is where the disaster starts.

A halfling strolls up to me out of stealth. We have a short conversation, and I notice my brand new magic staff is missing from my inventory. So I request that the thief return it, and he starts running away. I tell him to stop or I'll kill him. He goes through a zone transition just ahead of me and vanishes. Apparently he loaded the next map faster, because he really did vanish. I was just beat by a halfling in a footrace.

A short while later, I see the halfling again back at the campfire and follow through on my threat. A magic missile and an acid arrow later and the thief is down. While looting the body, the thief messages me and calls me a metagamer, the GM for the server intervenes and resurrects him. Thief claims there's no way I recognized him because it was dark and he was wearing a hood. I counter with it was not dark as my belt has a light enchantment, and you stopped and had a chat with me. The GM says there's one way I could recognize the halfling, but I have to guess it or let him be. Since I was unable to read the GMs mind through the internet after several guesses, I left and never went back.

So, metagamers who use the "but I'm a PC, you can't do that to me" attitude while doing just that to the other players, DMs who enable this kind of ****ty player, and DM scenarios where you're supposed to be a mind reader in order to solve it.

TL;DR: Playing NWN multiplayer and I killed a bandit and he went "Nuh, uh, I'm like Zorro", and the GM agreed, "Yeah, he's like Zorro." If I had been at a table, someone would have been punched.

You wouldn't have punched anyone.

I'm the opposite, it annoys the crap out of me and i have a horrible poker face and show it, so i continue to get targeted. I think the one that does it is insulated because shes engaged to one of the DM's but just once i'd really like to go and shoot one of their characters when they do it one time too many. i am just not a fan of player induced shenanigans especially when i'm expected to help keep the other character out of trouble and there is no way mine would do that.......but to preserve the party i have to toss out character behavior and help them dodge the guard.

Why would you bother trying to preserve a party that clearly doesn't give a **** about you? You're a joke to them.

[Solaris]

No. Don't quote anything at all. Get a real personality or get out of my house.

Let's be fair, if I only associated with people who had a real personality it'd just be me and the voices.
Not even all of the voices, either.

[ross]

This is literally from the days when you'd have like 6 total people who played D&D in your town

Yikes, must suck to live in flyover country

Hehe look at me you guys I'm so wacky and weird! I'm totally not forcing this!

Nah, you wouldn't be hanging out with anyone.

[Melville's Book]

Ross. Friend. Multi-quoting is a thing. See that little button right next to the quote button that looks just like the quote button, but with a plus sign? You can click that to add as many quotes as you want to a single post. Please stop clogging the thread with multi-posts. Thank you.

[ross]

Ross. Friend. Multi-quoting is a thing. See that little button right next to the quote button that looks just like the quote button, but with a plus sign? You can click that to add as many quotes as you want to a single post. Please stop clogging the thread with multi-posts. Thank you.

nah` `

[Dr_Dinosaur]

nah` `

Oh boy, you're going to be a fun one, aren't you?

Anyway, I can't stand it when friends of players show up and insist on butting in and distracting them in the middle of play.

[Zalabim]

You wouldn't have punched anyone.

I didn't say I would be doing the punching. You also probably could have cut out most of my post for the quote.

nah` `

Ok then. Plan B.

[WarKitty]

nah` `

You do realize that "don't post multiple posts in a row" is actually a forum rule here?

Anyways - as far as solo quests go, different people have different ideas. It can be handled well and be fun for everyone. Really, "you all have to stay in the same scene whether or not your character has any logical reason to be here or anything to contribute" has the same effect of one player having to watch while everyone else has fun. At least solo quests give people a reason to be doing something in-game.

[Quertus]

I have a few behaviors that I find to be aggravating, but the most offensive one if not bothering to read the rule books for whatever system we are playing.

I find it to be rude/offensive because I am usually the DM and I have spent my own time reading the rulebooks and so have my other players. But I have one player who usually refuses to read the books and the rest of the party needs to help him make his character and learn the basic rules of the system instead of doing this himself (unless its D&D 3.5).

There are a few reasons why that's sometimes me.

First off, I learn much better by using rules than by reading them. Even without using them, I'll still learn rules better by having someone tell me the rules than by reading them. Heck, I'll even learn then better by using profession:scribe and copying them than by reading them.

On the rare occasion I'm getting to play a system for the first time, but not playing a character for the first time, I get to enjoy true exploration - someone experiencing an entirely different reality for the first time. I certainly don't want to sully that by reading spoilers ahead of time.

Yikes, must suck to live in flyover country

Imagine trying to find 6 experienced FATAL players, or 6 active 1e D&D players, to join your game. The hobby hasn't always had its current level of popularity.

Ross. Friend. Multi-quoting is a thing. See that little button right next to the quote button that looks just like the quote button, but with a plus sign? You can click that to add as many quotes as you want to a single post. Please stop clogging the thread with multi-posts. Thank you.

To be fair, there are limits to how much text one can quote in a single post, and, in casting my signature "wall of text", I've hit those limits before. But, yeah, this looks more like we should ready torches. but whether our other hands should have pitch forks or acid vials is less certain...

[2D8HP]

Multi-quoting is a thing. See that little button right next to the quote button that looks just like the quote button, but with a plus sign? You can click that to add as many quotes as you want to a single post.

That's awesome! I've been doing "copy and paste" for multiple quotes for over a year now.
Thank you!
I'm going to try it now....

Enjoy your wipe.

"Wipe"? I have no clue of what you mean.

**** that. The DM is the physical incarnation of the uncaring, openly hostile universe the PCs inhabit. Their lives are meaningless and their actions are pointless. Success or failure make no difference.

Sounds like an awful game. Why play it?

I think that tradition came from the days when people would commonly play the same character in different games. You'd finish Bob's dungeon and then take your character over to Gary's dungeon.

Tearing up the char sheet symbolizes that you can't take it to someone else's house and be alive again.

Like there's anything stopping the player from printing out another dozen copies of that same character with zero effort. Sounds more like a narcissistic DM wants to feel important.

There was a time before printers, and some of us (me for example) still don't have them.

Well that's retarded and also completely unenforceable. Are all the DMs in the town on the same emailing list or something? What about roll20?

I have no experience with "Roll20".

Well this would be back in the 70s so...

This was in the very early days of D&D. The guys who invented Roll20 probably either weren't born yet, or were wee babies.

This is literally from the days when you'd have like 6 total people who played D&D in your town, and so the two DMs probably DID communicate, verbally, face-to-face. After playing in one anothers adventures.

This is about Ye Olden Days, not something that is super necessary now.

Yikes, must suck to live in flyover country

@ross, the past was not "flyover country". There was a time before the internet, have you never spoken to anyone over 40 years old ever?
I'm guessing that you've never been in a dorm room that was illuminated only by a blacklight, while "Kashmir" played on a turntable.
Do you imagine that we were all on CB radio?
"Breaker, breaker Blackleaf calling Elfstar, Avatar and Blackwolf are on your trail"

(Extra points if you know which of those names reference the '70's, and which the '80's)
Here is a slice of the 1970's so that you may better understand us:

[Max_Killjoy]

There was a time before printers, and some of us (me for example) still don't have them.I have no experience with "Roll20".
@ross, the past was not "flyover country". There was a time before the internet, have you never spoken to anyone over 40 years old ever?
I'm guessing that you've never been in a dorm room that was illuminated only by a blacklight, while "Kashmir" played on a turntable.
Do you imagine that we were all on CB radio?
"Breaker, breaker Blackleaf calling Elfstar, Avatar and Blackwolf are on your trail"

There are a ton of people alive today who sadly do not remember the world without the internet, or without cellphones, or... whatever.

Spoiler

Show

I got into computers in the 80s and watched the era of BBSes come and go. I went to college in the 90s and participated in Usenet newsgroups before most people even knew what the internet was. I watched the rise of social media and online tracked / targeted advertising and the slow creeping loss of privacy for kids who didn't care that anyone could find out anything about them with a few clicks.

Music has gone from vinyl and 8-tracks, to cassettes, to CDs, to people who are willing to rent their music for a monthly fee...

Movies have gone from whatever was on TV, to the big laser discs and VHS tapes, to DVDs, to online rentals... with the rise and fall of Blockbuster and every grocery store and whatnot having a rental video section for 2 decades at the peak...

[Melville's Book]

Imagine trying to find 6 experienced FATAL players

This is purely a thought exercise; never do this.

You can't begin to comprehend the depths of what horrific entities they've become.

(This is hyperbole, of course; FATAL doesn't actually transform you into a monster. If you come back after playing once, you already were one.)

I wonder if I can suggest "playing FATAL" as an actual behavior for the thread, or if that would be too mean.

[cobaltstarfire]

There are a few reasons why that's sometimes me.

First off, I learn much better by using rules than by reading them. Even without using them, I'll still learn rules better by having someone tell me the rules than by reading them. Heck, I'll even learn then better by using profession:scribe and copying them than by reading them.

On the rare occasion I'm getting to play a system for the first time, but not playing a character for the first time, I get to enjoy true exploration - someone experiencing an entirely different reality for the first time. I certainly don't want to sully that by reading spoilers ahead of time.

There is a difference between being a tactile learner, and not bothering to crack open the book and look at the rules. It sounds like you understand your learning type and are proactive in making sure you do what you can with it before a game starts.

You shouldn't consider yourself to be a problem player at all, and certainly don't let others treat you like one for it.

I'm also a tactile learner, and usually try to make it clear that I tend to forget rules very easily, especially if they rarely come up. I compensate for that by trying to think about what I want to do before it's my turn, and keeping my book handy. I mark relevant sections of the PHB, and make heavy use of the glossary so that I can try to find stuff I've forgotten quickly when I need to. (in real life games the rest of the table usually ends up relying on me to look up and clarify rules we aren't sure of because of this, so I know it's not a problematic behavior :D)

[Quertus]

I'm going to try it now...."Wipe"? I have no clue of what you mean.Sounds like an awful game. Why play it?

Honestly, going in without a plan is quite likely to cause a TPK in many games.

This is purely a thought exercise; never do this.

You can't begin to comprehend the depths of what horrific entities they've become.

(This is hyperbole, of course; FATAL doesn't actually transform you into a monster. If you come back after playing once, you already were one.)

I wonder if I can suggest "playing FATAL" as an actual behavior for the thread, or if that would be too mean.

No, playing FATAL - or suggesting doing so - isn't "common", and so does not qualify for this thread.

There is a difference between being a tactile learner, and not bothering to crack open the book and look at the rules. It sounds like you understand your learning type and are proactive in making sure you do what you can with it before a game starts.

You shouldn't consider yourself to be a problem player at all, and certainly don't let others treat you like one for it.

I'm also a tactile learner, and usually try to make it clear that I tend to forget rules very easily, especially if they rarely come up. I compensate for that by trying to think about what I want to do before it's my turn, and keeping my book handy. I mark relevant sections of the PHB, and make heavy use of the glossary so that I can try to find stuff I've forgotten quickly when I need to. (in real life games the rest of the table usually ends up relying on me to look up and clarify rules we aren't sure of because of this, so I know it's not a problematic behavior :D)

Thanks. I don't usually get any more flak for it than I dish out when people complain about basic math (add number plus d20, subtract damage from HP, etc). When I do, it's usually a good sign that this isn't the group for me.

Oddly, looking at books during the game is bad form at some tables...

[Stealth Marmot]

"Breaker, breaker Blackleaf calling Elfstar, Avatar and Blackwolf are on your trail"

(Extra points if you know which of those names reference the '70's, and which the '80's)
Here is a slice of the 1970's so that you may better understand us:

Blackleaf failed to find the trap. I declare her dead. Over.

As for "Wipe", it's an MMO term for when everyone in a raid group dies. He's saying "Enjoy your TPK".

I seem to disagree with the collective here in certain areas. I do think that players by themselves should be an option. It should be a minority of the game obviously, but having game sessions focus on a single player for most of it could be useful, so long as each player gets their time. Just make sure all the players are okay with it. And you don't have to be exact either, just keep in mind the memorable and fun moments with each character, and try to even those out so that everyone has a part of the game that they enjoyed and considered memorable.

To me, games should be fun above all else. That is why I don't mind the idea of a natural 20 or natural 1 playing a little havoc with realism. It is not something that should have mechanics, but if it gets a laugh or a particularly cool or memorable moment, there is no reason to not do it. Now, it's a tool that should not be used EVERY time there is a nat 20 or a nat 1, but if a situation presents itself, make something cool or funny up. It especially is good if in the end it doesn't affect anything mechanically.

The DM should have some room for fun. That said, they also have to keep an eye out for when they go too far or when they turn a character into a joke. I had a real problem with a DM who said that one of my characters was always good for a laugh when I considered him to be a fairly serious character. Yes the character was often sarcastic, and put upon, but after a while it gets old if the universe keeps jerking you around, and I literally told him at the end that my character was so jaded he was traumatized to the point of lethargy.

Even before that my character had long since given up hope in his agency in the world, or even his life.

The players are the stars, and them having fun should be your focus, but if you are smart and careful about it, you can have some of your own fun by playing with them.

[cobaltstarfire]

Oddly, looking at books during the game is bad form at some tables...

Those are tables I would probably have to avoid (or has a friendly rules lawyer who is willing to fill in when I have gaps), though I've never played at one, every one I've been at all the players may pull out a book to check something without anyone noticing or caring. Though it's not like I constantly have a book out, the times I usually need it, I can reference whatever it is faster than it takes for my turn to arrive.

But that's just me, if I suspect I won't be a good fit at a table I just decline to join the game, or leave if it turns out there is an issue that can't be overcome: People can't change the optimal way they learn or remember information, so there's no point in staying if there is a problem with that.

I also avoid high OP tables, because if I can't remember enough the rules very well, I definitely can't play at a high level of optimization.

[Max_Killjoy]

On the subject of a single player going off and doing things solo for a bit:

First, there are times when the confluence of events within the game simply demands this, and it wouldn't make any sense for the players to all stay together in one place. The sneakiest character needs to follow a target or sneak in somewhere to get some information, without Robes McStumble scaring a cat or knocking over a rack of spears. The face needs to do some solo gabbing without the bruiser around. Any character could have personal business to attend to.

Second, as a GM I was always willing to schedule time away from the main gaming sessions for 1-on-1 with any player, if it worked for our schedules. Anything that could be put off for those sessions of solo time was well worth the extra effort on my part.

[Pex]

There are a ton of people alive today who sadly do not remember the world without the internet, or without cellphones, or... whatever.

Sob! The DM of one of my 5E games didn't even know who Ricardo Montalban was!

[JAL_1138]

Sob! The DM of one of my 5E games didn't even know who Ricardo Montalban was!

...not even as KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN?

[2D8HP]

(Still having fun with the multi-quote buttons)

Movies have gone from whatever was on TV, to the big laser discs and VHS tapes, to DVDs, to online rentals... with the rise and fall of Blockbuster and every grocery store and whatnot having a rental video section for 2 decades at the peak...

For whatever it's worth, when it comes to media influences on most of my FRPG's, Star Trek re-runs, and "The Hobbit" cartoon TV movie, and these films that I saw in the theater when they were released:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (no I didn't "get it" when I first saw it, maybe my parents did),

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger,

Wizards (in retrospect maybe the most '70's film ever, a certain Mark Hamill played Sean, he would later turn up in a little film called.....),

Star Wars (in the schoolyard we actually would brag and compete about how many times we saw it, you didn't no way see it 20 times, where are the ticket stubs huh Ben!),

The Lord of the Rings (cartoon movie by the same guy who did "Wizards"),

Dragonslayer (I still have net yet seen a better Dragon the Vermithrax),

Excalibur,

Conan the Barbarian,

Raiders of the Lost Ark,

With Raiders we got a VHS machine, and a Tape of it, and modern times begins.

Honestly, going in without a plan is quite likely to cause a TPK in many games.

As for "Wipe", it's an MMO term for when everyone in a raid group dies. He's saying "Enjoy your TPK"

.Thanks guys, I never played a "MMO" (it actually was from this Forum that I learned of the existence of CRPG's)

Sob! The DM of one of my 5E games didn't even know who Ricardo Montalban was!

I'm trying to be tolerant, since I don't get peoples references to "Baldurs Gate", and "Final fantasy', but really I'm just appalled.
How can you even bare to communicate with someone who can't recognize the classics.



From Hell's heart I stab at thee!

KHAAAAAAAAN!!!

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Its possible he is just disappointed he didnt get to use his preperation. Ive found as a DM the best way to avoid that disapointment, is whenever my players bypass something (usually by getting beaten and retreating before they reach it. Is to describe what I had planned in detail. That way at least my work gets a secondhand audience. Alas I dont do anything generic enough for the old recycling bin.

This is why I love one of my players the best. He likes hearing about big elaborate plans and set pieces almost as much as playing through them or running them, so if one of us doesn't get to execute one we tell the other about it.