Habits that kill fun in a session.

[Choco]

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!

I know what ya mean, a lot of people got a problem with chronic gas-passers. I used to live right across the street from some corn and wheat fields (literally, you open the front door and right there across the street is a wheat field) though, so I have become desensitized to bad smells. Course that means I can use this to my advantage in the way of threatening to let loose to get what I want .

[Lamech]

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.

Since disbelieving doesn't take an action he should just be allowed to disbelieve everything he comes across. There is zero reason not to so he should on general principal. And the DM's response was silly, he should have told the guy saying "I disbelieve X" was annoying, and told him "I get the point your character disbelieves everything he comes across".

[Lemonus]

Since disbelieving doesn't take an action he should just be allowed to disbelieve everything he comes across. There is zero reason not to so he should on general principal. And the DM's response was silly, he should have told the guy saying "I disbelieve X" was annoying, and told him "I get the point your character disbelieves everything he comes across".

Well, why would his character believe that there are illusions everywhere?

Topic Tax:
Mr. Never Shows Up DM
I have one of these in my group. We rotate DMing and plots, and the current DM has only shown up for 1 session out of about 5. Luckily someone else had a one-shot ready, but still.

[MlleRouge]

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 ...

My first DM turned my whole group into this for a few weeks. We eventually got over it, but he had this tendency to make two out of three plot events either illusions, dreams, or some other kind of tomfoolery, and eventually we didn't believe anything anymore.

Walking on eggshells out of sheer suspicion can be fun, but this was a bit much.

[navar100]

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.

I can sympathize. Last campaign DM used illusions way too much. It was more than once I said "I disbelieve the world.", and I was being serious.

[Andre]

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.

I, for one, disbelieve this post.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I, for one, disbelieve this post.

I disbelieve your disbelief.

I also disbelieve the circle of disbelief that we're creating.

[The Glyphstone]

The impulsive temptation to delete all the posts here that were subject to 'disbelief' was momentarily overpowering.

[Nachtritter]

Oh god, I believe, I believe!

On that topic, I'm surprised no one's mentioned the most horrible gamer of all - the one who doesn't really break any rules, who is... generally pleasant to talk to, and one who is, well, fun to play with, mostly ... but nonetheless has all the hygiene of a polecat in a garbage dump.

You know whom I mean. The stinky guy.

Every group's had their stinky guy at one point in time. You drop hints, you skirt around the issue, you go out of your way to accommodate him, you drop less subtle hints, and then you flat out tell him dude take a shower, and yet Pepe Le Pew continues to show up for every game session drenched in a colonge of Taco Bell farts, halitosis, and B.O.

It's not like I game with guys who all have that problem, either. We're all responsible adults, and we generally know how to take care of ourselves... except the stinky guy, who is no longer a member of our group because we just couldn't put up with him any more. I know I can't be the only one who's had to deal with that in the past.

[Seerow]

Oh god, I believe, I believe!

On that topic, I'm surprised no one's mentioned the most horrible gamer of all - the one who doesn't really break any rules, who is... generally pleasant to talk to, and one who is, well, fun to play with, mostly ... but nonetheless has all the hygiene of a polecat in a garbage dump.

You know whom I mean. The stinky guy.

Every group's had their stinky guy at one point in time. You drop hints, you skirt around the issue, you go out of your way to accommodate him, you drop less subtle hints, and then you flat out tell him dude take a shower, and yet Pepe Le Pew continues to show up for every game session drenched in a colonge of Taco Bell farts, halitosis, and B.O.

It's not like I game with guys who all have that problem, either. We're all responsible adults, and we generally know how to take care of ourselves... except the stinky guy, who is no longer a member of our group because we just couldn't put up with him any more. I know I can't be the only one who's had to deal with that in the past.

My group used to have one of those. The guy literally claimed that he was allergic to deodorant. Not some specific type, or something in it, just deodorant in general, he's allergic. (As you may imagine we were pretty skeptical of this statement) We put up with him for a long time cause he was the DM for the group... eventually someone else stepped up and he wound up getting the boot.

[Techsmart]

We've had 2 people that count for the "stinky guy" in my group (granted, I sometimes feel like im the only one who pays attention to how I smell, but the other guys are rare to stink). One came to sessions right after karate practice, no shower, still in his practice gear. The other was the pure negative stereotype of nerd mentality. never showered, spent all of his time on computer or something of that sort, and was a know-it-all who usually didn't know what he's talking about. He wouldn't accept himself being wrong. If proof was offered, he would fall back on the excuse "well, those were the old rules," even when they weren't. [/rant]

This one Im a bit guilty of, and from another player's perspective, I understand. The Spotlight Hog. The group I was in comprised mostly of evil characters and, oddly enough, as the wizard (lowest cha in entire group), I seemed to be party face with our cleric. We spent 20 minutes bargaining with the BBEG as to exactly how much we were going to get compensated for creating a new world order - my end mostly being more spells.

[Honest Tiefling]

It is worse when you encounter stinky guy in the business world or at school. I had a teacher with a distinct aroma. I did not like economics, nosiree.

And I'll venture one. The My Good is the Only Good guy! Apparently, lawful good is an oxymoron, and chaotic good steals lollipops from kids for kicks and giggles! To these players, there is only one good alignment. Some might dismiss or even attack chaotic good/lawful good PCs or NPCs.

This is why I have taken back my invitation to game with my parents.

[Nachtritter]

It is worse when you encounter stinky guy in the business world or at school. I had a teacher with a distinct aroma. I did not like economics, nosiree.

And I'll venture one. The My Good is the Only Good guy! Apparently, lawful good is an oxymoron, and chaotic good steals lollipops from kids for kicks and giggles! To these players, there is only one good alignment. Some might dismiss or even attack chaotic good/lawful good PCs or NPCs.

Oh, I hate that. I mean, granted, a nine-tier alignment system can be seen as restrictive by some, but there's a huge amount of personalization involved in that. Plus, there are many, many, MANY different ways of playing "good." Whittling it down so that "good" can only be one alignment isn't just limiting, it's downright asinine. That's like saying "evil" can only played properly if you're in a dark tower wearing a black robe and wringing your hands maliciously as you cackle at all the HORRIBLE BAD THINGS you're planning on doing.

... okay, the latter can be fun from time to time, but come on! It's a role-playing game! There are other avenues to explore, right?

[Honest Tiefling]

I probably should have put up My Evil is the Only Evil guy! Because...Apparently a lack of teamwork makes you more or less evil? That stabbing people for an evil set of morals is less evil then stabbing them without an evil honor code? And yes, I've seen this, through I admit most people think chaotic evil is worse then lawful evil.

[Archwizard]

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.

This sounds like a case of really crappy DM.

DMs that can't control the story or adjudicate the system are definitely fun killers.

[Choco]

Since disbelieving doesn't take an action he should just be allowed to disbelieve everything he comes across. There is zero reason not to so he should on general principal. And the DM's response was silly, he should have told the guy saying "I disbelieve X" was annoying, and told him "I get the point your character disbelieves everything he comes across".

This was AD&D, I don't know the rules for that one very well but I THINK it took some time to disbelieve. I agree with you that the DM went a little too far, but from what I heard the DM and the other players had told him to stop it a few times before that.

Mr. Never Shows Up DM
I have one of these in my group. We rotate DMing and plots, and the current DM has only shown up for 1 session out of about 5. Luckily someone else had a one-shot ready, but still.

oooo, heres one that I think I myself mentioned earlier, but after 1.5 months of it I figure I need to vent it again:

Mr. Always Cancels/Can't Schedule DM-This DM cancels more sessions then he goes to, to the point that when we are calling him the day before to see if he is going to show up, we already plan on him not being there and just getting the confirmation. In fact we have a betting pool as to what his excuse will be (I get it right 75% of the time!). Of course he never cancels because of some emergency thing that came up, he just felt like doing something else that day and often flat-out lies about it. Bonus points if 1 hour into the session, someone checks on Xbox Live and he is online playing Halo, even though he told you he needed to work some overtime.

I can tolerate this a bit better when a player does it, but the game can't happen without the DM, so you basically just ruined it for everyone else. This is also the reason I started DM'ing another game. I was going to DM my game when he cancels so the group can get their D&D fix in no matter what. What ended up happening is I DM 4/5 times and take a break on occasion to let him DM.....

Related to:

Passive/Aggressive Doesn't Enjoy the Game Anymore DM-This DM is either burned out or just does not enjoy the specific group anymore. Yet instead of just saying so and leaving, he keeps promising that the game is still on when asked, then 1 hour before the session, "something comes up". Rinse and repeat a few weeks until someone finally confronts him about it and he admits he is not having fun anymore.

[Archwizard]

This was AD&D, I don't know the rules for that one very well but I THINK it took some time to disbelieve. I agree with you that the DM went a little too far, but from what I heard the DM and the other players had told him to stop it a few times before that.

In 2E you had to have a reason to disbelieve, you couldn't just say "I disbelieve everything." You had to give the DM specifics in the situation, like say "I think a lion's roar would be louder than that, I don't think it's a real lion", otherwise your disbelief attempted automatically failed. And disbelief also meant that you were voluntarily failing any saving throw attempts if the effect turned out to be real.

As to DMs that constantly cancel, after about 2 times, it's time for the talk of "show up or we're having someone else DM".

[Oracle_Hunter]

In 2E you had to have a reason to disbelieve, you couldn't just say "I disbelieve everything." You had to give the DM specifics in the situation, like say "I think a lion's roar would be louder than that, I don't think it's a real lion", otherwise your disbelief attempted automatically failed. And disbelief also meant that you were voluntarily failing any saving throw attempts if the effect turned out to be real.

Still, it seems like a good time to have a Cartesian Doubt card available.

PC: "I disbelieve this wall"
DM: "Why?"
PC: "I know that my senses can be fooled, so anything I sense may be an illusion."
DM:

[HalfDragonCube]

Grrr...

Through the result of my careful planning and effort I managed to net some cash in game that my character plans to spend on scrolls to learn. I ask the high Str goliath psychic warrior to carry the stuff because at Str 6 my wizard has difficult carrying almost anything.

I plan to share this out, keeping a larger share because I engineered the plan and went at risk to get the gp and the party says it is fine. While I discuss with the barbarian what armour he ought to get with his share, what does the goliath do?

He runs off with the gargoyle and spends it on a magic weapon. He gives out the rest to the party except for me. (And one person who got killed (by me but it was with a good reason) and is still making a character.)

[/vent] Now I feel better, thanks for that.

[The Glyphstone]

Still, it seems like a good time to have a Cartesian Doubt card available.

PC: "I disbelieve this wall"
DM: "Why?"
PC: "I know that my senses can be fooled, so anything I sense may be an illusion."
DM:

Or just play a solipsist, and claim everything except you is an illusion anyways.

[Yukitsu]

Or do what I do and play an anti-solopsist who has clearly gone insane, and is himself, an illusion.

[Sipex]

Grrr...

Through the result of my careful planning and effort I managed to net some cash in game that my character plans to spend on scrolls to learn. I ask the high Str goliath psychic warrior to carry the stuff because at Str 6 my wizard has difficult carrying almost anything.

I plan to share this out, keeping a larger share because I engineered the plan and went at risk to get the gp and the party says it is fine. While I discuss with the barbarian what armour he ought to get with his share, what does the goliath do?

He runs off with the gargoyle and spends it on a magic weapon. He gives out the rest to the party except for me. (And one person who got killed (by me but it was with a good reason) and is still making a character.)

[/vent] Now I feel better, thanks for that.

There...there are no words.

And the DM just allowed this?

That's akin to saying "Hey guys, I'm totally fine with the next 20 sessions revolving around petty infights, kay?"

AUGH

[HalfDragonCube]

Or do what I do and play an anti-solopsist who has clearly gone insane been hit with one of the better uses of Glibness, and is himself, an illusion.

Fixed that for you.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Or just play a solipsist, and claim everything except you is an illusion anyways.

Relevant links to Dungeons & Discourse and Advanced Dungeons & Discourse

[Yukitsu]

Fixed that for you.

Nah, glibness only works if I'm playing as something real, instead of something illusory.

[HalfDragonCube]

There...there are no words.

And the DM just allowed this?

That's akin to saying "Hey guys, I'm totally fine with the next 20 sessions revolving around petty infights, kay?"

AUGH

Indeed. My character borrowed some gp off party members for scrolls used for the process and now they want paying back. I spent almost all of my WBL on the plan and now they want more. And part of the plan made Nerull annoyed, so now there is little point in continuing with my current character. Also, the character who did it Lawful Evil.

*Represses urge to hurl a brick*

Nah, glibness only works if I'm playing as something real, instead of something illusory.

Oh, right. Cool character concept, there.

[some guy]

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

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

You know, I think that most of the fun in playing horror games is the distinction between player and character knowledge. So if I encounter a book in CoC I will read it. Because my character is curious. Because I know it will move the plot along and I'm curious, but I will know it will cost me sanity at least.
Prodding the body, reading the book, opening the door. As a player I know it will end badly, my character doesn't know this and I'm curious anyways. I want to do the stupid thing, but I really don't want to do it. This conflict makes it fun and scary.

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!

Yeah, geez. I've recently started a new group. Great guys. But two of break wind as a joke. It's not funny. Luckily, sofar they were quite odorless.

On that topic, I'm surprised no one's mentioned the most horrible gamer of all - the one who doesn't really break any rules, who is... generally pleasant to talk to, and one who is, well, fun to play with, mostly ... but nonetheless has all the hygiene of a polecat in a garbage dump.

You know whom I mean. The stinky guy.

Confession time: I'm a stinky guy. I know this. I wash myself several times a day. Always carry deodorant with me. At times this isn't enough. I'm a bit paranoid with it, 'cause it's difficult to notice (for me).
But it took years for someone to man up and tell me I stank. If you know a stinky person, just tell them. Don't hint at it. Don't make it a big issue. Just tell them they stink and they need to do something about it. In most cases nobody has never told them.
Of course, if such persons are told they stink and don't act on that, then they're just lousy people.

[Grendus]

Indeed. My character borrowed some gp off party members for scrolls used for the process and now they want paying back. I spent almost all of my WBL on the plan and now they want more. And part of the plan made Nerull annoyed, so now there is little point in continuing with my current character. Also, the character who did it Lawful Evil.

*Represses urge to hurl a brick*



Oh, right. Cool character concept, there.

Kill him. You're a wizardly type, kill him. Psychic warriors are tough, but you can catch him off guard and just... pop him. Like an ant. As a standard action. Then pick up the sword, turn to the rest of the party and say "Does anyone else want to object to how I spend my share of the loot?"




Honestly though, it sounds more like he objected to you taking a larger share of the loot, thus why he refused to share any with you and why the party didn't object. You probably should have agreed on it in advance. But hindsight is 20/20.

[HalfDragonCube]

Kill him. You're a wizardly type, kill him. Psychic warriors are tough, but you can catch him off guard and just... pop him. Like an ant. As a standard action. Then pick up the sword, turn to the rest of the party and say "Does anyone else want to object to how I spend my share of the loot?"




Honestly though, it sounds more like he objected to you taking a larger share of the loot, thus why he refused to share any with you and why the party didn't object. You probably should have agreed on it in advance. But hindsight is 20/20.

Awesome idea. I already have several possible ways of killing them and am having dificulty deciding which one to go for. Even better, I'm a Wizard/Archivist, so I kill them as a standard action and still go to bed with more spells slots than others wake up with. The problem is I would rather avoid PvP, since there is already far too much.

What bugs me is that the entire party did agree on my larger share because of the risk. And, they deliberately dent and damage the magic weapon they bought so even if I kill them I still don't get back anywhere near as much as I put in.

[Bovine Colonel]

And, they deliberately dent and damage the magic weapon they bought so even if I kill them I still don't get back anywhere near as much as I put in.

Seems to me that if they're planning on you killing them they should have no problem with it.