Other than not showing up, what of any of the things your players do actually annoys you most?

My current group - I have no one that likes to step up and lead the group. I have no Kirks in the group. i have a Spock, a Sulu and Bones, and a Jayne. But no Kirk. So when decisions need to be made they act like a bunch of hens - and metagame in competition against one another rather than focus on the game.

I have one player that is an incessant asshole. Always being the contrarian to the rest of the group - often to their detriment.

Other than that - we're good.

Give me nebulous descriptions that depend on a dice roll I didn't ask for

 "I'm gonna make a spy check." (Shakes dice)
What for?
"To check out the ship's layout. And see what I can find out  of the ordinary." (Dice)
It's your ship. You realize you can just ask the library computer for the layout, right?
"Uh...no..." (Dice go silent)
And as for spying, there are only two other people on board. You don't have to make a roll to be sneaky about anything unless you're trying to hide your actions from someone.
"Oh..."
How about you tell me specifically what you're doing and we go from there?
"Okay..." (Sadly pits down dice)

(I swear this shit is the direct result of constant Perception/Spot rolls--they expect the dice to give them what they want).

Nothing.


I'm not saying they are perfect or that I am a saint. I am saying that the one thing they do sometimes that annoys me is when they do nothing. For a while. I want questions, speculation, hopes, fears, dreams, plans, actions, P-to-P discussions, some kind of response and feedback so I can tell whether or not they are confused and so I don't get bored waiting for someone to say something. I think Skype accentuates the problem since it is just that much more difficult for everybody to read each others' body language.

Tenbones said, "My current group - I have no one that likes to step up and lead the group. I have no Kirks in the group. i have a Spock, a Sulu and Bones, and a Jayne. But no Kirk. So when decisions need to be made they act like a bunch of hens - and metagame in competition against one another rather than focus on the game."

Had a group like that before.  Good Lord.  Called them a democracy of Spocks.  Never got anything done.  Sometimes, monster is baring down on them, ok, guys you are talking in real time, monster will be here in two rounds . . . them- let's draw straws to see who . . . crash, smash, bloodcurdling scream.  Didn't really ever learn.  Was funny the first couple of times.  After that, forget it.

Often have a group that says they will stay a way from X, but end up going there anyway saying, "Well, we will just scout ahead a little".  Don't know themselves too well.

The only thing that pops to mind is that, being as we're friends and are often talking/hanging out randomly, they often all of a sudden decide we should play the game and it makes me nervous because I feel I haven't prepared.
It just about always ends up going fine... but I've never gotten used to it.
Ideally I'd rather have regularly scheduled games and stick to that but a lot of the time we're just jumping into a session on the spur of the moment.
I've always had Players who favored that sort of random access gaming, ever since High School.

One guy/gal (usually the thief/scout or similar) says I'll scout ahead and then someone else (usually a fighter in heavy armour) says yeah, I'll go with him/her. As if the scout's sneaking will help cover the noises the fighter makes. (Often leaving just one person waiting behind).

And I'm with the earlier poster (Cranebump) when players make a roll without being asked to (usually spot/perception/listen or whatever) and then ask you what they notice...often when there was nothing to notice...otherwise you'd have told them (or at least told them to make a roll).

Quote from: tenbones;838767My current group - I have no one that likes to step up and lead the group. I have no Kirks in the group. i have a Spock, a Sulu and Bones, and a Jayne. But no Kirk. So when decisions need to be made they act like a bunch of hens - and metagame in competition against one another rather than focus on the game.

I have one player that is an incessant asshole. Always being the contrarian to the rest of the group - often to their detriment.

Other than that - we're good.

I have the opposite problem.  I'm always the Kirk and it annoys me.

Lack of proactivity can be an issue, but I'm often not sure if it's the system rather than the players.

Tablets, phones, any kind of electronic device. Those belong away from the table, turned off or silenced. Not in your pocket, not beside you, far away from the game area.

Spotlight hogs who endanger the entire group with their antics.

One player who never bothers to read the rules and slows the game down (this is now dealt with).
One player who throws tantrums whenever things don't work the way he wants (I just ignore him when he does but it gets annoying)
One player who cannot let go of his phone, tablet when things don't interest him, so when he's not playing with them I know I have him hooked.
One player who... Oh this one is cool : knows the rules, interesting and fun characters, he's great !

And finally me : I gm a lot so when I play I almost always end up with the same character : a stubborn loudmouth who always opts for violence when facing authority. I'm trying to change that though.

Battlemad Ronin said "Tablets, phones, any kind of electronic device. Those belong away from the table, turned off or silenced. Not in your pocket, not beside you, far away from the game area."

Yes, this.

I have no issues with no-shows.  I go for very West Marchesesque campaign structures and an (at least nominally) open table, so people can show up or not and I'm cool with it, just so long as at least two players (other than me) are there.

I have no issues with electronics at the table.  I run the game from my laptop, with the help of PDF rulebooks, various websites, and my own custom software.  I also bring my tablet to pass around as needed for reference purposes.  Most of my players keep their character sheets on Obsidian Portal and use their phones to access them during play.  As long as you're present enough to know what's up and don't delay the game by requiring recaps of what's going on, I'm very pro-electronic devices.

So what does bug me?

Rules lawyers.  I'm happy to discuss rule interpretations after the game, but don't hold things up by arguing them with me on the spot.

Serious optimizers.  I don't run D&D3 or any other system which encourages the use of pre-planned "builds" where you have your character's entire career planned out before they first see play.  There's a reason I don't run those systems:  I don't like that kind of behavior.

Basically, when you interact with the game world, put more emphasis on "world" and less on "game".