Player: Please let me be this extremely inconvenient splatbook race/class/both! Please, please, please oh why don't you ever let me have any fun, waah you worry too much about balance, waah you worry too much about the consistency of your silly little world, waah you -

Me: Alright fine! Gods, it's going to take some effort to (poorly) integrate what you want into what the campaign is designed to be and what the other players expect, but fine. Just stop your incessant whining.

[week later, as the campaign is about to start]

Player: I've changed my mind, please let me be this EVEN MORE inconvenient and ill-suited character option!

Me: You're a stack of shit cubes, you know that right?

Not a GM, but as a player I hate when people talking in character drags on for more than 5 minutes or doesn't serve any real purpose Some people get into dick measuring contests that lead to boring PvP. The worst, by far, was this game where a dude and girl would waste upwards of 20 minutes flirting with each other in character. I stopped going to that game.

Quote from: Simon W;838805One 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).

An awesome example of terrible play, but it made me laugh.

This:

Quote from: Battle Mad Ronin;838812Tablets, phones, any kind of electronic device.

And this:

Quote from: jeff37923;838813Spotlight hogs who endanger the entire group with their antics.

And this:

   Drama Queens and Kings who are sooo special snowflake that the whole campaign should revolve around them.

Oh boy, and this:

   Lone Wolves that are blandly-"mysterious" and always do stuff away from the group.


Roleplaying is a social hobby. Act like it. Be focused on the table and your fellow players.

Glad that I don't have players like that right now. But I used to. (When you have a kind-of open table with spots for beginners you end up with all kinds - at least for one session.)


The last two instances of problem players I had to endure were:

• Two players that were always fighting (with one of them clearly being the culprit - the other one had to react). I had to dismiss the culprit from the table.


• One player who tried to adapt his computer game thinking to Pathfinder. ("What can I craft from this vest I looted from the dead caravan driver?")

People who aren't paying attention.  If you don't want to play the game, leave the table.

I used to get really, really annoyed with players who just wouldn't learn even the most basic rules of the game. Now I ask them what they want to do and then tell them which dice to roll. Everyone is happier now.

But I will never stop being annoyed by "But it's what my CHARACTER would do!!!" following really a dickish move that disrupts the party's cohesion or even campaign goals.

Huh! Nothing! May players are as perfect as is humanly possible to be. Dynamic, tactical, inventive, flavorful, and as easy with non-combat as combat-laden play.

-clash

Quote from: RPGPundit;838766Other than not showing up, what of any of the things your players do actually annoys you most?

I just wanted to address the bolded and why it does not bother me too much. The world I run is always in motion, if the PCs do not interact with it then the events already in motion will reach their conclusion without their interference. Keeping in touch with the group is just common sense.

I have a family group of three in my Traveller game. They did not show up for three weekly sessions and had not communicated with me about it (even though they had several channels of communications open). So they missed an enemy troop build-up, the incorporation of the party (excluding them), and a couple of hundred thousand credits worth of adventuring profit. They also missed the group decision to move the game over to the nearby Green's Tavern so that we could miss the crowd at our FLGS during Free RPG Day.

So the day comes around and they show up at Green's Tavern with their own drinks. Owner can't let the 14-year old in because of the law and doesn't allow the adults to bring in their own drinks (which was only tea, but the owner can't risk that those drinks are not doctored with something). End result, no game for them for the next two weeks (the weekend after that was one where I was attending LibertyCon).

I do not feel responsible for consequences of people's own actions.

What I wrote on RPG Net in a similar thread:

Players fiddling on their tablets and phones while I am running is a big pet peeve.

My most recent pet peeve was a player spending a lot of in-game time crafting a magical item a few sessions back. They had a blacksmith make brass wings. Then they sought out an arcane artificer. They couldn't afford the price, so the player leaned on their nobleman for help and one player offered a white silver ingot to inlay the brass with white silver. After leaving the paladin broke, the wings were made. Then the player had a tanner create straps to put it on their shoulder. Lots of in game time to create this item imbued with the Savage World fly spell, only to sell it last session. If it was just some loot they found and sold it wouldn't bother me, but because we took the time to make this thing in game through role playing and negotiation it feels like squandered in-game time. Additionally it also makes the sacrifices of the player's allies to cooperate to get the item seem in vain.

Another recent one is my sorcerer player wants to name his staff Zeddicus Zul Zorander and have Zedd talk to him if he takes some soul bond edges. My response was we are playing Shaintar not the Sword of Truth/Legend of the Seeker. Stealing a character from another franchise without even bothering to change the name is another pet peeve of mine apparently.

Adding: The last issue isn't even new. There is an Aevakar archer (elf with wings, attributed to being angelic as a result) named Akroma and a Brinchie warrior (a race of catmen) named Pantero. A lack of originality in chargen really doesn't help me build the setting.

In my 'secondary' group that I game with but never again will GM for there is this humongous arsehole who talks off-topic things over the GM! :mad:

Playing the same goddamned thing over and over again.  It has got to be a southern issue, never had the issue to this extent when I lived up north.

Quote from: Old Geezer;838843People who aren't paying attention.  If you don't want to play the game, leave the table.

This is one of only two actual "sins" a player can commit. The other, of course, is being a dick; I usually run my games at my place, which means my players are guests before being gamers, and I expect a minimum of courtesy. I don't invite assholes into my place for any reason, especially not gaming.

Everything else is a pet peeve. Of which I have plenty, but that's because I'm a crabby, curmudgeonly fuck and a mean drunk (but only when I game ).

Handling my beautiful books with their grease-stained paws and cracking their spines wide open like a pelvic fracture is probably #1. But then people who don't know how to behave around a book fucking piss me off.

Not bringing beverages or snacks, and/or not tipping the pizza (or whatever we're eating tonight) delivery guy for no reason. I fucking hate freeloaders and cheapskates.

D&D-specific: playing a PC (or treating a NPC) that's Lawful Good as Lawful Stupid. Or generally demanding PCs and NPCs of a given aligment to behave only within their expectations of some alignment-specific code of conduct they've made up inside their heads. This one really grinds my gears.

Protesting the death of a PC. I don't kill PCs, poor planning and bad luck do.

There are probably others, but off the top of my head, that's it.

Expecting me (as the GM) to entertain and direct them as if they were people in the audience. Nope, that's not how this medium works; I'm the passive and reactive element. Players are expected--and I now make this explicit when I talk about the game; it filters passives out--to be active participants, to have goals and to spent time at the table pursuing them. (In short, I want folks who are entrepreneurial.)

If, somehow, there are none present then the World In Motion moves on until they're caught and compelled to deal with the shit. Either they seek adventure, or adventure comes to them- and if it comes to them, they don't have control over their engagement in it.

When the PC's act like tools just for the sake of acting like tools and kill the NPC's that are meant to advance the plot FOR NO FUCKING REASON other than shits and giggles.  When they're faced with the least bit of challenge or opposition, requiring them to put in the least little bit of thought or - heaven forbid - role playing, their first reaction is to just kill the guy who's going to (eventually) tell them about the treasure/monster they have to kill/ uber villain's plot/ whatever.  And they loff and loff, and end what was supposed to be a four hour session in 45 minutes.  And they don't understand why the DM is pissed, after spending hours working on a plot hook.  The guys in my groups have always been (supposedly)  adults.  We have real lives with lots of demands on our time.  Jobs, kids, other hobbies, etc.  If one guy is willing to DM, particularly if that DM'ing is not done from pre-generated modules or settings but made from scratch, respect the fucking effort.  We've all played these games enough, and read enough genre fiction, and seen enough movies, to recognize a maguffin when we see one.  

What's that?  You say a good GM should be able to recover from that, and have other stuff ready?  What would be the point when these laughing hyenas would just kill their way out of the next hook?  And the next?  This isn't player driven plot advancement, or sand boxing.  It's just dickery.

Quote from: Vic99;838794Tenbones 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.

This is hilarious as Ive gotten into a few fights over on BGG/RPGG in threads extolling the "eeevils of leaders and how these "quarterbacks" need to be stamped out." blah-blah-blah ad nausium infinitum.

Things that bug me as a DM.

Bitching and whinning even when things are going absurdly their way.

Treating me as if I were their last DM. Who from all accounts was the classic "Killer DM" which instilled in the group I picked up all the worst habits, paranoias and distrusts.

Things that bug me as a player.

Interrupting my negotiations to insult or antagonize the NPC or monster I was talking with. Especially after I was asked to be the groups diplomat.