Quote from: cranebump;838771Give 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).

Ya this drove me crazy. People would roll ability checks I had never called for and then expect a cookie if they rolled under their score.

Quote from: Daztur;838964Ya this drove me crazy. People would roll ability checks I had never called for and then expect a cookie if they rolled under their score.

If the player has been rolling shitty all night and they finally got one successful roll, I might see if there is anything that roll might be good for or if I am feeling really, really benevolent or encouraging I might have them save the roll for later.

But usually I ignore the roll as unnecessary, and let them know that. Now if the roll is necessary, I'll tell them to roll again now that we are all ready, paying attention, and watching their roll. Because the roll doesn't count until the GM says it counts.

Quote from: Moracai;838902In 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:

"Fuck you, I'm going to go get drunk."

If this has happened to you as referee more than once, it's your fault.

Quote from: IggytheBorg;838940When 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.

"Fuck you, I'm going to go get drunk."

If this happens to you as referee more than once, it's your fault.

Quote from: Old Geezer;838969"Fuck you, I'm going to go get drunk."

Funny that you should say that. Next to latest time I gamed with these dudes, I ended up passed out on the floor...

Quote from: Old Geezer;838843People who aren't paying attention.

"If you don't want to play the game, leave the table."
"Fuck you, I'm going to go get drunk."

If this has happened to you as referee more than once, it's your fault.

Fixed this up for yas.

Quote from: Necrozius;838845But 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.

Oh, yeah, that too.  Fortunately don't see it much in person, but it comes up in these kinds of discussions often enough that I have a stock response for it:  "Not a valid excuse.  The reason your character acts like a dick is because you made them that way."

Players being apparently unable to ignore to their cell phone for a couple of hours spent away from their SO.

Lack of email feedback, during prep and inbetween sessions. Not letting me know they're interested before I do any prep work. This I find really frustrating and the majority in one of the two groups I'm in has a habit of not corresponding until the game actually starts, assuming I already know they're interested and are going to show up. Still haven't found a way to improve this behaviour. Only one of them always replies properly to game-related emails.

The other group I play with is always in for some pre-game email discussion, which is so much more stimulating.

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;838838Not 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. By far the worst 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.

In-character "acting" taken way too far. Hate that. There are people who actually consider this a superior way of role-playing. They waste time acting out all kinds of useless mundane dialogue in character, and consider that immersive. Fortunately none of my regular players commit this atrocity.

Quote from: finarvyn;838841An awesome example of terrible play, but it made me laugh.

We had that happen in a game. Two sneaky PCs went ahead and both Criticalled their Sneak rolls, but the NPCs came out and started to attack them. The players complained bitterly, so the GM asked them to make Listen rolls and they heard the Great Troll clattering along behind them. Boy, were they impressed!

Quote from: 3rik;839015In-character "acting" taken way too far. Hate that. There are people who actually consider this a superior way of role-playing. They waste time acting out all kinds of useless mundane dialogue in character, and consider that immersive. Fortunately none of my regular players commit this atrocity.

I don't see the problem with that unless some other players are bothered by it. Otherwise I don't mind if they spend the entire session bantering in character.

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

- Getting ridiculous names for their PCs, often sort of silly puns.
- Speaking of things unrelated to the game during the gaming session.
- Meta-gaming and discussing tactical options between players during a combat.
- Discreetly re-rolling the dice until coming up with a high enough result.

Quote from: S'mon;838810Lack of proactivity can be an issue, but I'm often not sure if it's the system rather than the players.

If anything, this syndrome is usually caused by previous play experience in games where they were spoon fed a story.

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

Hell yeah!

Quote from: Exploderwizard;839213If anything, this syndrome is usually caused by previous play experience in games where they were spoon fed a story.

If anything, this syndrome is usually caused by previous play experience in games where they were told no.

I guess I might as well throw my peeves here, all caused by a single problem player:

- Not wanting to flesh out any background at all.
- When finally, begrudgingly forced to, "forbid" me from using any of it.
- Didn't want to take any of the plot hooks presented.
- After all of this, constantly complained that his character had nothing to do and no reason to care about anything, and that my game was boring.

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

I can deal with not showing up, I am pretty good at improvising on the spot, but what I simply cannot stand is not focusing on the game.

I have no problem with passive wallflowers, as long as they do something (and I've been lucky in which every one that I've had at a table, they do) but if you're going to fire up the host's PC and play Carcassone, Civ 5 or what not, then come over and play that, don't make a character, give me some background stuff and then completely zone out for the rest of the session.

It's dishonest and disrespectful.