The Gaming Den

So, the den has a lot of threads about games, bad game designed, bad DMing, bad whatever. But without people there would be no game but sometimes there's no game even with people. So my question is what kind of player can you just not stand to play with?

For me it's that one guy, I bet you know him. An unapologetic power gamer who never fucking shuts up about how over powered your character looks then comes to the table with a character way more powerful than yours because they like breaking the game. Bonus points if they know the GM so they don't get any shit about it.

Similar to that I hate the player who thinks they are breaking the game, but they really aren't. They will also regale you against your will with previous lame exploits. These are the exact same people who want to tell you about how awesome their current magic decks are and how lucky you are that you are not going up against their old decks.

The real nasty downside of these types is that they will whine about spells/SLA/other level appropriate abilities. Because their Monk is clearly so OP, anything that trivializes them must automatically be broken.

I've stopped playing Mass Effect 3 for a while, because a friend-of-a-friend happened to be one of the jackasses who, if you're doing it any way different from him, will tell you you're doing it wrong.

People who insist on playing a particular concept, regardless of how ineffective it'll be.

People who don't change his "way of life" in game even if is playing with a girl, or a turtle. Someone who is always angry, honest and a mercenary... ALWAYS!

I suppose the kind of person that would play a race like a kender and use it as a license to be a dick. Some douche was playing a pixie character in a game I was in once, and he was playing as a lech with no sense of personal space or respect for others. Like serious "I CAN SMELL YOUR [EDITED]" levels of creepiness. I was playing a priestress of Wee Jas and he kept haranguing me, under the justification his character didn't know any better and pixie culture is very sexually promiscuous (and therefore rapey, apparently).

We were stranded in potentially hostile territory, so killing him wasn't really a pragmatic option. I was going to Hypnotize him the next time he lowered his spell resistance, or use Bestow Curse to give him erectile dysfunction if that didn't work, but the game folded before it came to blows.

SlyJohnny wrote:I suppose the kind of person that would play a race like a kender and use it as a license to be a dick. Some douche was playing a pixie character in a game I was in once, and he was playing as a lech with no sense of personal space or respect for others. Like serious "I CAN SMELL YOUR [EDITED]" levels of creepiness. I was playing a priestress of Wee Jas and he kept haranguing me, under the justification his character didn't know any better and pixie culture is very sexually promiscuous (and therefore rapey, apparently).

We were stranded in potentially hostile territory, so killing him wasn't really a pragmatic option. I was going to Hypnotize him the next time he lowered his spell resistance, or use Bestow Curse to give him erectile dysfunction if that didn't work, but the game folded before it came to blows.

Pretty much this - someone who uses roleplaying as an excuse to be a dick.

squirrelloid wrote:

SlyJohnny wrote:I suppose the kind of person that would play a race like a kender and use it as a license to be a dick. Some douche was playing a pixie character in a game I was in once, and he was playing as a lech with no sense of personal space or respect for others. Like serious "I CAN SMELL YOUR [EDITED]" levels of creepiness. I was playing a priestress of Wee Jas and he kept haranguing me, under the justification his character didn't know any better and pixie culture is very sexually promiscuous (and therefore rapey, apparently).

We were stranded in potentially hostile territory, so killing him wasn't really a pragmatic option. I was going to Hypnotize him the next time he lowered his spell resistance, or use Bestow Curse to give him erectile dysfunction if that didn't work, but the game folded before it came to blows.

Pretty much this - someone who uses roleplaying as an excuse to be a dick.

This is an excuse to have his character killed "by accident".

1. Dude who explodes and starts out-of-game drama due to in-game actions.

2. Dude who sucks down all the beer / pizza and never ever kicks in.

3. Gamer girl who thinks all you geeks should all be thankful to have a gurl gaming with you.

4. Dudes who prove her right.

Anyone who uses a special voice for their character. That shit bugs.

The guy that flat refuses to interact with the game's conflict resolution mechanic. He want's to run the entire party, and insists on solving every problem with MTP, because the conflict resolution mechanic is not entirely under his control and would actually allow for failure. Throws a fit and halts all gaming any time something doesn't go his way or otherwise slips out of his direct control.

People who insist on playing shitty characters, than when you tell them a better way to do that concept, say they're not munchkins.

And that's how you end up with a 12th-level front-line tank with 29 hp.

(To be fair the GM has not given us a level-appropriate challenge, ever)

Atmo wrote:

squirrelloid wrote: Pretty much this - someone who uses roleplaying as an excuse to be a dick.

This is an excuse to have his character killed "by accident".

Eh, I wanted to make it easy on the GM, and I was playing a cleric of Wee Jas, which to me meant giving Very Few Fucks about that sort of thing. He was being an aerial scout for us. Couldn't justify attacking him and thus hurting the group's chances of survival, but I could justify "clear, firm communication" escalating to "threats of violence" escalating to "secure cooperation through mind control magic" escalating to "offensive necromancy to the dick", being that none of these things affected his ability to defend himself.

"Ennervating touch!...to the dick"

That is truly a terrible vengeance

K wrote:Anyone who uses a special voice for their character. That shit bugs.

I am that guy. I'll stop if someone asks, though.

I actually really like it when people do a little voice work. I have definitely heard people push way to hard and too far but I am actually generally impressed if someone is willing to voice modulate a bit to fit more in line with the way they think their character would speak.

I had a friend who, in fairness, was a very strong actor who always impressed me by altering his voice a bit for some characters. I've done it a few times myself in an attempt to replicate what he brought to the game.

Also yes. Any kender or fishmalk shenanigans are terrible. Basically anyone who would laugh while describing their "wacky" character I have no interest in gaming with.

Worst I had was a player who basically kept copying my character and trying to undermine me and defeat me at everything I do.

I don't get many chances to play as a player rather than a GM, it was an ongoing 2E campaign.

Seriously. I made a Paladin... so he made a paladin and kept trying to get me oath screwed.

My Paladin ultimately died (the like zillionth time) because of yet again being largely unsupported by half the party (they had a strong tendency to just sort of ass about in combats until something attacked their own character directly, no really).

So I said, screw this shit and made a kick ass specialist fire wizard. And specialized him in unarmed punching and a bunch of zany NWPs as side talents. He was a remarkable all rounder, seemingly undefeatable and achieved a lot of crazy shit with lucky fist based KO rolls when the DM attempted bullshit "well that will use all your spells!" or "oops your spell book is missing and you were tied up... what do you mean you have escapology and you just one hit KO-ed that kidnapper guy with a bare fist..."

So... that guy made a cleric wizard of mystra or something and kept trying to frame me for misusing magic (fair cop, I was trying my hardest) in an attempt to get me de-wizardified or something. Also I suspect he tried to kill me and kept trying to lure me... er... and my polymorphed mouse clone (ahahaha 2E polymorph)... into fights. And he somehow wrangled entering the game with a notable anti magic rod, absorption I think... (My wizard meanwhile had gotten a high level of Mammal Control ring, the DM was all like, ahahahaha, sucker and I was all like ahahahahaha double sucker and I was right).

Oh and that game was also the game where we found like seriously, a wizardly hat of wizarding for wizards only, and the player culture/tradition for wealth splitting led to the centaur barbarian of assholeness "rolling for it" and wearing it for no productive benefit forever.

Korgan0 wrote:People who insist on playing a particular concept, regardless of how ineffective it'll be.

I've lucked out a bit because that sort of thing really only ended up being super obnoxious a single time with my groups. The most hardcore optimizer in my high school group ran a gimpy sheet once for a change of pace, which promptly led to him getting bored with his character and crossing the line from helpful advisor to annoying backseat driver.


Anyway, my least favorite people to game with are the ones who really raise a big stink about how irrational it is for player X to have taboos and stuff that they don't want to roleplay. Also, the one dude in college who couldn't accept "Um, please leave my boobs out of your compliments next time" without launching into a "B-b-but it is natural for men to like boobs!" spiel. It's like, yeah, we know guy, but it's still irrelevant.

Grek wrote:

K wrote:Anyone who uses a special voice for their character. That shit bugs.

I am that guy. I'll stop if someone asks, though.

So am I, though I've never received any complaints for it, so I don't really get what it has done in your experience to bug you (ironically, current character I voice is a Thri-Kreen). I also do voicing for NPC's when I'm a DM, gives me variety of voices I get to have fun trying out.

As for me, Juton described one, other is people who can't be bothered to commit attention to the actual game, just read mangos instead. Seriously, I joined a Pathfinder session at a friends once, and pretty much everyone, was immersed in technology some way or another, DM comitting to using entirely randomly generated content (worse, when improv campaign was a railroad). Also the time a player for awhile wanted us to roll dice and make decisions for his character while he'd go play League of Legends. Kinda defeats purpose of the game, when not even bothering to ROLEPLAY in a damn RPG!

There are heaps of player types that irritate me a bit, but there isn't much that's actually a 100% dealbreaker. I mean, in face-to-face tabletop fun, I game with actual friends. Online, that's not necessarily the case but it also isn't as big a deal: you don't have to feed them, smell their breath, hear their voice etc.

The one that really shits me is pairs/groups of players that exist just to shit each other (and by extension, everyone else). If one is MC, then they will use challenges that they know the other doesn't handle very well/provide situations they find boring (and the other will try to derail everything, do stupid things etc). If they're both players, then at every moment they just antagonise each other. Don't think Legolas and Gimli, think... Legolas and Sauron.

Aryxbez wrote: Also the time a player for awhile wanted us to roll dice and make decisions for his character while he'd go play League of Legends. Kinda defeats purpose of the game, when not even bothering to ROLEPLAY in a damn RPG!

"I dunno dood just roll my dice! I'm in the middle of a game!'

YEAH. A GAME OF... uh... All Flesh?

Anywho, mine are sheep. Players who will spout on and on about how a system is so good/bad/etc because of the lastest thread on Wizards or Paizo. People who jump on bandwagon arguements without bothering to actually understand what theyre saying.

Oh. And Zac.

Maxus wrote:"Ennervating touch!...to the dick"

That is truly a terrible vengeance

Even better, find a way to zombify just his dick. Then use your control to give him "the weirdest boners."

People who want to get into arguments over nothing and then get upset when you are actually arguing with them instead of just letting them have their way.

- Edit: and people obsessed with realism. Who change the game rules to fuck you over on the spot because leraism

I hate that guy who always plays the same character. Similar, okay, fine; if you always want to play dwarves, whatever. If you always want to play wizards, okay. If you always want to play devotees of a fire god, that's fine, there are lots of fire gods and lots of ways to play that. But if I can see your face at the table and accurately predict that you are going to be playing a dwarven wizard who is a devotee of the fire god and uses exactly the same spells your identical character used in the last campaign, fvck off.

* Exception: you're playing the same actual character (i.e., we're intentionally re-using characters from earlier campaigns).

* Exception: we're playing a very old-school game and your character died before reaching 2nd level.

One friend of mine uses that to her advantage: she knows that player A is always going to play an Elf Necromancer, or an Elven Necromancer, or possibly a Necromantic Elf. Maybe an Elvish Wizard of the Necromantic Arts.

So just plans for that, working stuff in that will interest him and create worthy hooks.