My players are walking contradictions

[The Cats]

I love it. Here's a few of my favourite examples:

Rogue player: "I love DnD because you don't have to solve things by killing everyone. You can try to be a diplomat or figure out some crazy creative solutions before ever having to resort to combat. I'm trying to play a really savvy, businessman type."

Also rogue player: "Persuasion check didn't work? I stab him."

Wizard player: "I chose wizard because it seems like the class with the most options. If you plan on giving me a bunch of spells I can copy into my book could you make them cool utility spells?"

Also wizard player: "I'm out of spell slots for lightning bolt? Ok, magic missile."

The fighter and the druid have a lot more self awareness, but the two of them together make the biggest contradiction.

Druid: "This revenant is screaming the name of our enemy and ignoring us. let's let it go by and follow it. maybe it will help us in the fight."

Fighter: "I take a shot of whisky and hit it with my biggest ax."

It made designing encounters hard at first since I'd imagine them reacting one way but then they'd fly hard in the other direction. Now of course I account for both reactions: Every NPC is both an invaluable ally and an expendable mook. Every trap and challenge can be cleverly solved or just blasted through.

Definitely not complaining, this is the best group I've ever played with. They order pizza every session!

[Joe the Rat]

Sounds like players. They talk down things they should fight, and fight things they should talk to.
And let's not talk about their decisions on what should be seduced vs. killed with fire.

It's gotten me to where I can quick-up motives for a mook in short order, and have the numbers for puzzling, avoiding, or destroying any hazards. (Break the right things, it nullifies the trap. Break the wrong things, and it gets worse.)


Look at it this way, they appreciate you can do things differently, even if they choose not to. (And that Wizard can still ritual cast detect magic, so he's not completely one-trick.)

[Smaje]

How about players that choose to play evil but end up coming off as slightly grumpy.

Or chaotic good players who are willing to murder anyone.

[Potato_Priest]

Your wizard diesn’t sound that contradictory. Most utility spells are good for out-of-combat, so using damage spells in combat isn’t really a demonstration of how he’s not creative/doesn’t actually use the spells he asked for.

Players do contradict their stated preferences very often though, and those are some humorous examples.

[KorvinStarmast]

Definitely not complaining, this is the best group I've ever played with. They order pizza every session! A group alignment of Chaotic Awesome should never be taken for granted. :smallbiggrin:

[FabulousChester]

Fighter: "I take a shot of whisky and hit it with my biggest ax."

He knows what's up.

[ErHo]

Nice!

Dont ever pay for pizza, you bring the entertainment itself!

That being said if they push the issue, start throwing out XP bonuses. :tongue:

[Laserlight]

Or chaotic good players who are willing to murder anyone.

Our party's elf, allegedly CG, just said "If I get three wishes, I'll use the third one to restore you from being petrified. But the first wish will be that all half elves are sterile and cannot reproduce. And the second wish will be that all humans come down with a wasting plague." To be fair, he may possibly have been CG when he first came out of the woods and met the party, but he's had a tough life since then.

[Cespenar]

Oh, the intra-party contradictions are an old classic.

Player 1: Okay, we have to approach this one very carefully. Who has the best stealth check?
Player 2: I kick the door down.
P1: ...

P1: Guys, I need a buff if I'm to stay on the front line.
P2: I cast Mirror Image on myself.

P1: We have to focus fire on the mage!
P2: I attack the orc.

etc.

[Millface]

Nice!

Dont ever pay for pizza, you bring the entertainment itself!

That being said if they push the issue, start throwing out XP bonuses. :tongue:

That's dirty, but I can't really talk. I use a system called "Player Points", things players can earn for out of this world stuff they come up with or do. If they solve something in a way I hadn't even thought of, if the rest of the party is at a stand still and someone has a eureka moment that moves things along again, or even out of game stuff like once one of my players was playing her first wizard so she bought a leather notebook, baked it and frayed the outside of the pages, and wrote all her spells with calligraphy. These points can be traded in for stuff... be it a magic item, a feat (those take a bunch), extra turn in a tense combat, whatever.

My lowest moment of all time as a DM was betting Player Points to Beers at a bar on games of pool with my players. That's exploitation on the level of EA loot boxes, shameful, truly. Free beer is neat though.

[Anonymouswizard]

Our party's elf, allegedly CG, just said "If I get three wishes, I'll use the third one to restore you from being petrified. But the first wish will be that all half elves are sterile and cannot reproduce. And the second wish will be that all humans come down with a wasting plague." To be fair, he may possibly have been CG when he first came out of the woods and met the party, but he's had a tough life since then.

That's the point where the wish-granting entity takes the most liberal interpretations of 'half elf' and 'human', and the elf discovers he's 1/36 human...


But yeah, OP, sounds a lot like a standard group. Ones without such contradictions are rare, and very hard to find (the closest I got is a game where everybody played serious investigators or church affiliates in their twenties, except for the person who insisted on playing a 16 year old church-raised assassin with a katana and the abilty to dodge bullets). Embrace the fun, and make sure to be able to roll with all punches.

[2D8HP]

....except for the person who insisted on playing a 16 year old church-raised assassin with a katana and the abilty to dodge bullets). Embrace the fun, and make sure to be able to roll with all punches.


Was that PC named "Darkedge Mournblade" by any chance?

[CharonsHelper]

the closest I got is a game where everybody played serious investigators or church affiliates in their twenties, except for the person who insisted on playing a 16 year old church-raised assassin with a katana and the abilty to dodge bullets

Sounds like an anime.

[Joe the Rat]

Sounds like the 90's.

[Anonymouswizard]

Was that PC named "Darkedge Mournblade" by any chance?

No, he had an edgelord name in Latin.

No, I'm not kidding.

Even worse the player outright cheated to get the skills needed for the character. 'Oh, I had barely enough skills taking the skilled virtue three times', yeah yeah, forget the discussion that went on pre-campaign about how you're only allowed to take each virtue once...

[mephnick]

Was that PC named "Darkedge Mournblade" by any chance?

Stiletto Bloodstiletto

[ErHo]

Not real dirty if youre all adults and make it the agreement.

As a DM we all know all too well the time and effort that goes into providing an arena and storyline that needs to feed the imaginations and expectations of 3-6 adults.

The DM does alot more than a player who brings a few bags of chips and a 6 pack

[Tanarii]

Totally normal. Almost everyone says they like doing one thing or especially like things done one way or even are some label/category, when what they do is something different instead. It's not lying, but it is kinda-sorta a minor form of (normal to all humans) self delusion. Possibly it comes from the disconnect between abstract thinking and actual doing without much thinking. I run in to it all the time from both players and IRL. Heck, I generally assume there's a difference between what people write in (what are by nature) think-y forum posts, and how they are in game.

If you do a "Session zero", it is all about listening to the players talk about what they they like and want, then figuring out what they really want. :smallamused:

[Unoriginal]

No, he had an edgelord name in Latin.

No, I'm not kidding.

Was it Corvus?


Stiletto Bloodstiletto

This is the most awesome name I've heard all week, though.

[mephnick]

If you do a "Session zero", it is all about listening to the players talk about what they they like and want, then figuring out what they really want. :smallamused:

And watching how they actually play. That's how you learns what they really like.

Session Zero: "I like intense politics, puzzles and exploration."

Session 1: *tunes out until combat starts*

[2D8HP]

Stiletto Bloodstiletto

:biggrin:


No, he had an edgelord name in Latin.

No, I'm not kidding....


Sorry for your pain AW, but I'm totally imagining you becoming like Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the 'Pink Panther' films and being reduced to eye-twitching madness (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5IvxnK3xZtg) dealing with GM'ing that guy (possibly being inspired to create supervillian death machines (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g2JI7Xec65k) as a result).


And watching how they actually play. That's how you learns what they really like.

Session Zero: "I like intense politics, puzzles and exploration."

Session 1: *tunes out until combat starts*


I'm sure they've happened, but I have no memory of any sort of intense "session zero" conversations (but my memory is pretty spotty), but even if they happen, once play begins many of my initial character concepts go out the window anyway.

[Anonymouswizard]

Was it Corvus?

No, it was something about how his character was damned.


Sorry for your pain AW, but I'm totally imagining you becoming like Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the 'Pink Panther' films and being reduced to eye-twitching madness (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5IvxnK3xZtg) dealing with GM'ing that guy (possibly being inspired to create supervillian death machines (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g2JI7Xec65k) as a result).

Thankfully I wasn't GMing, my character was an ex demon cultist trying desperately to join the priesthood (despite having the fact he was disliked by the clergy as a disadvantage).

Also I now have a burning desire to play the assassin Teacup Unicornsparkle and the cleric Corvus Lupus Silentium (master of the healing arts).

[DarkKnightJin]

:biggrin:
I'm sure they've happened, but I have no memory of any sort of intense "session zero" conversations (but my memory is pretty spotty), but even if they happen, once play begins many of my initial character concepts go out the window anyway.

..No plan survives first contact with the enemy?

[The Cats]

No, it was something about how his character was damned.


I'm not gonna lie I once made a character named Dannon Solsgard because it sounded like soul-scarred. Never played him though. Maybe I'll introduce him as an NPC. My party seems to enjoy beating up cliches.