GrishakiTheGoby
2019-02-13, 06:23 AM
I would like to share with you all a story about a nightmare experience I had at my last D&D game in order to open the floor to a conversation about both my story as well as player behavoir or play styles in general that you can't stand.... this is always a fun topic to talk about, so this is a story I like to call "Nobody put's GorGor on a leash."
Some people can't help but turn a perfectly functioning game of D&D into a trash fire.
I know there is no "one right way" to play roleplaying games, but my lest favorite style of playing D&D is what I call the "10 foot pole style" which is when the group sits and discusses what would be the most optimized and risk adverse way to do something before doing anything,... I like playing D&D in a risky and Heroic manner and I loath sitting and talking in a meta sense about how to optimize the adventure and combat because it takes forever, slows the game to a crawl, and makes character acting nigh impossible. "Lets poke every 5 foot square with a 10 foot pole to see if it's dangerous."
I Dm a game of pathfinder once a week and also play in a game once a week. At the moment when I am a player I play as an Orc Barbarian, let's call him GorGor for the purposes of this post. Honestly the game wasn't very good from the beginning, the DM is a really bad story teller, everything is locked and trapped, and ever npc's answer to any question is "I don't know anything useful" but the company is good so it's still fun.
Or at lest it was fun until one of the players invited a new player without asking anyone. This new player raised every common red flag you can possibly imagine, she showed up to the game with a character that had 3 18 stats, 2 17 stats and a 16, she described her character as "impossibly beautiful and with one gold eye and one red eye." (the character is a sorcerer btw)
At first it was fine but it got really bad when we wondered across our first dungeon when she started back seat gaming every decision everyone made.
The fallowing are all things that actually happened but I've distilled them to there essence to save space
Me to the DM: "GorGor opens the door."
Sorcerer: "Wait GorGor we should stand 30 feet away from the door and have my character open it with my open spell in case there is a trap" (The party then spent 25 minutes talking out of character about what the best way to open the door would be)
Me to the DM: "ok well GorGor has Dark vision, and a light source will give us away so GorGor is going to sneak up the stairs to see if there are any monsters waiting to ambush us then I'll return right back to the party and let them know what I saw.... If I'm noticed I'll also retreat to the party."
Sorcerer: "Wait GorGor before you do that let me come with you you'll need back up, also I think we should only go far enough to see just into the next room."
Me to Sorcerer: "Ok..... then I advance just enough to see 5 feet into the next room."
Sorcerer: "Well we should get closer then that don't you think?"
(The sorcerer then proceeded to painfully declare each 5 foot step up the stairs one at a time to the DM)
Me to the DM: "Ok I walk across the room to the gate."
Sorcerer: "Wait GorGor shouldn't we wait to see what the other characters want to do first?"
at this point I had finally had it "They are big boys and girls if they want to make a deceleration to the DM they will do that, they don't need you constantly telling them to do it." I said. Things got a little tense here as I learned she doesn't respond very well to confrontation.
But do you see a pattern here? Any time anyone made a deceleration about what they wanted to do this player would interrupt before the DM could say anything to offer some kind of criticism or advice... it took nearly 30 minutes to an hour and a half to get through each room because this player wanted to interrupted every character action with a meta conversation about what she thought the best way to do things was.... Have you ever been playing a video game with a friend only to have that friend rip the controller out of you're hands and say "You're doing it wrong, here let me show you the right way" because that's what this felt like.....
"NOBODY PUT'S GORGOR ON A LEASH! NOBODY!"
Some people can't help but turn a perfectly functioning game of D&D into a trash fire.
I know there is no "one right way" to play roleplaying games, but my lest favorite style of playing D&D is what I call the "10 foot pole style" which is when the group sits and discusses what would be the most optimized and risk adverse way to do something before doing anything,... I like playing D&D in a risky and Heroic manner and I loath sitting and talking in a meta sense about how to optimize the adventure and combat because it takes forever, slows the game to a crawl, and makes character acting nigh impossible. "Lets poke every 5 foot square with a 10 foot pole to see if it's dangerous."
I Dm a game of pathfinder once a week and also play in a game once a week. At the moment when I am a player I play as an Orc Barbarian, let's call him GorGor for the purposes of this post. Honestly the game wasn't very good from the beginning, the DM is a really bad story teller, everything is locked and trapped, and ever npc's answer to any question is "I don't know anything useful" but the company is good so it's still fun.
Or at lest it was fun until one of the players invited a new player without asking anyone. This new player raised every common red flag you can possibly imagine, she showed up to the game with a character that had 3 18 stats, 2 17 stats and a 16, she described her character as "impossibly beautiful and with one gold eye and one red eye." (the character is a sorcerer btw)
At first it was fine but it got really bad when we wondered across our first dungeon when she started back seat gaming every decision everyone made.
The fallowing are all things that actually happened but I've distilled them to there essence to save space
Me to the DM: "GorGor opens the door."
Sorcerer: "Wait GorGor we should stand 30 feet away from the door and have my character open it with my open spell in case there is a trap" (The party then spent 25 minutes talking out of character about what the best way to open the door would be)
Me to the DM: "ok well GorGor has Dark vision, and a light source will give us away so GorGor is going to sneak up the stairs to see if there are any monsters waiting to ambush us then I'll return right back to the party and let them know what I saw.... If I'm noticed I'll also retreat to the party."
Sorcerer: "Wait GorGor before you do that let me come with you you'll need back up, also I think we should only go far enough to see just into the next room."
Me to Sorcerer: "Ok..... then I advance just enough to see 5 feet into the next room."
Sorcerer: "Well we should get closer then that don't you think?"
(The sorcerer then proceeded to painfully declare each 5 foot step up the stairs one at a time to the DM)
Me to the DM: "Ok I walk across the room to the gate."
Sorcerer: "Wait GorGor shouldn't we wait to see what the other characters want to do first?"
at this point I had finally had it "They are big boys and girls if they want to make a deceleration to the DM they will do that, they don't need you constantly telling them to do it." I said. Things got a little tense here as I learned she doesn't respond very well to confrontation.
But do you see a pattern here? Any time anyone made a deceleration about what they wanted to do this player would interrupt before the DM could say anything to offer some kind of criticism or advice... it took nearly 30 minutes to an hour and a half to get through each room because this player wanted to interrupted every character action with a meta conversation about what she thought the best way to do things was.... Have you ever been playing a video game with a friend only to have that friend rip the controller out of you're hands and say "You're doing it wrong, here let me show you the right way" because that's what this felt like.....
"NOBODY PUT'S GORGOR ON A LEASH! NOBODY!"