P. G. Macer
2019-12-16, 09:13 PM
So I’ve been fuming over something that happened last night when I was playing 5e.
My group plays in the wondrous, fantastical, and bizarre land of Flor'idá, which should give any Americans reading this an idea of the tone of the campaign.
However, last night things took a turn for the wacky in a way that was not so fun for me and I suspect four of the other six players, in a way that makes me question our autonomy.
We have one player/character (I say this because it’s sometimes not clear where the player ends and the character begins with this one), who is more murderhobo-y than the other PCs. He also apparently rolled really well for starting stats (The DM allowed us to roll privately), to the point that he had 20 DEX on his Aarakocra Rogue at Level 1, and I’m pretty sure his lowest stat is a +2.
The aarakocra rogue in question is a total kleptomaniac for magic items and murdering NPCs that seem slightly hostile, to the point that not when we were scouting a warehouse run by the Goblin Mafia, which controlled the magic item black market, despite us emphasizing to the rogue when we went with his plan that he scout ahead with his flight and high Stealth that this was a reconnaissance mission and he was to avoid both discovery and taking any magic items (yet; we were fine with him getting some as loot later), he ambushed and tried to take out the first goblin guard with a wand of magic missile knockoff that he saw. He got the wand, but the goblin sounded the alarm, ruining the party’s agreed-upon plan, and the party eventually getting arrested by the police (which the rival Kobold Mafia had taken over, but that’s another story). This is around the point where my Lawful Good Devotion Paladin started to hate the character.
We eventually were let out, and when on our way to not!Disney World, we had a fight with a disco-themed villain (Like I said, it’s that kind of campaign), who had a pair of magic sunglasses that among other things canceled out Sunlight Sensitivity. The rogue stole it for himself, despite us having a kobold in the party and the rogue already having a magic eyepatch that had all the other effects minus the sunlight part, and the kobold character had been blinded by the disco villain when the rogue took the glasses, and so whenever the kobold’s player brings up the fact in annoyance, the rogue reminds them that they don’t even know the rogue has the glasses in-character.
But what finally got my goat was once the party actually got to not!Disney World. There the rogue almodecided to go off on his own for a burglary spree, accidentally breaking into the rest of the party’s room at the inn and almost getting himself killed several times, but always conveniently rolling super high. It is at this point that the other characters start to hate the rogue as well, and even the players start to get annoyed.
When not!DW turned out to be a deathtrap by the park’s owner, we entered combat with animatronic constructs, but at the start of the combat, the rogue’s player persuaded the DM to alter the wand he’d stolen so that every time he used magic missile he rolled on a wacky homebrew Wild Magic table in return for the MMs dealing less damage.
Combat was a slog since most of us were unarmed (No metal weapons in the theme park), but eventually when the rogue used his wand he managed to smuggle in, he rolled on the home-brew table “The caster’s allies worship him as a god for 1d4 days”. No saving throws for us or any other way to avoid it. When every other player collectively vetoed the result, the DM had the rogue’s player re-roll, and play continued. But then, on the last turn of combat, which was the rogue’s, he rolled the result again. Now, while I suspect the player in question frequently fudges rolls, for the Wild Magic table he was using a digital dice roller with records, to the DM was able to verify their legitimacy, and roughly half of the other players were open to going along with it this time and worship the kleptomaniac murderhobo for 4 days.
The session ended before anything more could happen, and we aren’t playing for a few weeks because of the holidays, and I’m pondering what to do. While the obvious suggestion is to talk to the DM and player in question, I suspect that if I go the DM unprepared he’ll side with the other player, as he seemed amiable to the god roll the second time around, and I worry if I go to the player things will devolve into an outright feud, especially if I accuse him of cheating outside of the god-roll incidents.
So, fellow Playgrounders, what should I do? I know that I’ll have to go to one of them eventually, but I’m unsure of what to say.
My group plays in the wondrous, fantastical, and bizarre land of Flor'idá, which should give any Americans reading this an idea of the tone of the campaign.
However, last night things took a turn for the wacky in a way that was not so fun for me and I suspect four of the other six players, in a way that makes me question our autonomy.
We have one player/character (I say this because it’s sometimes not clear where the player ends and the character begins with this one), who is more murderhobo-y than the other PCs. He also apparently rolled really well for starting stats (The DM allowed us to roll privately), to the point that he had 20 DEX on his Aarakocra Rogue at Level 1, and I’m pretty sure his lowest stat is a +2.
The aarakocra rogue in question is a total kleptomaniac for magic items and murdering NPCs that seem slightly hostile, to the point that not when we were scouting a warehouse run by the Goblin Mafia, which controlled the magic item black market, despite us emphasizing to the rogue when we went with his plan that he scout ahead with his flight and high Stealth that this was a reconnaissance mission and he was to avoid both discovery and taking any magic items (yet; we were fine with him getting some as loot later), he ambushed and tried to take out the first goblin guard with a wand of magic missile knockoff that he saw. He got the wand, but the goblin sounded the alarm, ruining the party’s agreed-upon plan, and the party eventually getting arrested by the police (which the rival Kobold Mafia had taken over, but that’s another story). This is around the point where my Lawful Good Devotion Paladin started to hate the character.
We eventually were let out, and when on our way to not!Disney World, we had a fight with a disco-themed villain (Like I said, it’s that kind of campaign), who had a pair of magic sunglasses that among other things canceled out Sunlight Sensitivity. The rogue stole it for himself, despite us having a kobold in the party and the rogue already having a magic eyepatch that had all the other effects minus the sunlight part, and the kobold character had been blinded by the disco villain when the rogue took the glasses, and so whenever the kobold’s player brings up the fact in annoyance, the rogue reminds them that they don’t even know the rogue has the glasses in-character.
But what finally got my goat was once the party actually got to not!Disney World. There the rogue almodecided to go off on his own for a burglary spree, accidentally breaking into the rest of the party’s room at the inn and almost getting himself killed several times, but always conveniently rolling super high. It is at this point that the other characters start to hate the rogue as well, and even the players start to get annoyed.
When not!DW turned out to be a deathtrap by the park’s owner, we entered combat with animatronic constructs, but at the start of the combat, the rogue’s player persuaded the DM to alter the wand he’d stolen so that every time he used magic missile he rolled on a wacky homebrew Wild Magic table in return for the MMs dealing less damage.
Combat was a slog since most of us were unarmed (No metal weapons in the theme park), but eventually when the rogue used his wand he managed to smuggle in, he rolled on the home-brew table “The caster’s allies worship him as a god for 1d4 days”. No saving throws for us or any other way to avoid it. When every other player collectively vetoed the result, the DM had the rogue’s player re-roll, and play continued. But then, on the last turn of combat, which was the rogue’s, he rolled the result again. Now, while I suspect the player in question frequently fudges rolls, for the Wild Magic table he was using a digital dice roller with records, to the DM was able to verify their legitimacy, and roughly half of the other players were open to going along with it this time and worship the kleptomaniac murderhobo for 4 days.
The session ended before anything more could happen, and we aren’t playing for a few weeks because of the holidays, and I’m pondering what to do. While the obvious suggestion is to talk to the DM and player in question, I suspect that if I go the DM unprepared he’ll side with the other player, as he seemed amiable to the god roll the second time around, and I worry if I go to the player things will devolve into an outright feud, especially if I accuse him of cheating outside of the god-roll incidents.
So, fellow Playgrounders, what should I do? I know that I’ll have to go to one of them eventually, but I’m unsure of what to say.