PDA

View Full Version : Toublesome fellow player characters?



Arros Winhadren
2008-08-02, 01:01 AM
There's lots of threads floating around about annoying DMs, and I've gotten no small share of kicks out of them. But what about annoying players?

One PC in my current campaigns is a barbarian who doesn't speak common. He did only speak in orcish, but then one of my friends convinced him to speak dwarven so that they could communicate and conspire against everyone else, thus ruining everything good about the whole idea.

Anyways, the player just gibbers insanely during the game, which is cool, but he plays like his character is an idiot. He constantly goes down the wrong path or does something crazy and passes it off as him "not understanding us". Even though we're all obviously walking down the right path, not the left one.

It would be cool if his character had 3 Int, but he has 12.

EvilElitest
2008-08-02, 01:06 AM
sounds like basic immaturity, you should talk to your DM about it. Basically, he is just playing the half orc Barbarion like a stereotype from what you say
from
EE

thegurullamen
2008-08-02, 01:09 AM
I'm just going to assume you're the DM.

As I see it, there are three options open to you.

A) You can put up with his poor behavior and let it fester inside until you do something regrettable.

B) You can steel yourself and make a more-than-likely awkward attempt to talk him out of whatever behavior is bothering you/your group.

C) The always enjoyable Folding Chair.

Me, I always opt for B. Tried A for the longest time, but nothing ever, ever, ever got done and I got an ulcer. C's good for a laugh, but it'll cost you in the long run if your mark doesn't have a sense of humor. B's the best if only because of process of elimination.

valadil
2008-08-02, 07:03 AM
It sounds like he hasn't matured as a roleplayer and he's just experimenting. That's a good thing, even if it's annoying now.

My player irritation of the moment is a guy who needs to be in the spotlight all the time. He'll jump on any situation in the game and take it over. It is nice to have someone with that kind of initiative, but the rest of us want to play too. I don't mind playing characters who aren't happy, that's part of roleplaying. But when I get someone talking over me and stomping each of my sentences I end up having a bad time. Sorry, was that rantish?

Drider
2008-08-02, 08:53 AM
If the cleric agrees with you, or is you, refuse to give healing to him when he does something stupid. If he does'nt follow you down the left road, you can only assume his character wants to leave you, and it would be inpolite to heal him, thus creating a debt he is a slave to.

SuperPanda
2008-08-02, 09:48 AM
@ Valadil: I use to have a player that was like that when I was DMing. The trick I pulled with him was to give him seemingly big rewards or bonuses that made him feel really good without having any impact on the actual story.

That and he was playing a Bard, so not only did it make sense for him to do it, most of the other players just shook their heads and tried not to be associated with him.

------------

Now one of the more creative responses I've heard to this sort of thing was in a group I didn't play in where someone was doing this (and telling NPC's known for gossiping about their secret quests) was for the half-orc fighter (Int 16, but used Perform and Bluff to make people think he was stupid) to walk over, pick the offender up, take him outside and dunk him in the horse trough where he couldn't speak due to being underwater.

"Sorry, human dirty." Was the orc's appology to the town gossip, along with "Nope, still dirty." when a minute under water hadn't shut him up.

The player didn't take it too well, but he also forgot about it a little later when the group surrounded him in a secluded area and gave him all the attention he could desire with painful questions like "what the hell were you thinking."


Since I doubt this is an option for your character, have fun finding something along those lines to get through to him. If your a caster, make a point of casting silence on him at some stage in the game, saying your piece, and then dismissing the spell. That should be enough of a hint (just let your DM know ahead of time so he can give you the go ahead to do it during a session where your not wasting the spell).

*player interupts you*
Cast: Silence
*player miming his intention*
You: Don't interupt me... Or next time I won't remove the spell.
<pause>
You: finish what you had to say. *dismiss the spell*

prepare to listen to the attention grabber whine and then politely ask him how else you were suppose to finish your thought.

this suggestion is made with the assumption that anyone whose going to listen to it has done the common sense thing and talked to said problem player first... if you haven't talked to them, then you should do that before hand.

Most likely its just a case putting the ADD back into DnD.

Blanks
2008-08-02, 10:06 AM
Lets all say it together:
"solve ingame problems ingame, and offgame problems offgame"

As this sounds like an offgame problem to me, talk to the player. Maybe he has a reason for acting like he does, but more likely, he needs to understand that this pisses of ALL his fellow players.
Make sure before talking about this that it IS all the other players that find this irritating ;)

Arros Winhadren
2008-08-02, 01:48 PM
Actually, I am the healer, so that will work fine. Thanks for all the helpful responses guys, but I really didn't mean to rant (though it is a rant, I admit). I was actually hoping for some more funny or sad stories of your own woe! But I will put some of this thread to use in the game. I'm not the DM - our DM loves his character, just because he doesn't speak common.

But enough about me!

Thrawn183
2008-08-02, 02:09 PM
I and a friend were having problems with a group where two of the others kept interrupting us. So we would just say what we were trying to do while others would try and talk over us / tell stupid off topic jokes and then they didn't get to make the decisions because we'd already acted. This works wonders as long as you are ready to stick to your guns. Its being assertive rather than aggressive or passive aggressive.

Tengu_temp
2008-08-02, 04:30 PM
If everything else fails, there's always the all-time classic: shove a d4 up his nose.

Lord Lorac Silvanos
2008-08-02, 04:34 PM
If everything else fails, there's always the all-time classic: shove a d4 up his nose.

Dependent on the size of the nostrils of course, but wouldn't a d20 hurt more?

Tengu_temp
2008-08-02, 04:41 PM
D4's shape gives it a much better penetration.

Bayar
2008-08-02, 04:43 PM
It worked before: Stab the barbarian in his sleep. :smallbiggrin:

Lord Lorac Silvanos
2008-08-02, 04:47 PM
D4's shape gives it a much better penetration.

I just think you need to shove harder. :smallwink:

SCPRedMage
2008-08-02, 06:28 PM
Silvanos is right; you may have to use more force, but the d20 will cause more damage once it's in there...

chevalier
2008-08-04, 03:39 PM
d4? d20?

Try a d100.

That'll shut him up.

Bayar
2008-08-04, 03:45 PM
d4? d20?

Try a d100.

That'll shut him up.

"It wont fit in his nose, captain !"

"Then look for another orifice !"

:eek:

Frosty
2008-08-04, 03:55 PM
Just kill his charcter in his sleep.

Coplantor
2008-08-04, 04:41 PM
Troublesome players huh? I have this friend who is 100% sure that good roleplaying means innr party conflict, now, im not saying that parties shouldnt have inner conflict, what im saying is that inner conflicts are something that just happen, you dont have to be actively looking for conflict. First time it happend, he was a rogue and he stealed the item thet the cleric's deity had them looking for in their first quest. The bard and the cleric were fighting for it, trying to decide who was the best one to cerry it (the cleric was evil and the bard was good, there were a lot of argues betwen them), so, the rogue player thought that the "neutralest" thing to do was to steal the statuette and run with it.

Second time: we were playing vampire the masquerade, when the characters met, he pushed my character and looked angrily at him, that was the first thing they did when they met.

Third time: On the D&D campaign I'm currently DMing, one of the PC's is a LE psion, he wants to be a flayerspawn psychic. He agreed with me that his character is going to turn LN at some point in the campaign. The "troublesome guy" asked me this question while creating his character build: "What do you think is better suited to kill a flyerspawn psychic? -(me)Why? -Because its obvious that I will have to kill him, considering that IM Lawful Good"

Fourth time: We were preparing for a GURPS campaign, the main villians were the Hollywood's mafia. He wasnt present during character creation, so the next day I went to his house and explained him the campaign, his first idea for a character was "Hey, what if I'm a from the H. Mafia and i am infiltrated in the party to kill them?"

Last time: Same as above but with demons instead of hollywood's mafia on a D&D campaign.

His excuse is always: Hey, in the real world people doesnt have to get well all the time", but he wont listen to my "Yeah, but in the real world people dosent seek conflict with everyone all the time!"

Bayar
2008-08-04, 04:45 PM
Just kill his charcter in his sleep.

Already suggested like 4-5 posts ago...

Wreckingrocc
2008-08-04, 04:47 PM
I beat you to the punch. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86703)

Arros Winhadren
2008-08-04, 07:08 PM
Only not, look at the date for the first posts.

only1doug
2008-08-05, 07:59 AM
one of the other players in my group had created his Finhead saurial with no language skills and a stone of comprehend tongues and then he (the player) just hisses at the rest of us when we are taliking in game. Fortunately 2 of us understand draconic and can interpret for him (unfortunately we are both chaotic and have been known to be loose with our translations).

Player1 (to me): "HssssSSssss"
me: "i can understand when you talk remember?"
Player1: "oh yeah"

Doug

Charity
2008-08-05, 08:32 AM
I just think you need to shove harder.

Out of context quotes... the fun you can have...:smallwink:


If they have visualised their character as such I'm not so sure the guy isn't just roleplaying a crappy charisma, if so then fair play to the fella.
If somebodies character makes in character actions that annoy your character then have your character react proportionally and realistically.
If a player is pissing you the player off OOC then tell the fella, but hopefully in a not too confrontational way.
All gaming difficulties are best addressed with dialogue in my experiance.

Lord Lorac Silvanos
2008-08-05, 08:46 AM
Out of context quotes... the fun you can have...:smallwink:

That is why I try to give universal advice in every sentence. :smallamused:

valadil
2008-08-05, 08:47 AM
Troublesome players huh? I have this friend who is 100% sure that good roleplaying means innr party conflict, now, im not saying that parties shouldnt have inner conflict, what im saying is that inner conflicts are something that just happen, you dont have to be actively looking for conflict.

Good roleplaying will usually lead to conflict, but just because there's a conflict doesn't mean good roleplaying caused it.

Conflict for conflict's sake is lame. Genuine conflict between two characters is interesting. It sounds like your friend is just being confrontational without bothering to roleplay. The way I'd deal with this is to have the DM come up with a good and meaningful conflict for his character. Take something from his backstory and really bait him into it. Since this guy seeks conflict he's gonna bite, but in this case it will be appropriate and well roleplayed. Compared to that, shoving someone for metagame reasons to create conflict will seem lame.

Wreckingrocc
2008-08-05, 10:13 AM
I have the ultimate player conflict story.

One time, my brother's friend was DMing without a prepared adventure, and it was a pirate setting. I'm playing a pixie sorcerer, my brother is a swashbuckling roguish character, and my brother's friend's brother was playing a very crappily built bard.

We start playing, and I rob a guy using my invisibility. My brother picks a fight with a drow, and they ask me to judge. As a chaotic good character who stereotypes drows, I, of course, shoot the drow with a fireball halfway through the fight. My brother's character gets pissed off because it was not a fair fight, and they both tranq me until I fall unconscious on the ground. They leave me there.

Meanwhile, my brother and the drow plan to steal a boat. They get on these little rowboats and start paddling toward it. I wake up and start flying around, looking for something to do. A battle breaks out on the boat, and a bunch of peasants (with my brother's friend's brother leading them) go to stop the pirates trying to steal the ship. They begin shooting pirates, and tons of pirates land and try to raid the town on docks. I shoot them all with fireballs and blow up the entire port, but also save the town.

My brother and the drow kill the captain of the ship and seize control. I turn and see conflict, and fly over to the boat. My brother's friend's brother boards the boat with the peasants, and the peasants attack my brother and the drow. My brother's friend's brother, not knowing how to roleplay and trying to bring the party together, screams, "STOP FIGHTING!" He then draws his bow and shoots the drow.

Of course, my brother, the drow, and their entire crew tie up all the peasants and hold them captive. I, meanwhile, am invisible in the corner, watching the whole thing.

We ended the session there.

One PC is about to be killed by another. The third PC has blown up a bunch of docks with fireballs and would be killed by either party were I to come out of hiding.