Common Aggravating Table Behaviors

[Velaryon]

I hate solo players so much I often use the house rule of ''leave the group and your character dies''. My gaming group will remember Timmy, who just did not get it. He kept ''scouting ahead'' and having his character die over and over and over and over again. I think he made it up to ''Sorg X'' in one night.

To each their own, but taking the "don't monopolize game time" thing this far would ruin the fun for me.

It reminds me of a time when I was playing the Star Wars RPG, where my character was a Jawa. We were in the Mos Eisley cantina doing I forget what, something that was interesting to some of the other players but not me. I looked around the cantina and the GM told me that a group of Jawas got out of their seats and left the cantina.

I figured that I'd see what they were up to, so my character left to follow them. I wasn't trying to go on a side quest or anything, just have my character off doing local Jawa things or whatever while the others were drinking at the bar and gathering information from the locals. The GM had my character get mugged and beaten, and then concluded with "and this is why you never leave the party."

And this is supposed to make the game more fun how?

[Talakeal]

To each their own, but taking the "don't monopolize game time" thing this far would ruin the fun for me.

It reminds me of a time when I was playing the Star Wars RPG, where my character was a Jawa. We were in the Mos Eisley cantina doing I forget what, something that was interesting to some of the other players but not me. I looked around the cantina and the GM told me that a group of Jawas got out of their seats and left the cantina.

I figured that I'd see what they were up to, so my character left to follow them. I wasn't trying to go on a side quest or anything, just have my character off doing local Jawa things or whatever while the others were drinking at the bar and gathering information from the locals. The GM had my character get mugged and beaten, and then concluded with "and this is why you never leave the party."

And this is supposed to make the game more fun how?

Something similar happened to me last year.

We had our wild-shaped druid go off and scout, and then had us both attacked and ran two separate encounters. Then he had us basically play blind man's bluff trying to regroup with the druid after the fights, making each group secretly state our actions as we looked for one another. And he kept rolling minor annoying random encounters for both groups the whole time. It took us the entire session to get back together.

Than the DM bitched at US for wasting HIS evening by splitting the party.

[Erit]

It reminds me of a time when I was playing the Star Wars RPG, where my character was a Jawa. We were in the Mos Eisley cantina doing I forget what, something that was interesting to some of the other players but not me. I looked around the cantina and the GM told me that a group of Jawas got out of their seats and left the cantina.

I figured that I'd see what they were up to, so my character left to follow them. I wasn't trying to go on a side quest or anything, just have my character off doing local Jawa things or whatever while the others were drinking at the bar and gathering information from the locals. The GM had my character get mugged and beaten, and then concluded with "and this is why you never leave the party."

And this is supposed to make the game more fun how?

Something similar happened to me last year.

We had our druid go off and scout, and then had us both attacked and ran two separate encounters. Then he had us basically play blind man's bluff trying to regroup with the druid after the fights, making each group secretly state our actions as we looked for one another. And he kept rolling minor annoying random encounters for both groups the whole time. It took us the entire session to get back together.

Than the DM bitched at US for wasting his evening by splitting the party.

I will never understand when people get pissed at others for doing a thing they were supposed to do. That's, like, "cutting off your nose to spite your cousin's face" levels of insane troll logic.

[Pex]

To each their own, but taking the "don't monopolize game time" thing this far would ruin the fun for me.

It reminds me of a time when I was playing the Star Wars RPG, where my character was a Jawa. We were in the Mos Eisley cantina doing I forget what, something that was interesting to some of the other players but not me. I looked around the cantina and the GM told me that a group of Jawas got out of their seats and left the cantina.

I figured that I'd see what they were up to, so my character left to follow them. I wasn't trying to go on a side quest or anything, just have my character off doing local Jawa things or whatever while the others were drinking at the bar and gathering information from the locals. The GM had my character get mugged and beaten, and then concluded with "and this is why you never leave the party."

And this is supposed to make the game more fun how?

I'm with you on this regardless of my earlier point. Going to see what the Jawas were up to was a logical thing to do. You were responding to a DM instigated flavor text that could have been a plot hook. Instead, the donkey cavity DM punished you for no legitimate reason.

[Darth Ultron]

I figured that I'd see what they were up to, so my character left to follow them. I wasn't trying to go on a side quest or anything, just have my character off doing local Jawa things or whatever while the others were drinking at the bar and gathering information from the locals. The GM had my character get mugged and beaten, and then concluded with "and this is why you never leave the party."

And this is supposed to make the game more fun how?

It keeps the game fun by keeping it a group game. The group was doing something ''that you forgot'' and you decided to ignore that and go off on your own solo game. Sure you say you were not doing that, but when the group is doing something and you have your character leave to do something else...well your actions don't match your words. Sure you just wanted to waste five or ten minutes of game time forcing the DM to pay attention to only you, but you somehow don't see it that way.

Disrupting the game is wrong. And if your a player that thinks in the middle of the events of a game plot that the DM might be dangling a super special plot hook just for your super special character to find....then your a problem player.

[Talakeal]

It keeps the game fun by keeping it a group game. The group was doing something ''that you forgot'' and you decided to ignore that and go off on your own solo game. Sure you say you were not doing that, but when the group is doing something and you have your character leave to do something else...well your actions don't match your words. Sure you just wanted to waste five or ten minutes of game time forcing the DM to pay attention to only you, but you somehow don't see it that way.

Disrupting the game is wrong. And if your a player that thinks in the middle of the events of a game plot that the DM might be dangling a super special plot hook just for your super special character to find....then your a problem player.

Are you still a problem player if the DM actually is introducing a plot hook just for you?

[Delusion]

Meanwhile with my group the "don't split the party" amounts to "please try to stay within 100km radius of the other PCs" and it works fine. The GM just switches spotlight every few minutes with "meanwhile in place x" etc.

[Blue Duke]

the character going off solo doesn't need to be focused on 100% of the time.....I'm wondering if that's something some DM's don't realize it's as simple as 'okay you succeded your stealth check, you see this and this. Consider your response to both while we shift focus to the main group'. there is no reason to mug or murder the character or characters splitting off just because it means a focus shift.


and there's another aggravating thing: the DM that decides disproportional punishment is the only way to 'teach people how to play'. same with the DM that feels like if people arent at -9 HP at the end of a fight and having to expend masses of gold or credits to heal then the game is clearly not fun.

[Stealth Marmot]

The party members should not be joined at the damn hip, especially when they are inside a civilized town. If you are in the middle of a city, you should not have to worry about random encounters unless you go into the bad areas of town specifically. The towns have guards for crying out loud, and if everyone had to worry about a random encounter then no person would live to adulthood in the city!

Forcing all players to be around for everything limits character development and growth. Certain objectives SHOULD only have 1 player if it is something personal.

Now, it should not dominate a full session, or even most of one, and solo content should be spread between players evenly, but not every section has to have every player there at all times.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I try to be tolerant, but can't stop myself from getting consistently annoyed at people who refuse to learn the system. I get it, RPGs are complicated and not everyone is interested in the mechanics, but c'mon, man. I understand if you don't remember how hit dice work, but you can write down your attack bonus so you don't need to ask every round. You can remember that it's a d20 for everything but damage.

As a very personal pet peeve, characters with inappropriate names. We're playing in Fantasyland #294b; your character is not named George. I specifically told you how (race's) names work, and real-world English names are not one of them.

Another common behavior I've seen several times is excessively paranoid players. I know metagaming is bad, and that good GMs make sure not every challenge is perfectly scaled to your level, and that sometimes things are supposed to be tense in-setting, but... I hate when players spend the entire time terrified that one little mistake will ruin everything, convinced that the entire world is a deathtrap out to get them personally, that every plot hook is a trap to run from, that it's better to spend twenty minutes debating the safety of an action. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the most boring thing a GM can do is kill you, and that the basic covenant of gaming is "whatever happens, I'll make sure it's interesting and that there's a path for success somewhere." I'd rather go get into trouble than sit around arguing.

[2D8HP]

It keeps the game fun by keeping it a group game. The group was doing something ''that you forgot'' and you decided to ignore that and go off on your own solo game. Sure you say you were not doing that, but when the group is doing something and you have your character leave to do something else....

Handling solo and split party scenarios is something that I actually think is better with the PbP games I've experienced on this Forum than the table-top I've known.

Another common behavior I've seen several times is excessively paranoid players. I know metagaming is bad, and that good GMs make sure not every challenge is perfectly scaled to your level, and that sometimes things are supposed to be tense in-setting, but... I hate when players spend the entire time terrified that one little mistake will ruin everything, convinced that the entire world is a deathtrap out to get them personally.....

It's not?
Since when?

[hymer]

Since when?

Well, it's one of them newfangled developments. I think the year most folks would point to would be '89 when 2nd ed. AD&D came out, and the DMG included advice among other things that 'rocks falls everyone dies' isn't the only mentality for DMs. Yeah, weird, I know.

[Stealth Marmot]

Since when?

[Cluedrew]

To Stealth Marmot: It literally says 2D8HP's name beside the post. Although that may not of been what you meant.

[Darth Ultron]

Are you still a problem player if the DM actually is introducing a plot hook just for you?

Well, no, but then this comes down to more the type of game being played. If the other players are fine with just sitting around and watching just one player and the DM play the game, then everything is fine.

Handling solo and split party scenarios is something that I actually think is better with the PbP games I've experienced on this Forum than the table-top I've known.It's not?
Since when?

I love solo ''one player/one DM'' games. And it is really amazing how the vast majority of ''solo gamers'' will out right refuse to play a solo game unless they have an audience of people.

[Traab]

As for common behaviors... Monty Python quotes. I don't like Monty Python to begin with, especially the lines everyone has been quoting ad nauseum as if it were still remotely clever the hundred thousandth time thirty years later.
Seriously, guys, just stop it. You've done it so much that I could quote entire scenes from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail despite the fact that I have never watched that movie. Other movies exist! Quote them! Please! For the love of Arrenji, please quote something different!

"I just spent 4 hours burying the cat!"
"4 hours to bury a cat?!"
"Yes! It wouldnt keep still!"


There, I quoted something other than quest for the holy grail. I even made sure it was nice and random to make you wonder wtf that was all about!

[ComradeBear]

Well, no, but then this comes down to more the type of game being played. If the other players are fine with just sitting around and watching just one player and the DM play the game, then everything is fine.

"Mk. So that's what you see when you walk out the door. MEANWHILE, with the rest of the group, you all just saw the rogue leave. What is the plan?"

Just swap focus between the two groups. It's not even hard. It's as easy as saying "We'll come back to you in a moment, I want to see what's happening with X." No one can force the GM to follow their individual adventure. And the GM can always say "you do indeed wander off your own. Nothing interesting happens. We'll catch up with you momentarily."

And these are equally lazy as "You die for no reason" and are less likely to cause someone to pitch a fit.

[Solaris]

"I just spent 4 hours burying the cat!"
"4 hours to bury a cat?!"
"Yes! It wouldnt keep still!"


There, I quoted something other than quest for the holy grail. I even made sure it was nice and random to make you wonder wtf that was all about!

Bless your cold, black heart.

[Traab]

Bless your cold, black heart.

Heh, seriously though, I dont understand the people who profess to be such huge fans of holy grail and yet aside from maybe life of brian, they dont bother to look at the rather vast library of monty python back when they were basically british snl doing multiple seasons worth of comedy sketches, many of which have excellent quotable lines. Heck, even OotS did a play on one of the monty python sketches. Remember the comic where roy had to find a replacement weapon and was being given the runaround on polearms? That was a monty python and the flying circus sketch with nothing more than types of cheese substituted for types of polearm. With that I will leave you with this simple motto for life.

"Oh INTERCOURSE the penguin!"

[quinron]

Heh, seriously though, I dont understand the people who profess to be such huge fans of holy grail and yet aside from maybe life of brian, they dont bother to look at the rather vast library of monty python back when they were basically british snl doing multiple seasons worth of comedy sketches, many of which have excellent quotable lines. Heck, even OotS did a play on one of the monty python sketches. Remember the comic where roy had to find a replacement weapon and was being given the runaround on polearms? That was a monty python and the flying circus sketch with nothing more than types of cheese substituted for types of polearm. With that I will leave you with this simple motto for life.

"Oh INTERCOURSE the penguin!"

It's odd, too, how well some of the sketches would translate to compelling adventures - for example, the town's elderly women have made a deal with a hag coven, turning them into a roving gang of grannies harassing old men.

[Cluedrew]

My favourite: "This is your captain speaking. There is absolutely no cause for alarm." And there really wasn't.

[Stealth Marmot]

To Stealth Marmot: It literally says 2D8HP's name beside the post. Although that may not of been what you meant.

[Thrudd]

It's odd, too, how well some of the sketches would translate to compelling adventures - for example, the town's elderly women have made a deal with a hag coven, turning them into a roving gang of grannies harassing old men.

I thought the blancmange was the inspiration for ochre jelly.

Also, a group of Orcish immigrants with inaccurate Common phrasebooks could result in some interesting times.

[Khi'Khi]

Similar to the phone thing described earlier. As one who's only every played on online sites like roll20, I hate when players are off playing other games while the session is running.

"Oh, it's not my turn? Cool, I'm gonna go play Fallout and not pay attention to what's going on." And then you have to waste several minutes bringing them back up to speed once they decide to grace the game with their attention once more.

[kyoryu]

Just swap focus between the two groups. It's not even hard. It's as easy as saying "We'll come back to you in a moment, I want to see what's happening with X." No one can force the GM to follow their individual adventure. And the GM can always say "you do indeed wander off your own. Nothing interesting happens. We'll catch up with you momentarily."

This is easier to pull off with systems where:

1) it's fairly fast to resolve things
2) resolving things results in more interesting dialog between the players and GM rather than a bunch of numeric twiddling

IOW, yes, that's a solution, but it works best if it doesn't get the other players too bored for too long.

[ComradeBear]

This is easier to pull off with systems where:

1) it's fairly fast to resolve things
2) resolving things results in more interesting dialog between the players and GM rather than a bunch of numeric twiddling

IOW, yes, that's a solution, but it works best if it doesn't get the other players too bored for too long.

I never had a problem with it in D&D 3.5, likely because I would swap pretty often and sometimes leave people with cliffhangers for their failed rolls. Ie, "So that's an 11? Not enough to succeed. We'll see how that goes wrong when we get back from checking in on X."

If your system takes more than a few seconds to resolve basic things, then yeah. It's a problem. (Frankly that's a problem with the system itself and would be one to avoid in my book, but that's neither here nor there.)

[Traab]

It's odd, too, how well some of the sketches would translate to compelling adventures - for example, the town's elderly women have made a deal with a hag coven, turning them into a roving gang of grannies harassing old men.

Or at least have the 4 yorkshiremen in the background at the local tavern.

"Oh we had it rough! Bandit attacks in the morning, dragon attacks at noon, with ogres pillaging the farm every evening, its a wonder we even had time to be sacrificed at midnight by roving necromancers!"

"They happened to you at different times? Luxury! We used to wake up every morning being carved out of the belly of the neighborhood tarrasque that kept inhaling too hard when it snored only to be put to work forging the sacrificial knives the local seers used to use to perform auguries with our giblets! I dont know why they bothered, it always said the same thing. "You will be inhaled by the local neighborhood tarrasque during the night."

"You got warnings of your nightly suffering? Our only warning was when the great gnashing of huge pointy teeth from the local coven of vampires would begin to drain us! Oh it was rough! Our father decided one day the best way to avoid getting drained would be to turn the lot of us into warforged! Have you ever seen an infant warforged? Its like a can of soup with legs!"

[Stealth Marmot]

Similar to the phone thing described earlier. As one who's only every played on online sites like roll20, I hate when players are off playing other games while the session is running.

"Oh, it's not my turn? Cool, I'm gonna go play Fallout and not pay attention to what's going on." And then you have to waste several minutes bringing them back up to speed once they decide to grace the game with their attention once more.

On the one hand Fallout addiction is something I can understand. Damn you Bethesda Softworks...

On the other hand, yeah that is INCREDIBLY disrespectful.

I'll go one step further. I was in a group with a player who was playing an online D&D game WHILE he was also in another LIVE D&D game.

The DM was understandably upset.

[2D8HP]

Oh it was rough! Our father decided one day the best way to avoid getting drained would be to turn the lot of us into warforged! Have you ever seen an infant warforged? Its like a can of soup with legs!"

Another fine example of why I love this Forum!

I'll go one step further. I was in a group with a player who was playing an online D&D game WHILE he was also in another LIVE D&D game.

I don't know whether to be appalled or in awe!

[Velaryon]

It keeps the game fun by keeping it a group game. The group was doing something ''that you forgot'' and you decided to ignore that and go off on your own solo game. Sure you say you were not doing that, but when the group is doing something and you have your character leave to do something else...well your actions don't match your words. Sure you just wanted to waste five or ten minutes of game time forcing the DM to pay attention to only you, but you somehow don't see it that way.

Disrupting the game is wrong. And if your a player that thinks in the middle of the events of a game plot that the DM might be dangling a super special plot hook just for your super special character to find....then your a problem player.

I don't remember the specifics of what they were doing when my character left because the game happened eleven years ago. But please continue twisting my words to fit your preconceived conclusion, it's not at all annoying.

"Mk. So that's what you see when you walk out the door. MEANWHILE, with the rest of the group, you all just saw the rogue leave. What is the plan?"

Just swap focus between the two groups. It's not even hard. It's as easy as saying "We'll come back to you in a moment, I want to see what's happening with X." No one can force the GM to follow their individual adventure. And the GM can always say "you do indeed wander off your own. Nothing interesting happens. We'll catch up with you momentarily."

And these are equally lazy as "You die for no reason" and are less likely to cause someone to pitch a fit.

This right here is what I was looking for. Heck, a simple "you go off and have a fun afternoon hanging out with the Jawas. Meanwhile, back to the rest of the group..." would have been perfectly acceptable.

Instead, I more or less got "you've broken direct line of sight with your party members. Now you're at -8 and bleeding, and let that be a lesson to you." That's way over the top.

It's also worth mentioning that later in the same campaign, we had a Trandoshan Jedi character who would routinely go on stealth missions ahead of the party that would eat up huge amounts of time while the rest of us sat back and twiddled our thumbs. But apparently it's okay to split from the party if you're just running ahead on the rails of the plot.