Have you ever been a dick player?

[Kzach]

That's "dick player" not "dick-player".

Just thought I'd clarify that at the start

I'm very strongly in the camp that supports curbing attitudes, behaviours and preferences at the table that are disruptive or inconsiderate to other players. I take great pains in creating characters that are fun for everyone, not just me. I'm very strongly against creating 'lone-wolf' style characters or rude characters or selfish characters because at the end of the day, it's a group game, not a solo game.

But that doesn't mean I haven't been a giant dick at times. One session comes to mind from years and years ago where this one player who was fairly new to the game simply didn't get the concept of roleplaying. He would just sit there and wait his turn and then roll dice. And even that he wasn't very good at. So after getting fed up with it, I 'roleplayed' my character a bit extremely and kinda got in his face with it. At the time I felt it was justified but looking back on it now, I was a major dick and probably put him off RPG's for the rest of his life.

So, have YOU ever been a dick player?

 

[Quickleaf]

Um...no?

Last month I was concerned I was pushy during a game because I was the only one really following the story and making an effort to role-play, or so it seemed. I asked the DM later and he said "Are you kidding? Not at all, you gave other people permission to roleplay by stepping up."

I just don't have a dick bone in my body it seems. Wait, I mean--

 

[Elf Witch]

I was once. I was getting very frustrated with some of my fellow players and talking about it didn't seem to matter or help.

It all started because of an action as a first level character and then a huge miscommunication with the DM. We had been attacked by an invisible assassin. We found a magical earring and some magical daggers on him but we didn't have the ability to identify them. I said I was taking the daggers and putting them in my bandoleer of daggers.

We needed to sneak in some place so I tried the earring on to see if that was how he went invisible. It wasn't and it almost killed me. Some of the players were yelling you never ever try out a magical item without identifying it. Which I thought was just huge metagaming.

Later I pulled one of the daggers to use and the DM had me go crazy and try to kill the party. He said that handling the dagger by the hilt caused it to activate. I pointed out I had handled them before and he claimed I didn't handle them by the hilt but my the blade. Which made no sense because anyone who uses knives handle them by the hilt not the blade and I would not have been able to stick in the bandoleer if I was only handling the blade.

I didn't keep arguing because I didn't want to disrupt the game and the DM had made his decision.

Some of the party made the decision that I could be trusted around magic items so I was not allowed any they would cast detected magic on me to make sure I didn't have any. Yet the rogue was stealing magic items right and left from the party. Though to be fair that was player not character knowledge but it help fuel my resentment.

So I started playing my character as adversary of the party instead of a team member. I would not help some of them if they were in danger of dying, I held back information. Since I felt like I was not an equal member of the party I decided to act like that.

Looking back I realize I should have either quit the game sooner than I did or insisted that I be allowed to bring in a new character. But being a dick player did not make the game fun for me even if did give me a weird kind of satisfaction.

 

[Loonook]

Once we ran a BoEF game and there was this special spell..

I just don't want to talk about it.

Really there's no such thing as a disruptive player character... moreso a coup d'grace target .

I've played with disruptors, who place their sweaty palms on the brake of the Fun Train and GRRRRRRRRRrrrrind it to a halt. Usually they last for two or three sessions and get the option to shape up or ship out. Characters seem to disappear into the aether.

One player decided he wanted a truly Epic Destiny, trying to interrupt the Main Plot that our group had been playing towards. He had heard that there was a archmage, blah blah yadda yadda... The new Wizard decided to go forward. He kept pushing us, trying to outline tactics (mostly my gig with my background), spell use (something the Cleric and the Sorcerer prided themselves on not needing assistance with), and of course using the party Rogue as a trap-tripping meat sack.

My favorite player moment in the campaign came when the guy playing his 9th level mage beside our 9th level group who had been battling together for over a year deciding to go forward. We had plans for weakening the mage, battling him at a time when we had, you know, a chance.

We went along with the ploy waiting, battling apprentices, cultists, etc for three sessions... The DM made an "Are you Sure" check when we got to the doors of the archmage's door by a series of sheer luck and cringe-inducing "I don't want you to die" DM fudging. The newly-minted mage, thinking himself too big for his robes, had the thief open locks, dodge tricks, almost die to a symbol...

So he could get into the Big Bad's lair. Spells are traded one to one, the mage has no chance, begins to try to make demands that we do certain combat options.

Me (the fighter) and my friend (the Rogue) looked at each other, said "No, that's alright" then did a head count for "bail the arcanist".

5-1, and we got the Hell out of there.

The temper tantrum afterward? Glorious. We just don't do that sort of thing, and wanted to win the battle with our own wits, when we were ready, and we knew TPKs were going to happen. So we held our actions, free actioned our apology, and then proceeded to Kool-Aid Man our way out of that pit of misery.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[kitsune9]

No, never. I never this kind of player. The closest I ever got was playing a loud-mouth thug, but I would only talk trash to monsters that we were fighting, I would never do it to other players nor would I do anything that would derail or detract from the adventure.

 

[prosfilaes]

Some of the players were yelling you never ever try out a magical item without identifying it. Which I thought was just huge metagaming.

I don't see why. How dangerous it is to go around playing with a random magical item is surely a function of the world, and something the characters could know.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I can't think of a time when I was a dick...but I bet some of the guys and gals I've played with over the decades might have a different view on that.

 

[S'mon]

No, but... "He would just sit there and wait his turn and then roll dice. And even that he wasn't very good at" is annoying. I won't necessarily want to play with that person for long.

 

[Wycen]

After the final session of the Philosophy of Science Fiction class I took a few years ago the professor chose us as his "favorite class" of the quarter and took us out for beer and pizza. During the conversation later he said I ruined another students presentation in class and I responded, maybe I was being a dick. In my defense the other student was probably tweaking and really if you get up in front of class and tell us your band's video is up on YouTube, somebody, maybe not me, is going to ask about it.

Anyway, that is the first thing that comes to mind. But I think I've been a dick in gaming on a rare occasion. Usually I try to be a peacekeeper or diplomat or something watch the fun, but I remember back many years playing Vampire the Masquerade another player basically told me I was being a dick to him, which at the time was true, but it was because I finally had an opportunity to revel in not being a wuss underling, but I carried it too far.

Then I remember singling out a friend in another game cause I was pissed that I had been "invited" to pick him up and drop him off every session. This was preceded by a business failure which ended his friendship with a mutual friend, so I had taken sides in the matter but nobody but me knew that.

I wonder if as I get older and more grognardian, if I'll be more willing to be a dick.

 

[Elf Witch]

I don't see why. How dangerous it is to go around playing with a random magical item is surely a function of the world, and something the characters could know.

It was a calculated risk based on the fact that my character had knowledge arcana and no one else did.

I did ask and I rolled a natural 20 which in our games is a +10 so I if I remember correctly my total score was 38. The DM told me that I knew that invisibility is often put on items such as rings and earrings and that I had never heard of it being done without a magical spell or an item.

Later it turned out these assassin were a special race of humans modified to be able to use improved invisibility as special ability. Which made me go yeah right when did you pull that one out of your butt.

The reason I say it was metagaming was the two characters making the huge fuss were both playing characters from the boondocks who had never seen magic or been around it before. Instead they were using their player knowledge of some combined 30 years of playing to make their arguments.