D&D 5E Deal Breakers - Or woah, that is just too much

[Nagol]

I would have thought it best you go in with open eyes here, and create a character fully aware the journey, not the end, is the goal for Lovecraftian play.

Of course it is, but I tend to become attached to my characters. That's why I tend to pass on these systems. I'll play a one-off, but if it is a campaign pitch, I'll pass the game.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Sacrosanct]

For me the game is a secondary concern. The real question for me is "Do I enjoy hanging around these guys/girls once a week or every two weeks?" If I do, then I'll play whatever games in whatever styles they want. But if I don't buy in to who they are as people and we just don't click, then I'll leave the group.
.)

Pretty much this. It's a social event, above all else. Besides, most of my dealbreakers come down to people behavior anyway.

Powergaming, racists, evil campaigns, hygiene, unreliability, etc all come down to behavior, and not a game system.

 

[Awesome Adam]

I tend to actually read the fluff and rules for the games I play, so I expect things to conform to the general fiction and mechanics of said rulebook.

Playing in a custom setting, or with heavily home ruled mechanics, would be fine if they were honest about I ahead of time, but I loathe when GM's asks me to play a game and what we enconter makes me question if the GM ever read the rules or fluff himself.

Vampire the Masquerade Campaign where the Tremere literally ran everything, because the Story Teller also played a Tremere in game.

STAR WARS campaign were space pirates had Anime Inspired Craft with technology far surpassing anything seen in the books and movies, but armor cost 10 times more than standard and didn't work as well as in the rulebook.

MARVEL by TSR, where the players just gave their characters stats and powers they wanted with NO restriction, and easily outmatched all the existing in game characters, for no reason.

I showed up once to play a modern setting game, but using a homebrew based on D&D basic. Within 5 minutes of starting we drove through a portal at an amusement park and ended up in the World Of Dungeons and Dragons, because the Game Master had recently watched the old D&D Cartoon where modern kids fall through a portal and end up in the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons. I drove the car back. He declared it was struck by lightining. I told him rubber tires insulate cars from lightining strikes and keep the passengers safe. He said the car was hit and demolished by a fireball mere feet from the portal, that was closing. We rolled for damage, I lived, exited the car and jumped through the portal.

 

[the Jester]

A lot of talk about preferences lately.

We are all disparate people who love the game and want to get together to have good times playing it.

So what are things that go beyond preferences for you that would be deal breakers? That would make you say 'thanks but no thanks' to a game.

A game where player agency is not respected. Where the choices the players make don't actually matter. Where there is a story you have to follow and a pre-written outcome.

 

[Mistwell]

Only game I'd walk away from is one where I am not having fun. And I imagine that would be because I am not getting along well with the people at the table. The rules? I can play with pretty much any rules. You want a game of just dwarven wizards with a 3 charisma? OK, sure.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Only game I'd walk away from is one where I am not having fun. And I imagine that would be because I am not getting along well with the people at the table. The rules? I can play with pretty much any rules. You want a game of just dwarven wizards with an 8 charisma? OK, sure.

Gotta agree 100% with Misty here. I suspect we have drastically different DMing and playing styles from our "discussions" over the years, but fun is what matters, not individual rules.

If I was thinking about walking from an otherwise-fun game because of the flanking rules (say), I would feel like I had to re-assess my life choices.

If it was a bad-mediocre game, then the rules would just be an excuse.

There are SETTINGS obnoxious enough to make me not want to start playing, like Castle Falkenstein's setting (if taken at face value), or rules-sets I'd avoid (but might play if everyone else wanted to), but walking on an existing game? Not going to happen if it's fun!

Heavy rail-roading and outrageous GMPCs are a good way to kill fun, I note.

 

[Nagol]

<snip>

I showed up once to play a modern setting game, but using a homebrew based on D&D basic. Within 5 minutes of starting we drove through a portal at an amusement park and ended up in the World Of Dungeons and Dragons, because the Game Master had recently watched the old D&D Cartoon where modern kids fall through a portal and end up in the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons. I drove the car back. He declared it was struck by lightining. I told him rubber tires insulate cars from lightining strikes and keep the passengers safe. He said the car was hit and demolished by a fireball mere feet from the portal, that was closing. We rolled for damage, I lived, exited the car and jumped through the portal.

Heh. As bait and switch jobs go, it isn't the worst I've experienced.

Campaign pitch: Traveler-like universe using HERO system, PCs will be crew of a science research vessel looking for time travel possibilities.
Campaign result: 2nd session all players are together, the universe is destroyed and the surviving characters are transferred (and converted unilaterally by the GM) to Chivalry and Sorcery world. Players needing new characters make them using C&S rules.

Campaign pitch: Aftermath campaign using the default roll-up system starting in the Mississippi delta region.
Campaign result: PCs are in a 20-mile wide bubble on a Starlost-style ark ship. The fact one PC’s background had him as a fighter pilot based out of California was waved aside as “implanted memories”.

 

[Magil]

Deal-breakers... I'd say I'd show up at a table expecting to use the rules to resolve situations. There are things that would turn me off from a game pre-emptively, like most homebrewed worlds that aren't very fleshed out, or excessive house-rules (especially house-rules that look like they were written someone who played older editions/systems and wanted 5E to be more like that).

But the deal-breaker during play I think would be not using the rules, and this comes in two flavors. One, excessive "roleplaying", or improvisational theater, on the part of players and DMs, that has nothing to do with advancing the game (I've only seen this occasionally, but damn is it annoying). I don't mind some world-building or character development (and don't take this statement the wrong way, I love an immersive world and being engaged in a fantasy setting, and I love thinking about how my character would react to situations rather than thinking about the best mechanical benefit to a given scenario), but keep it focused. I have to think that DnD is not the optimal system for a kind of game that doesn't focus on dungeon crawls and/or adventuring days. As for the second flavor, that'd be those who don't know the rules and basically make up stuff as they go. Like, dude, consult the PHB and see if there's a rule that covers that situation first. It's all right to improvise sometimes, and there are a lot of things the rules don't cover, but some of us built our characters under the assumption that the rules would be followed as they're outlined in the rulebook, and you run the risk of making us think our choices don't matter when you can't be bothered to follow or know those rules. Those kinds of things would turn me off of a table and eventually result in withdrawal from the game.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I have to think that DnD is not the optimal system for a kind of game that doesn't focus on dungeon crawls and/or adventuring days.

Heh. Whereas I seriously dislike campaigns that focus too heavily on dungeon crawls and adventuring days. They're not deal-breakers, which is why I didn't mention them, but they could potentially drive me from a campaign over the long term, depending on how else the game was going.