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

[Lanefan]

Deal breakers for me:

Before the campaign starts, or before I join in:

- being shoehorned into playing a specific type/alignment/personality of character either by DM ruling or by party makeup e.g. there's a Paladin in the party who won't accept chaotics or evils so you have to play lawfuls or goods, or the DM arbitrarily bans evil characters...I'm out
- point buy or array for character build and-or non-rolled hit points...life is random, so should the game be
- any sort of ban on PvP, as arguments will realistically happen; and when they happen between naturally violent people (which many adventurers are) violence may result
- a ban on romance/sex/etc. between PCs (yes, I've seen this)
- a rules system where rules mastery is more important than role-playing (3e/PF, I'm looking at you) - if it's one of those systems where I need to refer to my character sheet every other minute to remind myself of what makes it tick, no thanks
- a campaign where I'm going to level up every other session and it's thus going to end in just one or two years; I'm in for the long haul if I join at all, and the campaign had better allow for that
- Drizz't, or any chance of ever encountering same

After it starts, or I join in:

- rules lawyering to excess - there's nothing wrong with clutching the occasional rules straw when your character's sinking fast but if the rules arguments go on session after session it's too much
- a DM who can't hit the curveball and-or can't adjust to the party suddenly deciding to do something completely unexpected
- a DM who doesn't use xp and just levels everyone up now and then (sometimes a red flag that the DM is a bit lazy), or who gives xp for non-game things, or who gives xp to characters who do nothing to earn them
- a DM who insists on RAW even when they trump obvious logic and-or common sense e.g. not allowing simultaneous actions in a combat
- players and-or DM who don't entertain me and-or resent me trying to entertain them - if there's no entertainment, what's the point?
- a DM who insists on jumping from set-piece encounter to set-piece encounter (or even adventure to adventure) with no chance in between to interact with the world, the dungeon, or the rest of the party
- powergaming to excess - if you regularly read char-ops boards I probably don't want to play with you
- metagaming - if you can't separate player knowledge from character knowledge I probably don't want to play with you
- cheating
- drugged-out players or DM
- players whose in-character disputes spill over into real life, or the reverse

The flip side: things I don't mind at all that seem to bother lots of others here

- getting drunk (but not to the point of passing out) at the game - as long as everyone's having fun and has a safe way home, what's the problem?
- in-party conflict, pranks, arguments, etc. - as DM those are the easy nights, and as player it's often loads of fun (even when I'm the one getting pranked)
- DM NPCs in the party, as long as they're treated just like any other character
- evil and-or chaotic characters
- spending time on non-adventuring things in the game - if the party want to spend all night shopping and talking with the townsfolk, fine with me

And to answer the point about wives/husbands/SO's being in the game, I can only offer this years-old quote from the spouse of my Saturday DM: "The worst part of living with the DM is you have to sleep with someone who just killed off your character." Yeah, no favourites here.

Lan-"that might look like a long list of deal-breakers but really all I want is an anything-goes type of game with good and amusing people"-efan

 

[wedgeski]

I'm not sure why everyone feels the need to always be good? Some of the most fun I've had was a party of what were essentially raiders/pirates. We stole,we murdered and fought the righteous and it was a hoot.

As a DM I do not want to be adjudicating the kind of crap that evil characters get up to. Simple as.

 

[dewderino]

As a DM I do not want to be adjudicating the kind of crap that evil characters get up to. Simple as.

As a dm you can do many things. First and foremost you control the level of fun that's had by others. The game isn't about our desires as a dm but the enjoyment of the role playing and fellow gamers. You have to plant flowers to know that a garden is beautiful, but you can't plant flowers without your hands dirty. Because someone is inherently evil doesn't make them difficult to deal with. The fact is that the game is meant to played as a group. Like minded people enjoying the freedom to role play characters they created. Sometimes it's fun to something different. Ever wonder what it's like to be the problem rather than constantly trying to fix it? It's a blast to dm something completely backwards.

 

[wedgeski]

As a dm you can do many things. First and foremost you control the level of fun that's had by others. The game isn't about our desires as a dm but the enjoyment of the role playing and fellow gamers. You have to plant flowers to know that a garden is beautiful, but you can't plant flowers without your hands dirty. Because someone is inherently evil doesn't make them difficult to deal with. The fact is that the game is meant to played as a group. Like minded people enjoying the freedom to role play characters they created. Sometimes it's fun to something different. Ever wonder what it's like to be the problem rather than constantly trying to fix it? It's a blast to dm something completely backwards.

A nice sentiment, but as a DM, I'm effective when I can clearly imagine and narrate what's happening in the world, and I neither want to imagine, nor narrate, the actions of evil PC's. I don't draw many lines, but that's one of them.

 

[Giant2005]

My biggest dealbreaker is a combination of munchkin players, yes-man DMs, and players making their own homebrew for personal use.

One particular player has stopped using anything that he didn't make himself. That wouldn't be so bad if his creations weren't the most op things you can imagine. At level two he is making 3 ranged attacks each round for 2d8+5 damage each. He literally out-damages the rest of the entire party single-handedly.

Sadly, that isn't even an outlier - his last character was a Wizard subclass that he homebrewed that increased the Wizard's hit dice to d12s and made it so he didn't have to use spell slots to cast spells anymore. It really made my Warlock seem like a chump.

 

[Azurewraith]

My biggest dealbreaker is a combination of munchkin players, yes-man DMs, and players making their own homebrew for personal use.

One particular player has stopped using anything that he didn't make himself. That wouldn't be so bad if his creations weren't the most op things you can imagine. At level two he is making 3 ranged attacks each round for 2d8+5 damage each. He literally out-damages the rest of the entire party single-handedly.

Sadly, that isn't even an outlier - his last character was a Wizard subclass that he homebrewed that increased the Wizard's hit dice to d12s and made it so he didn't have to use spell slots to cast spells anymore. It really made my Warlock seem like a chump.

That sounds awful I can't believe the dmg would allow this. I mean I'm fine with home brew but I vet the crap out of it first

 

[Giant2005]

That sounds awful I can't believe the dmg would allow this. I mean I'm fine with home brew but I vet the crap out of it first

Ironically, 4 people in my group have been known to occasionally run campaigns, and the same guy that creates these outrageous homebrews is the only one of them that has the good sense to say no to outrageous homebrew.

 

[Arial Black]

I would have to be the stubborn one and accept the geas damage with my middle finger in the air.

If you don't want to play that campaign, then don't. It would be absurd to knowingly create a PC that refused to take part in the adventure the DM created.

The DM tells you about this 'Suicide Squad' game, then if you want to play then you create a PC that would work in that campaign, and if you don't want to play that campaign then you don't create a PC for it at all!

 

[Azurewraith]

If you don't want to play that campaign, then don't. It would be absurd to knowingly create a PC that refused to take part in the adventure the DM created.

The DM tells you about this 'Suicide Squad' game, then if you want to play then you create a PC that would work in that campaign, and if you don't want to play that campaign then you don't create a PC for it at all!

I play with an all friend group it would be a comic thing that would end up getting undone. Don't worry I'm not that guy

 

[dewderino]

A nice sentiment, but as a DM, I'm effective when I can clearly imagine and narrate what's happening in the world, and I neither want to imagine, nor narrate, the actions of evil PC's. I don't draw many lines, but that's one of them.

So from your point of view the Oathbreaker shouldn't exist, thieves shouldn't exist and only by the book hero play is allowed? Where's your creativity? As a dm I find it fun to create a quest for evil pc's. You can play against their evil. Constantly putting them in a position to be overtaken by good makes it fun for myself and the other players. Suicide squad type game play is fun.