Don't hate the playa, hate the game

[Boddha]

One of my pet peeves is players who seem to beleive that everything they see/encounter is fair game for their characters (ie. the party can defeat it in a straight up fight) and then complain when they cause a TPK.

I am fond of dropping encounters with NPCs way above my players level into the game to develop future plot hooks (most don't come to fruition, but it's nice when the players realize that things have been happening as both direct and indirect consequences of their actions and can join the dots themselves), but get frustrated when players decide to take the hit first, negotiate later tactic and consequently take a pounding. They are starting to learn however and are even beginning to make allies.

 

[ZosKia]

Hi Boddha
A similar thing happened in the last session of the game I'm running. The party are all first level, though all the players apart from one are experienced. When they enounter a monster they (the characters) haven't seen before I show them the picture from the MM. In one case one of the experienced players recognised a monsters CR and it's special powers so they avoided fighting it. However this advanced knowledge backfired later when the party met some orcs. Another of the experienced players assumed because the characters were first level the orcs were too and charged in. They weren't they were third

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I have to agree that trust is very important. It's one of my chief failings that if a trusted friend does something, it doesn't bother me, but if someone I don't like does the same thing, I can get majorly cheesed off. But there are still instances where you can tell if you should be mad at the NPC who screwed you over, or the DM that made it happen.

When the nightstalker says "mmm, delicious magic weapon" and crunches up your sword, hate the nightstalker.
When you kill something with one blow and the DM glares at you, asks you to list all the bonuses on your fancy weapon, then goes after your sword...then shouts at you when his first attempt fails, and laughs when the sword is finally smushed...frown at the DM.

When the bad guy gets hit with a spell and teleports away to let his minions fight you, hate the bad guy.
When the bad guy gets hit with a spell during the surprise round, and is allowed to teleport away before initiative is rolled...and the DM makes a comment about increasing his spell resistance before letting us fight him again...frown at the DM.

When the same bad guy pops in and out again with more minions the next morning, and places the huge monsters on either side of the party, hate the bad guy.
When the DM says that he's figured out that this is how to "get" the party, and makes those beasties not be able to miss or fail saves except on a 1...frown at the DM, and wonder how everyone managed to survive. And mourn the poor horse, that was killed so that we couldnt easily cart away the loot we found.

When you run into NPCs that obviously outclass you, hate the bad guys, and try to figure out alternative means of completing your goals.
When every NPC outclasses you, and you have no choice but to do what the plot tells you to do, frown at the DM, and try to figure out alternative means of staying alive while the DM prattles on about his own creative genious.

When the DM congratulates you on your victories, cheers for your crits, and teases you kindly on your failures, hate the bad guys...and love the DM.
When the DM glares at you when you crit, swears when he doesn't hit you, and laughs about how he's going to get you or kill you all, don't worry about the bad guys. Worry about the DM.

When the DM who plays with you rolls a 1, cheer for your good luck.
When the DM who plays against you rolls a dozen 1s a session, call it karma.

 

[Imperialus]

actually during our last session I caught myself just prior to an outburst and had to remind myself that it was just a game. We were fighting some wierd NPC who would teleport at and also had this ability where if he hit your weapon with his flail he could force a fort save and if you failed the weapon would disintegrate. I have a hexblade so I stepped in as the next toughest fighter. Anyhow we rolled opposed attack rolls, I rolled a 17 modified to a 24 by my BAB STR and the +1 enchantment bonus... fail. Ok no big deal he has by spear entangled now... fort save, I rolled a 19! modified to a 24. I was sure my spear was at least safe. Well aperently not... it disitegrated... I was pissed. I mean I was spitting distance from being a frontline fighter, I was 6th level and this +1 spear was my only magic item and one of the other guys we were fighting had damage reduction.

At any rate I took a deep breath and proceeded to draw my MW longsword that I kept around as a backup weapon, knocked him down to the negatives and straddled his chest punching his unconcious body in the face with the pommel of my sword.