D&D 5E GMs of EN World: What player behavior annoys you the most?

Some of my session 0 rules:
* Be engaged in the story and go with it
* Work with the other players / PCs

About 80% of the way through our 5e Age of Worms campaign, one of my players, a great role player, was ready to leave because the players were all starting to do their own things rather than working together, one PC had gone lawful evil and was ready to kill everything that got in his way, and one PC would attack everything that could possibly be enemy before it had a chance to talk.

I had a "come to Heironeous" talk with the entire group. We got everything moving forward again, and the group did better in game and out of game as a result. When I moved from San Diego to New York at the start of the year, the two players who had been most disruptive decided not to join us for the final chapter.

I will definitely be revisiting some of this for our next session 0.

DRF said:

I convinced my group of friends to play. Six players and myself; they're all smart people. All of us at least have Master's degrees and one might start a PhD soon. Despite that, however, I'm literally the only one who has bothered to read the free PDF rulebook. There's also a frustrating sense of "the DM should know", especially from one player.

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It's not too surprising - people want to play not get homework. You are the one who is going to do most of the heavy lifting/background reading. The most you can hope for is that the players at least remember to bring their dice and character sheets... You will have to remember what happened last time and give a decent recap to get them re-situated in the adventure. They will have forgotten most of what happened until they are reminded. I know it's unbelievable but it's true!

That same player has a tremendously difficult time understanding that 5e is not the same as Pathfinder. He keeps trying to teach the new players the rules, but he doesn't know the damn rules because he hasn't read them!

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He needs to be taken aside and asked to desist.

So annoying. They are also sort of defeatist when it comes to their character sheets. Yes, when you first look at one and you haven't played D&D before, then they can seem overwhelming. But at least try to understand them instead of waiting for me to explain everything. I mean, it isn't that complicated.

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The character sheets are quite overwhelming - remember the players don't want homework - they'll get more comfortable over time but for now it's just a sea of numbers most of which aren't used most of the time.

I've run two one-shorts which honestly went well, but I can't really stand any sexual stuff in D&D. I don't want to roleplay some barmaid a player wants to seduce. It's weird and does nothing for the narrative.

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Remember you don't have to roleplay in the first person.

"The barmaid is unimpressed by your advances."

Yet the player persists.

"The barmaid gestures to a figure lurking in a darkened corner. You see an enormous half-orc stand up and head your way with a menacing look on his face. The barmaid points at you and walks off to another table..."

robus said:

Remember you don't have to roleplay in the first person.

"The barmaid is unimpressed by your advances."

Yet the player persists.

"The barmaid gestures to a figure lurking in a darkened corner. You see an enormous half-orc stand up and head your way with a menacing look on his face. The barmaid points at you and walks off to another table..."

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Or pan to the window. Start and finish with "OK, you seduce the barmaid." Then move on.

Another big one of mine. Players who don't take notes, use their brain to remember, etc and every time a situation comes up where they need to remember something they say "well my character would know this...". I'm always like, sure they will, if you do.

I never have problems with cell phones in the games I run. The players pretty much stay engaged, which I'm very appreciative of, but they're just generally the type of people who wouldn't get their phone out during a gaming session anyway.

My one pet peeve is that one player constantly bounces his dice on the table during every one else's turns. The player is a great person, but is just fidgety, and is constantly making noise with his dice, whether it's in D&D or Warhammer 40k, and it's often distracting to anyone else playing. I've asked him to control it better, but he doesn't do it consciously, so it continues to happen more than I'd like.

Flexor the Mighty! said:

Another big one of mine. Players who don't take notes, use their brain to remember, etc and every time a situation comes up where they need to remember something they say "well my character would know this...". I'm always like, sure they will, if you do.

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It's funny. One of my pet peeves is DMs who expect me to remember everything that my character would remember because I want to pay attention to the game and not be constantly taking notes.

I may not remember that the Prince's dog was named Alfonzo because we last played a month ago and I have a life. For my character? If it's important to the plot and it was just brought up 2 hours ago in game time that the Prince's brother was also named Alfonzo and the dog looks remarkably like the "missing" brother's painting? Yes, my character would probably remember.

alienux said:

I never have problems with cell phones in the games I run. The players pretty much stay engaged, which I'm very appreciative of, but they're just generally the type of people who wouldn't get their phone out during a gaming session anyway.

My one pet peeve is that one player constantly bounces his dice on the table during every one else's turns. The player is a great person, but is just fidgety, and is constantly making noise with his dice, whether it's in D&D or Warhammer 40k, and it's often distracting to anyone else playing. I've asked him to control it better, but he doesn't do it consciously, so it continues to happen more than I'd like.

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Maybe it's time to get them a fidget spinner. Still annoying, but not quite as bad.

Oofta said:

It's funny. One of my pet peeves is DMs who expect me to remember everything that my character would remember because I want to pay attention to the game and not be constantly taking notes.

I may not remember that the Prince's dog was named Alfonzo because we last played a month ago and I have a life. For my character? If it's important to the plot and it was just brought up 2 hours ago in game time that the Prince's brother was also named Alfonzo and the dog looks remarkably like the "missing" brother's painting? Yes, my character would probably remember.

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There's also something to be said about running the kinds of adventures that speak to your players' abilities. If my players are bad at remembering a lot of plot-critical details and don't feel like taking notes, then I'm just going to run scenarios that don't hinge on said details. You probably don't have to remember the prince's dog's name if you're just bashing goblins in a dungeon.

iserith said:

There's also something to be said about running the kinds of adventures that speak to your players' abilities. If my players are bad at remembering a lot of plot-critical details and don't feel like taking notes, then I'm just going to run scenarios that don't hinge on said details. You probably don't have to remember the prince's dog's name if you're just bashing goblins in a dungeon.

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My PC may have the keen memory feat. I do not. I play to have fun and hang out with friends, not to take a graduate level course on Bob's World with Pop Quizzes (tm).

Don't get me wrong, Bob's World may be amazing and full of intricate plot details. I love those kinds of games. But it's still a game and I have a life. Things that are critical to my character are just another Saturday afternoon game session to me.

But seriously. Would you rather have your players engaged and interacting with you and other players or have them with heads down taking detailed notes and asking you to pause while you figure out how to spell Fizzlebin? Or was that Fizzelbin? Fizelbyn? AAARRRGHH.

Anyway I don't want to derail this thread any more than we have.

I've seen a lot of annoy things in my 30+ years playing RPGs but currently, since I'm the only DM, I have a few big ones:

1. Players that steamroll the group. Powergamers and min/maxers don't bother me. If they are reasonable and courteous to others, they can be dealt with in-game. It's the player that always HAS to be the loudest voice in the room ALL THE TIME that really gets under my skin. No matter what the group is doing or deciding what to do, this player is always contrary to the point of "taking their ball and going home" if they don't get their way, even if that decision is clearly a bad one (like splitting the party). Essentially, if D&D was real-life, he would make the worst adventurer ever because no one would want to be in a group with him.

2. Players that check-out when it's not their turn. This usually results in me having to repeat flavor text or descriptions CONSTANTLY or the player missing something in combat and getting mad when something doesn't go their way because of it. I don't have a problem with phones or tablets at the table. That said, they are usually the thing that is pulling the attention away from the player that doesn't pay attention.

3. Not staying in-character. I don't require players to stay in-character 100% of the time but during combat or when interacting with an NPC, it's expected. I like to run things "real-time". I have a general rule: I will assume everything is in-character and real-time in-game unless told otherwise. So if you start taking strategy during combat or saying things out loud, the NPCs will hear you. If you have a rules question or need additional information, that's fine. I've found players that simply cannot wrap their heads around this...

To further complicate these table behavior problems, a player who exhibits one of these usually also exhibits all three. And so far, from my experience, it's very difficult to address these problems with this type of player face-to-face and having the result being positive. Usually the player just reverts back to their typical behavior or doubles-down and gets defensive.

As you may have gathered, I currently have a player like this. It's made worse by the fact that this player is great to hang out with otherwise. He's really generous with beer & snacks and always looking forward to the next session. Playing board games and card games goes fine. But playing RPGs, especially D&D, forget it. It's to the point where the other players in the group (who are also friends out of game), flat-out don't want to play with him because the game isn't fun.