What are the no-goes for you?

[Teflon Billy]

wow,

We could not game together. All of my players used to smoke. But over the last decade all of us have managed to quit, but it was never an issue. there was even smoking at the table until, my group started popping out kids that wanted to play. Society punishes smokers enough for me to not have to make them refugees when they come to game as well. As long as they don't mind stepping out onto the screened area in the back yard and tossing their butts in one of the ashtrays then they are welcome smoke at my house. Hell on special occasions my group will all go out on the back deck and have cigars.

My group sometimes contains up to three couples from the the married folks, and the unmarried ones sometimes bring their significant others around to play. It was only a problem a very few times over the 17 years my folks have been tossing dice (and I can assure it had to do with individuals as as opposed to the practice in general).

As for drinking. Not only is it allowed at our games. But we tie it into the game. We give out wench points to players who shirk their gaming responsibilities, act dishonorably, or have a string of bad luck in play. The player with the most at the end of the session is the beer wench next session (making all of the other players their drinks). It has never really been an issue for us. The basic idea is that I am hanging with these folks, and I would go out drinking with them normally, so they can get into their cups on game day. Sometimes it goes too far and ends a session early, but that is fairly rare, and its certainly not a dealbreaker for me when it does.

As for finisihing on time. Well that just does not happen. Its always early or later than a clock time we set. But I figured out over the years that if pne of my player has something to do, they will leave when they need to do it. It is not uncommon for player to tell me upon arrival that they will be having to leave at a specific time, and I will try and pace my game so that that specific time does not fall in the middle of an encounter.

In fact the only real deal breakers for me are the following-

Mean people~ I don't want to game with folks who have dispositions that would make me not want to hang out with them in other scenarios.My general rule is that if its not the kind of person that I would call up and enjoy haning out with in general then its probably not a good match for our group.

Sketchy people~ this is a catagory for those folks who will always tell you they are coming and then call you the day afte game day and tell you why they could not make it. I don't ever give my player grief when something comes up, but I expect to know about it so I can adjust the encounters, (and if we are serving food make less). My players can getaway with thsi some time to time and just get a little grief when it happens. But players who regularly do this have been removed fromt he group.

Stinky people~ This has been a reoccuring problem over the years. And its a touchy topic, but lif is too short to hang in a room with someone for 6 hours who did not bathe or that has been walkiing around in 100 degree weather with no socks on for a few days. My gaming group spans lots of social spectrums (I have gamed with homeless gutter punks and medical doctors atthe same table) and some of them kids are stinky. I aint dealing with it. I will pull a stinky player aside and givethem a towel and send them to the shower room to scrun those pups off or straight up take a shower. I have lost a couple of good stinky but sensitive players over the years. But thats just the way it goes.


There are other things that pop up from time to time, but those are the major three.

love,

malkav

Ok, I don't really need to post nbow other than to say that I agree with Malkav.

Though honestly, most of my bad RPG experiences revolve around Vampire LARPers playing Malkavians

 

[Teflon Billy]

Oh, one other thing. I hate having a TV on in the same room where we're playing. Talk about distracting!

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

 

[Bumbles]

Several? Sounds like you missed out on some action there.

I also missed out on the STD's and the Pregnancy scares so it's a trade-off I can live with.

 

[Ecce]

I just thought of one in-game no-go of mine that is probably a fairly uncommon dislike. I absolutely hate campaigns that are heavy on economics. I don't really care about collecting gold, and I'll usually give it away to anyone that wants it. When I DM games I usually just tell everyone that I'm not going to include money in the game. I just give the group a number of rituals they're allowed to use per level (generally 4).

 

[Carpe DM]

As for drinking. Not only is it allowed at our games. But we tie it into the game. We give out wench points to players who shirk their gaming responsibilities, act dishonorably, or have a string of bad luck in play. The player with the most at the end of the session is the beer wench next session (making all of the other players their drinks).

Yoink!!

More to the point, I would not play with anyone with whom anything would not go. This doesn't mean anything goes. It means I know very well, trust, and am close friends with the people I game with. It's about people, not hard-and-fast rules.

This doesn't mean that at some point, someone in one of my games hasn't done everything on folks' lists, above. They certainly have. And at the right place and time, their doing so has almost always improved the game.

The point I'm making is that this isn't about what players at your table do. It's about who they -- and you -- are.

 

[outsider]

Does this include death by hit point loss or any other unfavorable consequences?

I'm only asking because that's phrased so broadly, I'm not sure what you mean.

Basically what Mouse described(ie forcibly altering a character's background), plus a bit more. Character death is fine. Temporary changes are fine. Permanent changes not so much. For example, say I'm playing a Rifts mage, and the GM engineers things so the mage is captured and unwillingly cybered, thus destroying his magic. You might as well just kill off the character instead, because there'd be no way I'm playing that character again. I believe that players should have input on such a massive change to their character if the DM expects them to keep playing it. I'm not going to play a character I don't like and didn't design myself.

 

[Orius]

I won't play with people who are drunk or stoned. A beer or two is one thing, but if it starts impeding your ability to take the game seriously--or, alternatively, causes you to take it too seriously--then it's impeding my ability to enjoy the game.

Same here. If you're too smashed, then not only are you not into the game, but you're distracting the other players.

We have some disagreement here...
Drunken dungeons can be and have been among the best ever! Our only point of common ground.

It might be okay if the other players want to play a less serious game drunk, but I don't like getting drunk myself.

Oh, one other thing. I hate having a TV on in the same room where we're playing. Talk about distracting!

I can't stand when the TV's on. Too distracting, messes up the whole damn game. Pretty much anything that's a distration like music that doesn't fit the game and/or is too loud, TV, other games, cell phones, whatever. If you came to game, then game. It's rude to be futzing around with something else and you don't know what the hell's happening in the game.

as a DM, I can't stand rules lawyers... I go as much by the book as possible, and if I'm wrong, certainly feel free to correct me, but I'd prefer doing it after the game and not derailing an entire encounter right in the middle of it to have an argument over minutia.

I also can't stand lone wolf stereotypes and players who deliberately try to sidestep whatever their DM might have had planned... if I've got an amazing storyline all mapped out and you refuse to leave the inn without me railroading you out the door, don't blame me if it's a less than exciting session.

Any sort of disruptive character build is annoying. Try to be flexible enough to accomodate your fellow players.

1) Evil campaign. I've heard of this working, in a "my friend's cousin's co-worker ran an evil campaign that worked out fine" kind of way, but I've never seen this work myself. About half of high school was this type of game for me, and I hated it the whole time.

I'm very strongly considering banning evil characters from the game. At first I didn't have a problem with it, but then I dealt with a player that was getting on the other players nerves with it. I've had a one or two evil characters that weren't too disruptive, but the others really caused problems. At the very least, it'll have to be something like new players aren't aloowed evil characters.

4) Any game that takes itself too seriously. This is a friggin hobby. I'm here to have fun, which for me involves laughing a lot. I want to play in a group where fart jokes are always appropriate.

This and corrollary: I do not want a game where "in character" is strongly enforced, everyone only speaks with some god-awful Renaissance-fairesque dialogue and any one who doesn't is penalized. You want to roleplay, fine, but I like cracking jokes and being a smartass at the table. I know how to keep the socializing and the RPing seperate while playing. If I'm DMing, do not expect me to enforce an rule like this, in fact I'll break it left and right.

3.a) People in the room, that aren't in the game, who keep interrupting to make "funny" comments.

I hate that too. When I was younger my old man would do that all the time when we'd be playing at the house, and it would make me feel like a dork. If you're not playing, butt out if you have nothing constructive to say. And really, if you don't want to play it's rude to intrude upon the game.

I won't allow smoking in my house (we play all games in my game-room), and if I really had my druthers, there'd be no smokers in the game. Smokers stink. Smokers waste time with periodic smoke breaks. Smokers are a pain in the butt, when it comes to gaming.

No smoking for me as well. I don't smoke, and I don't like smoke. And you make a good point about smoke breaks wasting time. If enough (like a majority) of the players smoke and they want occasional breaks outside, then fine as long as it's not every 15 minutes or often enough that it breaks up the rhythm of the game.

A lot of it for me comes down to the fact that I'm a big wuss. I don't care for PvP/competitiveness in any setting, really. I think it is a problem with empathy - in order for me to win, someone else has to lose. I know how much I hate to lose, and I don't like making someone else feel that (even if they don't feel about it the same way as me).

I don't play online games that are really competitive (beyond competing for highest kill count or something innocuous like that). I played DDO for a few years, and there was no PvP in my life.

Same here, but it's more of a matter of dealing with backstabbing bastards IRL enough that I want to get away from it in the game. I do enjoy some PvP occasionally, but I don't want it a constant. I don't like it in D&D where things aren't balanced for D&D, and I don't like it in online gaming either, where some people simply get off to constantly defeating other people (and online also has the added irritation of some of these people having very fast hardware/connection/whatever that gives them better reaction time)

- Don't abuse my props. Don't throw my minis (I have lots of metal minis, some lovingly painted by myself and my wife) don't whack my Dwarven Forge around (yes, it's tough, it's not indestructible), don't use my books for drink coasters.

Same here. I'm kind of a stingy cheap-ass so I don't like the idea of my stuff getting ruined, but it's still rude to damage another person's property.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I would not play with anyone with whom anything would not go.

I think you just created a paradox!

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

My "no-go's":

1) Players being dishonest (cheating rolls, intentionally advancing characters improperly, etc)

2) Meta-gamers... my players start each character with a concept, and then are supposed to advance their characters according to that concept.... min/max isn't allowed

3) Rules Lawyers... AAACK! The rules are a guideline, so say the rule books. Plus there are table rules, and other things that we have worked out for ourselves. Do not tell me that on page 14 of the Player's Handbook, on chart 5.3, 3rd line, 6th word says that this is the way I have to run my table.... Plain and simple... if you don't like our group rules, find another group.

4) DM's cheating for the players, or for themselves. All combat rolls/ ST for the encounters are rolled in plain sight so that there is no cheating. IF a character dies, then we are all saddened; however, no character is guaranteed success, and occasionally, that 1hd orc gets a lucky shot, and hits a character in the back for a crit and does max damage... live by and die by.

5) 4/5 Half-dragon, half-celestion neutral paladin/assassin... There are plenty of good times to be had with the basic races and classes.

 

[Phat Lute]

Backstabbing Players - Groups that are very tolerant of players who regularly try to screw over the rest of the group.

The one time I walked out of a game and never came back, it was this, after four months with the group. We found out, in character from an informant, that the combat-oriented member of the group was really an assassin. Her mission: to find out everything the rest of the PCs knew about the main plot, then kill us in our sleep.

The player was the GM's friend, and we played at this player's house. I guess he thought this was license to do whatever he wanted. We decided to keep going, we each had invested four months to a year on our characters, but we weren't just going to wait for this guy's character to kill us, either. We had his character meet ours in a warehouse to confront her about what we learned. When we started talking, she attacked us. I survived (in truth I wasn't really standing in front of her talking), and as I had more or less freeform illusion powers she had no defense against and was the sneaky, tactical player, I was the one she wanted to kill the most. I filled the room with illusory duplicates of myself and then left. As I left, my character's illusory dupes all turned to her and said, "Sooner or later, you're going to have to cross the street.". (Code for: The light will look green, and you won't see the bus until it hits you.)

The player (a grown man) freaked, threw a tantrum, and told me to leave. I did, and never came back.

I would not go through that again.