Oryan77
Adventurer
There was mention on another thread about players complaining about a DM and it got me to thinking about the different things I've been told by whining players (cause well, I'm a terrible DM).
So lets post up all the various complaints you can remember hearing by players. We all know there are plenty of DMs out there that probably deserve to be complained about, so this topic is only for situations where you feel the complaints were piddly or undeserved.
Here are a bunch that I have been involved in:
1. After being asked multiple questions via email from a player new to the Planescape setting and trying to answer them all, I finally offered to let her read my official 2e Planescape Player's Guide books that were written to help new players understand the setting. The response I got was, "So you want me to do homework!?!?" It was followed by a rant about how I should explain these things during the game.
2. The same player once told me that her last DM never read boxed text and he ad-libbed everything. She told me that she didn't like that I read it. I grew up playing D&D with DMs that read the boxed text. Heck, I often ad-lib it after I read it so I can describe the scene again and add more flavor to it.
3. I allow over 30 different races to be used in our PS game. Even with that many options to choose from, I've still had 2 or 3 players whine and beg me to allow some random race not on that list. The player mentioned above even begged me to allow a Tauren from WoW in my D&D game, and I don't even play WoW.
4. I had a player argue with me for 30 minutes because I wouldn't tell him the Charisma score of the women in the tavern so he could make sure that the one he flirted with in hopes to bang was the hottest. I'd tell him who his PC thought was the best looking, but he kept wanting to know their scores (to be safe I guess). It was the weirdest argument I've ever had, but I'm stubborn and refused to metagame.
5. I met a guy in hopes of bringing him to our game. During the "interview" he asked me what I thought about allowing the Leadership feat. I explained how if a player can use it without abusing it, I have no problem with it. He then starts to argue with me about why I would limit the use of the feat to only certain players. Now, he didn't ask me what I thought about that specific feat if he didn't already know why I would restrict it to certain players (and I never said he couldn't use it). And why was he arguing with me? I just met him. He was not invited to game with us.
6. I met a different guy in hopes of bringing him to our game. I kid you not, he found something to argue with me about every single subject matter. He'd ask me about races, then complain cause I didn't allow a certain oddball race. He'd ask me about magic items, then complain cause I didn't use magic item shops. So on and so on. I'm a friendly guy, so I'm not enticing people that I don't know to argue with me. I told him the next day that he would not be invited to the game. He didn't make it any easier by begging me to give him another chance and stating, "I make terrible first impressions!"
7. I had a player who told me she refused to read any rules. That's fine with me as long as the player doesn't become a burden. We know the rules enough to help out. The problem was, she became the most argumentative player at the table. Even if I would explain to her the correct way to use an ability when she would incorrectly use it, she would argue with me about it. But she stuck to her guns and wouldn't read the rules so she knew how a Paladin worked!
8. One player got mad at me for giving advice on creating a backstory that would fit with the Planescape setting that she was unfamiliar with. I didn't offer any changes that messed up the initial idea, just the details on setting specific fluff. I wasn't even demanding that she use my ideas, they were just suggestions to help make her idea work. She eventually told me her PC had direct contact from a god (a god that she made up) and this ordeal left her with some sort of personal bond with this deity. I wondered why she kept completely changing her ideas, and I found out why after I told her I don't allow gods (and no made up gods) to contact 1st level PCs without it being done myself. She told me I keep trying to write her backstory for her and she didn't appreciate it. So she made a completely different character since I "wouldn't allow" her ideas for this PC.
9. That player finally left the game after getting mad because I wouldn't allow her to name her animal companion "Marshmallow". I simply didn't want to make a mockery of the game and I don't allow silly names. She even went as far as to use the French word for Marshmallow to "trick" me. She didn't realize one of my friends speaks fluent French and he laughed when he heard the name and immediately told us the meaning. I was tired of dealing with it and said the French name was fine. But it nagged at her that she couldn't use Marshmallow and after her continual emails about it, I told her she would probably be better off not playing with me as her DM. She finally agreed.
10. That same player eventually started calling me a controlling DM and began badmouthing me and actually called me sexist. I barely even knew her. My wife was not very happy at all when she heard about this, so the player was no longer allowed back to our home to play in our other games.
So lets post up all the various complaints you can remember hearing by players. We all know there are plenty of DMs out there that probably deserve to be complained about, so this topic is only for situations where you feel the complaints were piddly or undeserved.
Here are a bunch that I have been involved in:
1. After being asked multiple questions via email from a player new to the Planescape setting and trying to answer them all, I finally offered to let her read my official 2e Planescape Player's Guide books that were written to help new players understand the setting. The response I got was, "So you want me to do homework!?!?" It was followed by a rant about how I should explain these things during the game.
2. The same player once told me that her last DM never read boxed text and he ad-libbed everything. She told me that she didn't like that I read it. I grew up playing D&D with DMs that read the boxed text. Heck, I often ad-lib it after I read it so I can describe the scene again and add more flavor to it.
3. I allow over 30 different races to be used in our PS game. Even with that many options to choose from, I've still had 2 or 3 players whine and beg me to allow some random race not on that list. The player mentioned above even begged me to allow a Tauren from WoW in my D&D game, and I don't even play WoW.
4. I had a player argue with me for 30 minutes because I wouldn't tell him the Charisma score of the women in the tavern so he could make sure that the one he flirted with in hopes to bang was the hottest. I'd tell him who his PC thought was the best looking, but he kept wanting to know their scores (to be safe I guess). It was the weirdest argument I've ever had, but I'm stubborn and refused to metagame.
5. I met a guy in hopes of bringing him to our game. During the "interview" he asked me what I thought about allowing the Leadership feat. I explained how if a player can use it without abusing it, I have no problem with it. He then starts to argue with me about why I would limit the use of the feat to only certain players. Now, he didn't ask me what I thought about that specific feat if he didn't already know why I would restrict it to certain players (and I never said he couldn't use it). And why was he arguing with me? I just met him. He was not invited to game with us.
6. I met a different guy in hopes of bringing him to our game. I kid you not, he found something to argue with me about every single subject matter. He'd ask me about races, then complain cause I didn't allow a certain oddball race. He'd ask me about magic items, then complain cause I didn't use magic item shops. So on and so on. I'm a friendly guy, so I'm not enticing people that I don't know to argue with me. I told him the next day that he would not be invited to the game. He didn't make it any easier by begging me to give him another chance and stating, "I make terrible first impressions!"
7. I had a player who told me she refused to read any rules. That's fine with me as long as the player doesn't become a burden. We know the rules enough to help out. The problem was, she became the most argumentative player at the table. Even if I would explain to her the correct way to use an ability when she would incorrectly use it, she would argue with me about it. But she stuck to her guns and wouldn't read the rules so she knew how a Paladin worked!
8. One player got mad at me for giving advice on creating a backstory that would fit with the Planescape setting that she was unfamiliar with. I didn't offer any changes that messed up the initial idea, just the details on setting specific fluff. I wasn't even demanding that she use my ideas, they were just suggestions to help make her idea work. She eventually told me her PC had direct contact from a god (a god that she made up) and this ordeal left her with some sort of personal bond with this deity. I wondered why she kept completely changing her ideas, and I found out why after I told her I don't allow gods (and no made up gods) to contact 1st level PCs without it being done myself. She told me I keep trying to write her backstory for her and she didn't appreciate it. So she made a completely different character since I "wouldn't allow" her ideas for this PC.
9. That player finally left the game after getting mad because I wouldn't allow her to name her animal companion "Marshmallow". I simply didn't want to make a mockery of the game and I don't allow silly names. She even went as far as to use the French word for Marshmallow to "trick" me. She didn't realize one of my friends speaks fluent French and he laughed when he heard the name and immediately told us the meaning. I was tired of dealing with it and said the French name was fine. But it nagged at her that she couldn't use Marshmallow and after her continual emails about it, I told her she would probably be better off not playing with me as her DM. She finally agreed.
10. That same player eventually started calling me a controlling DM and began badmouthing me and actually called me sexist. I barely even knew her. My wife was not very happy at all when she heard about this, so the player was no longer allowed back to our home to play in our other games.
