Whining & Complaining

[Krensky]

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).

I find a zero tolerance policy involving cattle prods addresses this effectively.

In seriousness though, I just typically say 'No' firmly and that ends it. I don't do it often, which might help.

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.

While I'm not really this sort of GM, I'd be sorely temped to ask the player if he was really sure he wanted to sleep with the woman with the highest charisma in the room. Note that this is the same language I use to ward players off really dumb or dangerous ideas. Assuming he said yes, I'd tell him he's irresistibly, uncontrollably attracted to the horse faced middle aged half-orc woman dressed in too tight black and yellow leather who's toying with her whip and wearing the symbol of Calistrae (Golarion's Elven goddess of Revenge and Lust), then tell him the next morning he's stuck with a grade or two of Shaken and Fatigued.

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.

Eh... I think Marshmallow is a perfectly cromulent pet name. I'd only disallow it if the character would have no context to know about the confection or the plant. Maybe not even then. I mean, I've let players name their ACs things like Spot, Fido, Snookums, etc. Your table, your rules though.

I can't think of a lot of cases of player whining. A few grumbles when they realized their assumptions were wrong. The beginnings, maybe, in a play by post game when I wouldn't refund Action Dice declared spent that I didn't get to describing the effect before the next player cut the target in half. I had to point out that at the table the same thing would happen, they spent the dice, but it doesn't matter what since on the next count the NPC was dead.

Nothing really major comes to mind though. That I'm usually permissive and helpful letting people build to their concept in a way that fits into the setting and my players tend to be pretty laid back probably helps.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

About the only thing I had a problem with in the OP was disallowing "Marshmallow" as a familiar's name.

I mean, its cutesy, but it IS a pet's name, after all. And people will name their pets damn near anything. My paternal aunt, virtually a Black Panther herself, named her black poodle a racial epithet for us black people that starts with the letter "N".

My grandfather, an extremely conservative man and prominent educator had to take that dog to the vet one day...not the best day for anyone involved. Equally unfun was when the dog escaped the yard from time to time.

 

[Oryan77]

I do usually DM and rarely get to be a player. That's changing soon though.

About the pet name, everyone is right about Marshmallow being an acceptable pet name. I find nothing wrong with that in general. My Chow's name was Peanut.

But for a fantasy Planescape setting where you will be sending that "cutesy" animal into combat over and over again and risking it's life? It really pulls me out of the game and it detracts from my sense of realism. It also makes me think the character is lame, and a player doesn't want a DM thinking their PC is lame.

Also, in this case, although this is a small point that can easily be overlooked for D&D, marshmallows did not exist during medieval times, or at least the word didn't.

In all honesty though, a person can't possibly be that clueless to not know what I'm asking when I say, "Please don't use a silly name." I shouldn't need to argue about this as a DM. If a DM asked me that, then I would simply not use a silly name. If I made a character that could have a silly "sounding" name, like a Gnome named Nanfoodle, then I would run it by the DM. But I would never argue about this piddly thing with a DM; especially with someone I barely know.

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

About the only thing I had a problem with in the OP was disallowing "Marshmallow" as a familiar's name.

I had the same thoughts. Although I like "appropriate" names, the Marshmallow name seems plausible to me. Coming up with a "foreign" work around seems down right reasonable.

I mean, its cutesy, but it IS a pet's name, after all. And people will name their pets damn near anything. My paternal aunt, virtually a Black Panther herself, named her black poodle a racial epithet for us black people that starts with the letter "N".

My grandfather, an extremely conservative man and prominent educator had to take that dog to the vet one day...not the best day for anyone involved. Equally unfun was when the dog escaped the yard from time to time.

I needed a good laugh tonight. Mission accomplished.

 

[Krensky]

About the pet name, everyone is right about Marshmallow being an acceptable pet name. I find nothing wrong with that in general. My Chow's name was Peanut.

But for a fantasy Planescape setting where you will be sending that "cutesy" animal into combat over and over again and risking it's life? It really pulls me out of the game and it detracts from my sense of realism. It also makes me think the character is lame, and a player doesn't want a DM thinking their PC is lame.

Again, eh. Considering some of the names of famous warhorses and such it's not much a a stretch. Dapple, Ox-head, Cincinnati, Traveler, etc. I just don't see residents of a fantasy world being that much different in this area then real people.

But like I said, your table, your rules.

Also, in this case, although this is a small point that can easily be overlooked for D&D, marshmallows did not exist during medieval times, or at least the word didn't.

Um... the confection is a modern rendition of a medicinal preparation that was in documented use in ancient Egypt and China that is prepared from the root of various members of the mallow family (which are pretty flowers in their own right). The word marshmallow, referring to the plant, is the modern spelling of an Old English word for the 'best' variety of the family, which grew in marshy ground. Hench, marshmallow.

In all honesty though, a person can't possibly be that clueless to not know what I'm asking when I say, "Please don't use a silly name." I shouldn't need to argue about this as a DM. If a DM asked me that, then I would simply not use a silly name. If I made a character that could have a silly "sounding" name, like a Gnome named Nanfoodle, then I would run it by the DM. But I would never argue about this piddly thing with a DM; especially with someone I barely know.

That I agree with. Hence the comment about your table, your rules. I just find calling naming your pet war whatever after a flower silly, well, eh.

 

[malcolypse]

How about a reverse scenario? Generic D&D world, no specifics from the DM, I show up with three pages of back story about growing up with a working class family in a grimy port city. His father was a butcher and he learned how to use knives very well.

Me: My character's name is John Butcher.

DM: That's a terrible name. Your character's name will be (some randomly strung together syllables that are barely pronounceable), because that sounds better for the world.

Me: The world has specific name styles that we have to stick to?

DM: No, but I like my name better.

 

[malcolypse]

Has anyone else come across the FPS mentality? I actually had another player in a game tell me that I stole his kill. It happened on several occasions when groups of bad guys would get beaten, but as a poor combatant, this particular player would still be trading blows with "his" goblin or whatever when the rest of the party would come to finish the combat by killing the last remaining enemy. It was terribly annoying.

I once had player tell me I was doing it wrong when I told him that the wizard he was sent to meet with wasn't wearing a pointy hat. I told him that there wasn't a standard uniform and that the wizard wouldn't be fined by the wizard standards and practices board. He didn't come back to the next session.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But for a fantasy Planescape setting where you will be sending that "cutesy" animal into combat over and over again and risking it's life? It really pulls me out of the game and it detracts from my sense of realism. It also makes me think the character is lame, and a player doesn't want a DM thinking their PC is lame.

My last wizard's familiar was a Bat. Named Masterson.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How about a reverse scenario? Generic D&D world, no specifics from the DM, I show up with three pages of back story about growing up with a working class family in a grimy port city. His father was a butcher and he learned how to use knives very well.

Me: My character's name is John Butcher.

DM: That's a terrible name. Your character's name will be (some randomly strung together syllables that are barely pronounceable), because that sounds better for the world.

Me: The world has specific name styles that we have to stick to?

DM: No, but I like my name better.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that name, as this late 1980s gem from MTV proves.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBPS7xTd45g&feature=youtube_gdata_player]‪Jon Butcher Axis - 'Holy War'‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I actually had another player in a game tell me that I stole his kill. It happened on several occasions when groups of bad guys would get beaten, but as a poor combatant, this particular player would still be trading blows with "his" goblin or whatever when the rest of the party would come to finish the combat by killing the last remaining enemy. It was terribly annoying.

Due to having a high percentage of online gamers in our group, we do that in our current 4Ed game all the time...but only in jest.

(Current leader in kill-stealing: the MM using Wizard.)