Whining & Complaining

[Dog Moon]

In my group, I think there's two main complaints I'd have as a DM [and the other DMs in the group would have].

1) Complaining/Commenting. Basically, we all [yes myself included] sometimes get into a little whiny mood when things go terribly wrong or when we see something that just doesn't make any sense. Like 'But that isn't in the rules' or 'Gawd, why did you give this character such terrible stats; he's basically unplayable' or 'X thing isn't supposed to work that why.' Sometimes it makes sense, but sometimes we get so caught up in the rules that we don't think 'maybe its okay because he's the DM and he can do miscellaneous things [as long as they aren't too absurd!]'.

2) The player who finds something from some source and decides that is what his character is going to be based off. Sometimes it's okay and with a little bit of work it's playable. Sometimes it's just not. 'You want to play a ten headed orc with bite attacks and fire breathing because you saw something like that on TV? Not. Happening. Or the character that sees a 40k item but thinks with a little change it would be perfect for his character but he doesn't want to play the character if he can't get that item. This happened to me as a DM. Maybe the change would have been fine, maybe not, but I didn't want a player to design a 1st level character around a magical item he wouldn't be able to easily afford until like level 8-9. Was just crazy.

That's all I got for now.

 

[Oryan77]

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.

The word is not an ancient egyptian word. "Marshmallow" is a modern day word according to what I remember reading back then. But I didn't do extensive research on this, and frankly, I didn't/don't care.

I wonder how many ancient Egyptians named their cats Marshmallow.

 

[Oryan77]

ADapple, Ox-head, Cincinnati, Traveler, etc.

I don't have a problem with any of those names except maybe Cincinnati because it reminds me of the city. But I could probably let it slide since I think the city is named after an actual persons name (don't shoot me if I'm wrong, I've never even been to Cincinnati).

Those names are not "cutesy" or slapstick silly. When I told my friends about the name Marshmallow, they all groaned. I guess it just depends on the type of game atmosphere that people enjoy which determines what they find appropriate or not. "Cutesy" when it doesn't fit the subject matter is just not what I enjoy in my D&D games.

 

[MortalPlague]

The ones that bother me are the borderline reasonable requests. A request that is setting of warning bells, but you want to help out, and then you try, and you are still uneasy. Or you don't try, and think maybe you could.

Preserve me from players, with puppy dog eyes, earnestly and politely asking me if they can do X, when I'm not so sure X is a good idea.

Ah yes, this has been my bane as well. I was running a 3.5 game where one of the characters was an Elven Prince, who had failed his test of manhood and refused to return to his homeland until he could make a man of himself. He asked me if he could have a cooshee as an animal companion to replace the wolf who had been slain in an earlier combat. I didn't know what they were, but trusting that he wouldn't bring in anything broken, I agreed.

Well, the cooshee, with improved grab, turned out to be a vicious monster. It made my life as a DM miserable for the next little while. We finally ironed it out, but now I make sure I read things before I allow them.

As far as whining goes, my players are usually pretty good. We had a fellow come to play in a campaign who was not a great fit with the party. We play the game a certain way, while he played it more like a video game. He was playing a paladin who was on the road to redemption after he discovered he'd been mistakenly serving an evil being for several years, though that served more as an excuse to look badass and have a glowing eye.

To make a long story short, the party was searching for an informant. They were directed to a rough and tumble dockside tavern. The place was described as being full of 'rough and burly sailors and dock workers', 'scoundrels and thugs', and various other toughs. He ignored everyone, spotted the informant, and marched straight up.

"You're coming with us," he growled.

Obviously, this didn't go over well. People in the bar were paying attention. The informant asked him what he wanted (none too kindly, mind you. But our hero wasn't being so polite either).

Brilliantly, the paladin threatened the man. The bartender pulled out a crossbow, and several other people in the tavern drew swords. The bartender asked him to leave. The paladin looked around at everyone (the whole tavern) and said "I'll kill you all if I have to."

At this point, I told the player OOC that nobody in the tavern was a minion. That these guys were all rough and tumble types who could probably hold their own in a fight. And there were twenty of them. He was level five.

He insisted, and started a barfight. He got knocked down to a sliver of health, then played dead. When they started to loot him (it was a bar full of thieves and low-lives, after all), he got back up, and they killed him dead.

Afterwards, he whined for a solid few minutes that I was out to kill his character, that the bar thugs should've been minions, that I was a terrible DM, that I never said they weren't minions (despite several other players chiming in that yes, I had mentioned that)... And when he shut up, he then sent me a four-page text message (while we were still playing). Needless to say, he isn't playing with us anymore.

 

[Oryan77]

while he played it more like a video game.

Uhg, that's a hard player to deal with. I had a friend play who approached the game the same way. He thought that it would always work like a video game, that no matter what he encountered (even random NPCs in a tavern like you described) that they are "beatable". Cause a video game usually doesn't throw things in your path that you are not supposed to beat.

I tried telling my friend how D&D doesn't work like video games, but he was an odd guy and didn't understand how that was possible. Which was weird cause he was a Stanford graduate and an extremely smart dude. But he just couldn't understand the mechanics of D&D and it led to him dropping from the game.

Maybe the randomness of the game is what confused him and he does approach video games from a programmer point of view.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Every one I have ever played have whined at some point, but only few of them are total whiners.

There was one player who always bought new books and demanded to use stuff in them. And if dm was kind enough to allow it, he picked most overpowered things there were, or could have been, in his case, if he had bothered to read whole text and not just text that told what it allows. He always failed to note where those things didn't work or not work together with some other ability as combo. And then he whined, like little girl (he was man of 24) for them to work as he desired they should.

I have habit of whining as well. Not only that, I used to made long whiny written testimonies about things that sucked. I usually had good reason for being pissed, but not reason to go overboard with it. And it didn't help, ever. It doesn't help to get positive result when you try to change something oozing negativity. I got a little better. Ok, a lot, I stopped taking rpg:s so damn seriously. Joviality for win.

I had whiny player in sense, that he got seriously affected by some stuff happening at rpg:s he started walking around, and got emotionally overworked and kinda started to beg world stop doing those things to him. We were like "huh", we played pretty usual dungeon grinds at the time, we liked to decribe monster and combat, maybe that was it.


I have one played always get whiny when his character gets polymorphed or charmed/dominated or even feared. He hates those things happening so much. I love being dominated (but it's because I am evil ;P and love opportunity of sanctified PvP).

There was one player that get utterly whiny and argumative when something he wanted his character to be didn't fit with the world. And he made such character choices purposely. Like his character that was sorcerer and always had failed before to be wizard until he found out his talent. His own background. Then around lv 5 finds a spellbook as part of loot and wants to multiclass wizard. Oh, which he said he never learned. And it was Scarred Lands, where wizard and sorcerer stuff are pretty different. You can't do both. He didn't let go on that idea, and was kicked from that game. He also hated high powered games and made weak character on purpose. Uh.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

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.

I get the vibe you're going with here. Silly names are a slippery slope. But a familiar . . . you might be able to cut them a little slack on it. Familiars are often two steps away from being cute anyway.

I'm playing a character from kind of a Ravenloft type world and he's a wizard, but the family he's from is sort of like an Adams Family set up. Spooky but kind of goofy, too. The character's spellbook is bound is his deceased mother's skin. What is the spellbook called? The NecroMOMicon.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I had whiny player in sense, that he got seriously affected by some stuff happening at rpg:s he started walking around, and got emotionally overworked and kinda started to beg world stop doing those things to him. We were like "huh", we played pretty usual dungeon grinds at the time, we liked to decribe monster and combat, maybe that was it.

Uh ho. Were you playing Mazes and Monsters?

 

[Gentlegamer]

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.

How about a paladin with a war horse named Papillon?

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Uh ho. Were you playing Mazes and Monsters?

Nope, D&D basic (an existing rule system, that is) and there hadn't even been any character deaths. He just was weird and over-sensitive person. Childhood friend, who had always been a little bit "off". He survived to adulthood, though he is still very shy and timid and laughs at "wrong" moments. Personality or psychological problem, I never will know.