Have you ever been a dick player?

[Ahnehnois]

Honestly I think that once you've DMed it's very hard to do the kinds of things some players do to screw the game up. And, since I've mainly been the DM but I've passed it off to many others, I think the kind of disruptive behavior this thread is about doesn't happen much in my games, regardless of whether I'm playing or DMing.

It also doesn't hurt if everyone really knows each other.

But even in my early days, I don't think I ever did anything really out of bounds.

 

[El Mahdi]

I am a Player*, but my name is not Dick...so No.

*IYKWIMAITYD...



In all seriousness though, I've had a few moments. Kind of like Pcat, I was in a game where the DM didn't do a very good job of adapting to the players actions and keeping people involved. But instead of dealing with it more maturely, I got pretty pissy also. I ended up sitting out the game on a couch while everyone else continued playing, and then didn't participate in the group again after that. In the end, I probably hurt myself more than anyone else...

 

[Dordledum]

I did play a chaotic neutral rogueish character in a d20 future campaign once who was forced at gunpoint by his fellow partymembers to take a specific stance completely against his personal views.

My character shot the specific partymember who put the gun to his head in the back at the end of the next combat, killing her. I quote: "nobody puts a gun to my head and lives". My character didn't make it to the end of the session either (not healthy to kill your fellow party members it seemed).

Everyone present agreed that it was a great roleplaying experience.

So not really a dick player, but I've made a dick character now and again.

Come to think of it, my current character is a bit of a bitch...

 

[Gentlegamer]

I was playing a one-shot at a con, where the PCs were taken from the GMs home campaign. It was fairly fun until I said I'd do something and the GM said, "No. That character wouldn't do that." I asked for clarification, and the GM again forbid my action because he didn't think it was how the character should have been played. It happened several times more during the game.

Turns out that's a pet peeve of mine, and something I'd never do as a GM. In retrospect I wish I'd have politely excused myself from the table. It would have been better than being pissy for the rest of the session.

Did your character not have a high enough Intelligence score to think of what you wanted to do?

 

[Kzach]

What I am against are players bringing out of character grievances into game and taking them out on one another in game, players killing one another, players torpedoing a game they don't like rather than politely bowing out, players cheating, etc. These, are examples, in my opinion, of being a dick player.

Yeah, I'm not against in-character conflict but at the end of the day, I won't tolerate it becoming an out-of-character conflict and many people don't realise the line has been crossed or even when they're approaching it. I feel I'm very good at reading people and reading between the lines so I tend to see things coming well before they turn into genuine nastiness. Unfortunately, nobody else does so if I step in and tell people to back-off, invariably I then become the target of everyone's antipathy. But if I let things go, invariably, things come to a head and everyone is then pissed off and most times the group falls apart entirely.

Therefore I find it's better, at least with groups that are put together from randoms rather than where everyone knows each other well and they're all friends, to just nip these things before they even have a chance to bud, and the best way I've found to do that is to simply outright ban potentially troublesome characters.

Which is a shame because the best and most fun (not just for me but for the group as well) characters I've ever played have been nuisance, troublemaker, thieves with hearts of gold and exceptionally light fingers; the type who got the party INTO trouble as much as they got them out, but whom at the end of the day was a comrade-in-arms, and an invaluable member of the team.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

Which is a shame because the best and most fun (not just for me but for the group as well) characters I've ever played have been nuisance, troublemaker, thieves with hearts of gold and exceptionally light fingers; the type who got the party INTO trouble as much as they got them out, but whom at the end of the day was a comrade-in-arms, and an invaluable member of the team.

This. I've been renowned, in the past, to make the quirky, ineffectual, or gonzo character. I've never derailed a game...but I've definitely made it swerve a few times. I'd say I'm batting about 990 in terms of group cohesiveness.

I think comic relief is sometimes overlooked as a valid play experience. I don't enjoy gonzo games...but I do like a bit of it sprinkled in the middle.

Now that I'm older, and not as prone to the gonzo, the only dickishness that escapes comes in the form of evil DMisms.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Not really. I think the closest I came to one was in a 2E game. My Thief went into a room where a magic mouth asked him a riddle. If he got it right, his possessions would double. If he got it wrong, he would lose all of his possessions. I had no way out of the situation.

The riddle is "O, T, T - What is the next letter in the sequence?"

I answered O, but it turns out that it was F as the letters were the first letter of each number 1, 2, 3, 4.

So my Thief, who I remember being somewhere in the double digits in level lost everything he had. I was suddenly naked in the room. Being a 16 year old and suddenly having my character lose everything he had spent many a session accumulating, I did the natural thing and sulked.

The next player that went in the room got the answer right and doubled his possessions. He kindly gave me some clothes and a weapon to use. I still spent the rest of the session sulking, but I think I got over it by the following session.

That's about as dick-ish as I've gotten as a player. Thankfully I've never had to deal with a DM that told me "no, your character wouldn't do that" and stop me from taking an action I had decided upon. I can't imagine I would have responded too nicely to that situation.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's about as dick-ish as I've gotten as a player. Thankfully I've never had to deal with a DM that told me "no, your character wouldn't do that" and stop me from taking an action I had decided upon. I can't imagine I would have responded too nicely to that situation.

The closest I've come to doing that was asking the player why they thought their PC would act like that (torture someone who surrendered to the party), given the PC's class & alignment (a LG cleric). He gave me an answer (the SOB killed my sister), and we proceeded.

He was plenty pissed that I actually said his alignment changed because of it, which cost him the use of some of his abilities. I pointed out that what his PC did was evil, and his god would see it as a great transgression. He later attoned and reconciled with his deity...but it took a while.

IOW, I never tell you how to play your PC, but neither will I protect your PC from obvious & logical consequences of their actions

 

[Greg K]

I did something like this to a Paladin.

Despite his deity's domains including inspiration and courage, he sat in the back of the party trying to turn a dragon lich leaving the barbarian on the front line alone to stop it from advancing. The first round did not bother me. By the third round, he had failed to turn it twice and insisted on trying again despite hints that his goddess was not pleased. When the rogue, in disgust, ran up to to the front to help the barbarian while calling the Paladin a coward, I stripped the Paladin of some of his abilities until he atoned. It felt appropriate- especially, when the rogue took a serious blow the first round he entered combat.

The closest I've come to doing that was asking the player why they thought their PC would act like that (torture someone who surrendered to the party), given the PC's class & alignment (a LG cleric). He gave me an answer (the SOB killed my sister), and we proceeded.

He was plenty pissed that I actually said his alignment changed because of it, which cost him the use of some of his abilities. I pointed out that what his PC did was evil, and his god would see it as a great transgression. He later attoned and reconciled with his deity...but it took a while.

IOW, I never tell you how to play your PC, but neither will I protect your PC from obvious & logical consequences of their actions

 

[Nellisir]

I dunno. I've gotten in at least one pretty good argument with a fellow player which strongly inclined me to stop playing with the group (I don't remember the exact details, but it was silly and petty and hugely annoying).

I warn DMs up front that I can be a "difficult" player. I get bored easily and I like things to keep moving. If I get bored out of game, they get restless in game, and chaos will ensue, particularly if I am playing an illusionist. I never aim to disrupt the game, but I have no qualms about stirring the pot. Vigorously.