D&D 5E Characters that annoy you (and/or the players who play them)

[The Crimson Binome]

We used to have a problem with this until our DM pulled out a wonderful smackdown tool: if something was suggested by a player who had no character knowledge of the situation, whatever the suggestion was immediately became a banned action even if it made sense and-or was the right thing to do.

My current DM does that, and I really hate it, to the point where I've considered leaving the game because of it. The DM has zero power to force any character to take (or not take) a course of action.

At the very least, give me a Wisdom check or something, to see if my character would come up with that idea. If my best guess about the character's action has been biased due to out-of-game concerns, then let the dice decide before you try to violate the very concept of free will.

 

[Lanefan]

My current DM does that, and I really hate it, to the point where I've considered leaving the game because of it. The DM has zero power to force any character to take (or not take) a course of action.

At the very least, give me a Wisdom check or something, to see if my character would come up with that idea. If my best guess about the character's action has been biased due to out-of-game concerns, then let the dice decide before you try to violate the very concept of free will.

Thing is, if your Wis. check succeeds then the interrupter has won and will just see it as encouragement to do it again, where the point is in fact to shut him the face up.

Totally gameable. Just tell the player to do everything except the option you want. "You should sneak back over the wall, or else kill the guard and go it alone."

True, but if the interrupter is still doing this after enough instances for him to figure this out he's probably been booted anyway.

Lanefan

 

[Miskatonic81]

I've been dming a homebrew campaign since September. I have a player who has a very powergamey personality and approach to playing, which is fine. However, the last session that player would constantly interrupt, trying to game the system anyway he could. Asking if he could roll a dex save to avoid damage against an attack that already hit his AC - ridiculous stuff like that. It was the most disruptive and obnoxious thing I've experienced in my gaming history to date. Because it was his birthday and he was super drunk, I'm not going to kick him out, but I'll definitely be talking to him about it.

 

[BigVanVader]

Also this one guy i played with once or twice, was reflecting his real life violence into games, he seemed so aggressive and always used intimidation with the words intestines and hanging.

I would actually love more of this in the games I play.

And you know what, that's my pet peeve. When players have really, really weak stomachs. I also hate when players take things really personal. Like if the party thief steals everybody's gold and one guy melts down on someone else, I can't stand that.

 

[PnPgamer]

I would actually love more of this in the games I play.

And you know what, that's my pet peeve. When players have really, really weak stomachs. I also hate when players take things really personal. Like if the party thief steals everybody's gold and one guy melts down on someone else, I can't stand that.

But if the guys roleplaying extends only to that it is really obnoxious. Besides, the player was always angry. The type that doesn't have friends because of it. He was in the gaming group because his sister invited him.

 

[Unwise]

Players with anger issues are my #1 peeve. They act like man-children and just suck the fun out of the game. Other players are afraid to take certain actions, because of the RL meltdown the other player will have. Like splitting the loot a certain way, not healing him first, choosing one quest over another. I have had a couple of them, we just stopped inviting them.

In game, it is the fact my players won't engage in roleplaying. Every conversation is like pulling teeth. They all want to just make a charisma roll and not even give the gist of their argument. I literally had this conversation:

Player "I make a diplomacy check to convince him"
DM "Of what?"
Player "I dunno, the thing we want him to do"
DM "Which is?"
Player "I roll a 30" <sits back smuggly as if the issue is resolved>

It beat the time that they attacked the quest giver, because two of the players were not paying attention and thought he was a vampire, when he was in fact simply describing a vampire to them.

The thing is, all of their favorite games are the ones with lots of RP, it is pushing crap up hill to get them to start, but once they do they love it.

 

[Hereticus]

Plenty of people in my party are "maximized", they do certain task REALLY well. My Paladin has been described as a mountain who attacks people with a Q-tip, our monk has been described as a glass cannon. Both of us would be in a VERY bad shape without help of other characters. Maximizing isnt necessairly about winning, for us it is about contributing something to the party.

When maximizing is about winning rather than interesting, then it does hurt the game (from my perspective).

 

[n4tune8]

Players with anger issues are my #1 peeve. They act like man-children and just suck the fun out of the game. Other players are afraid to take certain actions, because of the RL meltdown the other player will have. Like splitting the loot a certain way, not healing him first, choosing one quest over another. I have had a couple of them, we just stopped inviting them.

In game, it is the fact my players won't engage in roleplaying. Every conversation is like pulling teeth. They all want to just make a charisma roll and not even give the gist of their argument. I literally had this conversation:

Player "I make a diplomacy check to convince him"
DM "Of what?"
Player "I dunno, the thing we want him to do"
DM "Which is?"
Player "I roll a 30" <sits back smuggly as if the issue is resolved>

It beat the time that they attacked the quest giver, because two of the players were not paying attention and thought he was a vampire, when he was in fact simply describing a vampire to them.

The thing is, all of their favorite games are the ones with lots of RP, it is pushing crap up hill to get them to start, but once they do they love it.

Ouch, that is rough. I wouldn't be able to DM such a group.

 

[n4tune8]

I agree with those who said kender/gnomes and the players who like to play them. For some reason, to those players, annoying the other characters is the summum of fun.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

We used to have a problem with this until our DM pulled out a wonderful smackdown tool: if something was suggested by a player who had no character knowledge of the situation, whatever the suggestion was immediately became a banned action even if it made sense and-or was the right thing to do.

No one else in my group seems bothered by this, so there's no reason for a smackdown tool.

In my ideal world, players wouldn't have secret plots that the other players shouldn't know about.

I used to love keeping my character's backstory secrets hidden from the other players because I liked imagining how incredible the reveal would be. In practice the Usual Suspect type of reveal rarely occurred and I came to realize that you get more interesting roleplaying mileage out of being open with the other players about your character and working together to create a collaborative group dynamic and integrate characters' secrets into the plot.

Being open about your characters' backstory secrets helps you avoid blindsiding your fellow players with something that might ruin the campaign. It gives you the opportunity for buy-in from the other players and allows the players to create a dynamic between the characters that can include the secret without putting the campaign in jeopardy.

Personally my characters who had secrets became richer when I collaborate with other players because our collective creativity is greater than my own. And all it cost was a reveal that was never going to be that impressive anyway