D&D 5E GMs of EN World: What player behavior annoys you the most?

[robus]

Though as a DM I have to ask how invested is a player if he can't even remember what they are doing and why from week to week? Not trying to take a shot at you but I've got players who are there just to hang out and have a few beers. Fine, but honestly I put a lot of work into running the game, money as well, and its irritating at times. I will say on a larger scale despite many in the group having a lot of memory issues a player will keep a party journal each week. However that is a broad overview that leaves a lot of things out that are important to individual players. I don't think its too much for Frank the Thief to jot on a sticky note that his main contact is Stabby the cutpurse and that Hank the town sheriff is on the take.

Well in my defense we met sporadically twice monthly with frequent cancellations - so the campaign was quite disjointed. Perhaps if we had met weekly I would have kept up better - but 4/6 week gaps?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

All I'm saying is see it from your player's perspective. You last met 3 weeks ago as a group while in-game time it's been 2 hours. To the PC, it just happened and was critically important to their survival/success. To the player it was the stuff that happened while they were waiting for the pizza to be delivered.

I would no more expect my players to bench press my couch than I would expect them to remember something their wizard with a 20 intelligence should remember.

Personally I would not want to play with a DM that expected the level of detailed note taking you require. YMMV.

P.S. Why the snark? I'm simply saying that you should look at it from a player's point of view.

I do, I play in a different campaign that we run when I need a break from DMing. It sometimes goes 5-6 weeks in between sessions. I figure if its something that I need to know I'll jot it down really quick. a note like "Bill the inn keeper is very suspicious" is very good for jogging the memory.

 

[Imaculata]

I got to agree with the OP, cellphone use annoys me to no end. But I also agree with Iserith. It is really important for the players to get along, and to make some effort to cooperate.

 

[Dausuul]

It's not too surprising - people want to play not get homework.

So do I! But if nobody does the homework, there's no game.

Folks who want to play can damn well do their share of the work required to make it happen. The DM is already handling the lion's share. The least that players can do is learn the rules that apply to their own characters.

(That said: Re-reading the post you're responding to, apparently that person "convinced" other people to try the game, which suggests the other people are not very motivated. My suggestion in that case would be to say, "Guys, it doesn't seem like anybody's real invested in this game. How about we wrap it up?" Then, if the other players want to keep playing, you can explain the issues and your expectations. If they don't want to play or don't much care, it's better to move on to a game which doesn't require so much investment.)

 

[Lanefan]

My PC may have the keen memory feat. I do not. I play to have fun and hang out with friends, not to take a graduate level course on Bob's World with Pop Quizzes (tm).

Don't get me wrong, Bob's World may be amazing and full of intricate plot details. I love those kinds of games. But it's still a game and I have a life. Things that are critical to my character are just another Saturday afternoon game session to me.

But seriously. Would you rather have your players engaged and interacting with you and other players or have them with heads down taking detailed notes and asking you to pause while you figure out how to spell Fizzlebin? Or was that Fizzelbin? Fizelbyn? AAARRRGHH.

This is where someone - usually the DM - keeping a game log can really help; with said game log being accessible to the players either online or on paper. The longer the campaign goes, the more important this becomes if hints and breadcrumbs dropped years ago are to be at all relevant now.

Lan-"Phizlbinn"-efan

 

[iserith]

This is where someone - usually the DM - keeping a game log can really help; with said game log being accessible to the players either online or on paper. The longer the campaign goes, the more important this becomes if hints and breadcrumbs dropped years ago are to be at all relevant now.

Lan-"Phizlbinn"-efan

Seems like too much work to me. I'd rather just run adventures that's aren't overwrought with details on which the plot hinges and keep campaign lengths to about 20 sessions or so.

 

[Lanefan]

Seems like too much work to me. I'd rather just run adventures that's aren't overwrought with details on which the plot hinges and keep campaign lengths to about 20 sessions or so.

My campaigns tend to go on for 10 years or more - multiple parties, interweaving plots and characters, etc. - and keeping a log helps me sort it out just as much as it helps the players.

Questiion: by "campaign" do you mean a 1-20 run? If yes, that's a new level every session - yikes!

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

My last post reminded me of another annoying type of player, fortunately a type I don't see very often: the player who only plays to level up and expects (or even demands) a new level every session or two.

Story? What's that?

 

[iserith]

My campaigns tend to go on for 10 years or more - multiple parties, interweaving plots and characters, etc. - and keeping a log helps me sort it out just as much as it helps the players.

Questiion: by "campaign" do you mean a 1-20 run? If yes, that's a new level every session - yikes!

Lanefan

I have done campaigns that see the PCs leveling up every session, but usually it's just a range of levels like 1st to 7th, 3rd to 9th, etc. I generally thing of campaigns in terms of how much real time I want to spend on it, then plan accordingly. I like to keep things tight.

My last post reminded me of another annoying type of player, fortunately a type I don't see very often: the player who only plays to level up and expects (or even demands) a new level every session or two.

Story? What's that?

I can tell a story in one session. I'm a big fan of one-shots for that reason.

 

[Lanefan]

I have done campaigns that see the PCs leveling up every session, but usually it's just a range of levels like 1st to 7th, 3rd to 9th, etc. I generally thing of campaigns in terms of how much real time I want to spend on it, then plan accordingly. I like to keep things tight.

Quite the opposite of my approach, which boils down to "Ideally this new campaign will last for the rest of my life, as long as anyone's willing to play in it and I can think of adventures to run and stories to tell in it. Realistically, the rules system will start to wobble beyond recovery at some point and I'll have to reboot - but that'll be a very long way down the road and I'll worry about it then."

World design (which I do for any new campaign) is a huge amount of work and thus something I prefer to only have to do once.

Lan-"I guess between the two of us we kinda make up the national average"-efan