D&D General What's the most problematic D&D player you've ever played with?

[Cadence]

Does it have to be D&D? I've got a doozy of a story about someone I once played Shadowrun with at a con...

An exception here or there proves the rule, right?

 

[jayoungr]

An exception here or there proves the rule, right?

I'll take that as encouragement, and so, without further ado, I give you ...

The Tale of the Angry Dwarf

It begins as I sit down on Thursday morning for my very first game of the con, Shadowrun (4th edition). The story picks up where the previous year's game left off. The party had been contracted to steal a "power source" from a top-secret facility, only to find that it was actually a little girl.

The team consists of a human combat mage (me), a dwarf "medic" with mostly healing spells, an orc security guy, an elf decker, a driver, and a sniper. We start by arguing about what to do with the girl. Most just want to deliver her and get paid. The dwarf seems to feel personally betrayed--by what, I don't know, since he didn't play in the previous game--so he goes one further: "I want to shoot her in the face. Because if you screw me over like that, I'm going to shoot you and dump you out of the car." (Remember, he's the medic.) Nobody takes him seriously, though; we figure he's establishing a character.

The girl won't say much beyond "I want my wolf." One by one, most of the group is persuaded to help try to find the wolf. The only holdouts are the elf decker and the dwarf medic. The elf eventually gives in when the orc tells her, "Remember that night we got really drunk that we were never going to speak about again? I might remember that night if we don't help her." So we set off to look for the wolf, with the dwarf grousing all the way because he's been overruled.

About two hours in, we've found a mysterious underground compound in the mountains where we think the wolf probably is located. The dwarf has taken every opportunity to grumble, "I still say we should've shot her in the face. They never said she had to be alive when we delivered her." We all laugh every time, including the GM, who compliments the player on staying in character. The decker and the security guy are working on how to get past the perimeter fence when the GM tells us that the girl is walking up to the gate.

"I'm going to f*cking kneecap her," says the dwarf. "Because I'm sick of her. And I'm dead serious--I'm shooting her in the leg. This is horsesh*t, and I'm not going to die for her. I've had it! No more!"

So now we're in combat, completely derailing the plan we were about to attempt. The dwarf shoots the girl twice in the leg before the rest of the characters have any warning of what he's doing. Our characters are too scattered to do much, so we have to sit around for about twenty minutes while the dwarf essentially has a solo combat scene with the girl. He says, "I'll heal her afterward; it's cool. I just don't like being hosed over is all. I told you what I felt in the beginning."

The girl then turns around, unhurt, and zaps him with lightning. (Power source, remember!) The player goes into deep discussion with the GM about how the dwarf can survive the attack.

Dwarf: "I just want to know the best way I can live through this."

Elf: "Then why did you shoot her?"

Dwarf: "Because I f*cking hate her! And I need her to know that! This all about sending a message, saying 'I hate you!'"

Orc: "No, it's sending a message saying you want to f*ck up the game."

Dwarf: "Well, you know what? I paid the same money to be here that you did. I said early on, 'Let's do it this way.' Everybody said, 'No! Let's go do something that's going to get everybody f*cking killed.' So how about that?"

GM: "Why don't you roll your reaction..."

Dwarf: "No, that's all right. F*ck this. He wants to be angry about it. I'm sorry I ruined your game."

And he stands up and starts to gather his stuff. A couple of us try to talk him into staying, but he walks out.

After we've all recovered, we go on with the game. The GM says the dwarf is lying on the ground, twitching and throwing off sparks after the lightning blast. I talk the girl out of killing him outright, but she says she doesn't want to see him, so we throw him in the trunk of the car.

We leave the car in the compound parking lot and enter the building. We take an elevator to the lowest basement, where the girl finds her wolf, it turns into a sword, and she immediately teleports us out. I guess that's where the next year's game would start.

When it was all over, I realized the dwarf was still locked in the trunk of a car sitting on enemy territory. I told the GM the dwarf should join the bad guys and come back the next year as a villain.

 

[jgsugden]

I've had a few 'offensive problematic' players at tables where I have DMed, but those were actually fairly simple for me. I'd take them aside, point out what was problematic, and then ask them how we should proceed. If I did not like their answer, I'd put the situation in front of the table as a whole and ask for a solution. If the offensive element was something I would not tolerate, one of the proposed solutions would be me leaving the group (which I have done more than once - there are always other groups and walking when the group is offensive is sometimes the only option).

However, the problem that has been hardest for me to handle is the great, loevable, amazing person at the table that doesn't really want to play D&D. They want to hang out, but have no interest in the game. You might reel them in for a moment, but they generally just don't want to play the game - they just want to hang out with their friends. They're constantly sidetracking, they are not following the action, they have no interest in learning the rules, and they often do random things that make no sense - not out of a delight for messing things up, but just because they have no idea what is going on. It is so hard because you enjoy them as a person, you like having them around, everybody likes them actually - but they mess with the game.

 

[jasper]

There are lots of stories in recent threads about domineering and unreasonable DMs, and about rules that aren't needed because no player would ever be that extreme. And there's apparently an old poll that shows the majority of DMs are bad.

I feel left out, because I've been lucky enough to never run into a really bad DM or legendarily bad player (well, one, but they were 10 and got better in a few sessions). I've read about some of the bad DMs on here (eek!)... but haven't seen the bad player stories. So, any stories out there of players who have their paladin turn into a homicidal maniac on a dime? Anyone wanting to be a class or concept not banned in session 0 that turned into a nightmare later and wouldn't be reined in? Anyone you've had to bring consequences on because you thought their play required it even if it led to the player not having fun? (Town guard on the un-clever thief?) Or are all the players angels (until some become DM and let their badness show).

NOPE NOPE NOPE NO HORROR STORIES FOR free.

 

[CleverNickName]

The worse players in our group are the ones who don't communicate with the group.

The worst players in our group are the ones who don't read any of the emails or text messages from the group, and don't participate in any offline discussions about the game, rules clarifications, or group decisions that were made away from the table.

The worst players never update our online calendar either, so we can't rely on their input for scheduling our games. Instead, they will just text us ten minutes before game time to either (a) ask "Hey are we gaming tonight?" or (b) tell us "Sorry, something came up and I can't make it." And that's assuming they bother to text anyone at all...sometimes they just don't show up.

 

[Jack Daniel]

I think I've been fortunate in this regard. No creepy players (though I did play with a creepy DM for about two sessions before noping out of his terrible game), no openly sexist or homophobic or racist or Nazi players in my history. Just the occasional CPM and the sadly more-than-occasional irritating personality who lacked the social skills to notice when [irritating in-game behavior x] was cheesing off the rest of the table. Where x could take any number of values:
• Rushing ahead of the party to purposely instigate trouble
• Attacking or mouthing off to socially powerful NPCs
• "Teleporting" around so that they're always involved in every interaction scene
• Gutting every single slain monster for parts and/or trophies
• Playing an expy of their anime waifu
• Claiming dibs on every single magic item the party finds
• TV/VCR repair, or get your degree! ahem, I mean, "And many more…"

 

[Benjamin Olson]

As an aside, he was twice as worse as DM. His "games" were stories about his DMNPC, in which everyone else was just along to see how awesome said DMNPC was - and he especially tried to make it clear to all the female players at his table, as they were "obviously wowed by his dashing charms.", and whose character's survival was often dependent on going along with said flirtations.

Obviously nothing wins over the ladies like assigning yourself a 20 in Charisma.

 

[fba827]

While I’ve had some bad ones, the -worst- is myself
I constantly get in my own head and that can interfere with myself enjoying the moment some times

 

[Zardnaar]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but 'my way or the highway' DMs can often become just another type of problematic player.

As is blaming the victim in this case where the brother-in-law forced his way into the guy's game.

Depends I can be my way or the high way but it's usually a session 0 or prospective player being told in advance of the groups expectations and/or theme.

I'm running a Drow themed game atm which excludes a lot of stuff. Basically it's Drow or Underdark race or something easily tied to the Underdark eg Githyanki.

 

[Zardnaar]

Haven't done across to many hygiene problem players in D&D. More than a few in MtG though.

In one case though wasn't strictly the mrg players fault. At a venue they crammed 60 odd players in a small room. That was hot. And couldn't be cooked.
. That room got very funky so a lot of players spawled out in the lobby.

Fairly high class hotel as well. The following day they were put in the larger hall type room.

Don't think they were allowed back the following year.