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

[Flamestrike]

not following the lawful portion of LG.

He was not following the Good part of LG either.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The orc nailed it.

Especially at a con game, a player's surly doesn't-play-well-with-others character needs to find a way to do just that, and not sabotage the game the moment they think they have a chance at getting away with it (and with a lot of players inclined towards that sort of sabotaging the game, I think they pick their moments intentionally).

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

 

[GuyBoy]

I remember a pickup game at a GenCon UK in Reading, where I encountered “gun man”
My friend and I joined a modern horror game. Great GM, good plot with roleplay and action, and a great horror vibe. There were a couple of other guys, both decent players and .........Gun Man.
It was about the story and weapon choices were at “pistol, shotgun or rifle” level of complexity. But not for Gun Man. He clearly knew everything about every kind of gun, including name, year of manufacture, magazine, muzzle velocity etc. His detail was scary and he demanded the GM respond to every demanded point.
When we said words to the effect of, “ it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a pistol”, he became first animated, then abusive, then he stormed off, never to return.

 

[billd91]

One of the worst problem players I ever encountered was basically a saboteur. You couldn't run a game with him in it have have him play it straight. He usually had to have some kind of oddball, anti-social character that couldn't be relied on to do anything normal or particularly productive. There might be brief times when he kept things under control, but they never lasted very long. We mostly kept him around because we played in a conference room where he worked and he had an arrangement from a local pizza place to get the pizzas at half price.

In D&D - he played a cannibal dwarf who liked to set fires. His last appearance was when he jumped out in front of a carriage only to get run over (he survived), only to climb up the back, and shoot the mayor's wife in the chest with his crossbow. He then ran off and set fire to an orphanage. The DM for that campaign kept a bottle of acetaminophen close at hand for the headaches he would cause.

In Villains and Vigilantes - he dropped by in the middle of a campaign while the PC heroes were meeting at the local FBI offices. His character, who had the power of invisibility, chose to lurk in the women's locker room.

Fortunately, he moved away ages ago, but we tolerated way too much for half price pizza and a conference table.

 

[jasper]

Was an open group of military and college students. Some nerd with little to no social skills kept showing up on base and dropping in on games where he was not invited. One no one told the nerd it had became a close group. Two it was me.

 

[Saplatt]

The one who brought a loaded desert eagle .357 to gamenight and set it down opposite my DM screen.

 

[Dioltach]

This brings back fond memories of the Creepiest Gamer thread on ... was it rpgnet? I don't think we ever got the details of the twincest story, but I seem to remember poop-his-trousers-guy and several others.

 

[jayoungr]

Especially at a con game, a player's surly doesn't-play-well-with-others character needs to find a way to do just that, and not sabotage the game the moment they think they have a chance at getting away with it (and with a lot of players inclined towards that sort of sabotaging the game, I think they pick their moments intentionally).

I honestly don't know whether the dwarf's player was deliberately out to sabotage the game for reasons unknown, or if he genuinely did irrationally hate the plot hook NPC that much.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think that the number of players that deliberately try to sabotage games is very low, but the number of players with a playstyle that will result in sabotage much higher. Some just like the attention being focused on them, some don't see how they role-play their character has to work with the rest of the group and the campaign.

I knew one guy though, that was a deliberate saboteur. His thinking was that if you were a skilled DM, you could handle anything he did.

I honestly don't know whether the dwarf's player was deliberately out to sabotage the game for reasons unknown, or if he genuinely did irrationally hate the plot hook NPC that much.

 

[jmartkdr2]

The worst type of bad layer I've had to deal with is what I call the "bad optimizer." As in, they want to powergame/optimize, but they're bad at doing that and make crap characters instead.

So they end up with a paladin who's best stat is wisdom and they dumped charisma, complaining that their spells don't work. Or the studded-leather polearm fighter who's less tanky than the sword-and-board heavy armor paladin but the fighter wants to tank. Or the rogue who doesn't do a lot of damage because called shots cause disadvantage on the attack rolls (and therefore miss a lot, in a addition to not doing much damage). Or the trip-based character with no attacks to follow up with, because they have their free hand on the net (the other's on the horse's reins).

And you can't offer advice - they won't listen. After all, if they listened, they would have seen the advice about wearing heavy armor or putting your best stat numbers into key abilities for your class.

So they sit there and sulk, because the tough customer concept in their mind isn't what's happening at the table - and it's their own fault but they just can't see how smaller bonuses to rolls means you succeed less.