Are you a problem player and if yes why?

[MacConnell]

I can't say I find games very enjoyable or relaxing to ... be working really hard to accomplish something only to have it undermined by someone who thinks its "funny" or by someone who'd rather go look for puppies in town.

This falls more into that category of peeves that drew so many comments as a rather popular thread. I have to agree with you here, 100%.

I have met a few players, over the decades, whose only intention seems to be contention. Those type of people need to not be invited to play.

 

[Eltab]

I actively try to be helpful as a player.
- I'm the guy who always brings a copy of the Rulebook, pulls it out and reviews it when another player discovers a question about how to proceed. I provide data for the DM, not yell 'You're wrong!' at somebody.
- When we have a new player, I'll explain what their character is supposed to do well and set up a situation where they can try it out.
- I study my character's current condition and what I want to accomplish next session, while between sessions.
- I was asked to take over as DM when the previous DM moved out of town ! (I must be doing something right...)
- I try to come prepared, so I'm not the guy holding up the action.

Now, my fellow players probably think I have flaws, too, but they aren't at all apparent to me.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I can be a problem player...

Unless I'm playing with a group of experienced, decisive roleplayers and an experienced, creative DM, I have to be careful that I don't accidentally completely hijack the entire game.

Wall o' Text:
(can't get the spoiler tags to work)

On a wider level, even aside from three decades of rpg experience (knowing all the tricks and tactics and how to play the metagame), I'm one of those folks with a wide range of general knowledge (psychology, theater, communication, literature, history, military tactics, physics, etc.) and an overabundance of creativity and cleverness - usually far too much for my own good, lol. I'm also a passably good planner and a damn good improviser. Which basically means that I'm that player that you love to find at your table because I'll make the game interesting and fun as hell, but who can also derail a game just as easily whether I'm standing on the table and giving a +5 Epic Speech, killing a dragon with six feet of string and a pennywhistle, or finding the BBEG's one last carefully-hidden scruple and using it to ruthlessly manipulate them into joining a monastery instead of causing the Apocalypse.
I can play D&D as a full contact Olympic sport if I feel so inclined.
This can be tough to deal with for both DMs and players, if I forget myself while playing in a beer-and-pretzels league.

More specifically to the original question, when I'm playing a character, I actively make an effort to keep the game running smoothly and make it entertaining for everybody - I know pretty much all the rules and what everybody's character can do and all their bonuses so nobody needs to look anything up, I keep track of the initiative order, politely rein in the out-of-game chatter when it get out of hand, keep people focused on the game when it's not their turn, make polite suggestions when players can't decide what to do on their turns, etc. I make sure my characters always grab whatever plot hooks the DM throws at us, try to figure out where he's going with scenes and plotlines and do what I can to move them along, and try to use my character's actions to set up opportunities for the other party members to shine. If I accidentally do something that leads the game off in a direction that the DM totally wasn't prepared for and he has problems dealing with it, after the session I'll try to provide suggestions on how to get the game back on track for the original goals or suggestions on where to go from there.

I'm generally pretty good at it.
Sometimes too good.

The same skills and knowledge that allow me to be of such great benefit to a game are also the ones that give me the potential to wreck it horribly.
Since I usually end up being the party leader in the old-school sense of keeping everyone organized and on-point, and I'm also usually the one coming up with the solid plans and making good suggestions, I also tend to end up becoming the de facto leader of the party in the other sense - they quite often start expecting me to do all the party's thinking, if not just follow me blindly.
On the flip side, I can also sometimes end up unintentionally becoming an ersatz assistant DM. With an inexperienced DM I can sometimes accidentally hijack the overall direction campaign as they find themselves scrambling to react to unexpected things the party has (read: I have) done. With a more experienced DM it can sometimes lead to them getting lazy and leaning on me too heavily for things like keeping the game running smoothly, or expecting me to move the plot along through my character choices, etc. At least once, I've gotten co-opted into becoming the co-writer of the rest of the campaign when the DM couldn't come up with ideas on how to react to the sweeping consequences of the party's decisions.
There have been probably four campaigns over the years I can think of where the whole campaign eventually crashed because the whole party had abdicated responsibility for their choices to me and the DM had let me basically take over steering the direction of the campaign through my character's actions, and either I got tired of the responsibility of carrying everything on my shoulders or I got bored due to not having any other input to react to or anything/anyone to challenge me.

See, I've always enjoyed the old-school game of DM vs. Player - not the arms race of how-many-characters-can-I-kill vs. L33t-CharOp-skills, but the fencing match, the gentleman's chess game where whether my character dies some epic death or I defeat the BBEG in heroic fashion we shake hands and the "loser" says, "Well played"... The true contest was a friendly wager to see who could make the game more interesting and enjoyable.
However, the reason I'm fond of this style of play is, in large part, because I'm rather enamored of my own cleverness and creativity and enjoy having it challenged, particularly when pitted against the cleverness and creativity of someone else.
I also enjoy pushing the limits just to see how far I can push them, and doing things simply because I can. I like the feeling of power it brings to know that I'm able to do things, especially if it's something that others might not be able to. I like knowing more than other people, having secrets, and being able to get people to do what I want them to.
As I generally have a part-time conscience at best, this is a dangerous thing. I'm not a particularly good human being.
In the context of gaming, because I know that I'm capable of manipulating the players into doing things, or throwing a monkeywrench into the story to mess with the DM, the temptation to do so is always there.
If I'm gaming with players who irritate me or a boring or irritating DM, even more so.

Although I make a great effort to refrain from using whatever ability I may have to unduly influence, manipulate or control things, unless it's for the benefit of the entire table, it's not necessarily always in my nature to do so, and sometimes even when I'm doing my best not to use my powers for evil, it just ends up unintentionally happening anyway because of others' actions or reactions.

So I definitely can be (or at least have the potential to be) a problem player, although I make a serious effort not to be...

(It isn't easy being green. )

 

[innerdude]

I'm only a problem player if you consider "I won't sacrifice my character concept just because you're absolutely convinced that the extra +1 to hit and +2 damage per round that one feat gives out are absolutely necessary."

Otherwise, I'm good.

 

[Blue]

A while after this my (very Lawful) character finally wakes up; on hearing what transpired while she was out of it she is more convinced than ever they can't function without her leadership...and, despite being very much on the spindly side, she's the type of leader who likes to lead from the front; she's not the sort who would send people in to do something she's not prepared to do herself.

She's doomed!

I love doing this. In a 4e game I was playing a shifter runewarden (flavor of melee cleric with 5' auras to help others). But it got established in very early RP that, as a shifter, he was quite aggressive.

Which ended up playing in combat that he'd always be rushing in. Usually well before our sole defender who was cursed on initiative dice. Did I mention that I was the group's only healer? The number of times I got bloodied in the first or second round of combat was astounding.