Are you a "problem player"?

[Calico_Jack73]

1) I get bored/excited easily. Just watching a movie, tv show, or just browsing in a bookstore can inspire me to play something to the point that I want to ditch whatever the group is currently playing and to play something new.

2) In helping a player develop their character's background and motivation I can end up taking over the character to the point where it might as well have been mine. This happens mostly when I GM and I want to build a story around the character.

3) When I DM I don't know the rules as well as I probably should. Luckily I have a player in the group who knows the rules backwards and forwards but will still stand by my ruling should it contradict a rule.

 

[Dragonbait]

Why would you need to get into other people's characters when you are playing? Impersonation? Parody/ mimic/ ridicule?

While that's not what I originally meant, the things you mentioned are things that I will occasionally do.
I'll translate my pre-coffee gibberish: "get into" is supposed to mean "I often find that I'm not interested in other people's characters when I'm a player."

 

[rowport]

...Me, I'm a bit of a control freak. This manifests in various ways.

(1) Players in the two games in which I'm a player look to me with rules questions -- and worse, actual rulings -- before they look to the other DMs. (Even one of the DMs does this.)

(2) I get very impatient when the same players constantly slow the game down. (I growl, "Roll the damn die; if it's a 20, it doesn't matter if you're +8 or +9," or some variant, every single game session.)

(3) I'm similarly impatient when my fellow players make horrible tactical decisions simply because they aren't paying attention. ("I've got a 34 AC, an aberration-bane hammer, 110 HP, and a speed of 20', and you're shooting at the monster on me instead of the monster ripping up the wizard? Seriously?")

(4) I make 90 percent of the decisions for the two groups I play in, and drive the action 90 percent of the time. (I'm not talking about spotlight hogging. For instance, I might suggest, "Nathan, why don't you wild shape and scout things out for us?" At which point the druid and his player rightly have the spotlight.)...

Jeff-

Your post made me literally laugh out loud, because your description of yourself so matches one of the guys in my group I could have seen him writing it!

Our group has foibles for each guy.

Me, I am the Instigator. I like to threaten NPCs, and sometimes ignore them even when the DM is using them to convey plot points. I jump into rooms, kick in doors, pull random levers and set off traps-- and I am a spellcaster! Heh. It drives our Control Freak Tactician absolutely nuts.

We have a few Casual Players, who might debate Star Trek, or read comics, or sometimes just wander away from the table.

We have Method Actors, who would rather talk the enemy to death than stab them.

We have another Tactician, but he is less Rules Lawyer-esque than the Control Freak.

Funny stuff!

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I'm a usually pessimistic person, so that translates into the game.

I'm usually ok at playing roles when I DM, but I have difficulty getting into character when I'm a player.

I get bored with my characters quickly.

I hate it when I don't feel like death is a possibility. It makes my character suicidal (which angers me even more as I try to get killed and can't).

Finally, I'm a rules lawyer by nature and I have an annoying habit of reminding the DM of rules detrimental to the characters, possibly at the worst moments. "Did you remember the -2 penalty? Aw, I guess you don't make your Acrobatics check and fall to your death..."

It's a wonder my friends stil let me play with them.

AR

 

[ExploderWizard]

While that's not what I originally meant, the things you mentioned are things that I will occasionally do.
I'll translate my pre-coffee gibberish: "get into" is supposed to mean "I often find that I'm not interested in other people's characters when I'm a player."

Hah! ok. That clears things up a bit. Your alignment from that old Dragon article would be Neutral-self centered.

 

[fba827]

My name is fba827 and I am a problem player.

(waits for the obligatory AA-style "hi fba827")

It's been 2 weeks since my last game.

...

I alternate DMing with another, I shall save my DM confessions for another thread .
But when I am a player, it takes me a while to get "in the zone" for my player. part of this is me (I'm not a morning person) and part of this is a simple matter of scheduling (it's usually weeks between game sessions). But in any case, it takes me a little time to sit there remembering powers and tactics and such for the first couple hours. Also, if I am not yet "there" (mentally) and we have a combat, well, tactics be darned! I tend to just star firing and not thinking three steps ahead like I usually do. I think I just get impatient with myself for not remembering and therefore just picking a quick and easy power that is readily at hand.

Edit: I also have this problem of obsessively creating new characters. I pretty much make a new PC every day or two and stick it in a file as a "back up PC in case my active PC dies." I really need to stop doing that 1) it's not healthy 2) it probably adds to the reason why it takes me so long to refocus on the PC I'm actually playing 3) i have enough back up PCs to fill a town, I really don't need this many as I will never get to them all....
(To resolve the later part of this, I've actually started shifting some of these PCs as NPCs for my own campaign that I rotate/DM for the group )

 

[Wootz]

I don't think I am normally, however I do debate with the DM a lot (when I'm not DMing) probably because the DM sucked (ah, railroading. As in not being able to make any decisions outside of the battlemat railroading) but I can't help but feel I would've done that to any other DM.

Probably not though, but I am bitchy in terms of other player's decisions. Sucks.

 

[Ydars]

I have to say that despite my annoying habits, this has been the longest I have ever played (from levels 1-8) and I am really enjoying myself.

I used to want to DM immediately I stopped; once burn-out had faded that was. But this time I have changed and am really enjoying it.

I LOVE making characters and playing them. I am talking both mechanically and backstory wise, though the DM does not mine the backstory, still it lets me know how to play the character and give them a bit of depth.

I find that this way, I have learn't a whole new set of rules that I didn't really know well enough when I DMed; things like feat combinations etc.

The disadvantage is that if I DMed now and made a few monsters I think I would have to be careful not to produce something unstoppable.

Still, for the moment life is good.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I don't know if this is being a rules lawyer or not, but I find I have an urge to make everyone, including the DM, get the rule right. For example, last session we were fighting stirges and two stirges grabbed the warlock. The DM laughed, saying "20 ongoing damage each round!" (each stirge did 10 ongoing if they grabbed the target). However, I remembered the rule saying ongoing of the same type or no type doesn't stack.

I was right in this instance, but I've been wrong before. The dragonborn fighter took Warrior of the Wild, which lets a character use Hunter's Quarry until the end of his next term. So he basically gets two chances to use it. I thought it lasted only until the beginning of the character's next turn, and I argued strongly against the fighter using it twice. I was wrong and quickly apologized. In another case, I thought I read somewhere the temporary hitpoints from different sources *can* stack, but the DM showed me where I was wrong.

Whatever the case, I feel a huge urge to make sure I get the rule right. I think what I'm going to do from now on is just ignore that urge and not look anything up in the book. I'll just let my DM make the ruling (even if he's "wrong").

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Hi I'm TS and I am a problem player...

...I like to eat during gaming sessions. Not necessarily continuously, but if the session overlaps the noon-to-two hours or the five-to-seven, I'll want to have a meal. It just makes me feel like everyone is having more fun if they're eating. Maybe I have hobbit ancestors.

Anyway eating during a session isn't a problem for most people, but I'm diabetic. So exactly 12 minutes after I eat my eyes glaze over, my vocabulary becomes limited to monosyllabic words, I become incapable of even basic algebra and I start making decisions like "I grab the evil artifact. Why? I dunno, what could go wrong?"

One of my college gaming buddies called me the Energizer DM because right up until 12 minutes after we ate dinner, I'd be energetic and animated, but as soon as those carbs hit my blood stream it was like taking the battery out of the Energizer Bunny.

TS