Are you a "problem player"?

[Shroomy]

I don't know if I'm a problem from my DMs perspective, but I'm usually the one who remembers things like ongoing damage, conditions, etc. (I got a good memory, so my DM often asks me about such and such rule) and I expect that they will be applied to the players and the monsters. I'm not sure my fellow players always appreciate me being such a stickler.

 

[RFisher]

I forgot to mention... I have told a GM to stop making it obvious he’s fudging in my favor. I don’t mind the fudging. I just don’t want to know about it.

 

[DeusExMachina]

I forgot to mention... I have told a GM to stop making it obvious he’s fudging in my favor. I don’t mind the fudging. I just don’t want to know about it.

God I would love it if my DM did that. He's got a problem with first sending in really powerful monsters and then when we're on the edge of death backtracking really obviously to figure out some deus ex machina that can save us. If he would just let the monster roll a few misses or turn a critical into a normal hit, lower his defenses some for when we miss the gazillionth time and such I'd be so much more satisfied with the game..

 

[Rel]

God I would love it if my DM did that. He's got a problem with first sending in really powerful monsters and then when we're on the edge of death backtracking really obviously to figure out some deus ex machina that can save us.

Emphasis added...

Perhaps you've given him some indication that you're ok with this playstyle?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My main flaw as a player is that I have the ability to frustrate the GM during PC creation.

I've been playing since 1977- mostly D&D, but a wide variety of games besides that- and if there is a "normal" PC concept out there, I've probably played it. So its not unusual for me to come up with some twist or variant that the DM hadn't considered, and sometimes this means asking for minor rules tweeks and variations.

The good news is that DMs who know me also know I'm not going to take that inch and try to take a mile.

The bad news is that if I'm told "No," I have the tendency to either come up with a close cousin of the denied concept or come up with something just as warped. Sometimes after repeated denials, I get frustrated and submit Blandy McStereotype as my PC. Despite the potential for boredom, though, I don't mail it in. If I did, I would get bored. By playing Blandy to my fullest ability, I stay engaged with the campaign world.

 

[SKyOdin]

I am a problem player in a couple of different ways:

1) I will be the first to admit that I am slow to take my turns. The first part of it is that I am naturally indecisive, so it takes me a while to make tactical decisions. The second part of the problem is that I need a pocket calculator to do basic arithmetic, so it can take me a while to add up my dice from a damage roll. At least I am attentive and always know when it is my turn.

2) I am bad with names. Not PC or NPC names, but people's names. I can play a D&D game with the same people every other week for a couple of months, then turn around and have to ask one of them: "err, what was your name again?" Yet, I can remember their PC's name just fine! I need better people skills.

3) I am a bit of a minmaxer. When I first read the Alternity core rulebook from so that I could learn the rules and make my first character, I discovered that while most gun skills were based on Dexterity, heavy weapons were based on Strength. So I used Dex as a dump stat and created a powered armor equipped soldier specializing in Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers, and Melee Weapons, yet who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a handgun.

4) My characters are also often rather unimaginative. The character mentioned above felt like a square peg in a round hole since he was a pretty typical soldier-type in a campaign full of crazy and imaginative characters with a ton of personality and unusual quirks. Later on, when my own brother was DMing a 3.5E D&D campaign and asked all of the players to come up with personalities and backgrounds, I don't think he was very happy with mine. My characters often end up looking like slim excuses for various class/race/ability combinations. I am working on this one though!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I DM almost all the time, but when I play I think I'm a problem player.

I try so hard not to dominate the game, hog the spotlight and rules lawyer that I become the "Quiet Player."

I go along with whatever plan the others think up, rarely initiating/suggesting my own plan.

I also have a tendency to pull off game-stopping, plotline-destroying maneuvers as I see flaws in NPC plans that others (including the DM/GM) don't pick up on.

Examples:

In an old Shadowrun game (2nd edition, I think), there was a physad we were supposed to stop that would just physically beat the crap out of everyone (the GM had some REALLY jacked up Physical Adept housefules). So my character (a Mage) slipped into the astral, followed him around long enough for him to drop all his defenses and cast a high-Force Paralyze spell through one of his active Foci, paralyzing him for 6 hours and allowing the rest of the group to put him down permanently, destroying the rest of the storyline.

In a Vampire the Masquerade game, we were asked by the Prince to stop a high True Faith hunter that had been destroying vamps in the city. When the rest of the group (literally) couldn't touch him and it came to my turn, I said to the Storyteller "I shoot him in the face. From across the street." Completely derailed the plotline when I killed him with one shot.

Also, I once used Prestidigitation in a 2e D&D game to convince a goblin that my 1st level character was a god.

In a 2e D&D game, I was playing a thief. We had been captured by a tribe of kobolds, and I managed to escape. Stupid kobolds didn't think to take any of my non-weapon, non-armor equipment from me. So, once they found out I had escaped they gave chase. DM decided (in an attempt to keep me captured) that there was a cliff around the next corner. Faced with a very long drop that was sure to kill my 1st level thief and 35 charging, angry kobolds, I got to the edge of the cliff and whipped out my bag of marbles. 32 failed Dex checks and one critical hit later, the remaining 2 kobolds wisely ran.

 

[Dragonbait]

After reading this thread I get the feeling most people who have been/still are DMing games regularly are some of the hardest players do deal with.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

After reading this thread I get the feeling most people who have been/still are DMing games regularly are some of the hardest players do deal with.

Either that, or people who have been/still are DMing games are most aware of how their behavior as a player impacts the group.

Then again, I'm a DM.

 

[EroGaki]

My problem is that I tend to get really immersed into the game; I wrote long backgrounds for my characters, regular journal entries, and the like. When I'm a spellcaster, I get even worse. I actually write out incantations for my spells, and then pronounce them when he casts them. Sadly, the other players aren't that involved; they will roleplay, but not to that extent. So I often get grumpy because they just shrug off my efforts .

I enjoy the story aspect of the game, and I like to contribute, but it never seems to work out. I write backgrounds for my story so that the DM will have options. But since we always play preplanned adventure paths, by character background is of no importance. Which is one reason I hate adventure modules: they are more focused on a story, and less focused on the characters. Heck, the characters are replaceable; if my adventure party wiped next session, our new characters could easily pick up where we left off.