As a DM do you secretly enjoy the obnoxious player who pisses everyone else off?

[Kichwas]

Considering that this is the sort of player that invariably causes the results of this thread I would say no.

When I find people like this I boot them from my table.

 

[Henry]

No, not really. People who unintentionally ruin another person's good time for their own fun get told of this fact.

Someone who does it intentionally is not invited back. But then, I'm the type of person who detests harmful jokes, crank phone calls, and other con-games and insult humors.

 

[Mercule]

Nope.

 

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

No.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I do have kind of a weakness for 'loose cannon' players, because they tend to keep things moving. But by this I mean, at worst, someone who occasionally does things worthy of the comic relief in a Hollywood action movie. (I wouldn't want anyone to intentionally endanger the rest of the party, but occasional incompetance can be endearing.)

I've found that a little troupe style play helps with this kind of thing. In a session I ran recently, I ran a flashback for each PC, and handed out supporting NPCs for each bit. One of my players who was running a hyper-competent sniper type chose a true screw-up as their throwaway character, made life difficult for the rest of the group, and was generally hilarious. (It was a military scenario, and this character was modeled after the "Spud" (from Trainspotting) character from _Black Hawk Down_.) Not only did it lighten the mood, but I think it let him get something out of his system and increased his enjoyment of his rather more straight-laced main character.

 

[Painfully]

I know somebody that games like that. I hope the two of you will be happy getting each other killed over selfish motivations, and making absolutely no progress towards anything remotely like an interesting story.

Really, most characters should want to accomplish an objective of some sort that will be helped by teamwork. Otherwise, what's the point of joining an adventuring party?

If you keep in-character, would the party still travel with your obnoxious player's character? If not, then he's probably too obnoxious, and needs to change his attitude before the party (or players) decide to exclude him from their adventures.

 

[Janx]

I think it depends on the behavior.

Yes, most GMs get a chuckle out of stupid player, but only because we can't believe they're that dumb. Once we remember the player is screwing up the story by getting the party killed...

Bear in mind, there's a difference between reckless disregard for their fellow PCs safety (firing into melee, fireballing into melee) versus being spontaneous.

I don't mind the PC who gets tired of the party planning which door to open for an hour, so they pick one and bash it open. That's often in character for them.

Versus someone who's tactics show little regard for their teammate (firing into melee when everyone's yelling NO!).

If you imagine what happens in the game as "real", then how long before the party (who kills things for a living) goes out and solves the annoying character's problem. And after that, only the GM can approve a next character.

Janx

 

[Ranes]

Guess what?
No.

 

[Kestrel]

If the players are having fun and the guy is not intentionally trying to screw over the other players, then I love them. As a player and a dm.

I'll take a goofball over a min-maxing powergamer anyday.

 

[billd91]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It depends on how it keeps happening. Is it just because the player doesn't think things through or because it's intentional? In the former case, I do chuckle about it. I especially chuckle about it if the player does think things through, takes a calculated risk, and then gets burned. Oh, I enjoy that a lot.

I'm also usually merciful to the other PCs about it, though.