Creepy Player Habits - WARNING: reading may require a Sanity Check!

[Buttercup]

If he plays a female character, it's a very over-the-top female character. Dresses provocatively, and almost disturbs me with his overly-stereotypical bimbo-esque behavior, even as a supposedly-intelligent mage-type!

As a female DM, I would be furious if one of my players did this. I'd stop the game as soon as I realized what was happening, and toss the player out of my house, if my other players didn't get to him first. However, I suspect that anyone who wants to play female characters as caricatures...isn't used to socializing with women, shall we say. Certainly it would take brass cojones to play a female like this at the table of a woman DM. So I guess I probably won't ever be "fortunate" enough to experience this in my own game.

In general, if a player is doing something that is making someone else uncomfortable, the best solution is to talk it out privately. If you can't fix it that way, it's probably best for one of the involved parties to find a new game.

 

[reanjr]

One of my players gets drunk at every session--aside from usually being hilarious, it's probably a little creepy.

Dave

Drunk? Try DMing a six person group, all drinking, two on vicodin, and one on "Some pills [he] found in [his] car."

 

[reanjr]

I would like to balance the cosmic scales of this thread by saying that the only gamers I've ever played with have been clean, funny, socially adept people.

I would like to, but I really can't. For only one exception, though. The rest have been fine. Well, mostly fine. :\

Not all of mine have been funny. And one or two, while not socially inept, might not be socially adept. But all have been clean.

 

[Buttercup]

I would like to balance the cosmic scales of this thread by saying that the only gamers I've ever played with have been clean, funny, socially adept people.

I would like to, but I really can't.

I can say this: all of the gamers who have ever played at *my* table have been clean, funny, socially adept people. I can't extend this to other people's games I've played in.

 

[diaglo]

[schultz]i know nothink[/schultz]

i've met some... interesting characters ... in my attempts to game.


from a bad experience: i don't play with players who want to bring their SO to the game "to Watch" any more. D&D is not a spectator sport.

nor is it an excuse to try to bite the DM in the neck with fake vampire teeth...

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

If I had seen even half of these things I would have stopped playing RPGs long ago and probably would have gone straight to Scrabble, Monopoly and Axis & Allies, never looking back.

I have a crapload of stories but most of them involve pathetic weirdos rather than people I would (a) be uncomfortable spending time with outside of the RPG and (b) be uncomfortable introducing them to friends.

Sadly, some of these creepy stories will be with me for the next week, causing me to think, "Maybe Jack Chick is right!"

 

[VirgilCaine]

But my second DM, through 6th-8th grades, was a really scary guy. He was in college, but he only played with high school and jr. high school students. He always had his fingernails painted black with strange pictures or symbols painted in gold on top. ...
In the town I lived in, every Halloween several people's housepets would go missing - to turn up later decapitated. And one year, it happened to a small child. Whenever the subject would come up, our DM would always have a knowing little smile on his face, but wouldn't say anything.

.... There's a Manson/Bundy/Son of Sam/Whoever for you. Hope you give the police his name when he graduates to adults...
Oh, and you're a winner. Whee.

Howie was a truly corrupt/immoral/depraved human being, but he was such a sad little man that it just didn't seem threatening. You had to pity him.

He also started off every combat by throwing a spear into the nearest orc and yelling, "Hold my spear, F***er!" which I found sort of endearing.

Like Gollum. The spear thing is cute...but EVERY COMBAT?

 

[VirgilCaine]

....................?

 

[Mallus]

As a female DM, I would be furious if one of my players did this. I'd stop the game as soon as I realized what was happening, and toss the player out of my house, if my other players didn't get to him first. However, I suspect that anyone who wants to play female characters as caricatures...isn't used to socializing with women, shall we say.

As a non-female DM and player... while I'm not suggesting there isn't such a thing as offensive, tossing-out worthy behavior, I gotta say that all sounds a little extreme.

1) What if the person playing the stereotypical bimbo was a woman?

2) What if the players is parodying a type? Is use of parody a no-go too?

3) What about other stereotypes? Genre lit [therefore RPG games] are rife with them. They're traditional. What about a sauve and slimy male Lothario? A dumb-jock of a male barabrian?

4) What's inherently wrong with a character that uses allure/sex to get their way? As long as it doesn't get err, graphic. Which would be bad. For me, anyway.

5) Suggesting that someone, anyone, who plays a stereotypical character has socialization issues, or a empty dance card is just silly. Maybe some do. Maybe some don't. If an author writes an unflattering female character, are they automatically a misogynist?

 

[Kender42]

Oh, and Kender42? I think the guy is gay and may or may not realize it. And I think he's hitting on you.

God I hope not. a) I'm not gay, b) he's married with a kid.

As a non-female DM and player... while I'm not suggesting there isn't such a thing as offensive, tossing-out worthy behavior, I gotta say that all sounds a little extreme.

4) What's inherently wrong with a character that uses allure/sex to get their way? As long as it doesn't get err, graphic. Which would be bad. For me, anyway.

5) Suggesting that someone, anyone, who plays a stereotypical character has socialization issues, or a empty dance card is just silly. Maybe some do. Maybe some don't. If an author writes an unflattering female character, are they automatically a misogynist?

Agreed. He actually is a really good guy, I just think that in these areas (him cross-playing and him dealing with PC romance) he's a bit out of phase with normality, and they should be avoided.