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Henry said:It walked like a duck, and more importantly sounded like a duck....
Ah, quak.
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Ever had a player in your group throw a tantrum or worse? Most uncomfortable moment?
- Thread starter Emirikol
- Start date
Ah, quak.
Kheti sa-Menik
First Post
This past Monday. Our group is running two campaigns and we alternate. I run my campaign for a month and one other guy runs his for a month.
There's five of us in total.
The other DM is an old friend of mine from way back and its his house. He's the most mellow guy in the world. There's also the Girl, the Munchkin, and D. D was the source of the issue. He and I get along sorta...we've drank together and seen movies. But our philosophies of gaming seem very different. I believe the rules exist to serve the game/story and if they need to be altered/set aside to do so, the DM can do so. I also believe that the point of the campaign is to tell compelling stories about interesting characters in fantastic situations. Vermisilitude is very important to me as is some sense of realism. D seems to believe that the rules are rigid items, inflexible and unconditional. He and I have come to odds many many times.
During a description, I used the word cowering to describe a guard's reaction to the PCs. Then when the guard attacked one of the PCs, D complained that I didn't take into account the guard's cowered status. I asked D what he meant..the guard is not cowered. D says "You said he was cowered!" I said that the guard was described as cowering. I got honked off because I will not alter flavor descriptions or be bound from creating cool descriptions because a word happens to have specific game meanings. Does that mean I have to be careful not to use shaken or panicked to describe someone because they have game connotations? I will use whatever words I know to convey imagery.
D also believes that using DM authority to even stray a little from the rules is essentially screwing his character over.
These problems have been building over the years I've known him.
Monday night, his character down in single digit HPs charges into a room with a wizard he knows is fairly powerful. He eats a lightning bolt and goes down.
The other PCs win the day and kill the wizard. D's PC is stabilized. He's the cleric and no one in the group has potions or the ability to heal (this is a low magic campaign). So they drag his body just three rooms away and decide the bed down for the night.
They are invading underground catacombs, they know there are more enemies deeper in, they know the tribals are going to come in force but they decide to bed down. D is pushing this so they can rest enough to get his PC back in the action.
Of course they are attacked before too much time goes by.
D is not happy that he can't participate and threatens to leave. The standing PCs manage to fight off the enemy, protect D's PC's body, and even rescue the other PC who was captured.
D all the while is threatening to leave because I won't miraculously bring his character to full consciousness.
Finally, D gets up to leave and the other DM at the table says "Why are you throwing a tantrum and going home?" The other three of us sit silently and look at each other.
Basically, other DM tells D that he is being childish and selfish, being rude and inconsiderate to the rest of the group.
I'm shocked because I've never seen other DM in all the years I've known him do something like this.
Other DM points out to D that in both campaigns at different times, a PC has been removed from the action. But the player didn't stomp out, he stayed and offered advice, looked up rules, and generally participated.
D packed his stuff up and said if he can't do anything why should he stay and blamed me for not having somehow brought him back in. Other DM asks him if he's so childish that he needs to be the center of attention and be entertained every single second he's there.
Other DM advises that maybe he shouldn't come back again if he can't be an adult.
D simply says "See you around" and leaves.
Stunned silence.
I have no idea if D will show up Monday night. He hasn't contacted anyone so who knows?
There's five of us in total.
The other DM is an old friend of mine from way back and its his house. He's the most mellow guy in the world. There's also the Girl, the Munchkin, and D. D was the source of the issue. He and I get along sorta...we've drank together and seen movies. But our philosophies of gaming seem very different. I believe the rules exist to serve the game/story and if they need to be altered/set aside to do so, the DM can do so. I also believe that the point of the campaign is to tell compelling stories about interesting characters in fantastic situations. Vermisilitude is very important to me as is some sense of realism. D seems to believe that the rules are rigid items, inflexible and unconditional. He and I have come to odds many many times.
During a description, I used the word cowering to describe a guard's reaction to the PCs. Then when the guard attacked one of the PCs, D complained that I didn't take into account the guard's cowered status. I asked D what he meant..the guard is not cowered. D says "You said he was cowered!" I said that the guard was described as cowering. I got honked off because I will not alter flavor descriptions or be bound from creating cool descriptions because a word happens to have specific game meanings. Does that mean I have to be careful not to use shaken or panicked to describe someone because they have game connotations? I will use whatever words I know to convey imagery.
D also believes that using DM authority to even stray a little from the rules is essentially screwing his character over.
These problems have been building over the years I've known him.
Monday night, his character down in single digit HPs charges into a room with a wizard he knows is fairly powerful. He eats a lightning bolt and goes down.
The other PCs win the day and kill the wizard. D's PC is stabilized. He's the cleric and no one in the group has potions or the ability to heal (this is a low magic campaign). So they drag his body just three rooms away and decide the bed down for the night.
They are invading underground catacombs, they know there are more enemies deeper in, they know the tribals are going to come in force but they decide to bed down. D is pushing this so they can rest enough to get his PC back in the action.
Of course they are attacked before too much time goes by.
D is not happy that he can't participate and threatens to leave. The standing PCs manage to fight off the enemy, protect D's PC's body, and even rescue the other PC who was captured.
D all the while is threatening to leave because I won't miraculously bring his character to full consciousness.
Finally, D gets up to leave and the other DM at the table says "Why are you throwing a tantrum and going home?" The other three of us sit silently and look at each other.
Basically, other DM tells D that he is being childish and selfish, being rude and inconsiderate to the rest of the group.
I'm shocked because I've never seen other DM in all the years I've known him do something like this.
Other DM points out to D that in both campaigns at different times, a PC has been removed from the action. But the player didn't stomp out, he stayed and offered advice, looked up rules, and generally participated.
D packed his stuff up and said if he can't do anything why should he stay and blamed me for not having somehow brought him back in. Other DM asks him if he's so childish that he needs to be the center of attention and be entertained every single second he's there.
Other DM advises that maybe he shouldn't come back again if he can't be an adult.
D simply says "See you around" and leaves.
Stunned silence.
I have no idea if D will show up Monday night. He hasn't contacted anyone so who knows?
Draxo
First Post
Thankfully, ive never had problems this bad.. this thread makes me feel fortunate for my group.
We're all long term IRl friends.. we havent played with a stranger in a long time, all of us know each other.. we're a fairly closely knit group and we play the game for fun purposes. We've had nothing worse than occasional arguments.. but the GM has enforced some things that keep it covil (no evil characters in his campeign, no stealing from other players, etc).
nyway.. a number of years ago, maybe around 5.. we used to play our D&D in a local community centre where we rented a room. Since it was at a community centre and registered as a club, we all met each other through it.. it used to host two groups, but the elder gamers left to play at one of their houses, leaving just us. Anyway, for the first time in over a year someone new wanted to join, it was a kid of maybe 12ish years old (we were all late teens to early 20's at that time). We let the kid join in our D&D group,he rolls up a barbarian and we start playing. However it wasnt long before the kid starts acting extremely annoying. He stole snacks, grabed other peoples property that was lying on the table before them. Even took peoples mobile phones and started playing around with them, really annoying and rude stuff. Thing is, he was young and none of us wanted to confront him, but it kinda broke over when one day he tried to take my friends phone.. i'll just call him D, who was a martial artist, one of the older players at about mid 20's and probably 6' 6 or something. Anyway, he crushed his hand into the table when he reached over to take his phone, D had had enough. The kid was real quiet the rest of the night.. he left early though. We agreed that the kid had to go that ngiht. Next week one of us confronted him about it and said he wasnt welcome anymore. The kid burst into tears and ran out, never saw him again.
Thats about the worst thing thats happene din our group. At times a player has gotten really aggrevated by rolling unluckily or failing saving throws.. arguing and bitching loudly aabout it. I got really upset whe my druid who was grappling a downed humanoid almost got hit by the groups fighter (who had no need to attack thegrappling creature) and argued about it and got a bit upset.. but nothing like the stories here.
We're all long term IRl friends.. we havent played with a stranger in a long time, all of us know each other.. we're a fairly closely knit group and we play the game for fun purposes. We've had nothing worse than occasional arguments.. but the GM has enforced some things that keep it covil (no evil characters in his campeign, no stealing from other players, etc).
nyway.. a number of years ago, maybe around 5.. we used to play our D&D in a local community centre where we rented a room. Since it was at a community centre and registered as a club, we all met each other through it.. it used to host two groups, but the elder gamers left to play at one of their houses, leaving just us. Anyway, for the first time in over a year someone new wanted to join, it was a kid of maybe 12ish years old (we were all late teens to early 20's at that time). We let the kid join in our D&D group,he rolls up a barbarian and we start playing. However it wasnt long before the kid starts acting extremely annoying. He stole snacks, grabed other peoples property that was lying on the table before them. Even took peoples mobile phones and started playing around with them, really annoying and rude stuff. Thing is, he was young and none of us wanted to confront him, but it kinda broke over when one day he tried to take my friends phone.. i'll just call him D, who was a martial artist, one of the older players at about mid 20's and probably 6' 6 or something. Anyway, he crushed his hand into the table when he reached over to take his phone, D had had enough. The kid was real quiet the rest of the night.. he left early though. We agreed that the kid had to go that ngiht. Next week one of us confronted him about it and said he wasnt welcome anymore. The kid burst into tears and ran out, never saw him again.
Thats about the worst thing thats happene din our group. At times a player has gotten really aggrevated by rolling unluckily or failing saving throws.. arguing and bitching loudly aabout it. I got really upset whe my druid who was grappling a downed humanoid almost got hit by the groups fighter (who had no need to attack thegrappling creature) and argued about it and got a bit upset.. but nothing like the stories here.
Quartz
Hero
My own tale's a bit tame too. My own tantrum. We were playing Rolemaster at a friend's house with a truly excellent GM, and the group split. All weekend affairs once every other month or so. I was decidedly unhappy about this. My character was one of the ones left behind. So I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs. For a couple of hours. More time passed and I was getting bored and angry. Absolutely steamed after few more hours in fact. So I went outside to play with the dog. And the hostess came out to find out what was wrong. And I was rather short with her.
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Kheti sa-Menik said:
I can understand his point of view.
If you tell me I see a giant with a battleaxe in the room, I'm going to assume you mean a giant with a battleaxe... not a guy who's 7'2" standing next to an authoritarian woman.
If you tell me that my actions have caught my opponent flat-footed, I'll be startled and confused if you explain after I react to that fact that you meant it figuratively, and that he is not, in fact, 'flat-footed' as the game defines it.
If you tell me that someone appears enchanted by the painting, I'll make sure I don't look at that painting too closely, and I'll get the wizard to detect magic!
On the other hand, if you tell me someone appears frightened, I'd probably ask if you meant the game condition without assuming.
So I'm not sure exactly where the line is drawn, but I think you should always be aware as a DM if you're using a word that has a technical meaning. Not so you can avoid using them, but so you can clarify if anyone misunderstands.
-Hyp.
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