Ever had a player in your group throw a tantrum or worse? Most uncomfortable moment?

[robberbaron]

Generally, we are a pretty reasonable group but we do occasionally have 'differences of opinion'. Most of the time they are discussed and sorted out but we have one player who has nearly caused me to shut my laptop up and go home (I was the GM).

We had just had a death in the party, early in the session and I wanted to get the player's replacement character into the action so I had him surveilling the cave the party were heading toward. One player then told me that unless I came up with a good enough reason for them to accept the new character they would kill him and take his kit.
Now, I accept that I had not given much thought as to how to get additional characters into the game (didn't expect one character to fireball the other when he was in a Behir's mouth) but I was just not prepared for the vehemence of the pronouncement and offered to end the game there and then.

The same player gets belligerent and personal whenever a decision goes against him. I have been called 'idiotic', 'stupid' a couple of times (as have other GMs) and been accused of favouritism.

The players keep coming back so I guess I can't be doing much wrong.

 

[DonTadow]

I had a player in my last campaign (2 weeks ago) whom had a heck of a temper problem. He was brought into the group by another player and I had no problems. After all the guy was an ordained minister so I surely didn't expect that his main issue would be loosing control. But that was what it was.

It was a bad experience.

The guy yelled at me during game, through dice (one time in my direction) and consistently made snide comments about the skill based magic system I used. My attempts at trying to integrate more typical phb magic to make it easier for the guy was underappreciated. When he wasn't yelling at me,players or the dice he was sleeping. Sometimes falling asleep right before the big battle. I swear, one time we woke him up, he made a roll, yelled, through a dice and went back to sleep.

THe fact it persisted so long was because I'm a softy and It just felt wierd to have to tell a priest about behavior issues. I don't believe its my place to "kick people" out the game especially so close to the end of the campaign. But it was just too much. He went on vacation for a 2 weeks and it was the best games we had since he arrived.

When he came back, the player who brought him told me she was not coming back to the game and that i shouldn't mention her to him. Well this freaked me out. She proceeded to tel me how he got real violent with her the other day and if she hadn't of left she thought he was going to hit her.

That was the point I ended the campaign. I really didn't want to see the guy again after that. So I ended the campaign prematurally with just the other players and told him that he wasn't invited back to the game. Even after the current campaign ended he emailed me for two weeks asking to "come over and play games" or "play in my mutants and mastermind campaign". I finally had to tell him, dude, you freakin attacked one of my friends I really don't have an inkling in continuing a friendship.

 

[Herzog]

Not a real tandrum, but uncomfertable to a certain degree:

We were playing with a group that consisted of myself, a friend/co-worker, a co-worker, and some friends of the co-worker.

Somewhere along the adventure an argument broke up between my character and the friend/co-worker's character. Don't remember the details, but he was playing a paladin and I was playing a CN bard, needless to say alignment differences where in there somewhere.

The argument got pretty heated, with us shouting over the table, threatening to leave the party, etc.

Then we both went out for a smoke.

When we got back, the other players were looking at us strangely, and when we asked why, they admitted they were worried that one of us had left the group, that we might have gone to blows outside, or whatever.

Seems our IC argument was something they had taken up as an OC argument. We must be really good roleplayers

Herzog

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Oh man, some great stories here guys! I wish I had more to contribute, but as the guy who died more than any other players, I never gave up and just asked for a PHB to start rolling up a new character. Eventually, I'd bring two or three different characters to a session for when my character would croak.

so upset that once the game was over he went outside and vandalized the car of the person who suggested the Reincarnation. We let him know that he was no longer welcome to game with us.

What did he do, exactly? Was there any legal action taken?

Way back in high school I was running a BECMI game. There was one player who had a pretty cool magic-user character. In the course of one evening's play, the poor PC got level-drained and sex-changed into a woman, which completely destroyed his "maybe a little-bit-evil menacing loner wizard" thing and led to jokes and ribbing from the other players. He got so pissed off that he burned his character sheet (causing a small bit of excitement at the table), went home, and never played D&D with us again (although we all still remained friends).

LOL, something very similar happens to an NPC in Baldur's Gate II.

 

[eric mcloins]

Those are true horror stories....

I actually can't understand some of you guys. If a player was ever to shout at me during session, call me "stupid" or "idiotic", commit acts of violence or any of the other insane things that you describe players do, he would be out of the door in a heartbeat, never to return again.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Oh man, some great stories here guys! I wish I had more to contribute

Huh? You wish you had more bad experiences with roleplayers?

Why don't you just come over. Tell us what you hate most at roleplaying, what style makes you sicker than anything else and what system you really hate, and we'll play that game that way with all the little things you came to loathe. That's what friends are for!

 

[DonTadow]

Those are true horror stories....

I actually can't understand some of you guys. If a player was ever to shout at me during session, call me "stupid" or "idiotic", commit acts of violence or any of the other insane things that you describe players do, he would be out of the door in a heartbeat, never to return again.

My problem was I just couldn't believe that a priest was acting like this. The guy was also a good role player when he wasn't sleep or yelling or throwing dice.

 

[diaglo]

yes, i've witnessed several. you need to find the link to the old rpg.net thread about horror stories.

 

[Masquerade]

yes, i've witnessed several. you need to find the link to the old rpg.net thread about horror stories.

This one, perhaps?

 

[D.Shaffer]

Our FLGS has a DND game night where new players are invited to come try things out. I'm one of the 'Volunteer' DM's who run things, take in new players, and generally show them the ropes and get them into stable groups for a longer running campaign. I've met some nice guys through it, but also some less than stellar examples of model behavior.

One guy (Who I shall call S) is in my current group and is a pretty good example. When he first showed up, he claimed that he was an experienced player and that he wanted to get some of his friends into things. Great, I thought, this'll help me out with the 3 complete beginners also in the party. However, it quickly became apparent that things are likely not going to work out well for the longer term

For starters, it's clear he's not as experienced as he likes to claim. He constantly asks which dice to roll for everything (Including attack and skill rolls), He needs help leveling up, and he never seems to remember what his attack bonus is as he doesnt write down all his bonuses.

Additionally, he has a severe attitude problem with his 'experience' and refuses to admit he doesnt know as much as he thinks he does, this leading us up to locking horns in the last play session. I have a house rule (Which I made clear at the beginning) involving no XP (I level them up at appropriate times). After several sessions he started arguing with me that having XP is an 'official part of the game' and that I wasnt allowed to change it, and that he had a 'right' to know what his XP currently was and if we didnt start playing right he was going to take his stuff and never show up again. He then went on to mention how he's played for years, reads Dragon, and know's how it's supposed to be played and that I'm 'playing it wrong.' His friends calmed him down and we managed to proceed to level up the characters. Unfortunately, he wasnt as calm as we thought.

As I was helping him level up his character I saw several mistakes on his character sheet as well as several places where he could have made things simpler for himself (Like writing down his bonuses next to his weapons, etc.) , S started arguing, again, that I wasnt doing things right and HE knew the 'official' way to write down a character sheet. I tried explaining where he was mistaken again, but he continued to press the point. After a few minutes, he stormed off to another of the 'volunteer' DM's and started hounding him about it, asking him to come over and correct me. The DM (Who's a friend of mine) listened and explained essentially how I was right and he was wrong. S then went to yet a THIRD 'volunteer' DM and started complaining. After THAT DM then mentioned he was wrong, S finally decided to let it drop, but still maintained that he was the correct one, repeating the 'I've been playing for years' mantra.

After the game was over, I tried to talk to him about how this was leading to a disruptive play experience for all concerned. He DID seem a bit contrite, but again brought back the XP issue saying he really wanted to know. I decided to compromise a bit and mentioned that I'd think about it. He then started to demand what the CR's of the creatures he faced were so he could figure it out himself. When I refused, he started yelling at me, again, about how he didnt need to put up with this. Several of the DM's interceeded, again, and he calmed to the point where he apologised for his behavior.

Suffice it to say, once this campaign is over, I'm not inclined toward inviting him into my steady group.