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

Presto2112

Explorer
I'll admit to the character sheet rip. I've done it twice. Both involved death by dragon. One was even my fault.

First time - I had a ranger who rode a giant eagle in 2e. I don't remember the circumstances, but we ended up in a combat with a black dragon. I rode in for a charge, and the dragon let loose with its halitosis. The acid damaged me seriously, but killed my eagle outright. The subsequent fall finally did the ranger in. *RIP*

Second time involved my 3.5 druid getting directly in a green dragons face. I know - stupid. I ducked out from my cover and let loose with a freeze spell. It passed its SR check. Then it let loose with its halitosis. I failed my Ref save. I became a viscous goo. *RIP*
 

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Anticitizen One

First Post
This thread is great! Reminds me how fortunate it is to be playing with a good, stable group. I've got a tantrum story...

Our group had just had a major battle in the middle of a small village. In the process of fighting whatever it was (I forget what), we trashed a bunch of buildings and set a couple of fires. The town guard gathers around us and their captain orders us out of town before we cause anymore trouble, and he'll give us to the count of 10 to get out of town. So the DM starts counting down from 10. No big deal, the characters start leaving town. This one kid we were playing with, who was usually reasonably normal, starts freaking out, saying things like 'I can't deal with this,' getting really upset and visibly agitated. By the time the DM got to 3, he grabbed his stuff and stormed out. I don't think he played with us for a couple of months after that.

I've thrown dice, not out of anger, but for a laugh.
 

awayfarer

First Post
Hussar said:
Oy, Away, the great flaming booger of gawd will smite Thugdar. Teach you to go spreading tales. Cranky? I'll show you cranky. Make me get up an hour earlier because of stupid daylight savings time... I'll show you.... ;) :D

Honestly, I only get cranky when people force me to sit and stare at a computer screen for three minutes and then type: "I attack." No dice, nothing else. I type, "Roll please." Three minutes later. "[1d20+5]=[10+5]=15" "You hit." Three minutes later. "What's my damage dice?" I go ballistic!

I actually understand it with folks like Talin or Niolta who had annoying habits like that.

My other group has an enormous "mellow hippie" bent to it and so pretty much everyone seems cranky by comparison. Hell, I'm pretty sure that I'M the cranky one in that group. :)
 

Thurbane

First Post
Many years ago, we had one player punch another in the head until blood came out of his ears... :confused:

...not our finest moment, but it was on a Sunday morning with everyone quite hungover...
 

TarionzCousin

Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
In one game, we had what the DM called the "Batman Rule" in effect: no matter what happened, players weren't allowed to kill each other. Since we were kind of competing, it made sense that the DM spelled this out in advance. The DM also told us that he would do his best to keep from killing the PC's as well. So we felt free to experiment.

Nevertheless, one player got two of his PC's killed in three sessions.

The first time, in the very first game, he collapsed the dungeon corridor between our characters and his--effectively sealing the rest of us in there, presumably forever. Of course, there was more than one way out. Since we were at the end of the dungeon, we found the other exit pretty quickly. By the time the betrayer navigated his way back to the entrance, the other five players had managed to push the giant boulder over the hole so that the betrayer couldn't get out. The DM allowed him several checks to move the boulder or dig his way out. He failed them all, so he starved to death. He was pretty mad, but admitted that he deserved it. Still, he made the DM show him the map of the dungeon to prove that there was more than one way out.

His next character lasted one and a half sessions. He was a foreigner in town, of a kind mistrusted by everyone. He tried to poison a couple of the other PC's, including the well-liked wealthy fighter. The fighter paid eight NPC's to help him storm the betrayer's residence, tie him up, and sell him into slavery (after the fighter bit the betrayer's nose off). The betrayer was furious that the people in his neighborhood wouldn't come to his rescue. Even after the DM told him that the fighter spent nearly all of his gold--about a year's salary for every NPC in the whole area--to track down the betrayer, the player was so upset that he took his stuff, yelled angrily at us for 45 minutes, and stomped out, swearing to "never play with us again!"

Ah, good times.
 

Cryndo

Explorer
Well, mine isn't role-playing related, but I think it is funny just the same. When I was a freshman in college my buddy was showing me how to play Axis and Allies. He considered himself quite a good wargamer. Well, I had no experience and despite numerous tactical errors, I destroyed him in my first game.

He got so ticked he left the dorm and drove home (about a two and a half hour drive) - on a Sunday night. He made it back to school in time for his eight o'clock class in the morning. Basically, assuming no LA traffic (right!) he left at almost 9 PM and probably got home sometime before midnight only to turn right around and leave at 5 AM to go back to school.

He acted like nothing happened the next day. Well, we're still good friends, but we haven't played Axis and Allies since.
 

Wik

First Post
Cryndo said:
Well, mine isn't role-playing related, but I think it is funny just the same. When I was a freshman in college my buddy was showing me how to play Axis and Allies. He considered himself quite a good wargamer. Well, I had no experience and despite numerous tactical errors, I destroyed him in my first game.

He got so ticked he left the dorm and drove home (about a two and a half hour drive) - on a Sunday night. He made it back to school in time for his eight o'clock class in the morning. Basically, assuming no LA traffic (right!) he left at almost 9 PM and probably got home sometime before midnight only to turn right around and leave at 5 AM to go back to school.

He acted like nothing happened the next day. Well, we're still good friends, but we haven't played Axis and Allies since.

Axis and Allies has destroyed more friendships...

Me, my dad, and his friend Heath love the game, and play quite a bit. But we're always looking for two more players. This particular time, we roped in my brother, and my friend Scott.

The group winds up being Me, my Dad, and Scott as the allies, and my brother and Heath as the Axis (we figured that was the fairest way to go - Heath and my Dad are the tactical experts, and we knew that since the allies has the edge, putting the newest player on their side should even things out).

One of our long-standing rules, made because my dad can be pushy sometimes, was that "advice" or communication between players beyond "roll the dice" or "be right back" wasn't allowed during play - we did all our planning at the start of every turn.

Scott wasn't the smartest player, and after the first turn or so (in which Scott left his bombers alone in a territory within german fighter range, which destroyed them all), me and my dad had written him up a list of basic reminders - "don't leave your bombers alone", "think ahead a turn", "use your bombers to knock out IPC's" and the like. Scott forgot to use the list, EVERY TURN.

But it was okay. I was Russia, and doing my usual awesome job at taking out the germans, and my dad was the U.K., and had been building up a navy for the inevitable attack on Germany in only one turn. It had been a tough fight, but if we could survive for one more turn, we'd win.

The game was close. In fact, Germany and Japan had managed to take over much of the map - they had enough of the world to win, but only if they could hold it for the entire turn.

It was Scott's turn. He knew that if, at the end of the turn, the axis held only ONE of the territories, they'd win. He knew that he had the capability, as the U.S., to take four of those territories. He kept looking at the board. He only had to take one. No one was saying a word, except Scott, who was doing his best to use his faulty logic:

"If I take this place, I'll lose my armies and transport next turn."
"But I can't do that... I need to take something now, or we lost at the end of this turn."
"If I take here, it puts my transports out of range for our attack next turn..."

So, he does nothing.

And we lose.

My dad FLIPS OUT, and starts yelling at Scott - "How could you be so stupid?" and so on. He's not really angry, just AMAZED that someone could be so dumb. It's not really anger, but if you don't know my dad, you'd think he was angry.

I felt so embarrassed at my dad's behaviour (even though Scott WAS being stupid) that I wound up walking Scott home and apologized about a hundred times.
 

Set

First Post
Best tantrum was a V&V game in college. One player wrote up Wolverine, and ended up fighting someone with Ice Powers in the first combat. The ice-dude would cover him in so much ice in a single attack that he'd spend the entire round *almost* cutting his way out of it, but not having an action left. Next round the ice-dude would dump another mini-glacier on him and he'd have to spend his entire round cutting free again. Three rounds later he flipped out and threw a chair at the GM.
 


I have a couple stories, but have been mostly blessed with mostly normal players..

My favorite story tho, is from a GURPS Western game. Each player came up with a character concept that fit our groups gaming style.. in other words scum of the earth, running from the law, horse thieves and murderers....

Well, sortof. One player decided that his character was a fallen Texas Ranger, on the run from the law after being wrongfully accused of murdering someone important. So far so good.
..but, we were a couple counties over and he didn't want anyone to know, so he still wore the badge...

First session the PC's meet in a bar. Well, sort of meet. We are all there and a fight breaks out. Multiple villanous gunslingers who have the Law hunting for them duck and cover, clearing leather and preparing to get the heck out of dodge...

Guess who hollors out 'Texas Ranger!'..while flashing his badge, waving his 6-shooter, and calling for everyone to put thier weapons down..... :\
- Let me tell ya, that went well. Found out really quick what a .308 does to a man in GURPS.

He was pissed, ripped up his sheet and called us all A-holes, then stormed out of the game shop. Eventually he calmed down and realized that was a really stupid thing to do, but it took him some time to forgive me...
{Out of the 5 players that shot at him, I was the only one that hit...}

He eventually got better at bringing characters in that fit the group better :)


====
Of course, I have torn up a character sheet and left a table in disgust... but I feel that I have a good reason to. My first, and last, Con my buddy and I sat down at a Shadow Run game that was offered. Long story short, the rest of the player were the DM's normal group and he played favorites the entire time. It didn't help that their idea of a Shadow Runner, a criminal living on the violent fringe of society, should get bonus XP for ..."morale and ethical play" The session ended with an unbeatable NPC who flat out killed my character on the surprise round. Nothing says 'DM is pissed and is killing your character' better than 13D6 damage from a thrown stilleto...

..so, I ripped up the sheet and walked away.
 

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