D&D 5E GMs of EN World: What player behavior annoys you the most?

[Caliban]

I mean, all of those things are "notes". If you track your HP during combat, you're taking notes. Do you expect your players to do any of the above? If so, why are you setting the unreasonable expectations for your players? If I played in your game and never tracked my HP, would you care?

A four hour session 14,400 seconds in it. You can take a useful note in 10 of those seconds. That's a mere 0.07% of the session.

Nope.

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[Lanefan]

If you believe taking notes is an "unreasonable expectation" I assume you don't expect players to:
have a character sheet
write upon their character sheet their:
abilities
ability modifiers
skills
skill modifiers
HP
AC
movement speed
name
XP
class
alignment
spells known
spells prepared
weapons
armor
magic items
other items
class abilities
what their class abilities do
proficiency bonus
level
initiative modifier

Depending on what game system is being used, some of those - e.g. name, class, alignment - are things that only ever have to be noted once during roll-up; while quite a few others - e.g. level, class abilities, skills, proficiency bonus, etc. - are things that only have to be noted once per level. Both roll-up and level-up are things that tend to happen outside the run of play, and making notes and changes then doesn't lead to missing anything in the game.

Note that I said "depending on the system". One of my biggest annoyances with 3e was that a character's base stats were constantly changing, be it from buffs, debuffs, ability damage, or whatever; meaning everything tied to those stats (e.g. skill bonuses, save bonuses, etc.) also had to be constantly changed or updated. Inevitably this led to a disastrously messy character sheet and-or my forgetting what my bonuses etc. were at any given moment, along with disengagement from the story and play while I sorted it all out...only to then have to do it all again a few rounds hence. Grrrrrrr....

Lan-"lock the numbers in and - most of the time - leave them alone"-efan

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I mean, all of those things are "notes". If you track your HP during combat, you're taking notes. Do you expect your players to do any of the above? If so, why are you setting the unreasonable expectations for your players? If I played in your game and never tracked my HP, would you care?

Players take notes when they expect those notes to be useful in the future. If something happens with my HP or spell slots, then that's something which I may well need to know at a later point, and it's something which I might not otherwise remember, so I will probably* decide to write it down.

Any given thing that happens along the adventure, or any given NPC that we meet? It's highly unlikely that it will matter at any point down the line. My time is far better spent appreciating what is going on, rather than writing down everything that happens. And if something really important happens - if it's likely to matter at some point in the future - then I'm probably going to remember that anyway.

Scattershot notes that try to incorporate every detail, in the hope of getting down the thing that might matter in the future, is a ridiculously inefficient waste of time. It's much more likely that I could produce a page of notes for every session and still not get whatever detail happens to become relevant later on.

 

[Oofta]

If you believe taking notes is an "unreasonable expectation" I assume you don't expect players to:
have a character sheet
write upon their character sheet their:
abilities
...
initiative modifier

All happens offline.

I mean, all of those things are "notes". If you track your HP during combat, you're taking notes. Do you expect your players to do any of the above? If so, why are you setting the unreasonable expectations for your players? If I played in your game and never tracked my HP, would you care?

HP tracking happens during combat when it's not my turn.

A four hour session 14,400 seconds in it. You can take a useful note in 10 of those seconds. That's a mere 0.07% of the session.

Glad you broke it down to the seconds level, but if I only took a not for 10 seconds per game session I'd look at my notes two weeks later and think "What the heck does <short illegible scribble> mean?"

I've known people that try to take copious notes during the game session. They're constantly paying attention to what they're writing and asking the DM to repeat what they just said. Writing notes for most people is very distracting. Maybe you have stenographer training. I don't.

 

[Eltab]

I've taken notes while playing LFR and AL adventures. They go into my character(s) "Dear Diary" file on my home computer, eventually maybe appearing on a blog. I'm a little (lot?) wobbly on what happened while my character was in the other room, out cold, player had to make a soda run, &c.
I've been pretty good at noting events so pivotal that other players have read my blog and said "I remember that!". Sometimes I note an extra-ordinary event / decision and players from other tables make envious-sounding replies. One time I even got a player from my own convention table (who I had never met before IRL and did not recognize his internet moniker to be him) who remembered a decision made in extremis as being the highlight of his module experience.

 

[Eltab]

Pet peeve:
(maybe unavoidable at large tables)
2+ players whose turn is not going to come up again for a while, have a side conversation and lose track of the main story.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Why are DM's so forgiving and accommodating to players? It's like they fear players will abandon them. Players have just as much responsibility to contribute to the game as the DM does and shouldn't be given a free pass to do nothing and be carried just because "it takes me out of the moment", or some other garbage excuse.

Players need DM's more than DM's need players. D&D is a cooperative game, and the DM isn't solely responsible for the group's enjoyment. The DM already carries the vast majority of the burden. Asking the players to put in a tiny amount of effort, like knowing their characters abilities and doing a bit of notetaking to recall details about the campaign, is really the very least they should be doing to contribute to everyone's enjoyment of it.

 

[iserith]

If you believe taking notes is an "unreasonable expectation" I assume you don't expect players to:
have a character sheet
write upon their character sheet their:
abilities
ability modifiers
skills
skill modifiers
HP
AC
movement speed
name
XP
class
alignment
spells known
spells prepared
weapons
armor
magic items
other items
class abilities
what their class abilities do
proficiency bonus
level
initiative modifier

I mean, all of those things are "notes". If you track your HP during combat, you're taking notes. Do you expect your players to do any of the above? If so, why are you setting the unreasonable expectations for your players? If I played in your game and never tracked my HP, would you care?

A four hour session 14,400 seconds in it. You can take a useful note in 10 of those seconds. That's a mere 0.07% of the session.

I'm almost certain you know that "taking notes" as has been discussed is distinct from what you mention above. This is a bit of reach. I expect better in a response, but then perhaps I should readjust my expectations.

 

[iserith]

Why are DM's so forgiving and accommodating to players?

Because it's easier and more effective to control what I can control to make my game more memorable than complain when someone doesn't do what I want them to do.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

I'm sure many things annoy me about my players, as much as I'm sure many things about me annoy my players.

But ya know? We've been friends for over a quarter of a century, and played D&D together from the start. Across jobs, countries, marriages, the whole kaboodle.

Best thing I find is to talk it out, but sometimes a middle ground doesn't present. In which case we either forgive and work with it or... ...well, actually, that's about it. Outside of causing physical/psychological/emotional pain, we've all learnt to be fairly tolerant. And forgiving fast has become a habit.

Sure, I'd love it if X could get around to reading the 5E Players Handbook, or Y could switch off that part of their brain that sparks into action when realism and the magical meet. Or heck, if Z ever decided to actual arrive on time and even then to realise they need a trip down the shops to get munchies.

But hey, it's all good. I'm not on fire, my health is not being threatened and my financials are sound. So I'll take it all with a chuckle, a sigh and get on with the game.

Then I'll find another way for the party to meet some new, fiendishly evil doom.