Help!!! Player Problems

[Wulf Ratbane]

Send them here.

http://wonka.ytmnd.com.ytmnd.com/

 

[Technomancer]

I agree to just say no, and would add that you might want to have some sub-par pre-gens available to handout to violators so you don't have to wait for them to make new characters.

 

[Corsair]

I need help dealing with players who always want to include exotic material from sources that I do not necessarily have access to. I have told them anything not in the core rules needs to be approved by me in advance. Then they show up with on their charactersheet that I have never seen. Expecting that I will just say OK so we can play. Any ideas or suggestions welcome.

1) Did you give them a deadline? They could have reasonably expected that you would just look over the sheet once before play started and it would be ok.

2) Have you DMed for this group before, or is this a group of players that has been playing together for a while? If so, the things that you think need to be "approved" could be things that were rubber stamped by previous GMs, or were allowed to be used by other players. (Seeing someone play a specific PrC in one campaign, a player could reasonably expect that they would be able to play that PrC in the next campaign.)

I think the other posters here have a tendency to vilify people before getting all pertinent information.

 

[pawsplay]

I need help dealing with players who always want to include exotic material from sources that I do not necessarily have access to. I have told them anything not in the core rules needs to be approved by me in advance. Then they show up with on their charactersheet that I have never seen. Expecting that I will just say OK so we can play. Any ideas or suggestions welcome.

So they're breaking your rules and lying by saying nothing. No mercy.

 

[S'mon]

It seems very disrespectful to me to have given a ruling and them pretty much ignore your request. Jeez. Did they not hear you?

They're not respecting you, or your game. They might as well be turning up with a CR 25 Epic Space Hamster PC. If you like them, say "NO!!!". If you don't like them, (re)read '5 Geek Social Fallacies' and boot the S.O.B.s.

 

[The_Gneech]

I was thinking, "Just take a big ol' pencil, scratch it off of their character sheet, and they get nothing as a replacement."

But that's just me. Less kindhearted GMs would probably dock them 1000 XP, too.

-The Gneech

 

[TheYeti1775]

Player standpoint:
I buy a lot of books, WOTC & 3rd Party, and if I see something I like in it I give the DM a heads up usually through email. Sometimes he has seen it sometimes not. If he hasn't then I let him peruse my copy or scan the pages in questions and send them to him.
I never try to do it the day of the game cause that makes no sense to me. Poof my character changes. Any new stuff that he wants to add becomes available through play, weather it's a new power/spell or a new PrC to try. Personally I have to thank him cause in my first game under him, he let me have an Ogre Fighter with monkey grip and a Pole Arm. Needless to say I didn't find it an enjoyable enough character and moved on to humans. (And before you go OGRE this was a Dawnforge world and they are a playable race for PC's.) He is willing to try new things within reason, we have been somewhat discussing the Ultimate Magus. Currently for our characters it wont happen, but it would not be unheard of in future characters.

Yeti

 

[robberbaron]

Never assume that player is using unseen rules correctly.

In my experience they only read the bits they like and conveniently omit the bits that don't help their 'mutant ninja of death' character build. This will also happen with Core rules that they 'apparantly' didn't read all the way through.

Not all players, by any means, not even many, but always the same ones.

 

[delericho]

I have a strict rule that if it's not in a book I personally own, it doesn't get used. However, this works well for us because I own far more books than any of my players (heck, we've only just reached the point where the majority own a PHB!); it might not work for you. Nonetheless, I recommend this approach, as too often players will remember the bits of a book they like, and 'forget' the annoying downsides.

For this particular situation, I suggest a one-strike rule. The first time the player does something like this, remind him of the policy and allow him to correct his mistake. The second time, whatever was added is just lost, without a replacement being offered. The third time, he should no longer be welcome at your table.

If more than one player is doing this sort of thing, assuming it's not the case that one is the 'leader' and the others just following, resign as DM. If they won't respect your policies, then you don't have to run the game for them. (If there is an obvious 'leader' amongst them, then you just have to deal with that one player, and the rest will fall into line.)

 

[FireLance]

I had a player once who constantly "reminded" me about all different types of special materials, rituals, magic items, exotic equipment, & anything else that could be treasure for his PC. As a DM, I can't stand it when a player tries to influence me on what I should give PC's.

Your situation is sort of similar (player wanting you to give him something you know nothing about). I stopped the player from doing this by telling him that if he finds cool things like materials or equipment in a book, he can tell me about things in general so I might read up on it later and possibly use it in the game. But any specific items he tells me about, I warned him that I will never throw that item in the campaign. I told him that I don't want players thinking that they can dictate what magic items their PC's will get by trying to influence my decision on what I include as treasure.

Frankly, this sounds excessively heavy-handed to me. I personally think it's a good thing for players to be interested in their characters and to want to improve their effectiveness. If giving the players what they want doesn't hurt my game and makes them happy, it seems rather perverse to me to deny it to them simply because they asked for it.