Now, I don't mean to go off on a rant here...

[Emiricol]

Guns and hunting comments are political topics.

Anywho, I have a feeling this is going to be like the "what books don't you like?" thread. One DM's least favorite player type is another DM's most favorite

My own least favorite is the "Bit Part" player. These are the guys who don't come up with any original ideas, concepts or plans. They want the DM to lead them by the nose, and complain if they have to actually decide something, like whether to turn left or right :eyeroll:

 

[d4]

THE REALIST. He is obsessed with playing in a campaign that is "realistic"; therefore, any elements of magic, psionics, monsters, the supernatural, or paranormal phenomena (including alien visitations and the like) will offend and repel him immediately.

heh. i actually played an amusing variant of the Realist in a horror campaign a long time ago. the character was the Realist, not me the player. he simply didn't believe the supernatural was real. as the player, i knew it that was what the game was really about, so i mainly played this belief as a side-thing for laughs. i just noticed that whenever we encountered something supernatural, it was always in poor lighting conditions, or my character was unconscious or looking the other way or something -- something so that i could rationalize away what had happened... my character made it through 75% of the campaign staunchly believing that there was no such thing as the supernatural and everyone else in the party was a little bit crazy...

my personal pet peeves are the Brooding Lone Wolf and the Specific Realist (both talked about above).

i've seen too many players who just don't get the concept of role-playing as a group activity. i started out one campaign by telling the players, "OK, i want you guys to form a cohesive group, so as you are developing your backgrounds, i want everyone to have some form of personal connection with at least two other PCs." most of the group came up with good stuff -- "We're roommates." "We dated for a little bit a few months back." "I think of him as the kid brother i never had." then we get Mr. Angst-Filled Brooding Lone Wolf Goth Anime Wannabe: "I don't know any of these people. i keep to myself and don't want to get involved with them because geez, i've got so many problems of my own."

i so wanted to say, "OK, so you aren't part of the group. good-bye."

i also hate what you call Specific Realists. like the guy who was really into skiing. so much that he wanted there to be a Skiing skill -- and wanted Cross-Country Skiing to be a different skill from Downhill Skiing. and was upset that there weren't four different kinds of skis in the equipment section. and thought there should be at least one skiing situation in every adventure, and... you get the point. that kind of detail over something that isn't important to the campaign is just nuts...

The real problem is gamers who like quoting show tunes and only want to play Personalities.

Don't cry for me d20 Modern
The truth is I never left you...

*ahem*

my least favorite kind of player (and this of course isn't specific to d20 Modern) is the RULES LAWYER WHO DOESN'T KNOW THE RULES.

you know, the kinda guy who interrupts the GM every two minutes arguing some point of rules minutiae, except he's DEAD WRONG. all the time. i hate that.

 

[d4]

By the way, it's my first post on these boards, so I apologize if I've messed up the formatting or anything like that.

by the way, welcome to the boards!

 

[Kesh]

THE WIZ

No matter the game, this person wants to play a wizard of some type. If it's Call of Cthulu, he's the first one to break open the occult tome and start reciting incantations. In a non-magic game, they still try to make magic work somehow, no matter how hard you try to explain that it won't work.

THE DABBLER

Okay, I'll admit to doing this a few times myself.

Basically, they always create a character that's the opposite of the SPECIALIST. This character has at least a couple points in every skill, meaning they're not actually good at any of them. Usually gets upset when their low skills keep failing checks.

THE NON-COMBATANT

Gah. We all know that, at some point in an RPG, there's going to be a fight. However, this particular gamer refuses to ever put their character in danger. Slightest hint of a confrontation and "My character finds the nearest exit." If there's a possibility an adventure might require combat, their character decides to stay home and read a book.

THE MYSTERY MAN

Similar to the LONE WOLF, this character refuses to let the other characters know anything about himself. Either he's constantly under illusions, never at the meetings, or uses some sort of proxy whenever possible (crystal ball, drone robot, etc.). Only when the adventure begins does he show up, and he takes great pains to drop annoying hints about his secret allies, the resources at his disposal, etc., until he can vanish into the shadows again. Mysteriously.

THE 'WRONG GAME' GAMER

You've seen these, most likely. The person comes to a D&D game and says, "I want to play a vampire." Or, comes to a LARP and says, "I want to play a mind flayer." Basically, this person just wants to stick to what they know, or exploit the power-level of their old game in the new one. There's no effort on thier part to integrate into a new game, they just want to take their previous characters and slap them in place.

 

[arkham618]

The One Trick Pony

This is the guy who specializes his character to the nth degree. Specialization is great, and each character should have their own "shtick." However, this player goes a little too far and spends all their skill points on one obscure skill set. The problem with this, is you have to include this one obscure facet of the game in every adventure, or else the character sits on the sidelines sulking. Admittedly D20 modern does a good job of organizing skills so the one-trick pony isn't as common as in other systems, but it still happens.

"My character is a university professor who's completely fluent in Ancient Sanskrit. I can read it, write it, and converse fluently! Cool, huh? Nope, I can't read Latin or anything like that ... nope, I don't know much about ancient history ... yeah, sorta used most of my skill points on the Sanskrit thing ..."

"Sanskrit? You're majoring in a 3,000 year-old dead language?"

 

[Sherlock]

The Doomed One!
After missing or failing his first attack roll, skill roll, or what ever, the player goes into a deep funk and for the rest of the game constantly complains about how weak, useless, or underpowered his character is.

 

[Acid_crash]

The Doomed One!
After missing or failing his first attack roll, skill roll, or what ever, the player goes into a deep funk and for the rest of the game constantly complains about how weak, useless, or underpowered his character is.

Yep, I had one of these in my group, until last weekend. He could never be pleased, and it was very very annoying.

 

[Tellerve]

Yep, I had one of these in my group, until last weekend. He could never be pleased, and it was very very annoying.

Did you kill him? S'ok, *looks around* we won't call the cops or anything

Tellerve

 

[Ace]

The Doomed One!
After missing or failing his first attack roll, skill roll, or what ever, the player goes into a deep funk and for the rest of the game constantly complains about how weak, useless, or underpowered his character is.

Sigh. I have done this a few times

Happily I got over it

 

[DMauricio]

Guns and hunting comments are political topics.

Anywho, I have a feeling this is going to be like the "what books don't you like?" thread. One DM's least favorite player type is another DM's most favorite

My own least favorite is the "Bit Part" player. These are the guys who don't come up with any original ideas, concepts or plans. They want the DM to lead them by the nose, and complain if they have to actually decide something, like whether to turn left or right :eyeroll:

I hear ya there... I hate it when gamers expect me to railroad them.

Personally, I fall into the following categories (Gun Nut, Martial Arts Junkie, Realist, and B-Grade Film Geek) so its not surprising that none of those stereotypes really annoy me (unless they're doing so to the detriment of the game)

As a GM/DM it is our responsibility to ensure that everyone has fun... this doesn't mean we should always pander to the lowest common denominator. After all if you've described your game, and asked players to character gen (I'm hoping you've given an idea of what characters are suitable) and they still insist on making characters that don't fit the campaign, its not your fault if that character does die and a new one needs to be brought in. I'm not saying target the out of place character, but rather don't make it easy for them.

So the realist doesn't believe in ghouls... fair enough... doesn't mean the ghouls don't exist... just that that player's character thinks they're mad-men or something...
So the gun-nut looks for guns at every opportunity, even in a fantasy campaign...too bad, he just doesn't get guns.
Who really cares if the martial arts junkie is trying to do wire works tricks without the wires (hope his jump, tumble and balance rolls are high!)

Really, as long as all the players have fun, and I'm having fun... I don't give a rats arse if one player is just looking for bigger ways of shooting things, another is trying to be jet li on speed and another is disbelieving everything I throw at them. If that's what their characters want to do, its what they do.
Doesn't mean that it'll always work in their favour either.

just my $0.02 AUD.



Dom