Pet peeves of D&D gaming

[Emirikol]

All: I'm working on a little project and was wondering what everybody's pet peeves are for gaming. Any topic will do: campaigning, players, DM's, combats (NOT THE RULES), etc.

Some things that grind on me are:
* Slow-combat DM's & players
* Players that don't tell you about their overtime until the day before the game
* "Cutesy" characters
* People who play characters that antagonize the other characters (e.g. an assassin in a party of clerics of good and paladins)
* Players who mooch
* Gamer-Gurls who think they're god's gift to gamer-guys and play all of their characters that way
* Intra-party fighting (not sparring, just annoying ad-homenim attacks on other characters)

What do you hate?

jh



...

 

[Rokonin]

Hmm...

I have a few.

~ Players who want to play feindish Half-ogre/half red dragon characters (and the like)ALL THE TIME.
~ Players who 'poof' multiclass (deciding that they are going to take a totally new class on level up, with no warning
~ Players who argue for the sake of arguing (this goes for all people, actually)

There are others, but I'm half asleep at the moment.

 

[Terwox]

# DM's who play favorites, give certain PCs tons of special powers, while wantonly killing everyone else (man, I despise that.)
# Players who can't treat each other civilly at all.
# DM's that think their story is the best thing since time began, when it very obviously is not.
# DM's who act like you're stupid for not figuring out their incoherent plots.
# Players who really don't want to game, and would obviously rather be doing something else. Stop being afraid of offending people, and don't game... imo.
# People who think D&D sucks and that they can write a better system. This is pretty common among people I know... and they're all wrong.
# People who hate roll-players.
# People who hate role-players.
# People who hate min-maxing.
# People who hate non-min-maxing.
eh, I'm sure I could come up with more, but that's no fun, I'd rather write for my game.

 

[Zappo]

• Players who want to play outlandish, exotic characters, which don't fit the setting, because "it's cool".
• Players who don't even try getting involved and just sit there silently, and when I address them directly they just look at the rest of the party with a "what should I do" look.
• Players who, when faced with something strange but not terribly important, assume that the DM either made a mistake or is deliberately fudging, instead of going out and investigate.
• Long tactical discussions in the middle of combat.

 

[Chupacabra]

1) If an entire game session goes by and I never make a single roll of the dice, I feel cheated. Sorry if this makes me a "roll player", but that's that.

2) Players who don't know basic info about their feats, spells, or other abilities and have to look it up over and over.

3) DM's who would rather find the EXACT rule or the EXACT DC in the middle of the action instead of just winging it for the sake of dramatic effect (and finding the rule / DC later when things have slowed down).

 

[ForceUser]

I could write up a list of pet peeves, but the truth is I'm not perfect. I do things that annoy my fellow players from time to time.

~I've laughed at someone for being a terrible role-player.
~I've chuckled, groaned, or made snide comments when someone pulled a really bone-headed maneuver, whether in combat or while role-playing.
~I've gotten frustrated with players for not knowing the rules or campaign information or what their characters are capable of as well as I do.
~I've gotten frustrated with DMs for looking up a rule after I've told them how it works.
~I've sniped at guys because of the way they roll their dice (all over the table).
~As a DM, I've done bone-headed things that have screwed over the player group - usually, but not always, unintentionally.
~I've griped at players because they were late to the session, or showed up without dice, or pencils or a character sheet.

I'd like to think that I'm generally a fun guy to hang out with, but I have done this stuff. Rather than list what annoys you about how other people game, why don't you think about what you do that might annoy your fellow gamers?

 

[Nightchilde-2]

• Female gamers that consistantly play female characters who are slutty.
• Male players who play female characters consistantly who are slutty.
• Incessant out-of-character puns.

 

[Ibram]

-people who create characters that do not fit into the campaing. This does not only enclude the "but i want to play my half-fiend half-dragon Drow Palidan!" but also the "I know you said this was campaign was not going to focus as much on combat, but I'm going to create a character who is so devoted to combat that there is no point in me even rolling in non-combat situations".

-people who give their characters abilities that the DM has told them are not allowed (like feats/spells) then whey they try to use it and are told that it doesnt work or that they cannot do it procede to whine at the DM.

-Sorcerers who only know Mage Armor-Magic Missile-Fireball-Fly (Im a walking Artillery Battalion)

 

[Eye Tyrant]

1) Players who refuse to even try to learn the rules...

2) Players that hog game time with over-the-top, dramatic role-playing when the situation calls for a lot less...

3) Finding out that my players got over on me because I didn't fully prepare for a game...

4) Being the only one that ever purchases any kind of gaming material (okay, one of my players did pick up a PHB)...

There are more, but I need to work on my game (see #3 above)

 

[William Ronald]

Some of my pet peeves:

* DMs who have no sense of campaign balance, and will have characters of greatly varying power in the same party -- and power being the only thing that truly matters in his game.

* DMs who seem to center everything in the campaign on their pet NPCs.

* DMs and players who seem to be using two different set of rules at the gaming table, with some characters being designed with books that some players may not know are being used by other characters.

* Players who seem to care only for the power of their characters, and do not seem to give their characters even the semblance of life, let alone a soul.

* Players who believe that their characters alone matter, and everyone else should just be a henchman.

* DMs who railroad characters. I tend to resist and resent being manipulated -- in game and real life.

* Players whose magic items are more important than the characters of other people in the party.

* Players who pursue their character's private agendas to the detriment of the party -- and seem to enjoy making other players at the table miserable with their antics.