Pet peeves of D&D gaming

[Neil Aitken]

- Players who never bring their own pencils to gaming sessions -- occasionally forgetting is fine, but consistently forgetting every week for 3 months straight is ridiculous

- Players who can't die quietly (ie. when their character dies, they spend the rest of the night questioning every other DM and player action). Sure it's tough, but I expect a certain level of maturity in dealing with your character's death.

For my own quirks, deficiencies, and annoying practices I'd have to list:

- Creating interesting characters, then running them in uninteresting ways
- Sometimes running PCs smarter than their intelligence scores would suggest.
- Occasionally forgetting NPC's names -- especially when DMing

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

There's not enough bandwidth to list everything, but here are a few:

Players who assume that whatever they want is fine with the DM and the other players ("My character is related to all the rest of you. I hope that's ok.")

Players who take forever deciding what their action should be WHEN their turn comes up, and not deciding beforehand.

Players who have played this game for years and every time it's their turn you have to say "Ya know, it's called the d20 system for a reason."

Players who name their characters either after writers, actors, or comic book artists.

Players who give their characters names that don't fit the flavor of the setting.

DM's who think their story arc is more important than the goals of the players (guilty of this...but never again).

Players who agree to not play certain alignments, but during game play switch them and claim "I had to because I just wasn't playing her right."

Players who whine and moan that 2nd Edition was so much better (and this same guy whined that 1st Edition was so much better when we switched to 2e) without offering any arguments as to why.

There are many, many more, but my biggest peeve has to be players whose characters are either dead, unconscious, or separated from the rest of the party shouting advice or begging for help from the rest of the players ("Hey guys...don't forget your unconscious companion sixty yards away behind a concealed door and could really use some healing.")

Oy...now I need some aspirin.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

DM perspective:

Chatter.

Games starting very late, sometimes with missing players.

People who won't learn the rules. (I hate having to say "okay, roll for..." It's supposed to be a story with a game attached to it.)

Slow-combat DM's & players. I've seen all the solutions, most will not work for me. (When you have a player with an animal companion who likes to summon things, combat will take long.)

Balance problems (when you have one party member with a Will save of +10 ... at 16th-level ... and another party with a Fortitude save of +29 from polymorph abuse...)

Consistently coming up with "clever" solutions to combat which are, sometimes, not all that clever.

(I say "sometimes". Nice to be surprised every once in a while.)

Treasure - the amount of "magic item" balance is seriously driving me to D20 Modern. I hate playing Angband or Diablo when I'm really supposed to be playing DnD. Right now the XPH is pretty much all that's holding me in DnD. If I ever successfully convert the 3.5 psion to D20 Modern...

Excessive powergaming. (Rarely a problem IMC, oddly enough, more of the "game balance" problems.)

Too many freaking PrCs! (A lot are unbalanced, a lot aren't flavorful and should have been feats...)

WotC not dealing with issues like PrCs, fighter feats, and Bluff/Diplomacy.

Player perspective:

Not being able to chatter Really, I'm contradicting myself.

Starting at 1st-level (I like 3rd-level... you're still weak and have lots of levels to go without running the risk of losing yoru great character concept right off the bat.)

Remarks regarding "hack n slashers", "role players", "roll players", etc... As if one is better or worse than another.

I hate it when another player tells me I'm not playing my alignment, especially if it's "bad roleplaying". How often does a character's alignment show up in a movie? It's my problem. People's behavior (and that of character's) is too capricious to really tie them to any alignment anyway. And if I get less RP XP for that, I don't care.

 

[Wormwood]

The following people make me want to set them on fire.

"Drama Twinks": Players who use Charisma as their character's dump-stat, but expect that their 'roleplaying' will cover it.

"Captain Chaotic Neutral": The jerk who thinks screwing the party over is fun for anyone but himself.

"Rules Illiterates": The monkey who has to look up the same rule five times per session, every session.

"PNPCs": Player-Non-Player-Characters. The guy who contributes nothing to the party (or the game, for that matter) aside from a blank, vacant stare and sullen silence.

"Mr. Vegas": If you spend more than 2 seconds shaking your fistful of dice before rolling them, please have yourself sterilized at your earliest convenience.

 

[Velenne]

Venting

Having played with several gaming groups over the years, I'm afraid to say I've developed a few pet peeves. It's too bad too, because gaming used to be my favorite thing in the world. Now it's just getting trite.

Here's why: (I'm just as guilty of many of these as others are)

* The Fantasy Formula™ - Fighter/Cleric/Wizard/Rogue. All parties should have at least one of each. The campaign must have a Big Bad Evil Guy. Nothing is impossible for the PC's. The correct way to get to the end of the dungeon is always the longest, and the BBEG is waiting at the end. The treasure is elsewhere. Don't miss it! The bad guys, incidently, are always obviously bad. You'll need a wise/rich/benevolent benefactor to guide your party. Deviate from this formula (and its many other nuances) and people get upset.

* Arguing with the DM - The DM makes a ruling, just let it go. Pouting (guilty), rolling your eyes (guilty), getting up from the table and sitting on the sofa for the rest of the night...none of these contribute to the fun. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches and make the most of the hand you're dealt. The DM is always right, even when the DM is wrong (in your and my oh-so-humble opinion).

* Extensive Mid-Combat Discussion - In my experience this is more common with newer players and groups, or even veteran players who don't know each other well yet. The group I've been playing with the longest has no problem at all with this. We fly through combats. But newer groups I'm also a part of will constantly bicker over inane things. "Do we open the door?" "How?" "Should I talk to this lady?" "Should I fire by bow?" "Left or right?" "Left." "Why not right?" "Ok right. "Why not left!?".

* Players who Play Themselves - To an extent, we all play ourselves. Our own personalities influence our characters because we can't help but think the way we think. Using myself as an example, all of my characters tend to take charge when things get slow. This is because I like a steady pace (or even a fast one, but not necessarily). My friends call me on it (some calling my character "Cap" or "Boss" when I start up), which is good. But argumentative people tend to play those kind of characters. Competitive people, the same. Self-sacrificial people. People out to prove something. Hmm...maybe I'm just bossy!

Or judgemental. Jeez this is getting wordy, and I'm starting to feel like a heel. OK I stop now.

 

[The_Gneech]

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?

Well, I've spoken before about my inner Bugs Bunny...

My biggest pet peeve is when people break the mood, myself included. This can range from not showing up on time, to talking forever, to in-game jokes, to playing a gnome illusionist named "Zarfbardafardwards" because playing anything with a straight face is "boring."

I like/want heroic adventure gaming, with a light dash of humor and a light dash of drama. And when we're at the table, I want to PLAY THE GAME.

-The Gneech

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

I'm seconding that the general level of magic items in D&D is way out of hand. I would far rather have a character have a single cool magic item that is decently powerful and interesting, with good back story and name, than a dozen and a half magic items that pump every stat, skill, and give me the ability to pull chickens out my pants three times a day.

You hear of Excalibur, Mjolnir, and Narsil for a reason, that was the main(and usually only) magic items for the fantasy, and mythological, characters. I've finally found the answer to that IMO with some of the rules in UA and I am soooo very happy I have. That and Midnight which just came in the mail today...woohoo. Loving it already and I'm only on ch 3 right now.

 

[Carrion]

It might be my mood but that line about high DCs " Sorry Bob, the DC is 25 to eat. You starve to death." was hilarious.

We were playing a 10th level adventure, someone touched the wrong door and had to make 3 saves at DC 38. After that we were playing paper-rock-scissors to see who took point.

Pet peeves about myself:

I hate being wrong. I like to be extremely versed in the rules and i dont like being caught unaware.

I root for the monsters. I know my creatures wont/shouldnt take more than their 20% from the party, but i have fun roleplaying them and tactically running them with all their perks. Its fun for me as the DM, not so fun for the unlucky that gets 20-20-hit.

My npcs dont pander to the players. They have stable jobs and their own lives. Player characters should be given more respect, i should fix that...someday.

Pet peeves about players:
*PCs that start the game without a name
*PCs that are antagonistic to everyone
*PCs that write down their alignment and play it the opposite
*PCs that think that all the NPCs are scrubs and owe them somthing.
*PCs that develop lop-sided characters and complain when their overt weakness shows.
*PCs that dont try to get involved
*PCs that avoid the hooks and the adventure totally
*PCs that scrap characters when things go poorly for them

Pet peeves about GMs:
*GMs that bend the rules to placate a specific player.
*GMs that dont prepare anything and wing everything.
*GMs that circumvent/avoid player abilities; sneak attack and deflect arrows were great examples.
*GMs that center the campaign around a specific PC with no spotlight for anyone else.
*GMs get pissy and "take their ball and go home" when things go awry.
*GMs that do "Do Overs" because they ran the monster wrong or didnt prepare enough and because of which caused a TPK. Let me regale you on the time we fought an ancient red dragon, but the DM was reading the stats out of the MM and read the wrong CR (he was reading the white dragon's CR). The encounter was 6 CR higher than our party, we tried to teleport, but the area was Dimensionally Anchored. Half of us were killed, then true rezed by the dragon, We were then forced to sign the dragon's book, attesting to the fact that the dragon did beat us, we were then given his treasure hoard and showed the way out.....the campaign didnt last much longer after that.

I have other horrible experiences to share, but the sharing will just make me more depressed.

I love this game, but ive ran into the strangest people....

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I suppose my number one pet peeve is the player who comes up with the ultra-wacky concept -- "Yeah, yeah, so I wanna play a halfling paladin who lisps, and his mount is gonna be a gigantic one-eyed pig from the halfling's old farm, and the paladin rides him backwards!" -- when that player can't even handle playing a cliche well. (Many players can't handle playing a cliche well, actually, but I appreciate the ones who try to crawl before they run.)

More broadly, I dislike character concepts that break the heroic sword-and-sorcery genre. Pretty much any "silly" PC qualifies.

Finally, though I'm not sure this fits the type of "peeves" you were looking for, D&D has always annoyed me in that magic items so throughly overshadow the innate abilities of the characters. Once a character reaches the mid-levels, what he has is far more important to his effectiveness than what he is.

 

[WCrawford]

*Low magic settings.
*DMs who change the rules after the campaign is started.
*Players and DMs who bitch about meta-gaming. The only people who don't meta-game are those who have very little knowledge of the game.
*Sorcerers
*Monks
*Players who don't take the time to learn about their character's abilities.
*Non-human Paladins
*3.0 errata not being included in the 3.5 text.

There are probably more, but I'm tired.