Pet peeves of D&D gaming

[Vaxalon]

*Players who use Greatswords with the arguement of: "well, my character would know that it could do more damage with a greatsword. I mean, if you put a 9mm Pistol next to a Self-Propelled Grenade Launcher and you wanted to do the most damage, you'd pick the Grenade Launcher. I mean, its just common sense. My character knows Greatswords are the best melee weapon for damamge."

I'd say let him.

Anyone can tell you that greataxes are the best weapon for damage.

 

[ForceUser]

*Players who use Greatswords with the arguement of: "well, my character would know that it could do more damage with a greatsword. I mean, if you put a 9mm Pistol next to a Self-Propelled Grenade Launcher and you wanted to do the most damage, you'd pick the Grenade Launcher. I mean, its just common sense. My character knows Greatswords are the best melee weapon for damamge."

As an aside: the best weapon for damage is actually the falchion in the hands of a fighter specialized in it and with improved critical. Ignore the 2d4 base damage, it's all about the 2-handed damage bonus and 15/x2 threat range.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Pet Peeves

How wonderful, I have a resource for you. I wrote an article I called "A DM's Pet Peeves" about general D&D peeves a while back, here's the link to all 3 parts:

http://www.dmshaven.freeservers.com/petpeeves1.html

Enjoy!

-DM Jeff

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Things that bother me:
- DM's who don't know the rules very well that make inconsistent ad hoc rulings.
- Character groups that split up.
- Being in a situation where my actions are irrelevant.

Things I do that bother people:
- Poiting out rule errors (yes, I'm a frickin' rules lawyer). I do this almost exclusively when it's detrimental to the players (when I'm a player).

AR

 

[Orius]

* When the GM just sits there and says "So what do you do?", as though the entire game world has absolutely nothing interesting happening in it that should be called to our attention. Encouraging PCs to pursue their own goals and be proactive is fine, I'm just irritated when a GM doesn't bother to prepare anything or come up with any non-PC-directed plot, preferring to give the players the "Fine, your characters can just sit there until they decide what to do" routine instead. For god's sake, if you're going to run a game, run a game.

I do that, because I prefer not to railroad the the players. Unfortunately, many of them never seem to want to take the initiative and act, so I end up constantly prodding them along.

 

[Kanegrundar]

People that whine about D&D not being centered on role-playing.

People that whine about WotC ruining D&D whenever a book comes out that they don't like.

Entire game sessions with no combat whatsoever.

Entire game sessions with nothing but combat.

People that slam D&D because it's D&D (usually without having ever tried the game, or played it once in an earlier edition).

Rude gamers. It doesn't matter whether you're at the game table or on the boards, just be civil.

There's my list.

Kane

 

[Orius]

"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.

Brother/Sister of Mr. Vegas: The Craps Shooter. This is the player that rolls the dice so freakin' hard, they always roll across the table and onto the floor. This annoys the hell out of me. You're playing D&D, not rolling at a bloody craps table! You don't need to roll the dice so damn hard!

 

[Orius]

Telling the party what loot they missed after the adventure is over.

Heh. I've considered doing that, but I figure then they'd go back to the dungeon and spend forever looking for it. If they can't bother to look for it the first time, then they can do without.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Having thought more on this subject, here are some more things that REALLY hack me off.

Gamers who assume that just because you're standing next to a shelf of gaming books you'd LOVE to hear about their character or campaign (even if they've never met you before in your, their, or anyone's lives). This happened to me recently when this guy actually followed me around the store blathering about how his Vampire character became the Prince of the Mid-Southern US and then his GM let him take this character with no mechanical modifications into their new D&D campaign.

Gamers who think that no matter how cool you think something about your campaign or character is, they come back with, "That's nothing. My character (campaign, DM, etc)...." After having this happen three times in a game shop once, I finally snapped and grabbed this guy by the shirt and shook him like a rat before telling him to never, ever tell me that what my players do and enjoy is nothing, because such things are subjective and the players I know really enjoyed the adventure. I was willing to accept the fact he liked what he liked without belittling it, he should pay me the same courtesy. I felt so much better after that.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

1. Player's that won't role-play (not to be confused with "not being good at it").
2. Players that preach the sanctity of the Core Rules.
3. Players that rant about not being able to min/max into some monstrosity of a character.
4. Players that don't show up on time.
5. Players that live an hour away and call at the last minute for a ride.
6. Players that never pitch in for Dew, Chips, and Pizza (especially after I just drove 2 hours to bring him to my house late for the game).