Play Style Gripe!

[Numion]

*bangs head on the desk after yet ANOTHER oddball joke-character is proposed for what is supposed to be a very immersive, narrative-oriented campaign*

C'mon, tell us the concept, then we can all laugh at it together!

BTW, I've rarely seen oddball concepts from my players. Well once a player wanted to make a commoner dual wielding sickles (a seriously PO'd farmer), just to see if the party would let a commoner into the group! He was evil to boot, too, so it's a good thing the experiment was left on the drawing board. Made for a strange villain later on, though.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

One thing I've done is come up with a campaign world with all non-standard races. The PC races I have, though, resemble standard races, but they're just different enough that they're seen in different ways.

So, the High Ones are descended from giants and bear a regal presence to the other races.
The Grachens are a steady people seemingly made of stone.
The Amborae are lovely, every last one, growing flowers in their hair and living life ecstatically. Their dark twins, the Entamborae, twist and corrupt the image of beauty into one of obsession and control.
The Cherboncles are three-eyed geniuses with a knack for--well, just about any academic subject.
The Strakhan are a violent, barbarous people who gain their power from the shining stars.
The Wizened are a seemingly wretched race, cold to the touch, and have an innate understanding of death.
The Beastlings have always remained close to the animals, and it remains clear in their forms.
Finally, there are the Low Ones. They are beneath notice. In fact, no one ever seem to recall their passing...

There's enough similarity to the other races for anyone. I've had people who wanted to play dwarves choose a High One instead (to great effect). I've seen suave Grachens, vicious Wizened, Entambor monk-sorcerers, and all sorts of crazy, fun characters--that fit within the campaign world. It breathes new life into the game.

Dude, I'm wanting to start a new campaign...

 

[Rystil Arden]

an insane gnome that thinks he's a half-orc

I haven't seen this, but I've played a halfling Archivist who considered herself to be more of a short human than a halfling and was actually fairly racist against other halflings "Don't turn your back to him--he's a halfling." What made this even more incongruous is that she was at the minimum height for a halfling, so she would stretch to her full 2' 8'' and talk to humans with authority. She also considered herself to be a priestess of Lathander despite being Neutral and not a Cleric, and she would swap between her Clerical Vestments when meeting with her friends at the temple to her Scholar's Outfit when heading to the arcane library to trade theories of magic and history. She was a lot of fun.

 

[d20Dwarf]

I dislike players who think it's there job to frack up the other players and their characters...they enjoy being thorns in everyone's side, and doing things in game that make no sense just to introduce chaos.

That really grinds my gears.

 

[airwalkrr]

I think it all just boils down to a player's preference. For me, the purpose of the game is for the players to build a relatively balanced party. So I always make sure my character fulfills some helpful archetype when I am a player. To make my characters unique, I simply add quirks, which is extraordinarily easy to do mechanically with 3e because of all the feats and classes available. For example, I might play a LG cleric who is obsessed with demonic lore and toys with demonic entities perhaps a little too much for his god or alignment to tolerate, requiring an atonement some way down the line. Or I might play a "prophet" wizard who worships Istus with fervor and takes levels in fatespinner, insisting on using his spin fate points on situations that don't matter (like the Relfex save to avoid slipping and falling into a puddle) but then claiming he has no control over it because it was fated to happen anyway. Or perhaps I will play the human barbarian who HATES spellcasters, even those who cast spells to benefit him. Perhaps he takes levels of occult slayer later on and constantly picks fights with the spellcasters in the party, but always saves their lives because he sees it as important to demonstrate to them that they can live by strength alone and his good alignment forces him to be somewhat merciful.

 

[Iron Captain]

I dislike players who think it's there job to frack up the other players and their characters...they enjoy being thorns in everyone's side, and doing things in game that make no sense just to introduce chaos.

That really grinds my gears.

"I'm playing a thief so I get to steal from everybody! Hey a horse! I'm gonna steal it! Hey the Paladin's purse! I'm gonna steal it!" Etc. etc. etc.

Important rule about Roleplaying: If everybody is annoyed by what you're doing and you justify it by saying "But that's what my character would do!" then you are playing an annoying character. Quit it!

 

[Iron Captain]

Or perhaps I will play the human barbarian who HATES spellcasters...

CONAN!

 

[The_Gneech]

C'mon, tell us the concept, then we can all laugh at it together!

Basically, Jeeves as a monk. Like, with the bowler hat, tuxedo, and all. In Greyhawk.

The idea of a quiet, respectful butler who can unexpectedly kick butt is a cool idea ... but anachronisms, not so cool.

It's not so egregious an example in and of itself; it's just the latest in a long series of characters who jar. Does every campaign have to be Callahan's Crosstime Saloon? How about a little Tolkienesque cliché, just to be different?

-The Gneech

 

[The_Gneech]

Do you live in Toronto?

Nope; near Washington, D.C. actually.

-TG

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have two players who sometimes make me grind my teeth. Both long time players and friends, but one is utterly incapable of naming a character unless it's the last name of a comic book artist or writer, and the other who fixates on using Roman names for all his characters. And he almost exclusively plays monks or other oriental classes.