Player schticks that grind your gears

[Arashi Ravenblade]

When we played Vampire the Masquerade i always played the same concept. Everyone got on my case about it, until i finally told them it was because we start over every 2 or 3 sessions and i never get to play the concept to satisfaction. So after that we stayed in the same game and have been playing it since 2001, and the character has become the boogeyman of more than one gaming group to have encountered him.

Really though the "Copy Cat" player who has a character history and name ripped straight from a video game, novel or movie. The last game had a guy named Leon who just happened to have a gun blade and look suspiciously like Leon from FF8.

Or players that have played an older edition of the game and continuously bring up old rules that are no longer in effect.

or the "Universal Houseruler" who assumes that his last groups houserules are in effect in your game.

 

[Chimera]

One of the weirdest experiences I've had with a player...

What? Wait....you ROLEPLAY????

What a bunch of sick, twisted freaks!





Good story!

 

[Chimera]

the "Universal Houseruler" who assumes that his last groups houserules are in effect in your game.

Ah yes. The guy who stops the game cold to either complain that you're doing things wrong (followed by a big argument only ended by consulting the rule book) or to bitterly complain that "my old group did things such-and-such way and that's the way I prefer it". To which my answer, if I'm not in the mood to consider the change, is "Good for you, Sunshine."

Of course, I have to admit that I may have been a variation of this guy on occasion, as I have run into groups NOT doing things correctly and not knowing that they were in error, or using odd house rules that no one bothered to tell me about. Or being sticklers for rules that I have NEVER seen any other group actually use.

"Uh, wait. You're doing what now?"

 

[doghead]

Its seems to me that a lot of this has to do with expectations. I recently read some of the GNS theory essays. While I'm not well versed in the material, and don't wish to get into a debate as to its effectiveness as a Universal Gaming Theory, it seems to me that it has some value as a mechanism for analysing some of the situations posted here.

You mean I need to remember stuff? This guy sounds like a Gamist. The player sees the plot as a mechanism to move them from one challenge to another, where in lies their motivation for playing. They are more interested in seeing how their character stacks up against the adversaries the GM pitches at them. If the GM is looking for a more Narrativist experience and expects that the players will take up the plot, follow its developments and are motivated to see how the story unfolds, he is going to get frustrated.

"Mr. Impractical Character Concept" This guy sounds like a Simulationist. He want to explore the experience of being a character he has seen in the latest Anime or whatever. When the game fails to give him the opportunity to do so (which may be because his character really is out of sync) then he gets bored and frustrated.

Others like But it's what my character would do could be analysed the same way, and the behaviour of those like Mr. Not here-Right there seems to indicate some form of disatisfaction with the game resulting from a disjunction between the player's interests and the game being played. Of course, they might just be rude or annoying people generally. I'm not trying to excuse anyone's behaviour.

The reason that GNS has been interesting to me is that is has given me an insight into why players are may not be enjoying a game as much I would hope they would. And with that, I am better equipped to deal with it. I am more relaxed about players tending to sit back during crtain sections of the game so long as they are enjoying the rest of it. Persistant opting out combined with non-game activity suggests that the game is just not for them as things stand. Sometimes common ground can be found, sometimes it can't.

thotd

 

[reanjr]

MWA-HAHA, MWA-HAHA-HAHA
Overtly evil. Has no qualms with treating NPC's like they were pedestrians in GTA. Is confused when he either has his butt handed to him by a more powerful NPC, or his character is arrested, dragged to trial, and either perminantly incarcerated, or executed. Cannot grasp the concept of "roll up a new character", and simply tries to wheedle for a way to play his old character over again.

I used to despise when a player's character would die so he would roll up a brand new one that was a carbon copy of the old. So I implemented a rule that your next character was one level lower if you played the same class (or any of the same classes if multiclass), and two levels lower if you played the same class/race (but no lower if you just played the same race).

 

[reanjr]

The Aspiring Pickpocket

...

Double Points for Kender.

I don't let Kender decide when to pickpocket. It's done entirely behind DM screen and they never know what's in their pouches. They have to empty them out and ask.

 

[reanjr]

Note - I don't have a problem with the Relaxed Rules Lawyer. That's the guy that knows the rules inside and out, is more than willing to share that knowledge when called on, but understands that sometimes the GM just has to make a ruling and go on. Will wait until after a game session to have any lengthy rules discussions so game time isn't disrupted.

-FT

I love those players. I think every group should have one. I used to have this one player who was like this AND knew the exact page almost evrything was on AND had some preternatural ability to find a spell in the PHB in under 2 seconds flat. Unfortunately, he never roleplayed, was generally useless in combat and always played a human rogue who liked to go on side quests.

 

[reanjr]

It would be different if players actually spent skill points on things like Knowledge (Dragons, Undead, Oozes, etc), but have you ever seen this? If so please send a copy of the character sheet via fax to 555-.....

Actually, I see this alot and encourage it greatly during character generation. There's always the oddball fighter with a decent Int and nothing to spend skill points on. In my current Ravenloft campaign I even split off monster knowledge from the other knowledge skills (so Dungeoneering doesn't give you Aberrations) and there is one player with Knowledge (Shapechangers) and another with Knowledge (Undead).

 

[reanjr]

P.S. Kender are not exempt from this. "It's a cultural thing blah blah blah" Oh yeah, well my wizard comes from a culture in which it is ok to phantasmal killer thieves.

I don't know how someone can look down at their cute face, hear a wholly sincere, "Oh you must have dropped it" and kill them...

You're a mean bastard

(Oh, and they would be immune to the phantasmal killer, I believe)

 

[reanjr]

Oh man, I have *list* of stuff that has to be done before my players can be trusted to sit down. No laptops. Ever. What a freaking nightmare. Never trust a group of three IT professionals who say, 'but a spreadsheet will make the game so much *faster!*' Cause it NEVER does...

It does in my game, but I make sure my router is configured to disallow internet connections besides http://d20srd.org