Players with IPCJ (Impaired PC Judgement)

[MarauderX]

I would say that I am one of them, as in one campaign I am the only player whose PCs have kicked the proverbial bucket. It's my fault as a player mostly, cause I am just too curious about things to let them be. I should have learned to be careful after the first incidence in which I rolled terribly to surrender my PC sheet to the DM. At the second occurance, it was the mistake of being too curious about a evil magic box, and being the only arcane caster in the room was the only one who could read it...so I did... and died. Whoops.

Now I am playing an overly paranoid PC whose sole mission is to survive, and becomes overly frightened at those around him, let alone the main enemy. Other players are going to start calling me the Star Trek extra or something, but I can't help wanting to explore things.

Is there a player like me in your campaign? Do you have to tell him/her to be careful, not to touch anything, and whatever you do don't read the writing on the wall? What do you do to 'protect' them? And DMs, how do you deal with them so they don't feel bad when they do something dangerously stupid and not know it?

edit: spellik.

 

[Wicht]

Curiosity killed the cat. In other words a clever wizard lets enchanted animals (or charmed co-horts) do his initial investigations for him.

 

[MarauderX]

Good point. I should get a familiar, and/or let my fellow PCs bravely investigate what lies ahead for me...

 

[Berandor]

I'm that way. When I feel there's a trap, I'm itching to set it off just to see what it does and whether my PC will survive it.
I like toying with Chance
And I am playing my 6th character at level 7
But he's cooool 8)

 

[BSF]

Heh! In some ways, I am that player. Though, I hedge my bets as best I can before doing something "risky". I hate watching the other players take the risks.

As a DM, I *love* players like you! I can count on you guys to ignore all the danger signs and try something out! Though, I usually do not have it spell out bad circumstances for just the character. Usually it is for the whole party, or the world. Why? Because the party is usually motivated to "fix" whatever problem they just unleashed.

 

[Kichwas]

The best way to deal with it is to instill military discipline among the troops.

The number one killer of a PC really is the breakdown in the chain of command, and if you don't even have such a chain to begin with you're just asking for trouble.

In any dangerous situation you need to buckle down and follow orders. Some of you will try to argue back that 'my alignment is chaotic', but militaries around the world have chaotic people and in a stressfull situation such as combat they do follow orders and work with the team to stay alive.

Figure out a chain of command, designate responsibilities, and have someone or some group of people there to keep the group in line.

If you're the type who gets your own characters killed, don't volunteer to be the leader, but do find someone else to latch onto and push into that role.

 

[pogre]

I used to have a player who always wrote "Don't be stupid!" in magic marker across the top of his character sheets.

 

[MarauderX]

The best way to deal with it is to instill military discipline among the troops.

The number one killer of a PC really is the breakdown in the chain of command, and if you don't even have such a chain to begin with you're just asking for trouble.

In any dangerous situation you need to buckle down and follow orders. Some of you will try to argue back that 'my alignment is chaotic', but militaries around the world have chaotic people and in a stressfull situation such as combat they do follow orders and work with the team to stay alive.

Figure out a chain of command, designate responsibilities, and have someone or some group of people there to keep the group in line.

If you're the type who gets your own characters killed, don't volunteer to be the leader, but do find someone else to latch onto and push into that role.

Not sure that always works, at least for most groups I have ever seen. As a matter of fact it may just kill the more efficient members of the party first, as players just select the PC with the highest saves/HP/etc. to try things out.

In the instances above it had nothing to do with discipline, leadership or any of that, nor do I think it applies to most situations. You could do as you mentioned I suppose, assign tasks for the PCs to do whenever a situation arises, but often times it is just the bravest PC that steps up to try things out. Not because the rest are scared, it's just that some like to use PCs to discover things, to test the boundries of something and hope that the dice roll the right way. Twice they haven't for me, and I had to work up a new PC, but it's not about pushing someone else to be the leader, or for someone to do it for me, it's about being a catalyst when exploring other options have been fruitless thus far.

Then again perhaps you are right and I am no good at listening to orders despite having 'done time.'

I also like to come up with new situations where I throw my PC into situations where he goes for the goal, and not necessarily through the 'correct' steps, such as killing the baddies after taking their stuff. Or trying a Death from Above attack, and how to define it. I like to do it, and I like it when PCs use things around them in the world to help out when I run campaigns.

 

[Bagpuss]

I personally think its bad DM'ing to create situations where players get killed for curiousity alone.

For example writing curse that will kill anyone that reads it in and ancient language on a wall is daft. First if you discribe writing on a wall players are going to want to know what it says, so someone is bound to read it. Second if you don't want them to read it, what is the point in having it there?

Players are naturally curious and if they weren't (or have it beaten out of them by stupid DM tricks like the evil writing on the wall) then it would be a pretty dull game.

DM: Your in the tavern, having just recovered a ancient map which seems to detail a hidden fortress in the mountains to the north. There is some writing on the map but its unclear without better light. What do you want to do?
PC1: I'm getting the beers in.
PC2: Hmm. I'll buy a round of bread and cheese to go with the beers.
DM: What about the map, anyone doing anything with the map?
PC2: Oh yeah I'll take it over to the fire.
DM: Good idea in the better light you can read....
PC2: Hold on there I didn't say I was reading it, no I'm throwing it in the fire.
PC1 (returning with beers): Good plan it was probably cursed..