Doug McCrae
Legend
Wusses. We attack everything we meet, whether it's hostile or not.Michael Morris said:
Stupid Player Syndrome
- Thread starter Michael Morris
- Start date
While running Star Wars (both versions), I came to expect the moment in each game session when my players would "get ate up with stupid" as the effect was termed.
During d20 Star Wars, a player with a 12th level Scoundrel decided to jump on a ticking thermal detonator to shield the rest of the party from the blast. I thought that this was a very heroic, if suicidal, thing to do and promised myself that I'd give him some goodies when he rolled up his next character for doing this. That is until he said, "Yeah. With my armor and my hit points, I'll have have no problem living through the explosion!". It became even worse when the player got mad at me and stormed away from the table wailing that I had deliberately killed his character.
Then there was the guy during a WEG Star Wars game who took his X-Wing and attacked an oncoming squadron of TIE fighters while the rest of the players (in a typical YT-1300) watched in horror. The players didn't know that the TIE squadron was on its way to escort in a pair of bulk freighters and were not even going to pay attention to them until they were attacked. After our Brash Pilot (apt template name) got himself killed and the X-Wing destroyed, the rest of the party had to suffer through the attention of the Imperial authorities on planet because the X-Wing and the YT-1300 had been flying together initially. At the end of that gaming session, the player complained that I was being unfair to him and didn't know the rules.
Last but not least is my favorite. The player who was not paying attention during the game. We were playing WEG Star Wars in a local game store, Player A (whose character was a Young Jedi) was paying more attention to a game of Magic at the table 15 feet away then our own game. Players B, C, D, and E had just fast-talked the local Imperials into not looking too closely at their damaged ship or its sensor logs (which would have tipped them off to a firefight that happened with some Imperials in the system they had just left). The only thing they had to do was have Player B (who was an R2 unit) just falsify some computer logs to give the Imperials once they landed, although part of their fast-talked story would have the R2 unit look damaged (some soot and a few dents, easy to do without really hurting the PC). Then Player A wandered back over:
Player C: OK, now all we have to do is make the droid look damaged.
Player A: We have to make the droid look damaged? I can do that! I pull out my heavy blaster pistol and shoot the droid!
Players B,C,D,E: (Looks of horror and disbelief.)
Me: Are you sure you want to do that?
Player A: Yes!
Me: You want to shoot the droid to make it look damaged?
Player A: Yes! I shoot it right now!
The heavy blaster pistol shot hit the droid PC and destroyed it. Which caused the 2 grenades that the droid was hiding in its body detonate. Everyone in that part of the ship took damage, except for the pilot (who was in the cockpit). Then Player C shot Player A, leaving him stunned. In far too short a time, the ship had landed.
Then the Imperials came on board. They saw the damaged ship and the nonexistant R2 unit and smelled the carbon and ozone from the blaster shots in the air. At this point, Player A was no longer stunned and stepped into it again.
Me (as Imperial): What exactly happened here?
Player A: Well, our R2 unit exploded. I think that it was smuggling grenades or something inside it.
Me (as Imperial): The R2 unit exploded? Because it was smuggling explosives?
Player A (aside to me): I'm gonna use the Jedi Mind Trick!
Player A: This is not the damage from a pair of smuggled grenades and we are not Rebels (wiggles fingers).
Of course, Player A rolled so low that he actually tipped off the Imperial that he was trying some Jedi trick. When the Imperial declared that they were going to be incarcerated unitil they could investigate what happened, there was a blaster fight again inside the ship. TPK. Flawless victory for the Imperials.
I felt bad for the player that got his PC droid killed and the next game of mine he was in, I let him have a couple of extras for his character.
I still have to watch out for players in my games getting "ate up with stupid", but not so much anymore.
During d20 Star Wars, a player with a 12th level Scoundrel decided to jump on a ticking thermal detonator to shield the rest of the party from the blast. I thought that this was a very heroic, if suicidal, thing to do and promised myself that I'd give him some goodies when he rolled up his next character for doing this. That is until he said, "Yeah. With my armor and my hit points, I'll have have no problem living through the explosion!". It became even worse when the player got mad at me and stormed away from the table wailing that I had deliberately killed his character.
Then there was the guy during a WEG Star Wars game who took his X-Wing and attacked an oncoming squadron of TIE fighters while the rest of the players (in a typical YT-1300) watched in horror. The players didn't know that the TIE squadron was on its way to escort in a pair of bulk freighters and were not even going to pay attention to them until they were attacked. After our Brash Pilot (apt template name) got himself killed and the X-Wing destroyed, the rest of the party had to suffer through the attention of the Imperial authorities on planet because the X-Wing and the YT-1300 had been flying together initially. At the end of that gaming session, the player complained that I was being unfair to him and didn't know the rules.
Last but not least is my favorite. The player who was not paying attention during the game. We were playing WEG Star Wars in a local game store, Player A (whose character was a Young Jedi) was paying more attention to a game of Magic at the table 15 feet away then our own game. Players B, C, D, and E had just fast-talked the local Imperials into not looking too closely at their damaged ship or its sensor logs (which would have tipped them off to a firefight that happened with some Imperials in the system they had just left). The only thing they had to do was have Player B (who was an R2 unit) just falsify some computer logs to give the Imperials once they landed, although part of their fast-talked story would have the R2 unit look damaged (some soot and a few dents, easy to do without really hurting the PC). Then Player A wandered back over:
Player C: OK, now all we have to do is make the droid look damaged.
Player A: We have to make the droid look damaged? I can do that! I pull out my heavy blaster pistol and shoot the droid!
Players B,C,D,E: (Looks of horror and disbelief.)
Me: Are you sure you want to do that?
Player A: Yes!
Me: You want to shoot the droid to make it look damaged?
Player A: Yes! I shoot it right now!
The heavy blaster pistol shot hit the droid PC and destroyed it. Which caused the 2 grenades that the droid was hiding in its body detonate. Everyone in that part of the ship took damage, except for the pilot (who was in the cockpit). Then Player C shot Player A, leaving him stunned. In far too short a time, the ship had landed.
Then the Imperials came on board. They saw the damaged ship and the nonexistant R2 unit and smelled the carbon and ozone from the blaster shots in the air. At this point, Player A was no longer stunned and stepped into it again.
Me (as Imperial): What exactly happened here?
Player A: Well, our R2 unit exploded. I think that it was smuggling grenades or something inside it.
Me (as Imperial): The R2 unit exploded? Because it was smuggling explosives?
Player A (aside to me): I'm gonna use the Jedi Mind Trick!
Player A: This is not the damage from a pair of smuggled grenades and we are not Rebels (wiggles fingers).
Of course, Player A rolled so low that he actually tipped off the Imperial that he was trying some Jedi trick. When the Imperial declared that they were going to be incarcerated unitil they could investigate what happened, there was a blaster fight again inside the ship. TPK. Flawless victory for the Imperials.
I felt bad for the player that got his PC droid killed and the next game of mine he was in, I let him have a couple of extras for his character.
I still have to watch out for players in my games getting "ate up with stupid", but not so much anymore.
I had a group of players attempt to institute "the five word rule" in one of my games. The house rule goes something along the lines of: ANY npc that speaks directly to the party gets 5 words, not one more, to prove that they should not be killed immediately (if the NPC initiated a conversation by saying "hello, my name is blahblah, I will give you 10000 gold to tie my shoes", the npc dies as 'hello, my name is blahblah' doesn't convince the characters he should remain alive)
This got old. Fast.
I instituted stupid points.
The house rule goes something like this: When players do something that makes the DM entertain the thought of killing their character for sport, he instead allows the game to progress normally, but assigns the player a stupid point (the player rolls 1d8 and loses a 1: point of str, 2: point of dex, 3: point of con, 4: int, 5: wis, 6: cha, 7: 3 hp, 8: character misplaces an item of DM's choice (usually either the offending item or unclaimed loot the character happened to be holding if possible)
As far as stories, I've got one of PvP good players vs. stoopid player.
I had a nightmare player in one group who shall go by the name of Hopelessnoob (HN for short).
HN often played the stoopidist race/class combinations he could come up with, but after a year or two of going through characters at a pace unmatched by any other player I've had the pleasure of meeting, his reserve had run dry and he could only come up with 3-5 stoopid characters per weekly session.
HN was on his 4th character that night, for once a 'normalish' elven ranger who had a thing for his horse. The party came across a wooden door that was locked. Our mage/rogue couldn't open it after taking 20, and we needed to get in to find our objective (some module, they're all the same). In I (dwarven cleric of tempus) and the party's half-orc tempus-worshipping paladin were all too happy to appease HN when he jokingly said "use me as a battering ram!"
The DM said "are you saying that in character?"
HN: "No. Ah, why not, yeah, I say it in character."
Immediately the dwarf and half orc jumped the elf, tackled him to the ground, each took a pair of limbs, and proceeded to break the door down with the elf's face.
It took 40 minutes in game and nearly exhausted all of my character's spells, but we opened that door.
The DM never questioned the LG paladin or CG cleric's class abilities/faith/whatnot; we all knew it needed to be done.
note: no elves were harme...killed in the making of this story.
This got old. Fast.
I instituted stupid points.
The house rule goes something like this: When players do something that makes the DM entertain the thought of killing their character for sport, he instead allows the game to progress normally, but assigns the player a stupid point (the player rolls 1d8 and loses a 1: point of str, 2: point of dex, 3: point of con, 4: int, 5: wis, 6: cha, 7: 3 hp, 8: character misplaces an item of DM's choice (usually either the offending item or unclaimed loot the character happened to be holding if possible)
As far as stories, I've got one of PvP good players vs. stoopid player.
I had a nightmare player in one group who shall go by the name of Hopelessnoob (HN for short).
HN often played the stoopidist race/class combinations he could come up with, but after a year or two of going through characters at a pace unmatched by any other player I've had the pleasure of meeting, his reserve had run dry and he could only come up with 3-5 stoopid characters per weekly session.
HN was on his 4th character that night, for once a 'normalish' elven ranger who had a thing for his horse. The party came across a wooden door that was locked. Our mage/rogue couldn't open it after taking 20, and we needed to get in to find our objective (some module, they're all the same). In I (dwarven cleric of tempus) and the party's half-orc tempus-worshipping paladin were all too happy to appease HN when he jokingly said "use me as a battering ram!"
The DM said "are you saying that in character?"
HN: "No. Ah, why not, yeah, I say it in character."
Immediately the dwarf and half orc jumped the elf, tackled him to the ground, each took a pair of limbs, and proceeded to break the door down with the elf's face.
It took 40 minutes in game and nearly exhausted all of my character's spells, but we opened that door.
The DM never questioned the LG paladin or CG cleric's class abilities/faith/whatnot; we all knew it needed to be done.
note: no elves were harme...killed in the making of this story.
Last edited:
Man-thing
First Post
Not all stupidity fail though...
Recently my friend was DMing (1st I didn't have to DM in 3 years) so we as a group decided that as a DM with us he had to suffer a little. So we started our group as a travelling circus (yep, 5 1st level Bards).
2 members weren't there the first week. So we were undermanned and outclassed by most opponents that we developed for a regular party.
I have to say that we have some standing operating rules.
1) All dice rolls are seen by all (including DM's)
2) No mercy for the stupid.
We arrived at the final battle of the night with 1 hp a piece.
Our opponent Clr1/Ftr2; We won initiative and he never laid a finger on us.
Bardic music playing in preparation
1st round - Daze spell (fail save), flank him
2nd round - Daze spell (fail save) hit, hit
3rd round - hit, hit, hit (opponent miss by 1)
4th round - hit, hit (evil opponent defeated)
We should have been wiped out. We deserved to be wiped out.
Sometime fortune favours the dumb as well as the bold.
Recently my friend was DMing (1st I didn't have to DM in 3 years) so we as a group decided that as a DM with us he had to suffer a little. So we started our group as a travelling circus (yep, 5 1st level Bards).
2 members weren't there the first week. So we were undermanned and outclassed by most opponents that we developed for a regular party.
I have to say that we have some standing operating rules.
1) All dice rolls are seen by all (including DM's)
2) No mercy for the stupid.
We arrived at the final battle of the night with 1 hp a piece.
Our opponent Clr1/Ftr2; We won initiative and he never laid a finger on us.
Bardic music playing in preparation
1st round - Daze spell (fail save), flank him
2nd round - Daze spell (fail save) hit, hit
3rd round - hit, hit, hit (opponent miss by 1)
4th round - hit, hit (evil opponent defeated)
We should have been wiped out. We deserved to be wiped out.
Sometime fortune favours the dumb as well as the bold.
Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
Almost forgot one of the classics...
The party spent a great deal of time and effort sneaking up on a hobgoblin fort in the middle of a forest. They developed a cunning plan to infiltrate the fort and even managed to get right up to the wall.
Then one of the players' characters shouted "HELLO!!! WHO'S IN THERE?!?".
Element of surprise... gone. Along with the party's chances...
The party spent a great deal of time and effort sneaking up on a hobgoblin fort in the middle of a forest. They developed a cunning plan to infiltrate the fort and even managed to get right up to the wall.
Then one of the players' characters shouted "HELLO!!! WHO'S IN THERE?!?".
Element of surprise... gone. Along with the party's chances...
VirgilCaine
First Post
Theres a quote I have somewhere thats say it's one thing to save players from bad die rolls, it's another thing entirely to save them from their own stupidity and that shouldn't even be considered.
I agree with this completely. Players who don't run away when they are getting creamed deserve it.
I agree with this completely. Players who don't run away when they are getting creamed deserve it.
Dagger75
Epic Commoner
Well I play with MEG Hal now and well that would be a long post 
But in a Star Wars Game we had a player who I could have posted in the creepy post a while ago.
Well his Jedi character wasn't well liked mostly cause he didn't know how to play a jedi, or any character for that matter. Well to try and get him in the good graces of the party he stumbled onto a gladiator match where people would fight wookies to the death. The wookies chained to a pole and the other combatant with force pikes and vibro blades.
Well I had planned to let him find this, tell the party and break up the ring and free the wookies and rescue the NPC for there next mission. Also there was a wookie in the party and was big on freeing slaves and such.
Well the guy walks in and orders a drink and starts betting. The other players eye all go wide. He bets for a few fights, then some guy walks up and offers to sell him "Wookie Battle Gloves" He showed them to the player, I described them as being severed wookie hands with the claws extended that fit over human hands like boxing gloves. He thought they were cool and BOUGHT them. Then went back to the party after spending a few hours in the arena and handed the gloves to the wookie for a present. It wasn't pretty. Was funny and we still talk about it to this day.
But in a Star Wars Game we had a player who I could have posted in the creepy post a while ago.
Well his Jedi character wasn't well liked mostly cause he didn't know how to play a jedi, or any character for that matter. Well to try and get him in the good graces of the party he stumbled onto a gladiator match where people would fight wookies to the death. The wookies chained to a pole and the other combatant with force pikes and vibro blades.
Well I had planned to let him find this, tell the party and break up the ring and free the wookies and rescue the NPC for there next mission. Also there was a wookie in the party and was big on freeing slaves and such.
Well the guy walks in and orders a drink and starts betting. The other players eye all go wide. He bets for a few fights, then some guy walks up and offers to sell him "Wookie Battle Gloves" He showed them to the player, I described them as being severed wookie hands with the claws extended that fit over human hands like boxing gloves. He thought they were cool and BOUGHT them. Then went back to the party after spending a few hours in the arena and handed the gloves to the wookie for a present. It wasn't pretty. Was funny and we still talk about it to this day.
jollyninja
First Post
in the legend of the five rings setting campaign i am currently running, i have been trying like mad to make the players realise that the task they have undertaken is to big for them to complete on their own. I'll freely admit that i do kill characters as much as any dm i have ever played with or even heard of but i do not go out of my way to kill them, they just keep doing stupid things. anyway, they have tried the standard "party enters the haunted forrest without support" method twice and the first time they lived, barely because they skirted the forrest and never actually entered. the second time, two characters died within three days of entering the forrest because there are things in the forrest that the party cannot yet handle alone and i hit them with a creature that likes to strike from ambush. they refuse to request help from the many sources they have access to. ie the closest daimyo, a scorpoin clan daimyo who is a former party member, the father in law of two of the party members. a bayushi (scorpion clan) officer with hundreds of troops, currently serving in a nearby area. their own daimyo's are somewhat reluctant to send troops through the territories of other clans (minimum of two other clans territory) and it is just irritating that a two day trip away is a force they could use to stop me from using my random encounter tables and they instead just keep slamming their heads into the brick wall. it's killing me that every member of the party is a member of the nobility and they are just refusing to exploit that even to get some peasant millitia or something to desuade random attacks when i've made it clear that further failures may doom the empire
Laman Stahros
First Post
In a Champions game I was in - wow, years ago - there was a player who was playing a Spiderman clone with desolid abilities (like Kitty Pryde from X-Men). We were heading down to Central America to the BBEG's headquarters by Learjet, my character (basically a Human Torch clone, female though), being claustrophobic, was flying outside.
Long story - short version - I got hit by a heat-seeking missile and went down (from 30,000 ft). As I dropped, Spidey-clone sees me drop, screams "I'll save you!" and leaps from the plane. On the way down, he tries to create a parasail (among other things) with his webs - didn't buy that power mod - so he goes desolid - only bought the minimum (about 2' of penetration) - we never did find a body.
By the way, the party landed the plane and found me as I was waking up - unharmed!
Long story - short version - I got hit by a heat-seeking missile and went down (from 30,000 ft). As I dropped, Spidey-clone sees me drop, screams "I'll save you!" and leaps from the plane. On the way down, he tries to create a parasail (among other things) with his webs - didn't buy that power mod - so he goes desolid - only bought the minimum (about 2' of penetration) - we never did find a body.
By the way, the party landed the plane and found me as I was waking up - unharmed!
Nightcloak
First Post
Moe fun with giants
Group of 4 players at 5th level (with Hero Points) vs. a stone giant.
The characters rush the giant across a field and take a few boulder shots. No big deal.
The 3 players start tactics and move in to surround the giant. The 4th player, the wizard, cast invisible servant. Then proceeds to use his actions on the next several rounds to order the servant around and do things like attempt to drop a sack on the giant's head or run a rope through the giants legs so he can attempt to trip it...
(The spell does not allow any action that calls for an attack roll, but the 3 characters were getting hammered so I instituted rule 0 and gave him the rope maneuver after unsuccessfully explaining that to the wizard)
Finally, the mage rushes in to pull the rope and trip the giant.
** Insert spectacular failed dice roll of weak medium sized wizard vs. strong large giant **
During this the group is still getting hammered and down to single digit HP.
I recommended to the wizard that maybe he use some of his other spells or maybe his wand. Dismayed about the terrific failure of the trip attack, he decides to go in with his staff and go toe to toe.
Giant took out the wizard in the next round.
Sadly, the characters didn't dare retreat at that point. The giant hadn't missed once with thrown rocks earlier. So they made a last stand.
TPK 3 rounds later.
Group of 4 players at 5th level (with Hero Points) vs. a stone giant.
The characters rush the giant across a field and take a few boulder shots. No big deal.
The 3 players start tactics and move in to surround the giant. The 4th player, the wizard, cast invisible servant. Then proceeds to use his actions on the next several rounds to order the servant around and do things like attempt to drop a sack on the giant's head or run a rope through the giants legs so he can attempt to trip it...
(The spell does not allow any action that calls for an attack roll, but the 3 characters were getting hammered so I instituted rule 0 and gave him the rope maneuver after unsuccessfully explaining that to the wizard)
Finally, the mage rushes in to pull the rope and trip the giant.
** Insert spectacular failed dice roll of weak medium sized wizard vs. strong large giant **
During this the group is still getting hammered and down to single digit HP.
I recommended to the wizard that maybe he use some of his other spells or maybe his wand. Dismayed about the terrific failure of the trip attack, he decides to go in with his staff and go toe to toe.
Giant took out the wizard in the next round.
Sadly, the characters didn't dare retreat at that point. The giant hadn't missed once with thrown rocks earlier. So they made a last stand.
TPK 3 rounds later.
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