That Thing You Won't Ever Do

[TheUltramark]

in D&D - there is nothing I wouldn't do. Often times, I've played evil characters, and as a dm, i'm always the "bad guys" (obviously) - I usually "gloss over" the truly graphic stuff, no need to get into the details of the horridly insane. Its more than enough to say "you find the girl...and the gnolls weren't gentle"

in real life though, I tell ya, I won't EVER set the alarm clock and wake up in the middle of the night to watch a dern wedding!

 

[Nagol]

• I will not pit a husband and wife against each other.
• No graphic descriptions of sex.
• No graphic descriptions of torture.
• I strongly dislike taking over player characters due to whatever game mechanics might apply, and avoid it like the plague.

That was more than one thing; oh well.

I DMed for a family of 4 (stepdad, mom, daughter ~14, son around 10)(stepdad an old friend of mine, the rest new acquiantances) for one session. I couldn't go back. The kids were conflating in-game authority and real-world authority (which in itself I could live with), but the mom was playing an evil character and taking full advantage of the situation and the children. The situation felt really toxic.

 

[wingsandsword]

Just one thing?

Here are my hard, non-negotiable no-go's.

1. Rape is prohibited. End of story, not graphic depictions of it, and not even mentioned as happening "offscreen" (at the very most as an unspoken implication to the backstory of a half-orc or tiefling, but never explicitly said as much, and even then that's pushing it). It's not funny: it's tasteless, and it sucks the entertainment right out of the game to even consider it.

2. Child abuse is completely prohibited. Goes triple if my wife is in the game: she was abused as a small child and still has issues related to it. In one of my first campaigns ever (as a player) I saw a fellow player take sick pleasure at describing how his death priest was viciously torturing and slaying a small child (that turned out to be his younger self thanks to some time travel). The DM set up the encounter as a chance for this ostensibly CN character to do a good deed and avoid slipping to CE because the character had been played as very dark and doing a lot of questionable acts, thanks to the reveal that it was actually himself as a child, the character wiped out his own existence and disappeared. . .and the player was not invited to make another character. It was well over a decade ago and I still get kind of sick thinking about that entire incident.

3. Drug use at the table, or players who openly use drugs, neither are tolerable. Depicting it in game is fine as something fictional characters do is one thing, but the actual players wanting to light up a joint at the gaming table or take who-knows-what else wherever they think they can get away with it? No way. I've already refused people to be in games I've run because I know they take illegal drugs. (Friend of a friend was interested in a game, looked him up on Facebook and added him to get to know him a little bit before the game, his first status update was to boast about being high on ecstacy and how he was going to spend the entire weekend high as a kite. . .so much for him joining my game, and I unfriended him immediately)

Most other stuff I can handle at least a little or tastefully, but those are the things I can think of that if it happens at the table, I'm out or if I'm the GM the player is out.

 

[howandwhy99]

I won't break the Table Rules. That's a big one for me. The preceding stuff is pretty common on such a list. Abhorrent stuff you wouldn't do in life anyways.

 

[Super Pony]

I play games to have fun.

If the GM or player is set on the contrary, either because I'm the "new guy" or someone has a personal drive towards being a jerk, or any other petty bit of nonesense...I'm out.

I've simply gamed with too many fantastic humans to suffer arse-faces gladly. Chances are I've had to move heaven and earth these days to play anyway. If others are going to crush my good time with poor attitudes I could easily be at home mowing my lawn whilst pretending I'm that big rock guy from Never Ending Story...

 

[Evilhalfling]

I have run into 2 deal breakers -

Rape
My character was raped by prison guards at a convention game. For trying to break into a fancy ball. It was an evil group and the DM was expecting things to get dark. At the table I fumed a while then decided that. "well they all have to die then." I locked the doors and the encouraged group to burn down/ kill everyone in the castle. I also killed a girl another PC was trying to turn into a sex slave. Only 2 PCs survived that adventure.
- I wrote the DM a note afterward, but will still never play in a game she runs.

hand-waved resurrections:
The party was TPK'd by a dragon, then brought back to life by a god. Fine, one of the other PCs was his only worshiper on the plane, I can see the rational. But my PC was an atheist. At the very least there should have been some demands or repercussions for his return by divine intervention.
Shortly there after My character ran off with an NPC to get married, and bailed on adventuring life. I bailed on the campaign.

 

[Jon_Dahl]

Really great actors play roles like Hannibal Lecter, Derek Vinyard or Amon Göth, because it's great and challenging and hard and everything... Yes, it's their profession, but they don't just take the roles that pay the best. There's more to it, a lot more.

Horrifying and disgusting things just for the sake of them or just to shock you without any deeper meaning behind them are not cool, and I wouldn't like those sort of things in any game.
But a great story which is told in the right way can take anything. Anything.

If a great DM would ask me to play in a game along the lines of Boys Don't Cry or ask us to play sondercommandos in a concentration camp, and if I would trust this person and his/her skills as a DM, I'd whip out my calendar.

Summa Summarum: No Taboos. Just Great Stories.

 

[Hassassin]

My in-game issues have been covered by others, but there is a metaish one:

I will not play a Harry Potter game.

 

[Hautamaki]

I don't really have any moral lines that cannot ever be crossed under any circumstances ever; I try to have a pretty open mind about that stuff even if other people might be offended or disgusted. But that said, a friend's girlfriend asked if she could play a character with a bazooka in our fantasy setting because 'bazookas are cool, they can blow guys up from long range.' I didn't allow that.

 

[Scott DeWar]

1. Rape is prohibited. End of story, not graphic depictions of it, and not even mentioned as happening "offscreen" (at the very most as an unspoken implication to the backstory of a half-orc or tiefling, but never explicitly said as much, and even then that's pushing it). It's not funny: it's tasteless, and it sucks the entertainment right out of the game to even consider it.

2. Child abuse is completely prohibited. Goes triple if my wife is in the game: she was abused as a small child and still has issues related to it. In one of my first campaigns ever (as a player) I saw a fellow player take sick pleasure at describing how his death priest was viciously torturing and slaying a small child (that turned out to be his younger self thanks to some time travel). The DM set up the encounter as a chance for this ostensibly CN character to do a good deed and avoid slipping to CE because the character had been played as very dark and doing a lot of questionable acts, thanks to the reveal that it was actually himself as a child, the character wiped out his own existence and disappeared. . .and the player was not invited to make another character. It was well over a decade ago and I still get kind of sick thinking about that entire incident.

the two above are also no gos as well