Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 1376717" data-attributes="member: 633">Players that act like kleptomaniacs just because they have sleight of hand.  Players that won't bother reading the rules concering their abilities.  Players that after 3/4 years of 3e still need the DM to build a correct character.  Players that, between initiative count 11 and initiative count 10 of the same round, discuss their strategy for half an hour (I'm going to purchase a one minute hourglass for this very reason).  The stuff that really grazes my nerves, though, is when I meet objects, events or actions that help dramatism, suspense, and challenge, but make no sense at all. They strongly remind me that I'm just playing a game. Here are some examples.  Riddles. Especially when they are the key to a trap, door, or something. It's not that I don't enjoy solving them, but they make no sense at all, their only purpose is the metagame one of challenging the players. Who on Earth would let people pass if they solve a riddle? Either you want them to pass or you don't, unless you're insane. The worst thing is that you get them in fantasy literature too. If I build the door to Moria, either I want everyone to pass in which case you'd have to just touch it, or I don't want everyone to pass in which case the password would be not be bloody written on the door itself, and it would be something like ldf83_23sdf@3kl30#10. Stupid elves.  NPCs that hold back on vital information for the sake of dramatism. "When should we charge?" "You will know". Like hell, either we agree on a signal or I'm out of here. Come to think about it, if I ask any question about the plan and the answer is "you will know", you are guaranteed to get a lecture.  PCs that hold back on vital information for the sake of dramatism, for that matter.  I dislike adventures that specify how the players should solve them and award XP accordingly. Some time ago, we played a short one where there was this massive goonie-style floor-opens-on-a-vat-of-acid trap activated by pressing the wrong button, with the right button supposedly being indicated by a (damn) riddle which a (admittedly insane) NPC told us. Instead of wasting time on the stupid thing, I suggested to just tie us so that it was impossible to fall, and press all the buttons until the door opened. Or have the buttons be pressed by a flying PC while the rest were safe away. Turns out that we would have got more XP by solving it the "right" way. Blargh. Trusting my life on the possibly wrong solution to a riddle posed by a madman would be a good idea?Yeah, but I think that NPC classes are fair game.</blockquote>

Verification