Things that annoy you as DM?

[Nighthawk]

My contribution is short, since there are so many already posted.

1. Players who place their desires and expectations on the playing group. I have had too many incidents with this type of situation.

2. Players who take themselves, and their characters, too seriously. I am talking about the extreme here.

3. This one is directed at myself, although it can be applied to others. Making mistakes that shouldn't be made. It's amazing how many errors I can make without realizing it (over a long period of time).

Note that 1 and 2 can easily be applied to DMs as well.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

How about:

DMs who say that the way another DM runs his or her game is complete crap.

We all have our own style, our own strength and our own playing group. As long as everyone in your particular group is having fun, why should anyone else care how you are doing it?

Some get off on powergaming - great!
Others get off on deep mystery and intrigue - fantastic!
Some others get off on role-playing to the extreme - super!

Find your style, play your style and don't try and make others think your way is better than theirs.

 

[Arnwyn]

it sounds to me that you'd be better off just removing the Charisma stat and all skills based off Charisma in your game. since you are not allowing them to have any effect.

it sounds like you are basing success or failure purely on the social skills of the player and completely ignoring the social skills of the character. i agree with several others here, that that attitude is just as unfair as requiring a successful physical performance from the player in order for his character to succeed at a physical task, or for mental / intellectual tasks, etc.

It sounds like you didn't read one thing BelenUmeria said. I got none of what you just wrote from his posts.

 

[Shemeska]

Dave's Insanity Sauce!

Dave's Ultimate Insanity Sauce actually

 

[Barastrondo]

Personally, I think that the preference of whether or not you ask for some roleplaying in addition to a social check like a Diplomacy check is directly related to The Mirrorball Man's gripe:

That being said, I really hate players who think you're an entertainer and they're your audience. They expect to be entertained and don't think they're supposed to contribute anything to the game.

I gotta admit, it's something that can annoy me, too, although I'd probably classify it more as "I love it when players do this" than "I hate it when players don't do this." Running a game is hard work, particularly if you have to improvise a lot. I appreciate players who do their part not only to make my job easier in the sense of knowing the rules, but who contribute to other players' immersion and enjoyment of the game. You know, the sort of player who says something in-character that everyone talks about for weeks. ("Yeah, and then Thurgrim says to the wizard, 'Let's see if you can finish that incantation with my sword in your lung!'") The one who keeps combat lively by putting a little more description into their actions than "I hit the orc. 15." The one who, damn his hide, forces me to improvise more on the spot and makes the session and the game world better for it. ("Hey, are there any tattoo artists in town? I mean, good ones." "Um... yeah. There's... ah... Yeah, once you start looking into it, you find..." (frantically jotting down notes) "...that there's an autumn elf who runs an expensive tattoo parlor in the northern district. They say she has an artistic temperament." "Cool. That's where I go.")

I don't advocate trying to force that sort of thing from players, of course, because not everyone's up to doing things that can entertain the other guys and gals around the table. Still, I do prefer to game with folks who deliberately try to help entertain the entire group. When you have a table full of them... ah, bliss.

What irks me as a GM is when my dogs fail to realize that it's time for them to lie down and relax for the evening, and I have to coerce them away from the table so that we can get back to the game. I lose more face that way.

And players who insist on keeping character secrets from other players. Surprising the other players is all well and good, but it makes my life so much harder trying to remember what I'm "allowed" to mention around other players or not. Like I don't have enough to do with keeping track of all my stupid secrets.

Oh yeah, and puns. I can't believe nobody's mentioned puns yet.

 

[humble minion]

First and foremost: myself. When I forget a tiny detail, or invent one on the fly, that ends up scuppering a cool plotline or scene that I've been plotting for ages. When my improvised NPCs end up a bit too alike. When I don't pick what is the most obvious course of action for the PCs to take, and end up having to improvise my reactions.

On the player side of things: when players gleefully disregard genre (the Jedi who was planning to dispose of the bodies of a couple of guards in a rock crusher so nobody could tell they'd been killed with a lightsaber...). Constant off-topic talk (especially in combat, when a player is waiting for his turn!) is made worse when it means the jabbering player doesn't know what's been happening and his PC does something stupid as a result.

Argh. Venting here. Will shut up now.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Ran into a big annoyance that I had forgotten about last night. Players that keep talking over each other until every loud player is yelling at the DM and the quiet players kind of fade into the background. Also, players that assume the DM should buy all the gaming supplies such as Battlemats or Tact-Tiles because it is "their game".

 

[diaglo]

Dave's Insanity Sauce!

only stuff i've ever used that caused my lips to go numb.

 

[Piratecat]

I hate it when people hijack cool threads to continue an argument that should probably be discussed in its own thread.

Oh wait - isn't this about "Things that annoy me as a moderator?"

It looks like that particular discussion has died, which is great; no one be in a hurry to resurrect it, please.

 

[Ylis]

If I know a player won't be at a game, I can usually find a way to write them out, or I just run them as an NPC in the background. I don't like having players run simultaneous characters (having had bad experiences with it in the past). I agree with the 75% experience for no-shows (for whatever reason).

Yes...we have a solution to this situation, as there was a problem with it for awhile...we decided to use the "Bag of PC Holding", which has the sole purpose of holding those PCs whose players aren't there. The character is shoved in the bag until the other characters see fit to let him/her out (or the player returns).
Either that or the missing player's character is present, but in the background. The PC doesn't talk, move, fight, gain experience, etc....