Things that annoy you as DM?

[demiurge1138]

Players that build characters using non-core sources without permission.

Players that say things like "well, the DM drops greatswords as treasure, so your next character should use them" when somebody else is building a character.

Players who decide that their character should leave the group in order to make a better, more broken character.

Frenzied berzerkers.

Demiurge out.

 

[BlackMoria]

'Here Not There' characters - you know the type. Player states character is at location or position 'X'. Then if something happens at location 'Y', that character is mysterious there, having warped time and location to arrive exactly to upstage the other character currently there.

And the player can never fess up to where he is.

Usually goes something like this....

DM: So where are you?

Player 1: My character stands outside the door of the room, in the corridor.

Player 2: I advance into the room, checking for traps and threats. I will approach the chest and check it for over carefully.

DM: *rolls dice* (To player 2) You make it to the chest and check it out - it appears clean of any hazards.

Player 1: I will try to open the chest.

DM: *To player 1* You said you were outside the room in the corridor.

Player 1: I followed him (player 2's character) into the room.

DM: **annoyed** Fine....you are by the chest and opening it. While that is going on, player 3 (who is in the corridor), make a spot and listen check.

Player 1: I rolled a spot of 18. What do I see?

DM **annoyed** You said you were opening the chest. That is your action. You are in the room and you can't see the rear of the party outside the room.

Player 1: I didn't open the chest and I moved over to the door so I can see what is going on.

DM **really annoyed** Arrggghhh

 

[billd91]

What irks me:

Players who complain about their class being 'nerfed' when they haven't been very creative about using it's powers in the first place and have instead over-relied on an unreliable tactic for the whole campaign.

Players who let minor in-game disputes turn into out of game problems.

Players who have to have a PC with some interesting 'quirk' that they have to expound on continually to keep themselves interested in the game.

Players who constantly complain that I'm not giving out enough experience points or magic treasure.

Players who make broad assumptions about the game world's racism/sexism/bias-of-some-sort without bothering to spend the time to actually delve into it first.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Players who can't decide what alignment they want their character to be, during, before and after each session.

Isn't deciding on a characters alignment the domain of the DM? And doesn't this just sound like chaotic neutral?

 

[Talon5]

Forgotten plot lines.

Sleeping players- okay so they sleep because they have worked 8 hrs driven two and have been up for twenty two hours.

Knitting

Off topic conversations during a description. "You see movement in the trees ahead of you," while over the top of that the Player is talking about a movie/work/TV show.

Being annoyed when I shot your character from ambush cause you rolled a natural 20 on your spot and you should have seen it

Two hours later then you said you would be and that was two hours later then the last person to show.

None stop off topic talk that dominates a day of gaming

Changing plans- destroying a campaign "we're not going to the moutains where we said we'd go last week end- oh, I know you made a campaign for the mountains." (Okay so I did that one more then twice to our GM) (His villians scard us off thou.)

 

[Mouseferatu]

Knitting

Funny thing is, my wife knits all the time during games. It helps her focus on the game itself; she's always more mentally alert if she's got somethign manual going on as well.

So actually, I have a problem if she's not knitting, because--given her work schedule--odds are she'll fall asleep otherwise.

 

[Gothmog]

Other DMs who think that player ability should be tested for roleplaying purposes but not for, say, the Climb skill, where keeping with that logic players would have to climb up the side of the house. Sheesh.

(Actually, what I plan to implement is an even better RP aid: I'll have the players roll diplomacy at the beginning of the encounter and then have them roleplay around the roll. Much more fun that way, especially if the shy player rolls a Nat. 20!)

Ok, you make a good point. I guess I should have said:

Player: "I'm going to give a rousing speech to the mercenaries. I rolled a 27 on Dipolmacy- how did I do?"

DM: "What are you saying?"

Player: "I dunno, but I rolled a 27."

I have seen this several times, almost verbatim. Thats a lazy powergamer player who won't attempt to play his character. I usually have players roll Diplomacy or other social skills at the beginning of an encounter, then modify the result based on roleplaying. Dice roll doesn't equal automatic success or failure. The same holds true for physical skills- if a player tells me he is being careful climbing a cliff, hammering pitons and inspecting possiblt handholds with his fingers, I give him a bonus or benefit of the doubt on the roll. Of if a character tries to hide in shadows, and describes how he is doing it (soot on his face, keeping low to the ground, padding his equipment, etc), I give him a bonus. You'd be surprised how many players just say "I hide- I got a 25."

 

[Talon5]

Funny thing is, my wife knits all the time during games. It helps her focus on the game itself; she's always more mentally alert if she's got somethign manual going on as well.

So actually, I have a problem if she's not knitting, because--given her work schedule--odds are she'll fall asleep otherwise.

That is the same thing that two of our players use, but both seem to not be into gaming some of the time, and niether seems apt to roleplay very well or in depth while they are.

I understand it helps to keep them awake after a long day, but dam we're at the table to play, they can knit the other six nights of the week.

 

[Talon5]

You'd be surprised how many players just say "I hide- I got a 25."

No we wouldn't. I hear that all the time, no description of what they are doing.

Usually to get a description I say something like- "okay, you climb up the rock face avoiding the easy climb and going for the out crop, which catches you another hour, but with your skill and your thrill seeking nature it was fun. Your gonna help the wizard now to climb over that, right?"

Usually I catch a lot of protests and hear the- "take the easiest path up, if I can make it easier on them I will."



It works sometimes

 

[KenM]

Ok, you make a good point. I guess I should have said:

Player: "I'm going to give a rousing speech to the mercenaries. I rolled a 27 on Dipolmacy- how did I do?"

DM: "What are you saying?"

Player: "I dunno, but I rolled a 27."

I have seen this several times, almost verbatim. Thats a lazy powergamer player who won't attempt to play his character.

Thats not a powergamer IMO. The CHARACTER has good diplomacy, the PLAYER does not. If the player was playing a nuclear scientest, would you expect him to accually come up with a formula for something or make a roll? I'm not that good with fast talk or diplomacy, but some of my characters are. I should not be expected to come up with what I'm saying when my character has the skills the player does not.