Pet Peeves as a Player?

palyer-point-of-view
#1

This board is filled mostly with those of us who gravitate to Running Games. But we are all players. What is the thing that Annoys you as a player? While I am going for the irrational, it might be good for GMs to learn to avoud some of these.

Primarily for me are when the world hits my suspension of disbelief.
Now, mind you, I am playing Sci-Fi or Fantasy and something slamms me into…that makes no sense?

The last one I remember clearly was an enormous Logging Camp with no Rivers, and the Logs were taken out by horse cart.

Others often include silliness like Shrines to dark gods with hundreds of cultists that visit it…and to get to it we have to walk through dozens of deadly traps and a bridge that is literally another death trap, since it requires Dex checks and such.

The other is focused on Fantasy settings.
Allowing Player Characters including priests to be agnostic or even Athiests…in a world that the hands of the gods act upon us every day, and we know of many who have seen them???

On the flip side, the Convert or I won’t heal you anymore gets old quick.

Any way…What are your Pet peeves as a player?

#2

While I love the role-playing aspect, I don’t quite like whole sessions with no feeling of progression.

And then there are those PCs that only create conflict and bad vibes. Like yes it can be funny, but the line between funny and annoying can be very thin.

Can’t think of much more right now!

#3

I hate it when the dm goes easy on me and I know they fudge a roll. I look at them and say “you are too kind DM”. I would rather just be knocked unconscious. Lol. On the flip side I hate it when I play a Tanky character and the dm gets a string of crits and high rolls that I know are absolutely fudged.

TLDR - dishonestly with dice.

#4

Interesting question. Story wise I don’t have many qualms but I haven’t played enough stories that weren’t my own.

Play wise its a lot of the reasons that brought me here. Like people who are always checking books. If it slows the game to the point you cant even remember what’s happening its the absolute worst.

I don’t nice DMs. I’ll clarify I like DMs to be nice people but I don’t like when niceness and fairness ruins the game. Heres an example. I was on a discord game playing ranger cause arrows and range. I told the DM I wanted to be just out of running distance of any enemy. That way I had a turn before any enemy could get to my position. Well the DM would go down the initiative list making sure to distribute the attacks evenly amoung all players. Next thing I know I’m being meled from 60 feet away. Any sort of combat strategy went out the window because the DM thought it was fair to distribute damage evenly. Besides the fact that it ruined strategy its more fun when monsters have an objective. Let the monsters target a single player. Leave some clues as to why and let the players figure out a strategy to fight that monster. Don’t get in the way of player strategy because you want to be nice and fair.

#5

LOL
Everybody gets killed! Nice and fair XD

#6

On the player side:

  • Taking 10 minutes for your turn
  • Making irrational or erratic choices with your character
  • Leaving your teammates to fend for themselves
  • making a gimmicky character
  • cheating, fudging rolls, or not applying damage
  • being distracted or not invested

On the DM side:

  • fudging rolls
  • giving the main villain plot armor
  • DM scooping the party from one location to the next
  • having only shock value and no real story or truths in the game
  • making us RP an entire session
  • making us play the mundane: travel where nothing happens, camping, visiting an inn and just eating and sleeping, town or wilderness with just pointless exploration. On this point especially, I have a life where I do mundane things all day; I don’t want it in my games
  • Not rolling dice an entire session
  • Springing new, gimmicky, or inconsistent mechanics on us
  • Not taking feedback
  • Being passive aggressive toward the players
  • Poor challenge tuning, especially making encounters that are not winnable
  • Turning the NPCs into the star of the show
  • No continuity for possible PC decisions or providing any choices that make sense
  • Not providing any purpose or direction for the PCs; letting us just wander aimlessly trying to make our own fun

Those are the big ones, imho.

#7

Lolly-gagging at the beginning of the session…We began the game…five minutes ago, but why isn’t there action yet?

I come up with what I think is a cool idea, not too over-the-top (rule-breaking), and you say ‘No’ What? no roll? Ok…pass turn

A session with no action (yes i’ve played too many sessions where I rolled my d20 <=1 that night)…We are heroes on a journey, please skip the boring parts of our story.

My last pet peeve–the GM having a vendetta towards a player…whether by countering moves perfectly, or gunning for one player, the GMs job is to provide a challenge, not be against the players.

This was a fun question! Thanks for starting the conversation. @Paxx

#8

One thing that really irks me is when a GM takes the role in role playing out of the game. Sometimes the roll is a crutch vs not knowing what to do in the role play.

Hope this makes sense…

#9

@Alex An addendum to your awesome list.

On the player side:

  • Creating and playing a party-disrupting character and then defending it by saying “I’m just roleplaying my character!”. This includes purposefully creating characters that “work alone”, are a-holes, evil or stupid murder hobos.
  • Bringing real life arguments and issues into the game and making the characters fight in game due to this.

On the DM side:

  • “You can’t do X because the rules don’t allow it”
  • Allowing a player to create a party-disrupting character.
  • Not guiding the players enough and allowing them to f*** around aimlessly until they somehow stumble upon the adventure by themselves.
#10

Really good additions @Khan! I agree wholeheartedly. :100:

#11

This is a great topic of discussion and has given me some things to consider as a DM. Here are a few off the top of my head, even though they have likely already been mentioned:

Player side:

  • Cheating dice rolls
  • Rules lawyering
  • Not paying attention
  • Analysis paralysis (over analyzing)
  • Being bossy to the other players
  • Disrespectful attitudes and behavior
  • Having no interaction or RP with other players or the story

DM side:

  • Being vindictive or holding power over the players (being a d_ck)
  • Adhering to the rules too much
  • Changing rules to give them an advantage
  • Making the game follow a win or loose structure (you lost (tpk) so I win)
  • Starting every damn campaign in a tavern or bar
  • Spending valuable game time on boring activities in the game world
  • Zero roleplaying
  • Boring NPC’s and monsters
  • Including no wonder or awe
  • Favoritism
  • Not spending any time prepping beforehand and then prepping during gameplay
  • Taking on too many players for an adventure or campaign (overbooking)
  • Dragging out encounters even though their outcome or objective is complete
  • Using traps or environmental effects that cause unavoidable instant death or massive damage
#12

Lol!!!

On everyone’s list, except for the cheating Dice rolls as a player, I know I have done at least once…

I am so going to curate this list in some way.

#13

Disrupting play unnecessarily - be it because you saw something interesting on your phone, you need to voice your opinion on the rules - it is ok to go to the bathroom, make coffee and so on, especially if you do it respectfully

#14

This is why I started making ALL rolls in the open. That no longer becomes an issue. Of course there are other ways to take it easy on players but they are much more subtle than fudging dice rolls.

#15

This just made me laugh. You listed a bunch of stuff and said these are the “big ones”. I would hate to see the FULL list. - :rofl::joy::rofl:

#16

I am sure all of us have done things from these lists from time to time. We are human after all. Well, I am a dwarf at heart. This is definitely a good list. There is lots to learn as both a player and GM from it.

#17

There’s a ton of shit that irks me, Chuck. I’m a demanding bastard when it comes to quality.

#18

I am in that same boat Alex.