424
"It's what my guy would do!"
"My Guy" syndrome is when — often unwittingly — you disclaim decision-making power and responsibility by acting like "what my character would do" is inevitable and inviolable, even if it gets in the way of actually having fun in the game or being able to play the game at all.
JD Corley wrote up a story that covers it pretty ...
305
It's pretty reasonable you're annoyed. One of your fellow players secretly plotted to kill your character for revenge (and it worked), the DM - the one guy you pretty much have to be able to trust - was in on it, and your fellow players offered you no emotional support at a point when you clearly needed it and instead made things worse for you.
People have ...
299
There are a number of reasons why the character's book knowledge may not be useful at a given time. There are also a number of reasons why the character's knowledge wouldn't be as extensive as your player seems to think.
1) Book knowledge isn't practical experience.
You can read all the books in the world about riding a bicycle, and you'll still fall off ...
282
If they habitually skip the prepared content: "That's all I've got. See you next time."
If you've prepared a certain amount of content and the players choose to skip it without a convincing in-character rationale and while mocking you as the DM, then tell them they arrived at their destination without incident... and just end the session, right then and ...
239
Reward him.
Your player is playing his character smart, not hard. He's being clever and resourceful. He's considering what his character would do in character. I wish I had players like the one playing your Bard.
He stops to think about what he can do, instead of just mindlessly deciding you expect him to attack and attacking. You can do so much more with ...
238
What's wrong with what he's doing? As far as he can tell, this is a good strategy. He's exceptionally tough, and running through traps has worked for him in the past, so he believes it'll be fine in the future.
If you don't want this strategy to work, you'll need to try a different kind of trap.
A few options come to mind:
more damage
different damage
...
178
Considering there is a casting time and a bunch of cues that he's doing this, how is the world reacting to his constant spellcasting? It seems that the real solution is there.
Do his fellow players stop to wait for his results? When entering a room, in the time it takes for him to cast Detect Magic and Detect Evil, the other players will most likely have ...
170
The folding boat explicitly says that it takes an action to speak the command word. If your player is using his action to cast catapult, he doesn't have an action left to properly incant the command word before the attack finishes.
The catapult spell says that it targets an item weighing "1 to 5" pounds, and it propels the target "in a straight line". This ...
156
Your player is not taking ownership of their condition
A disclaimer before I start, first I'm not familiar with the AL's rules and recourse for DMs dealing with problem players. Secondly, I'm not a psychiatrist or doctor. That being said, I do LARP and have ADHD myself. The former means you end up being friends with a lot of people with weird personalities ...
155
If the player wants their old character to reappear as an NPC, then they have to accept that that character is now an NPC. That means you are playing that character—and you get to play them according to your perception of the character.
This can be fraught with potential for argument and disagreement about what that character would do; most DMs clear the ...
152
Don't apply a Limit Curse
I know this isn't the sort of answer you were looking for...but slapping restrictions on a player character because you don't like the way they are playing is not cool. The strength of a Warlock is that they get their spell slots back on a short rest. The weakness is that they only have a few. And the overriding weakness of ...
150
Show Them Why
Before discussing it "off the table", you should first try to integrate this issue into the narrative. Based on some of your comments, it sounds like there's a bit of an adversarial tone between your PCs and you. This is a common attitude in newer groups, and one that is discouraged by having the DM tell an honest story. Have the narrative ...
147
Don't run the campaign
It is often important (but not always) for the party to have a preexisting, long term reason to stay a party. It is especially important in situations like this, with non-standard parties. Unless that reason is part of your pitch, it is incumbent upon the players to come up with that reason.
Your Options
Make it a One-Shot
So you ...
147
Tell him the truth, because that's what friends do
Sometimes, talking around or avoiding an issue increases trouble, rather than decreasing it. This looks to be a case of that happening.
You said this in a comment.
The main thing is, the DM is a good guy, but his girlfriend is adding
some complications to the group because he is understandably ...
143
No, it's not fair to punish a player in this way. But it's not okay for this player to take an unfair share of control over the game, either.
You are the DM — you are in control. You are in the Big Chair, and the group put you there to be responsible for pacing and mediation. You have that job because players striving for the benefit of their PC is fun but ...
132
Find better friend(s)
From what you said, Bob is an obnoxious toxic character. Do not role play with him and ditch him as a friend. The rest of the players are bad friends for not standing up for OP, although it could be excused.
Life is too short to waste on this. I get that you want revenge but really it is not worth it. Act like the grown up in the ...
131
I wasn't comfortable with some assumptions people are readily making in their comments, so I did some research and a few calculations. I also incorporated some suggestions made in the comments.
The crushing weight of the earth
He digs a hole big enough for himself (between 3-4 feet deep)
Lots of people claim he'd have trouble breathing, which is likely ...
130
This can be solved mechanically
Just to take a different tack: If he wants to recall how to steer a boat, ask him to make a roll against his Navigator's Tools Proficiency, and/or Vehicle Proficiency. If he doesn't have them, he can make a general Int check for very general knowledge. If his claim is that he should be able to roll any skill on any subject by ...
127
Your first instinct-- gently talking to the player-- is a very good one. You can easily follow that up with a less gentle discussion laying out the basic idea that tabletop RPGs (unlike computer RPGs) are collaborative efforts where everyone needs to have fun. This includes not only the other players, but also you as the GM.
Your second instinct-- ...
127
"Excuse me. Please be quiet. I haven't finished speaking, when I have you can talk as much as you want."
This isn't a game problem, its a manners problem.
124
You
I'll deal with your issues first: you are an angry 14 year old.
Don't sweat it; everybody was, is or will be. Maturity can in fact be summed up as learning not to punch the face of someone who richly deserves it.
You have to remember that you have no control over the way other people behave; you only have control over the way you behave. And ... you ...
122
Yes, let his character get the fate he deserves
Storytime:
In one of the first games I ever ran at a convention, there was a player that was doing exactly what you described: charging ahead, thinking he was better than everyone, not playing as a team, etc.
The next time he charged ahead though, all the enemies were of course waiting to gang up on the ...
118
Since I started DMing D&D a long, long time ago, I found that the dynamics of a mixed group of male ande female players is a tad different from a one-sex only group of players. This is purely anecdotal, however, and fruit of my own experiences and by no means is representative of the general gamer population.
Note that, for the purposes of the ...
118
First and foremost, I am sorry you have to put up with Kevin.
Bullying should not be tolerated1. Ever2!
Sadly, your experience is far from unique. Kevin acts in the manner of a sexist bully and should be called out for such vile behaviour. That behaviour should not be tolerated at all. It violates Wheaton's law and good manners. You should not put up with ...
117
It seems like there are 2 different problems in this scenario.
1. You have a problem player
If a player is doing anything to make you or any other person uncomfortable or not have fun, then they are a problem player. We have a large number of questions about problem players here at the RPG.stack. Here is one. If you search for problem players you'll find ...
116
The obvious solution would be to go to the authorities (the city guard?) with your evidence. They're certainly searching for the villain who burned down all those inns and killed all those people. Come back with twenty or thirty NPC archers and shoot him full of arrows.
If you try doing this, you're going to have two problems. The first problem is that ...
115
The easiest way is to stop giving out XP at all. D&D very prominently features the so-called milestone rule in their Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Tyranny of Dragons adventures.
They later refined that into the "Story-Based Advancement" rule that can be found in the DMG page 261, "Level Advancement without XP". They also introduced something else also ...
114
Roll with it
Let's address this by taking things back to 5e fundamentals. Working from, "How To Play", from PHB page six.
1. The DM describes the environment
"You've taken over the pirate ship but your crew are all dead. What do you do?"
2. The players describe what they want to do.
"As an ancient elf I've read historical books about ship battles and ...
112
Let your player leave.
D&D is a game. The primary reason anyone plays D&D is to have fun.
You and your player are not having fun.
Your question title is a leading one: of course you shouldn't change the "entire" campaign to please just "one" player. So yes, you and your player should part ways. Your player has told you that he's not having fun, ...
111
Agree as a table that rules discussions happen out-of-session
We have had this issue at our table. Rules debates that have gotten out of hand and players (including and sometimes primarily me in the past) looking up rules and rulings disrupting the session. The following method is what helped our issue a lot:
If any rule is unclear or confusing the DM will ...
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