168 votes
Accepted

As a player, I am approaching a situation where "My Guy" syndrome seems inevitable and almost appropriate. What can I do to soften any problems?

First, you're off the hook for "My Guy" syndrome - this is clearly a conflict the GM orchestrated. "My Guy" happens when a player decides to use his character to justify derailing the plot, but ...
MikeKozar's user avatar
  • 1,940
141 votes
Accepted

How can I convince players not to offload a seemingly useless weapon?

Let them sell it. Later, when they realize they needed it, let them troop back and buy it again. It can be a little mini quest: "figure out what happened to that sword we vendored". I think your more ...
Dan B's user avatar
  • 87.8k
124 votes
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As a girl, how can I voice male characters effectively?

As a DM, I've found that trying to distinguish characters solely by changing my voice doesn't work very well. It's not especially scalable, for one - if you have a full cast of NPCs, you're likely to ...
thatgirldm's user avatar
  • 22.3k
119 votes
Accepted

How do I indicate to my players that an NPC is no longer useful and that they should move on?

Remember that NPCs are people, not info dumps. Your players are following what I'd call the video game model of NPC interaction. In a lot of RPG video games, the NPCs are infinitely patient and let ...
Icyfire's user avatar
  • 63.4k
115 votes
Accepted

How to deal with a player who is a bad sport?

"We can't talk to this player. So I don't know what to do." I think you just took away most people's #1 answer. If you can't talk to someone about issues, and you can't remove them from the game, ...
Longspeak's user avatar
  • 7,098
112 votes
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Players Develop Backstories Too Much

I want to preface my answer by saying that I understand where your impulse is coming from, that I respect it at least in part, and that I share that impulse. But with that preface, I must in good ...
Novak's user avatar
  • 42.3k
105 votes

How to deal with a player who is a bad sport?

Like this Life is too short to play games with poor sports. If their leaving causes others to leave, don't worry, it's a big wide world out there full of gamers who are not poor sports.
Dale M's user avatar
  • 206k
105 votes
Accepted

I deciphered the meaning of a cryptic language out-of-game: should my character know what the meaning is?

Ask your DM whether it's supposed to be viable to decipher it, or whether you were supposed to find the clues in game. Given that they used a genuine (even if simple) cipher and a proper script ...
Erik's user avatar
  • 80.2k
104 votes
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Is there a way to ask in game (i.e. in a non-meta way) what a character's class is?

There is no non-metagaming way... ...because class is a metagame construct: from the characters' perspective, it doesn't exist. There is no good way to determine "class" as a hard fact for ...
T.J.L.'s user avatar
  • 48.2k
93 votes
Accepted

How can I get people to remember my character's gender?

Generally this "problem" tends to appear at the start of the game, where all the characters are new. My fix was to always refer to characters by their names, not pronouns. Once characters are well ...
Sardathrion - against SE abuse's user avatar
90 votes

How should I as a GM handle a player character who has a bad memory?

Your player is correct Making a special mechanical representation of this is very likely to cause problems, and you should not do so. A trait like this simply shouldn’t be in the dice’s hands—it is ...
KRyan's user avatar
  • 345k
87 votes

How to roleplay my character's ethics according to the DM when I don't understand those ethics?

Your GM needs to understand that if you can’t see what’s ‘common sense’ it’s because they failed to explain the situation Sometimes GM’s forget that they are the player’s sole window on the world. In ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 206k
85 votes
Accepted

Our GM won't let us affect the story; the more I play the less fun I have. What do I do?

Talk to him, preferably as a group This is really the only solution besides "Bail on the game." They key here is to be respectful, polite, and try to handle this like friends. "Confront" is not the ...
guildsbounty's user avatar
  • 64.7k
80 votes
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As DM, how do I deal with PCs that expect everything in the game to be relevant to the story?

Your players are new to the game (and new to your game). Unless you've told them what to expect, how could they know what your game is like? Getting stuck investigating small details or trying to get ...
kviiri's user avatar
  • 53.8k
79 votes

As a player, I am approaching a situation where "My Guy" syndrome seems inevitable and almost appropriate. What can I do to soften any problems?

Roleplaying and roleplaying conflict are not My Guy Syndrome "My Guy" syndrome is often misused as a term. It's when following your idea of your character's persona creates insurmountable ...
mxyzplk's user avatar
  • 175k
77 votes

How to deal with a player who is a bad sport?

I'd encourage you to read the Five Geek Social Fallacies essay (honestly it should be mandatory reading for all RPGers). It discusses five beliefs that cause geeks a lot of grief: Ostracisers Are ...
GB supports the mod strike's user avatar
76 votes

Player Characters all picking on one other PC

Tell them to stop The characters are not picking on Bob’s character: the players are picking on Bob. That’s called “bullying” and it’s not acceptable in any social setting. Blaming bad player ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 206k
72 votes
Accepted

Can a D&D campaign be successfully used as a Sunday school teaching instrument?

I'm trained in conducting faith-based lessons for children focused on morality and virtues, in facilitating spiritual empowerment programs for junior youth, and in tutoring youth engaged in service-...
BESW's user avatar
  • 53.2k
72 votes
Accepted

Can a DM tell a player if/when they act or roleplay in a manner that isn't their alignment?

Don't tell him how to roleplay Doing so would be a vast overstep in a social circle, as it would be telling someone how to play the game (taking control over the one thing they should have total ...
Delioth's user avatar
  • 3,309
66 votes
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My DM asked me to stop roleplaying hostility toward another PC, but it fits my character

You may be encountering My Guy Syndrome. There is a fine line between role playing in depth and falling into "My Guy Syndrome" where the cooperative fun at the table between players is influenced in ...
KorvinStarmast's user avatar
65 votes
Accepted

Does a PC know the general strengths and weaknesses of their stats?

Honestly, it depends. If we're talking vague things like "he is/isn't charismatic", it would depend on his personality. For example, Johnny Bravo thinks he has high Charisma. He doesn't, but he was ...
Sora Tamashii's user avatar
63 votes
Accepted

Handling a character who frequently pickpockets teammates

Metagame First, have a metagaming session between the dwarf player and the rest of the players. Within that session, determine whether his desire to be sneaky and steal from his friends is upsetting ...
CaM's user avatar
  • 5,086
63 votes
Accepted

Players get frustrated when they can't solve a hard diplomatic problem. How can I get them to think out of the box?

A: There are options for framing the person, bribing people, seeking dirt on this person to find their weakness, tarnishing their reputation, trying to prove their wrong doing by seeking out evidence, ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 206k
60 votes
Accepted

Can a Ranger refuse to hate their favored enemy?

If that's the way they want to roleplay their character than why not let them? Why does it matter to you (or anyone else) if they don't "hate" their Favoured Enemy? The PHB says: you have ...
Purple Monkey's user avatar
60 votes
Accepted

Roleplay pacing in non-combat situations

Put a real-life time limit on the discussions. Waiting to get in at the gate? Great, the party is Xth in line. Every few minutes, do something to indicate that the line has moved up, it's important ...
RevanantBacon's user avatar
59 votes
Accepted

How do I handle players attempting to intimidate enemies with non-enchantment spells?

Treat it as a contest The players are effectively trying to use a level 0 cantrip to produce the same result as a higher level crowd control spell like Fear or Mass Suggestion. Obviously, this is ...
Rykara's user avatar
  • 29.4k
59 votes
Accepted

Should my "average" PC be able to discern the potential of encountering a gelatinous cube from subtle clues?

It depends on what you find to be fun The Alexandrian has an interesting article on Meta-Knowledge and Meta-Skill, in the context of determining whether your fresh faced level 1 adventurer knows that ...
Kyyshak's user avatar
  • 2,911
58 votes

As DM, how do I deal with PCs that expect everything in the game to be relevant to the story?

Players The players are new and possibly overwhelmed by having too many options. Thankfully, this is easily solved by talking to them and reiterating that the game you play is more open world. Make ...
Sardathrion - against SE abuse's user avatar
58 votes
Accepted

DM is asking me to drop my character because it is from A Song of Ice and Fire

Ultimately, the only option anyone has is to play or not play. No one can force anyone to do anything. Your DM can’t force you to play some not-Theon-inspired character, and you can’t force your DM to ...
KRyan's user avatar
  • 345k
56 votes
Accepted

How should I play my character (who is motivated to betray the party) and keep the game fun?

The Hidden Third Option: Don't Play This Character Based on information in the main text of the post, as well as answers to questions in the comments, this character: Has never been played at all, ...
Novak's user avatar
  • 42.3k

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