Café de Nuit

More specificaly, what is the most irritating thing PCs(or DMs) have ever done or tried to do? My current group of PCs wouldn't play unless I let them make non-standard charactors. Know what they chose? A half-dragon, a natural werewolf, and an elf-dwarf crossbreed he made me invent! I thought I could at least convince the werewolf player to reconsider, telling him it was foolish because he would be continually infecting enimies he fought. But he would have none of it. And they all were shocked when they were not greeted with open arms in Mordentshire.

Hrtofdrkns wrote:More specificaly, what is the most irritating thing PCs(or DMs) have ever done or tried to do? My current group of PCs wouldn't play unless I let them make non-standard charactors. Know what they chose? A half-dragon, a natural werewolf, and an elf-dwarf crossbreed he made me invent! I thought I could at least convince the werewolf player to reconsider, telling him it was foolish because he would be continually infecting enimies he fought. But he would have none of it. And they all were shocked when they were not greeted with open arms in Mordentshire.

Well, the elf-dwarf thing I'd have forced them to make on their own.

I was lucky, none of my players did stuff like that.

A half-dragon, a natural werewolf, and an elf-dwarf crossbreed

I think even in a moderate-magic setting as the World of Greyhawk, villagers would run away screaming for their lives if a half-dragon approaches them...

Not to mention the... dwelf!

Muchkins get under my skin, but they do with most people unless they are running munchkins, in which case they are having a ball.

Other than that, it is rules lawyers, DM's who think they know better when you are DM'ing them and you do thing differently, etc. It's the little things that get to me.

Of course, I do allow some non-standard characters in my games, so that doesn't bother me.

Another thing that bothers me are players would try to hide their dice rolls when generating new characters (especially in midsession), to this end I began drawing up a range of pre-rolled characters that players could select at random, ranging from the mediocre to superhuman in ability. I then went a little further and began adding a few skills I felt players neglected or even some feats. The ystill got to design most of the character them self, but I had rolled up the ability scores, to stop cheating.

As the DM, you always have the power to say, "No."

The best time to say no, by the way, is at the very beginning of the campaign. Right up front. If you say no in the middle, or after you begin, the more likely you are to get bulldozed by your players.

I usually give my players are narrow field in which to play with when I first set up a campaign. I explain what the campaign is going to be about, what kinds of characters they can make, and so on.

Usually, I get some whining but it fades pretty quickly once we get rolling. People would rather jsut play than whine.

By the way, about the ability scores...I use the point-buy system in the DMG. It's the most fair method, and it prevents cheating. Even some of my best players are tempted to cheat at their ability score rolls because they are so important.

My biggest Erk came from one of my former players who had a bad habbit of character cloning.

1st character- Dark brooding knight type
2nd character- Dark brooding rastlin type wizard
3rd character - Dark brooding assassinate anything that moves thief
4th character - Dark brooding knight type with tatoos and a gladiator theme.

Other then a slight deviation in stats and class he played them exactly the same right down using the same voice.

And as much as I tried I could not get him to understand that just because you are dessed in black leather and have a big sword at first level dosn't mean you can slap around 10th level fighter and not get your arse kicked.

Yeah it always grates me that so many players only want to play non-standard races. It just seems so silly as higher power creatures get shafted with fewer feats and skills. Humans are probably the best race in third edition given the most variability and power. Just because you can play a half-dragon in 3E doesn't mean it's a good idea.

It sounds like your players just aren't suited for Ravenloft. So what are you making them play there? They want epic adventures with munchikin style play. So dump em in the Realms for abit and let them have fun. Compromise with them and down the line get them to try something new and play what you want.
Munchkin-ism can be a heck of alot of fun if that's the type of game you're ready for and all the players want to do that.

And some people only like the one type of character. I like me rangers and smart alec bastards and play them alot. I don't only play them but doe fall into that role alot. Some people just can't role-play well.

Rucht Lilavivat wrote:As the DM, you always have the power to say, "No."

Trust me, I know how to put them in their place, and sometimes a good solid and very book helps lay weight to my argument

Wiccy of the Fraternity wrote:

Rucht Lilavivat wrote:As the DM, you always have the power to say, "No."

Trust me, I know how to put them in their place, and sometimes a good solid and very book helps lay weight to my argument

"Oh, I remember little Timmy... "Baby and Child Care" by Dr Spock always helped a great deal... I'd belt him over the head with it."

Jester wrote:Yeah it always grates me that so many players only want to play non-standard races. It just seems so silly as higher power creatures get shafted with fewer feats and skills. Humans are probably the best race in third edition given the most variability and power. Just because you can play a half-dragon in 3E doesn't mean it's a good idea.

First of all, hello again everybody! I haven't been by in a few months, but I'll try and come around a bit more now.

This is only a (possibly totally wrong) observation, but the people who usually only want to play the strange races don't seem to be good roleplayers, at least not in my experience. They tend to think that if you play one of the standard "boring" races, then the character isn't interesting. They fail to realize that the character's absurd race or template isn't what makes them interesting, it's the personality development, which can come just as easily, often more easily, with a human, elf, or halfling than with a half-ogre/half-iron golem vampire or some such ridiculous concoction.

That isn't to say people who want to play some weird race are always compensating for bad roleplaying, just that it seems to be a tendency among many inexperienced roleplayers to think they have to play some odd one-of-a-kind character in order to be interesting.


Anyway, on the original topic, the thing that bugs me is players who get cocky when their high-level PCs mop the floor with everything they run across, and then when they finally run into something too powerful for them, they nearly get killed (or do get killed) and then proceed to get mad at the DM.

I think even in a moderate-magic setting as the World of Greyhawk, villagers would run away screaming for their lives if a half-dragon approaches them...

But he told me that he looks exactly like a normal human. Who has claws. And razor sharp teeth. And breaths fire.

Dwelf.... Haha. Thats what I'll call it.

And Mr. Good werewolf is in for a shock when the gang of thieves he bit and let go come back around the time of the full moon....

Hrtofdrkns wrote:And Mr. Good werewolf is in for a shock when the gang of thieves he bit and let go come back around the time of the full moon....

Better yet, drop him in Verbrek and see how Alfie and his pack decide to deal with a race traitor...

Hrtofdrkns wrote:

I think even in a moderate-magic setting as the World of Greyhawk, villagers would run away screaming for their lives if a half-dragon approaches them...

But he told me that he looks exactly like a normal human. Who has claws. And razor sharp teeth. And breaths fire.

From the SRD:
"Half-dragon creatures are always more formidable than others of their kind that do not have dragon blood, and their appearance betrays their nature—scales, elongated features, reptilian eyes, and exaggerated teeth and claws. Sometimes they have wings."
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_ ... _PG147.jpg

Of course, a hat of disguise is a relatively cheap solution, assuming he's from off-world.

Dwelf is a fun word to say. DwelfDwelfDwelfDwelfDwelf.

Seriously though, before I started my RL campaign, I wrote a couple paragraphs about my vision of Ravenloft, pointing out that it's a world much like our own where if there are non-humans, they live in hiding for the most part. Like the X-files, there are a few humans who know "the truth" that we are not alone, but in some places even an elf is seen as an unnatural demon. And even the most horrendous monsters find a way to pass for human, lest the pitchfork and torch crowd come after them. The players "got it" and had no trouble playing all humans (and a 1/2 vistani).

3.0 made playing monsters easy and fun, so it's not so surprising when people want to take these nifty new rules out for a spin. But why force them into Ravenloft? If my players were dead set on playing Dwelves and Gnoflings, I'd play a standard D&D world.

Heh, player created hybrids can be rather troublesome, though I've a friend who still tells the tale of the player who created a dworc. So dumb he'd lose a battle of wits with a dead rat, yet strong enough that when he was arrested after a night of hard drinking, the next morning he just bent the bars open, then and grabbed an ale, then came back to his cell and bent them back.

Anyway, as for what sets a red haze over my vision and thoughts of dismemberments dancing in my head, I have to say it's those who consisantly use RPGs to act in such a way that, if they did so in real life, would result in numerous punched noses. Last gaming club I was in, the president, who although a fairly decent guy most of the time, when playing would always do his best to disrupt things, no matter what the sitution was. My monk is trying to quietly gather info in the seediest bar in town, so he decides to just start slinging sleep spells at random people. I tell him to cut it out, so he tries to shrink me. DM warns him to tone it down, he threatens to have him tossed out of the club (An empty threat, but still rather infantile). It was not a fun session.

I have to play with them. Their the only people I could find who were interested. And yes, they do think that they could beat Strahd and Azalin at the same time(they read some of the core books) at first level. In short, the most arogant power-gamers(I hope that's the right expression) in the wold.

Mabey I should have them in a high magic setting. I don't even like madness checks. But I do like powers checks and the nature of the demiplane as a whole. I love the concept of daklords. I don't want it to be a forgotten realms "monster/template combination of the week" game with no focus or goal but kill the monster and take its gold.