Yeah, this is super annoying. I want to try out roleplaying and get into character and all that, but in some tables you have people like the following:
- The involved roleplayer who, despite their intent otherwise, takes control of the narrative. They try to involve you, but it always feels like you’re a side character in their story.
- The funny guy, who tries to crack jokes and make the whole game feel light-hearted and silly. I get we’re all here for fun, but sometimes I’d like a bit of meat to bite into.
- The GM’s friend, who derails the game into taking about that cool dog that they had when they flat shared last year. No seriously, it’s a cool dog. Let me find a picture on my phone.
- That guy whose character is a reference to that show you don’t watch. They keep making references to it, and a few other people get it, but you have to awkwardly nod your head.
… Wow, sorry, kind of went on a rant there. I guess I have a bit of frustration at going to play a game, and most of the session being taken up by not playing said game.
Meanwhile I just want to hit things with my greataxe. I don’t care about RP or rules so much. Just let me hit things with my orc barbarian please.
Ah, I see my husband has made a Lemmy account.
For real though, he is not there for the story or the rp, he’s there to rage out and fight. Meanwhile I’m doing shitty voices and putting on a full Oscar worthy performance.
There are such broad dynamics between what players want, and I fucking love how flexible D&D is for that.
You know what women in Italy in the renaissance did to their husbands who displeased them? Used aqua tofana to solve that problem.
Players get mad ate when I say this because we’re ‘playing an rpg not a number simulator’
Reading your list makes me better understand why I get kicked out of groups… I never realized that being the jokester actively harmed people’s ability to enjoy the game. Thank you for that.
It harms THAT SPECIFIC PERSON’S ability to enjoy the game. Your group probably enjoys you if you guys play together regularly.
Yeah it’s a “read the room” kind of thing.
There’s a group that would be annoyed by immersion-breaking 4th wall jokes, and there’s another group that would be relieved by the tension and pressure to perform being broken. Everyone’s going to have slightly different comfort levels so there’s always some compromise on the tone of a campaign.
To be clear, it’s fine to be light hearted and jokey, perhaps most of the time depending on the group.
Knowing when to turn on and off Serious Mode is a skill that can be hard to develop, and IMO it’s perhaps the GMs job to gently say when they want things to be serious.
I guess for me in my last campaign, it was less that I was trying to be a jokester and more that actions which seemed somewhat reasonable to me and high-risk/high-reward were not welcomed by the rest of the group and I didn’t realize how serious people were going to be. We were playing in the world of Firefly and I tried hailing an approaching ship to see what they wanted and if I could negotiate.
The fact that the DM was shocked should have been a hint that I was doing the wrong thing, but at the time I thought that I found a plot hole and was doing such a good job that the DM was blown away. I was wrong and my character has incapacitated by another member of the crew, which continued until I realized that I probably wasn’t welcome to continue campaigning with the group. When I realized this, I genuinely felt really bad that I’d probably upset the group, but it wasn’t until now that I realized how seriously people take this.
I’ve never before played with the specific intent of keeping my character alive, but I think that was more of a videogame mentality. Other folks in the group aren’t exactly excited that I’m putting their characters lives on the line because people obviously invest real time and care into this. My realization was less that I joke too much and more that I don’t take things seriously enough.
This is where setting rules or just finding a group who agree on the tone of a game is important. However, even in that some people will have things they do want to role play like shopping. Well be a good role player and make it interesting for them or even turn that shopping into something more. Ask the shopkeep if there’s anything he’s wanted that’s super rare (relic hunt quest), or straight up leave the store. It’s role playing go to a different part of town, you don’t spend 100% of your time irl with anyone why do that in a game? Cause havoc, or don’t, jump into the sewer, fascinate the locals by setting off fireworks or do spells, go to a bar get drunk and do role play karaoke while the guy shops. Have fun, it’s your role play too
I’m so thankful that we have none of these people in my group. We’re all about the same, with similar interests, and similar play styles. The only drawback is that we all lean towards resolving situations diplomatically, which means our adventures can lack combat for quite a while, unless we’re in a straight-up dungeon. Eventually someone will get bored and go with “I stab him in the fucking face!” Which ends our diplomacy for a while.
Sounds remarkably similar to my group, but in our latest session it was a kpop video, not a dog
I long for a normal Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a nerdy elf wizard and a sneaky halfling rogue and a chivalrous human knight and a devout dwarven cleric being an adventuring party instead of a loose collection of ideas and concepts with no depth or cohesion. I want to be able to ask someone why they’re with the party and get an in-character answer instead of the player saying they need to be for the story to happen. I want the possibility of a TPK because the DM understands the characters and give us appropriate challenges, I don’t want any semblance of a challenge disappearing because the DM feels bad about dealing damage to his girlfriend’s character
I once joined a random pick up game online. Had a session zero, vibe seem alright.
On the day we actually go to play it turns out the DM invited a bunch more people and the group was going to be 8 people. Two of these people show up late, don’t even have character sheets ready. Game was advertised as queer friendly, one of them I think makes their character a transphobic joke but the guy was so awkward it was hard to make out what he was doing. Vibe is now fucked. One person quits the group on the spot.
I spend like three hours of the least inspired, boring D&D of my life. There is no hint that’s it’s wrapping up anytime soon. All we’ve done is spin our wheels trying to grab on to the quest hook, being strung along to talk to the next random generic NPC to inch us closer to actually starting the adventure and had a single combat encounter with one creature where I’m not sure anyone even took any damage.
I have to stress, I think the DM was a nice guy even if he kind of sucked at it. I liked the original group of people.
But I break when he guides us to start shopping. We haven’t even started the adventure and it’s about to turn into a shopping episode. I panic, I have to leave this fucking moment because I can’t take it anymore. I’m desperate for an excuse to leave that wont hurt the DM’s self-esteem and ruin the game for anyone who was having fun. The best thing I can come up with?
I disconnect mid sentence and act as if the internet dropped out like a bad sit-com phone gag. This wasn’t even well acted, my brain died when I went to disconnect and I just trailed off awkwardly. It’s still so painfully embarrassing to remember. Yet I maintain it was worth it.
I was in a group that were all “officers of the watch”. Some idea was proposed that my character would have no reason to go along with, but rather than stop the group engaging in something fun, I say so, and follow up with “my character probably has some paperwork they need to catch up on anyway.”
Our chaotic player, who has the attention span of a slightly concussed goldfish goes “wait, we have to do paperwork?” and our GM, the goddamned sadist, gets that evil gleam in his eye.
Long story short, that session we role-played the sheer amount of paperwork our last session of kicking in the door and stopping a cultist ritual (by force in some cases) would have generated.
I admire that GM, but I was almost screaming in frustration by the end.
Why the fuck would anyone who wants their players to have fun make them do paperwork in a game? I’d have quit on the spot or told them to shove it.
There’s already enough paperwork on character sheets, putting it in game canonically unless it’s some gag comedy thing sounds like the fastest way to be the GM without players.
If you’re gonna do RP shopping, you gotta establish before the session that’s gonna be what’s happening so everyone can come up with ways to interact with the scenario.
You also absolutely have to (looking at you in particular, 5e) establish availabilities and exact prices beforehand. The back and forth of “how much does X cost -> I can’t afford that” is the biggest waste of time when shopping.
You also absolutely have to (looking at you in particular, 5e) establish availabilities and exact prices beforehand.
PF2E’s built in tables ftw!
Genuinely love to break up a combat/dungeon-crawl heavy game with some light-hearted day-in-the-life-of gameplay once in a while. Having the DM describe the lazy cat stretched across the alchemist’s countertop, while some mischievious pickpocket tries to nick the rogue’s enchanted dagger and the knight errant helps an elderly woman cross the street can add a lot of color to a very number-crunchy game. Picking through a flea market of random niche nebulously useful magic items, while a merchant drops hints about the next sidequest, gives you a real adventurer’s vibe.
Genuinely hate having long, drawn out arguments over whether the shopkeep would have the principle material component for my most import spells or basic equipment (there’s no bat guano, one swayback horse, and only sixteen arrows in a fantasy city of 50,000 people? god damn, dude). Or digging through spreadsheets to figure out how many javelins the local economy can absorb. Or bickering over whether the Charm Person spell gets us in fight with town guards. Genuinely do not want anyone consulting a series of random charts and tables to determine why we can’t get a full night’s rest in the town’s nicest inn.
Please just make this a fun story to enjoy and not a pedantic fight over the future prospective mathematical efficiency of my stat block in the next combat.
Or digging through spreadsheets to figure out how many javelins the local economy can absorb.
I actually love this kind of discussion but generally it sparks up because of some javelin-related scheme someone has.
“Wait… All of these hobgoblins have javelins!? This is a market opportunity!”
