Roleplaying Bad Habits

[Karak]

What bad habits do you or your players have that just infuriate you?

This came up this last weekend when I caught myself comparing things with the words. "it's like". I must have done it 30 times. I was annoying even to myself.

Some of the other bad habits:

I have a player who eats constantly. He weighs 120 pounds and eats everything in sight. Every hour is also an entire meal. We have had to actually decide on a schedule for eating so that this doesn't stop game flow.

I catch myself thinking about other things sometimes. Video games and so forth and have to pull myself into the game.

I have a rules lawyer who I have pretty much disbarred But every once in awhile he will get into an encounter and when it comes to his turn he will start saying:

"If this happens I do this."
"If this other thing happens I do this"
"If another thing happens I do this"
Basically he tries to preload the encounter with every possible idea as if he has 6th sense.

[Lint of Death]

1. Ugh... my group has a serious problem with cell phones. I want to punch everyone. Example from this weekend, a session I was running: I was building up to the end of the session with a climactic, everything-changes sort of event. Basically the archtypical disaster/betrayal where a videogame jams you onto the grill of the bus from Tutorial Town to Serious City.

Just as I'm trying to start this sequence, BZZT BZZZT beep beep BZZZZZZZZZT. All three players' cell phones start going off with text messages. One apologizes sincerely and puts it away (you rule, new guy), the other two start typing away to respond. This happens a couple times within the span of one or two minutes, and I again insist "PLEASE, turn off your phones."
One of them agrees to silence his (yay). The other says he can't turn his off in case someone important needs to reach him. I insist again, "please, then at least put it on silent or vibrate, and put it away." Maybe 5 minutes later (or less), the same guy's flipped his phone out and is panning it slowly around the room.

"What the hell are you doing" several of us say. His response? "I'm looking at you through my phone." And then he actually tried to defend this as if this wasn't a problem.

I am by no means a violent person, but, doesn't just reading that make you want to clock him?

2. One of the others - the one who got us into the weekly thing in the first place, who these days tends to cancel near-to last minute (or several hours after last minute) because he doesn't want to get out of bed to meet us at noon (or even 3PM...) - distracts everyone with entirely unrelated conversations the moment the DM at the time pauses to record initiative or gather figurines. He doesn't do this when he runs the game, and has strict rules about no laptops/cell phones, and then breaks all of it whenever he doesn't run things.

2.5 If he's not running the game, because he's the 'experienced one' who has played for years, he starts throwing it around telling whoever the DM might be how to rule certain things. It's not even rules lawyering, and he even does it with me, even though his campaign and the others are 3.5 and mine is 4e. Example: He rolled the same initiative (with the same modifier) as one of my NPCs for a combat; I told him that, given the circumstances, he could act first, but he insisted on doing an opposed d20 roll for that privelege. Hell, even if the NPC had won that opposed roll, I was going to delay its turn anyway.

[/RANT RANT RANT RANT]

[Panthera]

Oh, man. I'm always trying to break bad habits for both myself and a couple of my players.

I've got one guy in the game who we call 'the computer'. He'll work out the most ideal way to approach a situation and the safest, perfect tactics every round, and he'll usually be right. The reason this sucks is that the other players feel like they can't make any decisions, and I've been working harder to subtly remind him that this isn't Baldur's Gate and the other players aren't under his control.

My worst habit as a game master is in playing out encounters that should be just summarized. I've wasted way too much time in the banalities of, say, a visit to an elven market. I've gotten better, but it takes practice.

[Lint of Death]

My worst habit as a DM is probably forgetting to review. I excel at improv and am usually good at remembering the things I make up and figuring out tactics/enemy force composition on the spot, but I also plan quite a bit. Even though I've hosted maybe 6 or 7 sessions, I actually only 'prepared' for 2 or 3 and then just ended up with so much extra content that it lasts forever. Compound this with the number of weekends where we don't meet because we can't agree on a time - or we can but everyone else cancels last-minute - and there can be as much as a month or so between when I planned an encounter and when it is actually run. The end result is that I forget to review the totally sweet enemy I built and it ends up being an easy fight because I didn't remember my strategy as well as I thought I did, or I second-guess my original plans (another bad habit).

[Ink Asylum]

I have a few bad habits as a GM. I'm pretty good at recalling what we did the last few sessions but I have to get into the habit of writing a quick recap after we finish playing for the night. This would definitely help make sure nothing is forgotten as sometimes we go over a month between sessions.

[Karak]

My worst habit. Is surprising my players too much. I flesh out everything even the past of local shopkeepers. So sometimes the guys meet a bad guy and are like "WE ARE SCREWED".
The complaint I get about once every two months is that, they can never...be sure...what they are facing.
Normally that would be a kudo, but sometimes you want your feet under you.
So I gave them a normal bad guy, totally diehard type bad guy.
It took them forever to figure out he would be easily defeated. It was a blast.

Funny enough despite all the surprises we barely ever have player death.

[Shrinn]

Ink, I find the best way to handle that is to get into the habit of having your players recap last session before you start. That way, between them all, you get the overview of what happened and what parts stuck out in their mind.

When I'm roleplaying a character, I always forget to change my voice to the one I decided was my character's voice. It doesn't help that I'm terrible at voice overs.

As a DM, I always work out some neat personalities for my villains, but then I don't use them at all during the heat of combat. Encounters take so long because we have so many people that I get caught up in moving the action along to try to get to the story because that's what people seem to enjoy most, forgetting that part of the bad guy's personality is part of the story!

I also have trouble keeping a handle on my players, we kind of have a system where you can goof off (text, homework) during combat as long as you don't miss your initiative, but sometimes it just seems that no one wants to focus.

My worst habit is just typing up the encounters/story for the night last minute so everything becomes rushed and disorganized. Then I'm squeezing for space and trying to remember which monster blocks go with which encounter and it slows everything down.

Based off my encounters with you in TF2, Lint, I'd love to play in a game you DM.

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by Shrinn

Based off my encounters with you in TF2, Lint, I'd love to play in a game you DM.

It's quite an experience.

[Lint of Death]

Originally Posted by TheKeck

It's quite an experience.

You don't even get to hear all of my silly character voices. Hamrick Dragonchewer is a fun one

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by Panthera

My worst habit as a game master is in playing out encounters that should be just summarized. I've wasted way too much time in the banalities of, say, a visit to an elven market. I've gotten better, but it takes practice.

As a first time DM, I'm really struggling with this as well. Although, some fun and interesting things have come out of it, so it's a bit of a balancing act no matter what, I'm sure.

I just sometimes worry I'm boring my players.

(Feel free to chime in on this, players. )

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by Lint of Death

You don't even get to hear all of my silly character voices. Hamrick Dragonchewer is a fun one

I am now crying. Thanks.

[Ink Asylum]

Perhaps the most frustrating part of my current game is that one player, although a great RPer, has taken their character in a direction where they aren't that useful in a fight.

Briefly, I use modified rules from White Wolf's Mage to run a campaign set in the universe of the Dresden Files. Magic is a lot more powerful since there's no paradox and encounters typically involve a lot of fancy spells and other feats of power.

We've been playing for a couple years, every month or so, and I'm a very generous GM. I give my players 3-5 XP depending on how long we play, but I also give them 10 or more "Free days" between stories which they can spend making rolls to add to their character's arsenal. They can make magical items, build up contacts and other backgrounds, etc, all without spending XP. They have to spend XP to increase stats, abilities, and magic levels, but otherwise I'm giving them the opportunity to become real badasses.

Three of my players go all out with this. They've enchanted their jackets/coats to resist all sorts of damage, made shield rings/pendants, and other useful devices. One character has souped up his classic car with some really fun enchantments that make it a beast on the road. Another makes an assortment of bats that are good for dealing with supernatural creatures.

One player, though, seems resistant to really powering up his character. Part of this is RP-based. His character is resentful of his parents, who are members of the big wizard council. He doesn't feel like part of the magical community and generally only engages in magical activities to help his friends or the city they live in. So while it makes sense that his character would spend his initial starting points on a more diverse spread of talents and magical schools, and spend his free time meeting new people and other similar activities, it means that his teammates have essentially "outleveled" him to the point where they can often stand toe-to-toe with 12 foor minotaurs or crazed warlocks while he deals a little damage around the edges and I subtly go easy on him, sending the big foes after the characters that can handle them.

Am I a bad GM for trying to subtly and sometimes explicitly nudge him towards spending more time and resources powering up his character? I see a lot of potential for him to become a spider-man type attacker, using the magical talents he has to buff up his agility and strength so that he can hit fast and disorient opponents. He's done a bit of that, but still often lags behind in heavy encounters.

Advice?

[Superman's Dead]

Lint is awesome. Also, ABSOLUTELY NUTS.

I've been roleplaying over the internet for years and years. My biggest beef is people who will write paragraphs about what their character is thinking. Which is cool, you should TOTALLY know what your character is thinking. But they end up having so much internal dialogue and staying stock still, so the other characters have no way of even knowing that the person was doing anything other than being in a coma.

Thoughts lead to expression, and the expression is what makes playing opposite a good writer so awesome.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Am I a bad GM for trying to subtly and sometimes explicitly nudge him towards spending more time and resources powering up his character? I see a lot of potential for him to become a spider-man type attacker, using the magical talents he has to buff up his agility and strength so that he can hit fast and disorient opponents. He's done a bit of that, but still often lags behind in heavy encounters.

Advice?

No and yes.
Your idea of what he may be, may not be what he wants.
Get with him and talk to him about his 3 goals.

We have the 3 goals rule in our game.
I personally think it is the most underused and yet most powerful rule set or idea ever.

2 short term goals(either easy to do in a single game, or short timed goals)
1 long term goal(weeks/months of game-time out, or something they want that costs maybe 40% of their resources)

As they make their goals, succeed, fail, go towards them and fight for them, you can get an idea more and more of what they are headed to.

I am surprised people all don't use the 3 goal system as it seems so easy to not only roleplay(As in it gives you ideas if your game is slowed down) and it allows people to check stuff off that they have done, just like real life.

6 months later you have that moment, where the player looks at all their goals and says...this piece of paper is a person. With the goals, successes and failures that a normal person has.
Examples of Short Team Goals:
Practice with my weapon
Follow up on NPC lead
Create a Tattoo design for a character
Decide if my current weapons fit with the way I play(in game thought of course)
Enjoy some entertainment(Defrag the mental hard drive- in game)

Long Term goals
Learn how to shoot from the hip(not just go buy the skill but roleplay that you want to learn, that you seek poeple who know how to do it, that you practice in game in the mirror)

Return to the NPC who gave me the good deal last time on a weapon, thank him again and return for goods

Get the tattoo inked that I have designed

Mod my current weapon by painting it, adding mods, removing extra parts, seeking the same manufacturer for another.

Decide on a best place for entertainment and become a regular there. Become known there, and begin to cultivate contacts.

All short goals do NOT need to lead to long goals like that.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

I have a few bad habits as a GM. I'm pretty good at recalling what we did the last few sessions but I have to get into the habit of writing a quick recap after we finish playing for the night. This would definitely help make sure nothing is forgotten as sometimes we go over a month between sessions.

If one of the characters is a writer, or has some kind of scholarly study ask the player to write a fake diary about the progress. And use his notes.
It can sometimes let you see from their side of things and also allows a player to stretch his legs a bit.

I have one player who writes an "EMAIL" home.
But the email is to all the players.
And he pretends like he is talking to his crippled brother(also a plot device as he wants revenge against the guy who did it)
The email is written from the players standpoint to a brother. So awesome.

[Ink Asylum]

Thanks Karak. Good advice.

I've had a talk like that on a couple occasions, though not to the point of writing down plans. It's the long term goal that I think may be the biggest problem in the long run. He has a basic idea of one, but as a goal it doesn't really make him very powerful in a gameplay sense.

My game isn't full of munchkins, but the campaign does lean towards big conflicts that demand feats of impressive physical or mental abilities. His character, while serving as a great fit for the progression of the plot, becomes less useful when shit goes down.

What I worry about most is the rest of the team getting so powerful that he's reduced to a supporting character.

EDIT: That diary idea is pretty slick. I've been encouraging between-scenes blue-booking with my characters, to give them some extra XP and advance solo story lines, but again two characters have taken advantage while two have not.

[LongStepMantis]

Man, makes me glad to have played most of my PnP days before cell phones.

Our DM was a devious bastard though. I'm 100% certain his response to the kind of things mentioned (like abusing cell phones) would have been handled by a warning, and then he would just kill your character off. Probably throwing in a line like "There, now you can got talk on your phone all day in the other room." He was a dick, but he ran games extremely well.

[Nameless]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

My game isn't full of munchkins, but the campaign does lean towards big conflicts that demand feats of impressive physical or mental abilities. His character, while serving as a great fit for the progression of the plot, becomes less useful when shit goes down.

What I worry about most is the rest of the team getting so powerful that he's reduced to a supporting character.

In that case, you should talk to him about this out of game. Tell him that it'd probably be a good idea to invest into some combat niche, or, if he does like making all these contacts, maybe he can make a strong connection with a powerful character that can fight alongside him, essentially giving him a combat follower (kind of how Michael helps Dresden in combat in the novels).

In general, I find the best strategy is to find something the character is good at and let him excel once a session or so, but sometimes when a character is particularly crippled relative the rest of the party, you've got to intervene, whether indirectly (talk to him out-of-game) or directly (he finds an ancestral sword of power that only he can use to full effect).

Either way, good luck. Nothing can kill a game like balance issues, I hope you find a way to work it out.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Thanks Karak. Good advice.

I've had a talk like that on a couple occasions, though not to the point of writing down plans. It's the long term goal that I think may be the biggest problem in the long run. He has a basic idea of one, but as a goal it doesn't really make him very powerful in a gameplay sense.

My game isn't full of munchkins, but the campaign does lean towards big conflicts that demand feats of impressive physical or mental abilities. His character, while serving as a great fit for the progression of the plot, becomes less useful when shit goes down.

What I worry about most is the rest of the team getting so powerful that he's reduced to a supporting character.

EDIT: That diary idea is pretty slick. I've been encouraging between-scenes blue-booking with my characters, to give them some extra XP and advance solo story lines, but again two characters have taken advantage while two have not.

Well sometimes power is knowledge. I am not understanding much about his character but a person who say does not want to embrace magic still needs to know how to defend it. Perhaps he is a knowledge base of old ancient ways to defend yourself but not actually use much magic yourself.

His longterm goal(and not actually known by the characters sometimes) would be to slowly embrace magic through aa arc of knowledge of old traditions.
Or his goal is to (slowly show others-players- that magic is not the only way to get out of things). I see him tapping his temple each time he gets out of a scrape as if to say, "Magic sometimes, brains all the time"

Short term goals could be to study ancient ways peasents defended against magic that somehow worked and employ them.

You as the DM must simply remember that power doesn't always come from throwing a fireball but when to. So perhaps he becomes the impetus for when actions occur. The guy yelling "now" at just the right time.

Remember the golden rule. Rules can be broken, the world can be broken.
Who doesn't remember the awesome foe you faced in a game or dnd that wasn't impacted by a spell or a normal weapon? Make your player be that person.

Imagine the enemy magic user casting a spell on him and watching him frown when your character is barely impacted. His very refusal to embrace magic is...magic.

Ah I am just rambling but its doable if I knew more.

Oh and try the diary. Works amazing.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

What I worry about most is the rest of the team getting so powerful that he's reduced to a supporting character.

EDIT: That diary idea is pretty slick. I've been encouraging between-scenes blue-booking with my characters, to give them some extra XP and advance solo story lines, but again two characters have taken advantage while two have not.

Ok one more thing...that I don't even really want to write but...

You could also make him regret a lack of action.
Up-play the damage another player took due to him not acting, or a civilian, talk about the funeral, the glances of suspicion his way, perhaps another NPC slaps him because he could have saved a friend. They spit at him, they treat him poorly, they shame him(all with a light hand on this)

Its a...heavy way to do it. But sometimes, the player will see this and use it as a goal.

I am telling you though, always use the 3 goal system or something like it. It develops a life of its own that is almost magical in and of itself.

EDIT:

If two characters are taking advantage and two are not that is 50%. So I would say something is wrong and that the 2 not doing it need to have another project to encourage communication.
Ask them why.
Set up goals for them. If they are people who do NOT want to do stuff outside the game, fine. That happens.