@@Bear-bx7yo ROFL yeah. That guy would totally hide behind a relatively new named concept to include in DM advice, rather than just starting out thinking "how will I contribute to the party success". It used to be called "the campaign pitch ". You set your parameters for your players "imma run an eberron campaign where the party are a syndicate troubleshooting team, you in?" And then trusting the players to build accordingly or ask for more detail so they can work out what will fit. It's a team game, that guy! And the DM is part of the team! Build accordingly!
@@jezlawrence720 if that's the case then the concept of that guy would be relatively new. It's not. Do you know how many players couldn't care less about your setting when picking their character. I have players who literally play the same character no matter the setting or how they mesh with the party. You clearly don't have a lot of experience dming
DM: "I'm just doing what the authorities would do, faced with a powerful and chaotic murderer". Also DM: "Party, your lawful good characters should now 'just do what your characters would do', when faced with any other BBE".
That is partially true. For example: A monk who rolled a single ability score of 12 is certainly not powerful and technically interesting. But even if you play him like Wimp Lo from Kung Pow, the joke is getting old fast: "Looks like I failed this important ability check again. What can you dooo? Derpiderp!"
The two are not mutually exclusive. You can be both, you can be one or the other. It’s not about which is more important it’s about how you write them. It’s just that people don’t have much experience with writing powerful characters.
I had a gnome warlock in D&D some years back. Everyone I mentioned it to said, "Oh, great hexblade warlocks are a blast to play!" I said, "not a hexblade, fey-touched". Most gave me a confused look. Me, "I'm playing a character and hexblade seemed boring to me. I wanted to have this powerful patron I'm beholden to who, on a whim, interrupts whatever I might be doing asking an immediate favor. The GM and I can have a lot of fun with that in their pocket."
If "what my character would do" is disruptive, don't be afraid to have their asshattery get them killed. If they complain, tell them "maybe try not to make your next one a lunatic"
That first That Guy? My method is to smile and nod, then quietly tell one of the other players that their own backstory includes knowing that guy back at the pig herding farm, where he got kicked in the head last week by a particularly disagreeable sow, but the village elders asked you to humour him. Jocularity, jocularity.
I did that first "That guy" bit with a warforged once, and then in the end said that him and his partner fell at the bottom of a dungeon, and hundreds of years later was essentially factory reset while being brought back. So it can work. Though I wanted all that as an excuse to play Robot Santa from Futurama.
I am a cat person anyway, but after reading the Tabaxi background it occurred to me that the Tabaxi Rogue is a thing just because shiny things and puzzles, so that's the way I play Winter. The party members always get everything back, eventually. But now after every NPC encounter, the party's paladin just walks up to Winter and holds out his hand with a disappointed look on his face. Both of us are playing in character, and everyone always gets some comic relief out of it.
It's a lesson I learned more than 20 years ago. Heroes are defined by actions not by numbers. And monsters are defined not by fangs, tentacles, claws, horns or scaly hide, but because they do monstruous things. Get gnarly. Your game will be less of a dice romp and more a thrill ride.
As a former "That guy", your analysis about self worth is *spot on*. What broke me out of that was that I realized what a massive disservice I was doing not only to the other players, but myself. Cheating makes you tell worse stories. Some of the greatest triumphs occur out of overcoming adversity. You don't get to have a super crazy idea that gets out out of this perilous situation if you cheat so hard you never get into it. Now when making stealth checks and the like, I secretly hope for failure. I think the way to go about breaking this for a lot of people isn't just to look at as a "pass/fail" issue. But to take some initiative and narrate *how* you fail. Maybe you missed grabbing the idol on the altar by just the length of a hair. Maybe you rolled a crit fail and instead of going to grab the idol, you beef it and tumble so hard you knock the idol off. Looking at rolls as a pass/fail situation is the worst thing you can do. I prefer to look at it as a storytelling aid otherwise you're basically just writing fanfic.
The solution for the first guy is as simple as "after all that, you were cursed and forgot everything and lost all your stuff". So it is possible to be a godkiller at level 1 without it affecting the power curve.
I believe there is a line between suboptimal play because: "It's what my character would do" and being actively disruptive. Like, the party is going through a dungeon and running low on resources. No more rages, hit dice are running short and the cleric has the last 2 remaining spell slots. So the cleric, described as being "as compassionate as she is violent" uses one to heal a prisoner we freed.
The cure for stupid characters is suffering the consequences of their actions, especially making the rest of the group suffer. Our group was good about cutting the dead weight, usually by making it dead.
We bought a dice tower for one player in a game I played in (way back in the day before they were everywhere) because we were like "omg, sooooo many crits" - nope just a lucky SOB. He loved the tower, and STILL rolled a much-higher-than-average set of crits.
For sure, I've been saying for a thousand ages now, from the time I slew Time and thus gained control over it's flow, that "its what my character would do" is a double-edged blade. If it serves the group and enhances the enjoyment for everyone at the table, then it is being done right Else, if it hinders or disrupts the enjoyment for anyone/everyone, then it's certainly being done wrong. RPG'ing is a team effort.
Agreed on that third part.... Failure can lead to some fun conflicts to resolve.... (For example a plasmoid failing their stealth roll while stealing chickens to eat, leading to them being chased down by angry farmers as a "monster" and cornered in a house.... It ended with them faking their death and the other members of the party becoming minor heroes in the town for "Slaying" the "Monster" as well as "disposing" of the "Body"..... ) This entire mess may have been avoided if I was successful in my stealth check to steal a chicken, or if I was able to successfully shake the farmers as they chased me down.... But that would have been far less entertaining than trying to figure out how to survive the angry mob that had gathered around the house I was hiding in...
My ‘work around’ for when a situation arises that my character would ruin is to remind the other players and/or the GM “Wouldn’t at least one of the other characters realize what my character is likely to do?” as the situation develops. If they then allow it to happen in game then……
Excellent video. I have my methods for dealing with people with those issues. I run Castles & Crusades mostly, so between the rules as written & Aihrde setting, class/race combos are fairly limited verses 5E for example. I also tell my players, this is the world, these are the races, this is the sandbox you can play in. Please play within it.. Now I've flexed now and then, if someone can bring me a brilliant idea that mostly works within the setting? I'll cook up the stats for a race, or writeup for a specialty class. But having long ass backgrounds, and mary sue levels of perfection annoy me too, but also don't work in C&C. I had a player, who's half-orc assassin was the VERY BEST AT EVERY THING......... Level 1. She quickly realized combat in this game was deadly, and she nearly died within the first two rounds of the first fight. It was kind of funny her describing these epic, amazaball maneuvers she wanted to attempt, then rolls a 1. Oops? I also tell players, sure you can try anything you want, but that doesn't mean their won't be consequences. In this one game, a players character had a strong distaste for gnomes and bad mouthed them at every turn.. The party arrived outside the gate of this big city, and who was the Captain of the Guard? A Gnome. Think Frenchmen from the Holy Grail. Well that player started trying to provoke him, and it soon became apparent the Captain would not hesitate in riddling him and everyone in the party with crossbow bolts given the defenses were well manned! He behaved, under threat of being bound by the party. I always make it clear, you pull that nonsense? You'll pay realistic consequences. I don't think that is unfair. The more difficult thing to deal with is a player doing passive aggressive crap. Provoking NPCs in subtle ways, that would fit with the character, but you know damn well he's just trying to be a shithead and be disruptive. Or when the magic users are trying to drop their big bombs vs bad guys, and this dude immediately targets who they're targeting, and stealing the kill/their thunder. Just petty stuff that amuses him. And they do it so finely, if you call them out on it, they can easily deny everything. I hatched a plan for an attitude adjustment, lured him into what he thought would be an easy fight with a gnome.. Well Turns out this Gnome was "adopted" and was not actually a gnome, but a half-ogre who was fiercely protective of his brothers. Stated out as a level 5 monk IIRC. It was suppose to be a fisticuffs match! The PC was a level 2 or 3 Ranger Half-Elf. I was excited.. Until on the first roll, he rolled a 1.. Tripped, fell and KOed himself on the floor. If I hadn't seen the dice roll myself, I would've swore he faked the fumble to get out of it. It was hilarious though. And failures & fumbles are amazing! You're right, some of the most interesting game play comes from when things go wrong. But I know some DMs/GMs/CKs dont' take cheating seriously because "Its a game! its just fun, nothing serious!" And I don't play in those games.
Group played a Konosuba campaign... Knowing the Konosuba world all of us power played. DM is recommended to give us cheats, he gave us none because we minmaxed so much. It was fun because the characters were all physically strong but extremely socially inept
In the real world all of us restrain ourselves due to potential negative consequences from many sources. The law, our friends, a shop owner, etc. The same should apply in proper roleplaying. An adventuring party would not put up with someone constantly doing stupid/insane stuff and would give 'em the boot. So your character might want to do a thing, but maybe just ends up describing what he wanted to do at a later time.
My character WANTS to punch that smarmy priest right in the throat but spying the 6 paladins in full plate also in the room... they reluctantly restrain themselves.
Ok, but what if I did aaaaaall of that cool stuff, but then was attacked by an Adnd vampire in my sleep and was level drained back down to level one and had all my cool shit stolen so now I'm broke and have to start all over as a lowbie.
Love the Exalted reference! such a great game so much fun. I DMed and one of the characters in the group (brand new characters) had the ability where as long as the 2nd round of combat wasnt over yet, they could just deice to be somewhere else, and reality would back them up. lol. I remember a slightly later ability where a character could pick up a 20 mile radius section of reality and move it with them as they walked...
The overdone backstory can be easily solved by running some OSR style games. Because the player that wrote the 40 page backstory is probably going to regret the effort when a goblin in the first dungeon gets a lucky roll and stabs his character in the face with a spear and kills them. Back in those days I don't think I had a character background that was more than 2-3 sentences.
Best way to do it. Back in AD&D, combat was supposed to carry with it real risk of death and it was more encouraged that the players try to resolve a situation in ways other than fighting.
I remember my first character, a Dwarf (Red Box, Baby!) whose entire backstory was "his father liked his older brother better". He actually lived long enough to level up. Then a bugbear squished him I forget his name. Back then we went through PCs so fast we just called them "my guy" 😊
I made my first ever char (drow arcane trickster rogue) to excel at certain things and everything else was 'take it as it comes'. When she does the thing she's proficient in, i love getting those high numbers; she cracked a DC24 lock with a 28 thieves' tools roll at lvl3, netting some sweet loot for the party. In the next part of the story, she failed two acrobatics checks in a row (despite proficiency) and slid on her ass off the boat and it was hilarious! It was ok, because her make-up was still on point when she rejoined the party.
My arcane trickster rogue tiefling developed a "show off" flaw after an amazing feat. It meant she wanted to show off every time there was a dex opportunity... Despite being terrible at dex (she was my first character and I had no idea what I was doing when I built her). It was hilarious, good fun. Lots of trying to side across bars or leaping gracefully across gaps and failing in spectacular factions.
Thats usually how a game ends up getting discontinued. Two players having a pissing match on the spot like that. The mature response would be for the players getting harrased to ask the DM speak to the problematic player after the game in private. Give them a warning first then if it happens again they're out of the game.
Recall a session of War for the Crown. Several players decided that they wanted to play a, Minotaur Barbarian, and a Half Orc Skinwalker in what was essentially a Human centric AP that was heavily invested in social skills. First session they attempted to force their way into a party hosted for the daughter of the Grand Prince. This was viewed as unacceptable by the Ulfen guards that were assigned to guard the princess. They were summarily dispatched and then got made because the GM killed their characters. I tried to explain that they in fact had killed their characters but they stormed off in a huff.
@@malakimphoros2164 Obviously high enough that they could dispatch two first level characters without even breaking a sweat. That's the thing about running a campaign, it's perfectly fine to have potential opponents that the party has no hope of beating as long as there's a way that they don't have to fight them. Believe me, back when I played D&D 3.5 Living Greyhawk I understood that some modules had 'untiered'* encounters and that unless your party was fairly high level, you did not engage. * Fights not adjusted for the party's level.
@@malakimphoros2164 As I recall (my Human Ranger (Dandy Archetype stood off to one side and watched disgustedly) they were 5th or 6th level fighters. If those members of the party had shown any patience, my particular skills could have gotten us in without much stress.
I'm slightly guilty of the first one, giving my characters a deeper backstory. It's not as crazy as the examples, but still. It helps that the people I play with like having some backstory to work with, as do I when I GM for others. I'm also a writer, so backstory helps lay the narrative and themes I want to explore with my character, or help me weave the players into the world. It's very much a collaborative process.
i recently started playing a ff14 themed game with my husband and some friends. my character ended up being an empire conscript so of course i gave her a pretty in-depth backstory. when i handed my hubby the several pages he just went 'oh. intense' XD was kind of worried i had over done it but i am also a writer. i start thinking up characters and the next thing i know i have half a family history dating back 3 generations XD
@@whitemoonwolf13 Eh, not as bad as the three novels I have planned for 3 PCs I've made over the years. Tbf, the characters are all from games that either died out, or never got off the ground. And then they're gonna explore my fantasy world lol. I might reply to this comment with one of the backstories if y'all want a taste of what I write lol.
A backstory can have some very interesting aspects, aslong the conclusion did not happen yet and can be played by the group together, I am always happy to get the ability to DM for players who give me something in their backstory to embed into what happens. This is atleast my take. Also to be honest, as long everyone is fine with whatever there what you play, the opinion of a TH-camr does not matter at all for your table. The only wrong way to play Pen and Paper is by not having fun.
I enjoy adding background, but keeping in mind my character’s level. They can have interesting life experiences and formative moments that aren’t based in them already being an excellent experienced adventurer at Level One. I kind of see a character’s progression (levelling up) as them combining their past experiences/skills with their specific adventuring EXP to create more powerful and applicable abilities. For instance, a druid that studied nature for years may have a catalogue of knowledge and experiences that - when forced to be applied in combat etc - helps them channel/focus some of this prior knowledge into new wildshape forms or area control spells. At least that’s how it works in my head - explaining why a character might continue to ‘evolve’ in a highly thematic way (like a bard with their performance abilities) even though the shared campaign may not have provided specific development (like an opportunity to learn a new instrument). :)
@@AVspectre Another way of working with interesting experiences which may have required a higher level is a dramatic event before the beginning of the game. For example an event where you lost all your powers and you adventure to get them back. There is a lot of playground and nuance
You judge if this "it's what my character would do" moment counts. We where going through a dungeon and running low on resources. No more rages, few hit dice, my cleric had the last 2 spell slots. So the cleric, described as "as passionate as she is violent" uses one to heal a prisoner. Made sense in character, cost the party half its spellslots.
We have a collective campaign of several different groups and creativity is heavily encouraged but I’ve never experienced a that guy since everyone is pretty good towards the main goal since the main goal allows for so much creativity.
We had a rules lawyer at our table. Micro-managed every rule to create his character and the one or two characters at the table that had to act as he tells them. They managed to get the other veteran players killed and refused to help/heal them in anyway. Needless to say the session ended early and they were never invited back. Unfortunately it ended up being our final game before everyone went their own way in life.
@@dirtywhitellama 😂🤣 More likely both at the same time. Several years later I did a car pool for a local gaming store to go to a tournament. When chatting with the others in the car we all discovered we had a connection to that guy. He destroyed many other games outside of mine and earned a reputation. Both being an asshole and a lawyer to swing things his way.
I've always liked the response to "it's what my character would do" by following it with "well this is what our characters would do, realizing that you would be exactly the type of person that people would hire us to deal with and bring to justice, I think it's time to roll initiative."
About the first part i slightly disagree. A backstory can have some very interesting aspects, aslong the conclusion did not happen yet and can be played by the group together, I am always happy to get the ability to DM for players who give me something in their backstory to embed into what happens.
As a former 3.x player, that extra point got me laughing out loud. I do love my rogue/swashbuckler/duelist/swordsage half-elf that needed an extra sheet just to calculate my AC, but man I am never going back there ever again.
I got the vibe from one player who kept doing horrible "that guy" things in the game that he was actually trying to intimidate me (the DM) into making the game adversarial.
I think we've all had a player or two like that, though maybe not so overt. At it's core is a perfectly natural association: game = competition. So, since the DM controls the enemies they - by default - must represent the "opposing side". Despite the fact that the DM is also in control of allies, weather patterns, and the fundamental rules of reality I think the tipping point is when a player internalizes this assumption. Instead of seeing the game as their character overcoming challenges within the setting or campaign, they perceive it as they - the player - either defeating or being defeated by you - the dungeon master. And of course there are DMs with similar mindsets out there too. Designing encounters specifically to sidestep a PC's signature abilities or exploit their weaknesses Fortunately such outliers are but a tiny fraction of the community
Actually the anime princess thing is an easy fix you beat death so he grants your wish of becoming an immortal loli. Except haha jokes on you he resets your level to match your new age and removes all abilities past level 1. He also put a curse on you now you need to feed off other people to live (how DM flavours that is up to him but I suggest blood or magical energy.) Or if you go the 18+ princess route curses you to the hunger of a succubus. Either you get some fun as the game progresses or that guy quits or makes a new character. Win win.
One of my favorite characters broke the Vib rule; it was an epic-level Illumian arcane spell caster from 3.5e, with levels in 10 different classes. Illumians got racial bonus whenever they hit 2nd level in a new class. :)
Dwayne Johnson has a stipulation in his contract where his character can't be beaten in a fight. Congrats to The Rock for taking out all tension in every movie this is enacted in.
One of my favorite moments in games was a session where the players had found a child who's parents had been eaten by a troll. They chased off the troll, but now had a hungry baby on their hands. Cue the players idea and a moment later "Right, so now that she's changed shape, I start milking the druid"...
@@TGBloke you have it backwards. Why WOULD they be lactating. Where in the rules does it say you can wild shape into a pregnant animal? Can you wolf shape into a animal moments before birth and create an animal pup that thinks you are mommy? Can you then create an army of animal pups loyal to you? Do you understand how asinine this is?
@@TGBloke false pregnancy is a very specific hormonal imbalance, so now you are making up that druids can wild shape AND control their exact hormonal set up? Omfg….seriously do you have any idea how idiotic that is? What in the rules makes you think THAT is within the scope of wild shape???
Thank you for buying a mic stand. I thought I was becoming a golden retriever with the handheld setup. "You gonna throw the ball? Huhhuhuhuhuh? I wanna catch it! Throw the ball! You gonna throw the ball? Huhuhuhuhuh?"
"It's the job of players to create characters that fit the game....", a long long time ago had a DM that would never tell anyone what the game was about at all.
I wasn't in the game, but I heard horror stories of a Type II "That Guy" that completely destroyed a campaign in a rampage of asshattery that culminated with his character s*xually assaulting another PC. He was banned from the group and has nut been seen in about a decade or so.
As long as the player that says its what my character would do is OK with the Concequences of what their character would do I wouldn't say its necessarily a bad thing. If the player is open to their character learning and having a redemption arc etc then it can be a great thing. But then that wouldn't be a that guy player.
Honestly a cowardly character who is stuck in a mega dungeon can be fun. Thinking of Gotrek and Felix where Felix thinks he’s a coward and is afraid before combat but he still goes in because he swore an oath.
I played in a campaign not of DnD but of classic deadlands that during character creation my DM was positive I was going to be that guy, because we argued over the damage that my preferred weapon was going to do. By the end of the campaign we both thought it was amongst the best games either of us had been involved in. What I'm saying here is First Impressions can be bad give everyone a chance but if they do it over multiple sessions start figuring out a way to kill the character, and I'm not just talking to GM's but party members as well.
yeah, nah. PCS fighting other PCs in-game is not great news imho. Especially with 'That Guy' ! Lol. A good DM has plenty of other - sneakier - tools to apply. If all fails, try and talk to the problem player earnestly, off the table. If THAT also fails, then they have to go, no qualms about it either.
My first ever character was killed by another member of the party in my first ever game, not long after the DM had changed his alignment from Lawful Neutral to Chaotic Evil, both because of my somewhat eccentric approach to role playing. One only slightly longer session aside, it was 15 years before I played again.
on my previour table, there was a guy kept claiming he wanted to kill other players' character, and the dm was just "he's just joking, don't take his words too seriously, he's jsut a big man boy." so, that's a big red flag
True. Interesting characters are mor important than powerful ones. And are also more fun to play! I really like your videos. I think it would be nice to see a RPG review by you.
I had the always rolling high person in one of my first Tables. This is about the time D+DBeyond first came out. I required all of my players to get a sub so I could manage things like magic items. I also asked everyone to start using the virtual dice. The funny thing is all of my players did, no discussion. The dice goblens were fine with it. The rolls that player made were noticeably much worse. Like it was rare for them to have more than one Nat 20 in a session and they actually rolled 1's. That player is not one of the people who have made our long term table. We roll real dice most of the time now.
we've got a regular cheater in our group. he rolls his dice in a deep and giant box. he rolls, calls what he rolled which is always a 99 or 100, grabs his dice the moment they touch the bottom of the box, THEN tells us what he was rolling for! he gets away with this constantly. our dm/gm has dice that are either loaded or weighed completely off. I've never seen one person roll 76 so many times in my life. In the last 4 years he's dropped a 76 at least 50 times! no joke. UNTIL...... I started watching his dice closer. they are a classic, basic pair of d10 dice. the numbers aren't colored in like you would normally see with these sort of dice. after looking closer, I see that he bluffs every single roll! only reason I don't go off completely is because he usually bluffs in our favor. I think he sees that I see him doing this now. he hasn't called out his rolls in several months now. he has to see that I'm watching. he would get way too much glee out of hurting or killing off the players with his insane rolls. when I started paying more attention, and giving him death stares, things got a bit better. I need to find a better group. ugh
Best 2 solutions to that guy when he/she uses the “before anyone else has time to react I’m going to….” Line. 1. Respond with “ok everyone roll initiative to see who actually acts first” [because screw you and your metagaming] or 2. [my preferred method] kick them from your game and never let them return [or give them a reasonable amount of warnings against this sort of behaviour, and then kick them etc.]
As a player, I never much cared if another player was cheating. As a DM it bothers me hugely - but I hate interpersonal conflict so unless I actually *catch* them at it (at which point they're getting told that's not ok and they won't be welcome if it happens again) I tend to tackle "unusually successful" characters by being equally underhanded with that player. "Oh ok, they're going to pass whatever check I make them take. I guess I'll be critting them more often then, and breaking their gear with oozes, traps, thefts, disjunctions and so on". Does this teach them any lessons? Unlikely, since they don't know it's happening or why, and certainly can't prove it. But the other players at least get to do stuff: like constantly having to save & rescue the superhero, whether from damage or jail or kidnapping or whatever. Or actually dealing with the fight cos the superhero got neutralised in round one. And that guy gets to be centre of everyone's attention fairly often - negatively but that guy often just craves the attention without realising that about themselves so they're generally also happy. ...Except oddly enough they find themselves rolling new characters all the time, their repeated superheroes never quite reaching their potential. Eventually they come to ask how come they can never seem to get anywhere and then we can have "the talk" about more moderate characters and characterisations being more suitable for my campaign.
@dungeonsanddiscourse well, I played That Guy when the DM killed 3 of my characters, ignoring rules that he let other players use and character features to do so because he wanted me to play a bard. So I played a bard in the most that guy way possible. His goal was to sleep with someone from every sentient race, and to pay back a life debt of 127 pounds of platinum (he was sold into servitude by his mother as a child, who was paid his weight in platinum so he knows what his life was worth) and he screwed the party out of treasure constantly to do so.
It's complicated - and the worst narcissists or rule mavens can be a problem. But RPGs are designed for free action by characters - they should be trying to break the game plans of their opponents. Good GMs can handle it/allow it so long as it's plausible enough. So I had a ratling witch character with a maxed intelligence - pretty much the smartest rat in the room. The ranger in the party had found someone was paying good money for live weasels and wanted to investigate. The ratlings were not involved, except they began trading in junk bonds and derivatives like Consolidated Mustelid and the necromantic stock Stoatal Reanimation. When the ranger solved the mystery, the stocks bombed & the witch was lucky to get out with her tail.
I've played characters that would sometimes be contentious. Heck one of them was called A*hole Bob. But I periodically check with the players to make sure that they are having fun with the way I'm playing. If not I rein back. For example, with the interrogation, if your character would stab the guy, wouldn't it also be in character to punch the guy? This is still being a jerk, but less permanent.
Well exactly. “It’s what my character would do.” Is typically only invoked when you’re about to derail something and make it all about you. Everybody’s always doing what their character would do. They don’t have to use that concept as a shield unless they know they’re being an asshole.
When that guy says, "It's what my character would do," in my experience they're trying to say it's not their fault. But yunno, the character is how you made them, so it totally is your fault, dude.
I pre-planned my levels for my first game, so I know how I want my character to level through a combat driven D&D story. Am I "THAT GUY!!!" because I min max/ theory craft my builds to how I want him to be before I even get it?
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The perfect response to “that’s what my character would do is” is “why did you make a character like that?”
I like to kill other player characters because of my character inferiority complex of being the least emotionally stable character..
Because we didn't have a session 0 so I didn't know this character wouldn't mesh
@@Bear-bx7yo ROFL yeah. That guy would totally hide behind a relatively new named concept to include in DM advice, rather than just starting out thinking "how will I contribute to the party success".
It used to be called "the campaign pitch ". You set your parameters for your players "imma run an eberron campaign where the party are a syndicate troubleshooting team, you in?"
And then trusting the players to build accordingly or ask for more detail so they can work out what will fit.
It's a team game, that guy! And the DM is part of the team! Build accordingly!
@@jezlawrence720 if that's the case then the concept of that guy would be relatively new. It's not. Do you know how many players couldn't care less about your setting when picking their character. I have players who literally play the same character no matter the setting or how they mesh with the party. You clearly don't have a lot of experience dming
DM: "I'm just doing what the authorities would do, faced with a powerful and chaotic murderer". Also DM: "Party, your lawful good characters should now 'just do what your characters would do', when faced with any other BBE".
"Interesting Characters are more Important than Powerful Ones" ❤
That is partially true.
For example: A monk who rolled a single ability score of 12 is certainly not powerful and technically interesting. But even if you play him like Wimp Lo from Kung Pow, the joke is getting old fast: "Looks like I failed this important ability check again. What can you dooo? Derpiderp!"
The two are not mutually exclusive. You can be both, you can be one or the other. It’s not about which is more important it’s about how you write them.
It’s just that people don’t have much experience with writing powerful characters.
I had a gnome warlock in D&D some years back. Everyone I mentioned it to said, "Oh, great hexblade warlocks are a blast to play!" I said, "not a hexblade, fey-touched". Most gave me a confused look. Me, "I'm playing a character and hexblade seemed boring to me. I wanted to have this powerful patron I'm beholden to who, on a whim, interrupts whatever I might be doing asking an immediate favor. The GM and I can have a lot of fun with that in their pocket."
If "what my character would do" is disruptive, don't be afraid to have their asshattery get them killed. If they complain, tell them "maybe try not to make your next one a lunatic"
"My character is ruining the game because that's what my character would do."
"Play a different character, then."
"Maybe don't base your next one on Micah Bell"
That first That Guy? My method is to smile and nod, then quietly tell one of the other players that their own backstory includes knowing that guy back at the pig herding farm, where he got kicked in the head last week by a particularly disagreeable sow, but the village elders asked you to humour him. Jocularity, jocularity.
I did that first "That guy" bit with a warforged once, and then in the end said that him and his partner fell at the bottom of a dungeon, and hundreds of years later was essentially factory reset while being brought back. So it can work. Though I wanted all that as an excuse to play Robot Santa from Futurama.
"The gorgonzola gorgers can smell the flesh of man." This is going to be the title of debut metal album
I am a cat person anyway, but after reading the Tabaxi background it occurred to me that the Tabaxi Rogue is a thing just because shiny things and puzzles, so that's the way I play Winter. The party members always get everything back, eventually. But now after every NPC encounter, the party's paladin just walks up to Winter and holds out his hand with a disappointed look on his face. Both of us are playing in character, and everyone always gets some comic relief out of it.
That makes me want to name my BB3 Halfling Team "The Gorgonzola Gorgers"
It's a lesson I learned more than 20 years ago.
Heroes are defined by actions not by numbers. And monsters are defined not by fangs, tentacles, claws, horns or scaly hide, but because they do monstruous things. Get gnarly.
Your game will be less of a dice romp and more a thrill ride.
As a former "That guy", your analysis about self worth is *spot on*. What broke me out of that was that I realized what a massive disservice I was doing not only to the other players, but myself. Cheating makes you tell worse stories. Some of the greatest triumphs occur out of overcoming adversity. You don't get to have a super crazy idea that gets out out of this perilous situation if you cheat so hard you never get into it.
Now when making stealth checks and the like, I secretly hope for failure. I think the way to go about breaking this for a lot of people isn't just to look at as a "pass/fail" issue. But to take some initiative and narrate *how* you fail. Maybe you missed grabbing the idol on the altar by just the length of a hair. Maybe you rolled a crit fail and instead of going to grab the idol, you beef it and tumble so hard you knock the idol off. Looking at rolls as a pass/fail situation is the worst thing you can do. I prefer to look at it as a storytelling aid otherwise you're basically just writing fanfic.
I wasn't thinking about D&D when you said "Saboteur of the sheets".
The solution for the first guy is as simple as "after all that, you were cursed and forgot everything and lost all your stuff". So it is possible to be a godkiller at level 1 without it affecting the power curve.
Discoures: '...I'm a tad bit outspoken...'
Me: 'Hmm, seems out of character for her'
Also love the Biffa Bacon/Viz reference
Love how you worked in a UHF reference with Conan the librarian.
Lmao
Floors slippery with milk?!? No whey!
"If you wanna be cool you gotta earn it… or play something like Exalted"
SO TRUE!!!
I believe there is a line between suboptimal play because: "It's what my character would do" and being actively disruptive.
Like, the party is going through a dungeon and running low on resources. No more rages, hit dice are running short and the cleric has the last 2 remaining spell slots. So the cleric, described as being "as compassionate as she is violent" uses one to heal a prisoner we freed.
The cure for stupid characters is suffering the consequences of their actions, especially making the rest of the group suffer. Our group was good about cutting the dead weight, usually by making it dead.
We bought a dice tower for one player in a game I played in (way back in the day before they were everywhere) because we were like "omg, sooooo many crits" - nope just a lucky SOB. He loved the tower, and STILL rolled a much-higher-than-average set of crits.
For sure, I've been saying for a thousand ages now, from the time I slew Time and thus gained control over it's flow, that "its what my character would do" is a double-edged blade.
If it serves the group and enhances the enjoyment for everyone at the table, then it is being done right
Else, if it hinders or disrupts the enjoyment for anyone/everyone, then it's certainly being done wrong.
RPG'ing is a team effort.
That last sentence should be on page one of every rulebook
In big block letters on an otherwise blank page!
"I'd rather die than reveal the secrets of the chocolate fountain." I'm using that in a campaign now. So good.
Agreed on that third part.... Failure can lead to some fun conflicts to resolve.... (For example a plasmoid failing their stealth roll while stealing chickens to eat, leading to them being chased down by angry farmers as a "monster" and cornered in a house.... It ended with them faking their death and the other members of the party becoming minor heroes in the town for "Slaying" the "Monster" as well as "disposing" of the "Body"..... )
This entire mess may have been avoided if I was successful in my stealth check to steal a chicken, or if I was able to successfully shake the farmers as they chased me down.... But that would have been far less entertaining than trying to figure out how to survive the angry mob that had gathered around the house I was hiding in...
My character pushes That Guy's character off a cliff. Hey, it's what my character would do to someone like that. I'm not Chaotic Neutral for nothing.
The candymountain reference was awesome. Glad i don't qualify for being "that guy" in rpgs.
Shun the nonbeliever!
@@flyndutchmn Shuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!
I hope some of the cheese-based adventures depicted in the sketches in this video are based on real games
As a sentient sandwich, the dice picker uppers anger me to no end.
My ‘work around’ for when a situation arises that my character would ruin is to remind the other players and/or the GM “Wouldn’t at least one of the other characters realize what my character is likely to do?” as the situation develops. If they then allow it to happen in game then……
Excellent video. I have my methods for dealing with people with those issues. I run Castles & Crusades mostly, so between the rules as written & Aihrde setting, class/race combos are
fairly limited verses 5E for example. I also tell my players, this is the world, these are the races, this is the sandbox you can play in. Please play within it.. Now I've flexed now and then, if someone can bring me a brilliant idea that mostly works within the setting? I'll cook up the stats for a race, or writeup for a specialty class. But having long ass backgrounds, and mary sue levels
of perfection annoy me too, but also don't work in C&C. I had a player, who's half-orc assassin was the VERY BEST AT EVERY THING......... Level 1. She quickly realized combat in this
game was deadly, and she nearly died within the first two rounds of the first fight. It was kind of funny her describing these epic, amazaball maneuvers she wanted to attempt, then rolls a 1.
Oops?
I also tell players, sure you can try anything you want, but that doesn't mean their won't be consequences. In this one game, a players character had a strong distaste for gnomes and
bad mouthed them at every turn.. The party arrived outside the gate of this big city, and who was the Captain of the Guard? A Gnome. Think Frenchmen from the Holy Grail. Well
that player started trying to provoke him, and it soon became apparent the Captain would not hesitate in riddling him and everyone in the party with crossbow bolts given the defenses
were well manned! He behaved, under threat of being bound by the party. I always make it clear, you pull that nonsense? You'll pay realistic consequences. I don't think that is unfair.
The more difficult thing to deal with is a player doing passive aggressive crap. Provoking NPCs in subtle ways, that would fit with the character, but you know damn well he's just trying
to be a shithead and be disruptive. Or when the magic users are trying to drop their big bombs vs bad guys, and this dude immediately targets who they're targeting, and stealing the kill/their thunder. Just petty stuff that amuses him. And they do it so finely, if you call them out on it, they can easily deny everything. I hatched a plan for an attitude adjustment, lured him into what
he thought would be an easy fight with a gnome.. Well Turns out this Gnome was "adopted" and was not actually a gnome, but a half-ogre who was fiercely protective of his brothers. Stated out
as a level 5 monk IIRC. It was suppose to be a fisticuffs match! The PC was a level 2 or 3 Ranger Half-Elf. I was excited.. Until on the first roll, he rolled a 1.. Tripped, fell and KOed himself
on the floor. If I hadn't seen the dice roll myself, I would've swore he faked the fumble to get out of it. It was hilarious though.
And failures & fumbles are amazing! You're right, some of the most interesting game play comes from when things go wrong. But I know some DMs/GMs/CKs dont' take cheating seriously
because "Its a game! its just fun, nothing serious!" And I don't play in those games.
Group played a Konosuba campaign... Knowing the Konosuba world all of us power played. DM is recommended to give us cheats, he gave us none because we minmaxed so much. It was fun because the characters were all physically strong but extremely socially inept
In the real world all of us restrain ourselves due to potential negative consequences from many sources. The law, our friends, a shop owner, etc. The same should apply in proper roleplaying. An adventuring party would not put up with someone constantly doing stupid/insane stuff and would give 'em the boot. So your character might want to do a thing, but maybe just ends up describing what he wanted to do at a later time.
My character WANTS to punch that smarmy priest right in the throat but spying the 6 paladins in full plate also in the room... they reluctantly restrain themselves.
Why am I so invested in this game of utter nonsense? I want to know what happens to Candy Mountain?!
Ok, but what if I did aaaaaall of that cool stuff, but then was attacked by an Adnd vampire in my sleep and was level drained back down to level one and had all my cool shit stolen so now I'm broke and have to start all over as a lowbie.
Love the Exalted reference! such a great game so much fun. I DMed and one of the characters in the group (brand new characters) had the ability where as long as the 2nd round of combat wasnt over yet, they could just deice to be somewhere else, and reality would back them up. lol. I remember a slightly later ability where a character could pick up a 20 mile radius section of reality and move it with them as they walked...
The overdone backstory can be easily solved by running some OSR style games. Because the player that wrote the 40 page backstory is probably going to regret the effort when a goblin in the first dungeon gets a lucky roll and stabs his character in the face with a spear and kills them. Back in those days I don't think I had a character background that was more than 2-3 sentences.
Best way to do it. Back in AD&D, combat was supposed to carry with it real risk of death and it was more encouraged that the players try to resolve a situation in ways other than fighting.
I remember my first character, a Dwarf (Red Box, Baby!) whose entire backstory was "his father liked his older brother better". He actually lived long enough to level up. Then a bugbear squished him
I forget his name. Back then we went through PCs so fast we just called them "my guy" 😊
I made my first ever char (drow arcane trickster rogue) to excel at certain things and everything else was 'take it as it comes'. When she does the thing she's proficient in, i love getting those high numbers; she cracked a DC24 lock with a 28 thieves' tools roll at lvl3, netting some sweet loot for the party. In the next part of the story, she failed two acrobatics checks in a row (despite proficiency) and slid on her ass off the boat and it was hilarious! It was ok, because her make-up was still on point when she rejoined the party.
A character is at its most interesting when they defy the odds.
As long as there's a good humbling every now and then.
hopefully they used the drow light sensitivity that caused the fails
@@erikwhitney7403 No; it was at night, so just dim light from the moon and oil lamps. The saves were to keep her footing during the storm.
My arcane trickster rogue tiefling developed a "show off" flaw after an amazing feat. It meant she wanted to show off every time there was a dex opportunity... Despite being terrible at dex (she was my first character and I had no idea what I was doing when I built her). It was hilarious, good fun. Lots of trying to side across bars or leaping gracefully across gaps and failing in spectacular factions.
@@erikwhitney7403 Pretty sure Sunlight Sensitivity wouldn't influence those checks.
'It's what my character would do'
"Well, my character tries to stop you..." underrated solution in character
I'm kind of a murderhobo-but I LOVE it when the party attacks me (which happens often).
@@seto_kaiba_ I doubt the rest of the party likes that. I would ask them about it.
@@bored3138 It depends on the party. Some like it-some don't.
@@seto_kaiba_ My guess is some tolerate it and everyone else hates it.
Thats usually how a game ends up getting discontinued. Two players having a pissing match on the spot like that. The mature response would be for the players getting harrased to ask the DM speak to the problematic player after the game in private. Give them a warning first then if it happens again they're out of the game.
I want to be part of this food based campaign so bad...
I find I sometimes have to encourage engagement to get others involved.
Recall a session of War for the Crown. Several players decided that they wanted to play a, Minotaur Barbarian, and a Half Orc Skinwalker in what was essentially a Human centric AP that was heavily invested in social skills. First session they attempted to force their way into a party hosted for the daughter of the Grand Prince. This was viewed as unacceptable by the Ulfen guards that were assigned to guard the princess. They were summarily dispatched and then got made because the GM killed their characters. I tried to explain that they in fact had killed their characters but they stormed off in a huff.
What was the level of guardians?
@@malakimphoros2164 Obviously high enough that they could dispatch two first level characters without even breaking a sweat. That's the thing about running a campaign, it's perfectly fine to have potential opponents that the party has no hope of beating as long as there's a way that they don't have to fight them.
Believe me, back when I played D&D 3.5 Living Greyhawk I understood that some modules had 'untiered'* encounters and that unless your party was fairly high level, you did not engage.
* Fights not adjusted for the party's level.
@@malakimphoros2164 As I recall (my Human Ranger (Dandy Archetype stood off to one side and watched disgustedly) they were 5th or 6th level fighters. If those members of the party had shown any patience, my particular skills could have gotten us in without much stress.
You know what's worse than playing alongside _that_ guy? Playing with _that_ guy as your DM!
I'm slightly guilty of the first one, giving my characters a deeper backstory. It's not as crazy as the examples, but still. It helps that the people I play with like having some backstory to work with, as do I when I GM for others. I'm also a writer, so backstory helps lay the narrative and themes I want to explore with my character, or help me weave the players into the world. It's very much a collaborative process.
i recently started playing a ff14 themed game with my husband and some friends. my character ended up being an empire conscript so of course i gave her a pretty in-depth backstory. when i handed my hubby the several pages he just went 'oh. intense' XD was kind of worried i had over done it but i am also a writer. i start thinking up characters and the next thing i know i have half a family history dating back 3 generations XD
@@whitemoonwolf13 Eh, not as bad as the three novels I have planned for 3 PCs I've made over the years. Tbf, the characters are all from games that either died out, or never got off the ground. And then they're gonna explore my fantasy world lol.
I might reply to this comment with one of the backstories if y'all want a taste of what I write lol.
A backstory can have some very interesting aspects, aslong the conclusion did not happen yet and can be played by the group together, I am always happy to get the ability to DM for players who give me something in their backstory to embed into what happens. This is atleast my take. Also to be honest, as long everyone is fine with whatever there what you play, the opinion of a TH-camr does not matter at all for your table. The only wrong way to play Pen and Paper is by not having fun.
I enjoy adding background, but keeping in mind my character’s level. They can have interesting life experiences and formative moments that aren’t based in them already being an excellent experienced adventurer at Level One. I kind of see a character’s progression (levelling up) as them combining their past experiences/skills with their specific adventuring EXP to create more powerful and applicable abilities. For instance, a druid that studied nature for years may have a catalogue of knowledge and experiences that - when forced to be applied in combat etc - helps them channel/focus some of this prior knowledge into new wildshape forms or area control spells. At least that’s how it works in my head - explaining why a character might continue to ‘evolve’ in a highly thematic way (like a bard with their performance abilities) even though the shared campaign may not have provided specific development (like an opportunity to learn a new instrument). :)
@@AVspectre Another way of working with interesting experiences which may have required a higher level is a dramatic event before the beginning of the game. For example an event where you lost all your powers and you adventure to get them back. There is a lot of playground and nuance
No pvp, just a group curb-stomping
Our "small" aquatic turtles can turn themselves to their feet again. The wobble a bit, kick a bit and are back in the game.
Don’t turtles have flippers rather than feet?
@@liberalhyena9760 we don't have sea turtles at home :-)))
Discourse, have you been that guy in a game before? Some of these seem oddly specific. Thanks for another great video.
You judge if this "it's what my character would do" moment counts.
We where going through a dungeon and running low on resources. No more rages, few hit dice, my cleric had the last 2 spell slots. So the cleric, described as "as passionate as she is violent" uses one to heal a prisoner. Made sense in character, cost the party half its spellslots.
We have a collective campaign of several different groups and creativity is heavily encouraged but I’ve never experienced a that guy since everyone is pretty good towards the main goal since the main goal allows for so much creativity.
We had a rules lawyer at our table. Micro-managed every rule to create his character and the one or two characters at the table that had to act as he tells them. They managed to get the other veteran players killed and refused to help/heal them in anyway. Needless to say the session ended early and they were never invited back. Unfortunately it ended up being our final game before everyone went their own way in life.
That doesn't sound like a rules lawyer, just an asshole.
(I do classify rules lawyers and minmaxers differently though - different aims)
@@dirtywhitellama 😂🤣 More likely both at the same time.
Several years later I did a car pool for a local gaming store to go to a tournament. When chatting with the others in the car we all discovered we had a connection to that guy. He destroyed many other games outside of mine and earned a reputation. Both being an asshole and a lawyer to swing things his way.
I never expected an Empress Theresa reference
If you can't handle the idea of your character failing at anything, play Skyrim. On easy mode.
I game I ran had two party members being sent to two different prisons for two very different reasons all from bad luck rolling
Great background music 🎵 ( also good other stuff ).
I've always liked the response to "it's what my character would do" by following it with "well this is what our characters would do, realizing that you would be exactly the type of person that people would hire us to deal with and bring to justice, I think it's time to roll initiative."
Great, now I'm going to have to throw away my Hawaiian shirt* and Aviator glasses.
i knew there were some red flags I forgot to include
Who else here would watch a full Roleplay Campaign where all Characters are played by Discord? 🙋♂️
Fantastic video. I would love vids where you do into more stories of dnd hijinks.
I think someone needs to conjure up a swarm of astral candiru for that one that guy...
About the first part i slightly disagree. A backstory can have some very interesting aspects, aslong the conclusion did not happen yet and can be played by the group together, I am always happy to get the ability to DM for players who give me something in their backstory to embed into what happens.
If what your character would do is be a problem, then don't make that character
I had a MTG “that guy” come into my store a couple of weeks ago dressed just like that.
Every time i roleplay some people i play with look at me shocked. like im not here to be myself
As a former 3.x player, that extra point got me laughing out loud. I do love my rogue/swashbuckler/duelist/swordsage half-elf that needed an extra sheet just to calculate my AC, but man I am never going back there ever again.
Gorgonzola Gorger...Oh my god. I am definitely going to create this monster to attack my players. That is fantastic!
I got the vibe from one player who kept doing horrible "that guy" things in the game that he was actually trying to intimidate me (the DM) into making the game adversarial.
I think we've all had a player or two like that, though maybe not so overt.
At it's core is a perfectly natural association: game = competition. So, since the DM controls the enemies they - by default - must represent the "opposing side". Despite the fact that the DM is also in control of allies, weather patterns, and the fundamental rules of reality
I think the tipping point is when a player internalizes this assumption.
Instead of seeing the game as their character overcoming challenges within the setting or campaign, they perceive it as they - the player - either defeating or being defeated by you - the dungeon master.
And of course there are DMs with similar mindsets out there too. Designing encounters specifically to sidestep a PC's signature abilities or exploit their weaknesses
Fortunately such outliers are but a tiny fraction of the community
Being a Gorgonzola gorger is pretty amazing. That’s why my adventure team is the Gorgonzola gourmets.
...Candy mountain? 'writes that down'
Cheating in D&D is like cheating in solitaire
Actually the anime princess thing is an easy fix you beat death so he grants your wish of becoming an immortal loli. Except haha jokes on you he resets your level to match your new age and removes all abilities past level 1. He also put a curse on you now you need to feed off other people to live (how DM flavours that is up to him but I suggest blood or magical energy.) Or if you go the 18+ princess route curses you to the hunger of a succubus. Either you get some fun as the game progresses or that guy quits or makes a new character. Win win.
1:44 Sorry to be “that guy” but the “turtle” is a tortoise. Umm...have I fallen into your trap?
One of my favorite characters broke the Vib rule; it was an epic-level Illumian arcane spell caster from 3.5e, with levels in 10 different classes. Illumians got racial bonus whenever they hit 2nd level in a new class. :)
Dwayne Johnson has a stipulation in his contract where his character can't be beaten in a fight.
Congrats to The Rock for taking out all tension in every movie this is enacted in.
I won't lie, I would absolutely watch a competitive "That guy" contest
First off, so would I.
Secondly, that user name is fire
@@kungfuton7553 there can be only one+
Clancy Brown did masterful work in that role. You can just feel the ancient guy that has been alive so long he gives zero fucks
One of my favorite moments in games was a session where the players had found a child who's parents had been eaten by a troll. They chased off the troll, but now had a hungry baby on their hands. Cue the players idea and a moment later "Right, so now that she's changed shape, I start milking the druid"...
Ha! that is hilarious!
What animal lactates without first needing to be pregnant?
@@LB-yg2br If they can already transform into an animal shape, I don't see why they couldn't be lactating. False pregnancies is a thing.
@@TGBloke you have it backwards. Why WOULD they be lactating. Where in the rules does it say you can wild shape into a pregnant animal? Can you wolf shape into a animal moments before birth and create an animal pup that thinks you are mommy? Can you then create an army of animal pups loyal to you? Do you understand how asinine this is?
@@TGBloke false pregnancy is a very specific hormonal imbalance, so now you are making up that druids can wild shape AND control their exact hormonal set up? Omfg….seriously do you have any idea how idiotic that is? What in the rules makes you think THAT is within the scope of wild shape???
Thank you for buying a mic stand. I thought I was becoming a golden retriever with the handheld setup. "You gonna throw the ball? Huhhuhuhuhuh? I wanna catch it! Throw the ball! You gonna throw the ball? Huhuhuhuhuh?"
yo shoutouts to gloomhaven though, that shit is mad fun
it is!
You didn't mention the Pervert That Guy. Maybe I should be grateful. :)
"It's the job of players to create characters that fit the game....", a long long time ago had a DM that would never tell anyone what the game was about at all.
I wasn't in the game, but I heard horror stories of a Type II "That Guy" that completely destroyed a campaign in a rampage of asshattery that culminated with his character s*xually assaulting another PC. He was banned from the group and has nut been seen in about a decade or so.
As long as the player that says its what my character would do is OK with the Concequences of what their character would do I wouldn't say its necessarily a bad thing. If the player is open to their character learning and having a redemption arc etc then it can be a great thing. But then that wouldn't be a that guy player.
Honestly a cowardly character who is stuck in a mega dungeon can be fun. Thinking of Gotrek and Felix where Felix thinks he’s a coward and is afraid before combat but he still goes in because he swore an oath.
I played in a campaign not of DnD but of classic deadlands that during character creation my DM was positive I was going to be that guy, because we argued over the damage that my preferred weapon was going to do. By the end of the campaign we both thought it was amongst the best games either of us had been involved in. What I'm saying here is First Impressions can be bad give everyone a chance but if they do it over multiple sessions start figuring out a way to kill the character, and I'm not just talking to GM's but party members as well.
yeah, nah. PCS fighting other PCs in-game is not great news imho. Especially with 'That Guy' ! Lol. A good DM has plenty of other - sneakier - tools to apply. If all fails, try and talk to the problem player earnestly, off the table. If THAT also fails, then they have to go, no qualms about it either.
My first ever character was killed by another member of the party in my first ever game, not long after the DM had changed his alignment from Lawful Neutral to Chaotic Evil, both because of my somewhat eccentric approach to role playing. One only slightly longer session aside, it was 15 years before I played again.
The Adventures Of GUY OF THAT The Role Playing Series
Loving the fun romance accessories in the background.
on my previour table, there was a guy kept claiming he wanted to kill other players' character, and the dm was just "he's just joking, don't take his words too seriously, he's jsut a big man boy." so, that's a big red flag
...is... Is that the peal of thunder used at the start of The Prisoner by Patrick McGoohan, @ 0:41 ?
Here to ask the important questions. ;)
True. Interesting characters are mor important than powerful ones. And are also more fun to play! I really like your videos. I think it would be nice to see a RPG review by you.
I had the always rolling high person in one of my first Tables. This is about the time D+DBeyond first came out. I required all of my players to get a sub so I could manage things like magic items. I also asked everyone to start using the virtual dice. The funny thing is all of my players did, no discussion. The dice goblens were fine with it. The rolls that player made were noticeably much worse. Like it was rare for them to have more than one Nat 20 in a session and they actually rolled 1's. That player is not one of the people who have made our long term table. We roll real dice most of the time now.
Well, if your character is a bunghole, I guess that a little PVP to get rid of the disruption is okay too, if only in such an extreme case?
Doctor Discourse sounds like the persona Doctor Doom would use to try to infiltrate in the internet.
You nailed it again. I play online. Online draw That Guy like moths to a flame
Solid advice! Mayhaps we'll have a few less "that guys" out there heh.
we've got a regular cheater in our group. he rolls his dice in a deep and giant box. he rolls, calls what he rolled which is always a 99 or 100, grabs his dice the moment they touch the bottom of the box, THEN tells us what he was rolling for! he gets away with this constantly. our dm/gm has dice that are either loaded or weighed completely off. I've never seen one person roll 76 so many times in my life. In the last 4 years he's dropped a 76 at least 50 times! no joke. UNTIL...... I started watching his dice closer. they are a classic, basic pair of d10 dice. the numbers aren't colored in like you would normally see with these sort of dice. after looking closer, I see that he bluffs every single roll! only reason I don't go off completely is because he usually bluffs in our favor. I think he sees that I see him doing this now. he hasn't called out his rolls in several months now. he has to see that I'm watching. he would get way too much glee out of hurting or killing off the players with his insane rolls. when I started paying more attention, and giving him death stares, things got a bit better. I need to find a better group. ugh
Best 2 solutions to that guy when he/she uses the “before anyone else has time to react I’m going to….” Line. 1. Respond with “ok everyone roll initiative to see who actually acts first” [because screw you and your metagaming] or 2. [my preferred method] kick them from your game and never let them return [or give them a reasonable amount of warnings against this sort of behaviour, and then kick them etc.]
As a player, I never much cared if another player was cheating.
As a DM it bothers me hugely - but I hate interpersonal conflict so unless I actually *catch* them at it (at which point they're getting told that's not ok and they won't be welcome if it happens again) I tend to tackle "unusually successful" characters by being equally underhanded with that player.
"Oh ok, they're going to pass whatever check I make them take. I guess I'll be critting them more often then, and breaking their gear with oozes, traps, thefts, disjunctions and so on".
Does this teach them any lessons? Unlikely, since they don't know it's happening or why, and certainly can't prove it.
But the other players at least get to do stuff: like constantly having to save & rescue the superhero, whether from damage or jail or kidnapping or whatever. Or actually dealing with the fight cos the superhero got neutralised in round one. And that guy gets to be centre of everyone's attention fairly often - negatively but that guy often just craves the attention without realising that about themselves so they're generally also happy.
...Except oddly enough they find themselves rolling new characters all the time, their repeated superheroes never quite reaching their potential.
Eventually they come to ask how come they can never seem to get anywhere and then we can have "the talk" about more moderate characters and characterisations being more suitable for my campaign.
I'm pretty sure I have been That Guy a time or two in the distant past
definitely creeps into play :)
That's how you become a better player.
@dungeonsanddiscourse well, I played That Guy when the DM killed 3 of my characters, ignoring rules that he let other players use and character features to do so because he wanted me to play a bard.
So I played a bard in the most that guy way possible. His goal was to sleep with someone from every sentient race, and to pay back a life debt of 127 pounds of platinum (he was sold into servitude by his mother as a child, who was paid his weight in platinum so he knows what his life was worth) and he screwed the party out of treasure constantly to do so.
Plus, he was a passifist that refused to cause harm to the enemies, instead using friend or foe, save or suck, area debuff spells.
My name is Devon and I love playing a ranger 😂😂😂made my day
I love it that you are doing more than that other game. Take a look at pathfinder…take my word on this. (Yes, OGL mess, why we did)
It's complicated - and the worst narcissists or rule mavens can be a problem. But RPGs are designed for free action by characters - they should be trying to break the game plans of their opponents. Good GMs can handle it/allow it so long as it's plausible enough. So I had a ratling witch character with a maxed intelligence - pretty much the smartest rat in the room. The ranger in the party had found someone was paying good money for live weasels and wanted to investigate. The ratlings were not involved, except they began trading in junk bonds and derivatives like Consolidated Mustelid and the necromantic stock Stoatal Reanimation. When the ranger solved the mystery, the stocks bombed & the witch was lucky to get out with her tail.
I've played characters that would sometimes be contentious. Heck one of them was called A*hole Bob. But I periodically check with the players to make sure that they are having fun with the way I'm playing. If not I rein back. For example, with the interrogation, if your character would stab the guy, wouldn't it also be in character to punch the guy? This is still being a jerk, but less permanent.
Well exactly. “It’s what my character would do.” Is typically only invoked when you’re about to derail something and make it all about you.
Everybody’s always doing what their character would do. They don’t have to use that concept as a shield unless they know they’re being an asshole.
It's not being a jerk, it's being a KGB officer. RP'ing torture is funky territory
@@malakimphoros2164 That's definitely something that you would want to work out with your group ahead of time.
Every table has that guy, and everyone knows who it is. If you don't know who it is,
When that guy says, "It's what my character would do," in my experience they're trying to say it's not their fault. But yunno, the character is how you made them, so it totally is your fault, dude.
I pre-planned my levels for my first game, so I know how I want my character to level through a combat driven D&D story. Am I "THAT GUY!!!" because I min max/ theory craft my builds to how I want him to be before I even get it?