Author Topic: Dumb Players  (Read 7833 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Lunaramblings

  • Domesticated Capuchin Monkey
  • **
  • Posts: 118
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #40 on: October 02, 2010, 02:30:48 PM »
Few years ago I was playing in an  Old World of Darkness game. The DM had set up this apocolyptic scenario where all of the changing breeds had come together after one of the Heads of the Wyrm actually briefly manifested and wiped out a small town. Seemed like an interesting idea. I jumped to play my favorite of the Changing Breeds, a Nagah. Basically Nagah are Assassins who take it upon themselves to hunt and kill anyone that transgresses against Gaia and the ways she has set forth. I am introduced to the rest of the group, and we are told that the Wyrm is stronger than ever, we need to go find out why.

On a mission to infiltrate some warehouse, we come into heavy combat. We all change into our various warforms and start to tear shit up. This goes great. Until one of the party decides that since there are no enemies in his immediate area, that he is just going to start ripping the dead ones apart with his teeth in his werewolf form. For those unfamiliar, when some werewolves succumb to The Wyrm, they begin to eat the dead. So, my assassin like character, who has the knowledge to know of this in game is standing there when this happens. The GM describes the scene. Everyone else stares at the other player. I ask him three time is he is sure he wants to do that in front of us all. The GM reminds him that this might be a bad idea. He professes that he can do it and that he sees nothing wrong with defiling the bodies. GM goes back to initiative. My turn is next. I cut the idiot in half. He then spends 45 minutes out of game complaining.

There is no accounting for stupidity. I have learned over the years, any time other players and the GM looks at you and says, "You sure that is what you want to do? Are you really doing that?" That is when you need to rethink your actions.

ragincajun2288

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 478
  • I think I'm getting pretty good.
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #41 on: October 10, 2010, 11:29:13 PM »
...damn.
Playing Pingo, in The Artifact Prologue.

Running Dead Earth for my old table top group.

Emo_Duck

  • Domesticated Capuchin Monkey
  • **
  • Posts: 99
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #42 on: December 13, 2010, 08:44:44 PM »
I've been wanting to immortalise this little tidbit. A forum post should do fine.

The game is Dark Heresy, and we are playing as a squad of guardsmen on a former Imperial world, now taken over by the Tau. Our mission is to infiltrate the governor's palace and rescue the Lord-Governor.

Reaching the palace goes well enough, and we're able to narrowly evade a couple of patrols. Exploring the perimeter of the palace, we come across a hatch in the ground next to the palace wall. We open the hatch and peer down: Looks like an old coal cellar, but the ladder is rusted and has fallen away. Fair enough, we figure it might provide entry, so two of our troopers jump down to have a look.

It is indeed a coal cellar, but it has been bricked up inside - presumably the palace has a more modern heating system now. As corporal of the squad, I tell the two of them to get out as quick as they can, standing on each other if they have to. That's when one of the two squints at the big pile of coal left against the opposite wall of the cellar.

In a spat of videogame logic, he reasons that since there is a coal pile in the cellar, it must necessarily serve some function. Despite repeated urging to get out before the squad is spotted by a Tau patrol, the player is most fascinated by this coal pile and what secrets it must be hiding. He hefts his lasgun (a laser rifle for those not familiar) and shoots the coal pile. His plan was to burn away the coal, no doubt revealing some clandestine tunnel entrance into the palace.

So the coal ignites. And it burns. And smoke begins to billow forth, making it hard to see and breathe in the old, defunct cellar. The coal pile is, understandably, not reducing in size to any noticable degree. The player begins to think that maybe he should get out of there, so we finally get the pair of them hauled out of the cellar, and we high-tail it away from the great, big plume of black smoke that's starting to pour forth from the hatch. The time for stealth was over.


To this day, we're a small number of people that, when something goes wrong, will be able to make sense of the phrase: "At least he didn't shoot the coal pile."

AndyJames

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 3112
  • Meep?
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #43 on: December 14, 2010, 06:56:03 AM »
OK. Some of my stories, mainly revolving around a group that I gamed with in my university days. Lets call three of them... M, R and C.


M is sometimes the DM. Trouble is, he is a WoD fanatic, which means he is always trying to pull stuff out of his rear and come up with elaborate stories with umpteenth NPCs with more character background than the entire Battletech universe put together. Each. I mean, he is a very intelligent guy. Give him a computer engineering problem and he'd solve it for you. And he is a nice guy too. He will solve it and explain it to you instead of telling you to read it up and do it yourself. But when it comes to DnD, he is a complete loon.

Some of his more infamous reasonings:
1. Soulknife is broken because you get a +10 weapon for FREE. That breaks the WBL table, so if you want to play a Soulknife, he will reduce the treasure accordingly.

2. Mystic Theurge is broken because when you are level 20, you are a level 15 wizard and a level 15 cleric, when you would normally need level 30 to get.

3. Psionics is broken because if you take a power like Energy Ray, you are getting the equivalent of 5 spells in one on the sorcerer spell list (i.e., spells like Scorching Ray only has one elemental damage, whereas Energy Ray can be any of 5). Also, you can nova and kill everything by just augmenting it through the roof. Even after it was pointed out that there is a manifester level cap, he still maintains that it is broken because you can spend all of your power points on 9th level powers exclusively.

4. His idea of a good character is a Half-Orc Barbarian 2/Fighter 3/Bard 3, who, get this, does his Inspire Courage routine BY PLAYING DRUMS...! Seriously. Drums! Anyone wanna tell me what is wrong with that idea?

5. He ran a NORMAL MAGIC Level 12 campaign with one restriction: No clerics or druids. I'm not kidding. If you can heal, the healing is via fast healing (so your CLW will give you the 1d8+5 hp over several rounds). This is because he believes that healing is overpowered. Oh, and he has a DMPC barbarian who is more intelligent than the psion. Don't. Ask. Me. Why. Lastly, in that level 12 campaign and the party ran up against a legendary dire shark with permanent spell turning. The sorcerer did NOT make his fortitude save vs his own Disintegrate.


R is a bit of a snobby type. He talks to people like they are absolutely thick. The only problem is... well, judge for yourself:

1. He is in the same boat as M where Mystic Theurge and Psionics are concerned. He even tries to explain why they are overpowered using that "you have to be absolutely thick not to see what I am saying" tone.

2. He is one of those "that rule doesn't makes sense" types. And he will ARGUE why it doesn't make sense for hours. As if anyone else cares.

3. He created a druid who dipped fighter because he wanted lance proficiency so that he can use his Ride-By Attack feat on his light horse animal companion. At level 8. Yes, he took the fighter level at level 8! He was actually rushing around the battlefield on his amped up light horse (he bought some horseshoes of speed so that his horse can run faster) trying to run people through with a lance! He is not wildshaped. He is not casting spells. He is bloody playing Sir Lancelot. With a frakking DRUID!

4. Monks with TWF is overpowered. d20 damage with 8 attacks (he included flurry)? Bro-ken!!


C... well, what can I say about C? C is one of those people who think that Chaotic Evil is the bestest best alignment ever. Everyone should be CE. It is fascinating. It is great. It is deep, man! Every character he has ever played is CE, even if his character sheet says otherwise. I remember a time when the DM gave him a DMPC to play. The backstory of the DMPC was that she was one of the party's recurring nemesis, who, after getting captured and having her past revealed to her (her Evil demonspawned father apparently kept it secret because her mother was half-celestial or something like that), felt betrayed and turned to Good and is seeking redemption. So, what did C do? In the very first battle after the sheet was handed over, he had her drop an AoE spell right into the middle of where half the party was fighting with the bad guys. He reasoning? It is a Holy Smite spell. In her "fanatical" mind, if they weren't Good, they deserved to be fried. Yes. He turned a girl trying to find redemption into Miko Miyazaki!

Oh, and every game that he had ever DM'd is an Evil campaign.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2010, 07:32:02 AM by AndyJames »

ragincajun2288

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 478
  • I think I'm getting pretty good.
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #44 on: December 17, 2010, 01:24:50 AM »
Your post... :lmao
Playing Pingo, in The Artifact Prologue.

Running Dead Earth for my old table top group.

AndyJames

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 3112
  • Meep?
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #45 on: December 17, 2010, 07:58:22 AM »
Your post... :lmao
Yeah. Laugh it up. YOU weren't playing with these paragons of intellect for several years before you broke and basically told them all to go to hell, which was kinda sad since there was an innocent player in the mix (it was three of them, me and the innocent).

That said, looking back, it is kinda funny.

ragincajun2288

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 478
  • I think I'm getting pretty good.
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #46 on: December 17, 2010, 10:54:46 PM »
Hell it's hilarious.  ;)

Yeah too bad for the innocent though.
Playing Pingo, in The Artifact Prologue.

Running Dead Earth for my old table top group.

AndyJames

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 3112
  • Meep?
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #47 on: December 18, 2010, 11:55:52 PM »
I just remembered a couple more things for your entertainment pleasure:

R (also a sometimes DM) insists that 4 ranks in a skill is the equivalent of a university degree IRL. That means if you want to start (at level 1) with more than 3 ranks in more than 2 skills, you have to come up with a reason why. Also, if you want to raise a skill on level up, you have to justify it by saying you have either used it in the previous level a number of times he is satisfied with or some other reason.

In the incident where C dropped the Holy Smite bomb on the party, the premise of the story was that the country was under attack, and the party was a Dirty Dozen type of "trouble shooters" who were pulled out of jail to form this unit (hence why the DMPC seeking redemption was put in the party to begin with). So, "expecting the group to be Good" is more than a bit of a stretch.

Mixster

  • Grape ape
  • *****
  • Posts: 1642
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #48 on: December 20, 2010, 08:50:54 PM »
R (also a sometimes DM) insists that 4 ranks in a skill is the equivalent of a university degree IRL. That means if you want to start (at level 1) with more than 3 ranks in more than 2 skills, you have to come up with a reason why. Also, if you want to raise a skill on level up, you have to justify it by saying you have either used it in the previous level a number of times he is satisfied with or some other reason.

Well I guess the Scholar's Touch spell is useful for something after all.

Yeah, I do have a university degree in it. Probably a doctorate. Why? Well see this library of Knowledge Arcana. I read it. All of it. Yes it was only a good thorough reading of every book, thrice, not like I remember everything in there correctly, but I guess my insane intelligence makes up for that. You do know I'm more clever than the cleverest person to ever walk the earth, yeah.

---

As a DM I once had an entire level 1 party decide that hiding in a tent in the goblin village, that was suspended by ropes and a Huge Copper Moon (yeah they worshipped the moon), acting as a counterweight over a tree, but winding back over the tent was a good idea. Yes, they "hid" in the holy tent of the village, after the alarm had been sounding, and they could hear wolves/riding dogs in the distance.
Then they were confused how the three level 1 warrior goblins and their wolf mounts could win over them, when they started by dropping the tent and the copper moon on them.
Monks are pretty much the best designed class ever.

JaronK

Meep Meep - Mixster out

trappedslider

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 392
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #49 on: January 13, 2011, 01:27:28 AM »
This happened during a d20 modern game based on Half life:

The players had jsut ran out of ammo for thie weapons,and all they had were crowbar,wrench and a knife. The knife players opens a door an inche wide and looks like in. So i passed him a note letting him knwo what he saw so he could relay it to the others. The note said "you see 5 to 10 snark nest" http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Snark

Now the players have faced them before in low numbers like 5 or 10,but they had thire guns with them,so knife quickly and quitely closes the door and says to the others "GO THE OTHER WAY!" and an argument ensrues with crowbar not believing knife.

Crowbar decided to bash the door breaking it and setting off the snarks,which bum rush the players. Crowbar died.....
All the above statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in somesense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.


BoomStick

  • Monkey bussiness
  • *
  • Posts: 6
  • Monkeys! We're all Monkeys!
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #50 on: February 02, 2011, 06:13:28 PM »
I've never really had the problem of DUMB players.  Okay, one.  Which I will explain in a moment.  More, I've had problems with annoying players.  The only dumb player I ever had was in a Marvel Universe game.  He could shape-shift into this giant dragon thing.  He got trapped in a 10 by 10 forcefield.  He told me he'd shape-shift into his dragon form.  It was well over 10 x 10.  "Are you sure?"  He was asked this by me and all the other players.  Yep.  Dead dragon. 
"There are shakers, and there are movers.  You,sir, are NOT a shaker."

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #51 on: February 03, 2011, 01:00:11 AM »
^^
Didn't get a chance to burst it? Force fields being smashed by great strength is one of the expectations in a comic book setting.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

McPoyo

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 3783
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #52 on: February 03, 2011, 01:30:58 AM »
^^
Didn't get a chance to burst it? Force fields being smashed by great strength is one of the expectations in a comic book setting.
Not the ones I've read...
[Spoiler]
A gygaxian dungeon is like the world's most messed up game show.

Behind door number one: INSTANT DEATH!
Behind door number 2: A magic crown!
Behind door number 3: 4d6 giant bees, and THREE HUNDRED POUNDS OF HONEY!
They don't/haven't, was the point. 3.5 is as dead as people not liking nice tits.

Sometimes, their tits (3.5) get enhancements (houserules), but that doesn't mean people don't like nice tits.

Though sometimes, the surgeon (DM) botches them pretty bad...
Best metaphor I have seen in a long time.  I give you much fu.
Three Errata for the Mage-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Barbarian-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Monks doomed to die,
One for the Wizard on his dark throne
In the Land of Charop where the Shadows lie.
[/spoiler]

ragincajun2288

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 478
  • I think I'm getting pretty good.
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #53 on: February 03, 2011, 06:50:34 AM »
Not sure how that works in with the rules???
Playing Pingo, in The Artifact Prologue.

Running Dead Earth for my old table top group.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #54 on: February 03, 2011, 09:04:06 AM »
Not sure how that works in with the rules???
See the strength check to burst an enclosure while growing in 3.5?
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

Bozwevial

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 4497
  • Developing a relaxed attitude to danger.
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #55 on: February 03, 2011, 02:18:42 PM »
Not sure how that works in with the rules???
See the strength check to burst an enclosure while growing in 3.5?
Even if you fail, you just stop growing at that point, which I think was added to prevent players from trying to crush giant things to death by enlarging them.

ragincajun2288

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 478
  • I think I'm getting pretty good.
    • Email
Re: Dumb Players
« Reply #56 on: February 03, 2011, 11:26:13 PM »
Quote
Not sure how that works in with the rules???
Quote
See the strength check to burst an enclosure while growing in 3.5?
Quote
Even if you fail, you just stop growing at that point, which I think was added to prevent players from trying to crush giant things to death by enlarging them.

Oh, I think I got it now.
Playing Pingo, in The Artifact Prologue.

Running Dead Earth for my old table top group.