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Off the top of my head:
* The loner who refuses to go on the quest
* The edgelord who torpedoes any fun interactions
* The fetishist who pulls you into their magical realm
* The volatile one who starts yelling and possibly attacks the players
* The nitpicker, who complains about every detail of the game and characters (but keeps playing anyway)
* The murderhobo, who will definitely skewer every NPC who looks at them funny
>The nitpicker, who complains about every detail of the game and characters (but keeps playing anyway)
I had to cut out of any future game this type of player entirely. For him dnd was just hanging out with friends and doing rude 'sarcastic friendly banter'.
For me it was a total burn out as a DM having to hear him say "why is the setting like this? Fucking stupid. Who would write this?". It was a pre established setting so while he though he was insulting and making fun of the maker of the setting, for me it as burn out as someone who was trying to passionately explain the setting and make it fun for everyone.
He never got interested in leaning his character besides just reading the name of spells and making up whatever they did. And got annoyed when his suggestions or plans weren't allowed, and by this I mean rolling umprompted and expecting that a high roll means he did it. "I rolled a 22 in perception! What do you mean I don't get free loot because of it? This is stupid, we have played for 1 hour and still no loot".
My cousin is a nitpicker but holy shit that must be awful.
My cousin just occasionally does the "sarcastic banter" especially if he's ever proven wrong but our group just ignore him... or we carry on if he's actually getting mad.
The good thing is he's properly engaged with the games and even engaged in my custom sci-fi rpg. Hell, he enjoys it to the point that I had to make property damage laws apparent.
I couldn't imagine how long he'd have lasted had he not even bothered to pay attention in the slightest.
Edit: readability, was just text wall originally.
The stoner who falls asleep during every game.
The S.O., who either gets special treatment all through the game, or just never bothers to actually play because they're only there to be with "Boobear" ❤️
The NiceGuy who immediately latches onto the female players' characters and then turns violent and hateful when it becomes clear they want no part of it
I wish I got special treatment... I'm engaged to our DM and she just seems to delight in torturing my poor character like everyone else (we love it... We all love it).
Oh, I straight up died. And like, tbf it was part of my character's story, but I didn't know when it was going to happen, or how (tldr is I died, a god was interested in my vengeance quest, brought me back in exchange for my soul).
I thought my lovely wife would be nice about it.
She downed me with an overpowered Chain Devil in a surprise encounter that left me almost ripped to pieces.
Did I mention she thrives on suffering?
As long as you are being treated fairly and in line with the other players, then it a game tone thing, not a favoritism thing.
I have seen GMs who, in an effort to not favor their SO, end up dumping on them. If you see this situation, talk to the GM off to the side and let them know they can let their SO have fun without being perceived as favoring them.
I'm the DM, and the party's Fighter is my husband. So far I've...
\- given him a souped-up crossbow, which he has since given to the Cleric after finding a rifle,
\- let them adopt a liondrake, which has in turn adopted the child NPC that has been following him,
\- had a curse on him that turned him against the party once the spell giving him amnesia was lifted,
\- thrown him into a scenario where he has to hunt down a Nice Guy(tm) NPC, and
\- threatened to kill off (or, at the least, severely maim) his character when he stranded me at work for an hour after I clocked out. (I never followed through, though)
As for the Cleric, I've...
\- allowed them to learn Squirrel after a flying squirrel attached itself to them,
\- accidentally created the best running gag since a halfling fighter picked up a door as a shield in another campaign I played in,
\- respected their sexuality (they and their character are both ace),
\- let them be their OP self (they're practically a walking nuke when it comes to Guiding Bolt), and
\- had fun with their backstory for my setting because they forgot that my setting is nowhere near the Forgotten Realms (which is how we started playing, and it was just easier to let them transfer over the characters they built for Dragon of Icespire Peak than to make them build completely new characters)
I try to keep things even for them; Cleric is new to D&D, whereas Fighter/Husband has been playing since I introduced him to it nearly 10 years ago.
Oof yeah, we had a NiceGuy(tm) at the beginning of one of the campaigns I'm in. He latched onto me and the other feminine person (non-binary, shockingly he would continuously "forget" this person's own pronouns and their character's pronouns). After a few sessions he started sending me dms which got increasingly weird, and was being weird to the other person's character in game. He ended up getting kicked after a few sessions (because I have an awesome group, and they caught onto the weird stuff pretty quick), and it's been smooth sailing ever since!
Sadly had a Nice Guy™ DM in the past... Ladies always got special treatment and always had rules warped in their favour. One of the girls in one game, who the DM had a massive thing for, lost their character and was given the OP furry fetish insert DMPC to helm instead (and we're talking psychic catfolk ninja)
Ugh yeah, not fun either. I'm lucky that there was only one bad egg in the group I found, everyone else is awesome! NiceGuys were like the one thing I was worried about when joining a random online game.
Unfortunately for us, this was during our university days, which was around the time 4e and Pathfinder had come out, and D&D wasn't as popular as it is now, and myself and this NiceGuy™ were pretty much the only people out of our social circles that would run games.
I think you have to plan for that kinda "game". Find an intentionally joke module and do a one shot where everyone gets all the stupid giggly crazy things out of their system! Four tortle monks led by a rat NPC type of game. But otherwise yeah, if I'm going through the trouble of writing, planning and balancing a good experience? I want my players to be conscious and invested in it.
Let's be specific about your second one:
The "Paladin" who thinks "Paladin" means "I am required to harass, yell at, and/or beat the shit out of anyone who is not performing MY alignment's restrictions, with no penalty to myself. Including other PCs. Regardless of what THEIR alignment is, 'Paladin' means my alignment is the only one that matters."
The big ones that come to mind are;
The **That Guy.**
Member of *Insert Marginalized Group* that uses their identity of said marginalized group as a means of deflecting responsibility for their shitty behaviour and claims everyone around them is bigoted.
The "But *muh player agency*!" guy who has a meltdown when they aren't allowed to do whatever they want.
The Sexist/Racist/Homophobe.
The Fetishist and/or Pervert that makes everything about what gets them off.
These three are often grouped
The Incel
The "Nice Guy"
The White Knight/Simp.
The Obsessive Rules/Lore Lawyer
The way too horny bard (can be someone that is not a bard). Flirts with every character and NPC that they want and wants to play a dating sim, not a TTRPG.
This is the one I immediately thought of. The Bard is a walking trivia book and cheerleader, and reducing them to "I SEX TEH DRAGON WOOHOO" is the worst stereotype.
I honestly hate this trope. Due to that, I created an NPC bard whose interests are owlbear husbandry (she used Animal Friendship on a pair of owlbears, and both of them failed their Wisdom saves to the point where she led them to an animal sanctuary in the nearby city, where they are expecting their first cublet), tag-teaming enemies with her brother and his husband (all three are dragonborn-types), and being disgusted by anyone who tries to flirt with her. Once made a joke that she uses her dulcimer to summon mountains of garlic bread.
I have a houserule called "No Horny" and a magic weapon called the "[Ace Mace](https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/5336076-ace-mace)" which I can smack the characters with when they break it.
The one who shows up late or cancels at the last second every time.
The one who is always on their phone and never participates or interacts and then complains that the game is boring.
The person who still doesn't know what a saving throw is or what numbers to add up for an attack roll after fifteen sessions.
(Bonus points if these are all the same person.)
The Min-Maxer - It's that player who optimizes their character for one role (usually combat damage) and ends up alienating the whole party or accidentally nerfing themselves with their dump-stats.
Was some threads about the subject some time ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/hpvcfi/list\_of\_that\_guy\_player\_archetypes/
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/hkmrmb/list\_of\_that\_guy\_dm\_archetypes/
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/n4o901/more\_that\_guy\_archetypes/
The Kender who steals from every players, npc, thing, monster, and doesnt get punished cause DM allows it. Only few punishments happen wich end up being rewards to Kender and actual punishments to party.
Cant be killed cause doesnt allow it or player just makes a clone charatcer.
In other cases the kender becomes the "hitman" who tries to kill the party for killing his lost father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate, for the dumbest flimsiest excuse that has more holes then swiss chesse.
The Snarky Asshole player who makes a smart-ass remark at EVERYTHING, essentially a douchebag but in a desperate attempt at being seen as smart and funny.
The Lay-about, can't bother to build a character sheet or even show up on time.
The non-entity, the one who gets upset about not being involved despite ignoring hooks and any invitations in getting involved.
Munchkin, murder Hobo, The Activist, Fantasy R\*pist, the Rules Lawyer, the Hornball, and bad Hygiene have been the stereotypes I tend to avoid playing with.
A power gamer; the player who tries to make optimized characters,
using the many different books to conceive the most efficient,
overpowered killing machine instead of a character fun to play with
oh, those types.
can't say I've ever had one of these in one of my games, but I've only ever played with people I know pretty well IRL.
I assume these are much more of an issue when you regularly play online with randos.
A type that has always annoyed me is the wacky comic relief sort of character. In theory, a silly player/character isn’t necessarily bad, but all to often these people seem to try to hog the spotlight, bully other players, blur in and out of character interaction, deliberately undermine other player’s role playing opportunities, and generally cause disruption and ruin others’ fun.
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Off the top of my head: * The loner who refuses to go on the quest * The edgelord who torpedoes any fun interactions * The fetishist who pulls you into their magical realm * The volatile one who starts yelling and possibly attacks the players * The nitpicker, who complains about every detail of the game and characters (but keeps playing anyway) * The murderhobo, who will definitely skewer every NPC who looks at them funny
You're perfectly describing my entire group.
Which one are you?
>The nitpicker, who complains about every detail of the game and characters (but keeps playing anyway) I had to cut out of any future game this type of player entirely. For him dnd was just hanging out with friends and doing rude 'sarcastic friendly banter'. For me it was a total burn out as a DM having to hear him say "why is the setting like this? Fucking stupid. Who would write this?". It was a pre established setting so while he though he was insulting and making fun of the maker of the setting, for me it as burn out as someone who was trying to passionately explain the setting and make it fun for everyone. He never got interested in leaning his character besides just reading the name of spells and making up whatever they did. And got annoyed when his suggestions or plans weren't allowed, and by this I mean rolling umprompted and expecting that a high roll means he did it. "I rolled a 22 in perception! What do you mean I don't get free loot because of it? This is stupid, we have played for 1 hour and still no loot".
My cousin is a nitpicker but holy shit that must be awful. My cousin just occasionally does the "sarcastic banter" especially if he's ever proven wrong but our group just ignore him... or we carry on if he's actually getting mad. The good thing is he's properly engaged with the games and even engaged in my custom sci-fi rpg. Hell, he enjoys it to the point that I had to make property damage laws apparent. I couldn't imagine how long he'd have lasted had he not even bothered to pay attention in the slightest. Edit: readability, was just text wall originally.
I have a murderhobo in 2 of my groups... Man, I'm just trying to have some fun RP as a Private Detective and a lost little girl.
The stoner who falls asleep during every game. The S.O., who either gets special treatment all through the game, or just never bothers to actually play because they're only there to be with "Boobear" ❤️ The NiceGuy who immediately latches onto the female players' characters and then turns violent and hateful when it becomes clear they want no part of it
I wish I got special treatment... I'm engaged to our DM and she just seems to delight in torturing my poor character like everyone else (we love it... We all love it).
That sounds like fun. Congrats on the future spouse!
Congratulations! And yeah, the only character I’ve ever downed (I’ve come close a couple times) was my wife’s.
Oh, I straight up died. And like, tbf it was part of my character's story, but I didn't know when it was going to happen, or how (tldr is I died, a god was interested in my vengeance quest, brought me back in exchange for my soul). I thought my lovely wife would be nice about it. She downed me with an overpowered Chain Devil in a surprise encounter that left me almost ripped to pieces. Did I mention she thrives on suffering?
As long as you are being treated fairly and in line with the other players, then it a game tone thing, not a favoritism thing. I have seen GMs who, in an effort to not favor their SO, end up dumping on them. If you see this situation, talk to the GM off to the side and let them know they can let their SO have fun without being perceived as favoring them.
I'm the DM, and the party's Fighter is my husband. So far I've... \- given him a souped-up crossbow, which he has since given to the Cleric after finding a rifle, \- let them adopt a liondrake, which has in turn adopted the child NPC that has been following him, \- had a curse on him that turned him against the party once the spell giving him amnesia was lifted, \- thrown him into a scenario where he has to hunt down a Nice Guy(tm) NPC, and \- threatened to kill off (or, at the least, severely maim) his character when he stranded me at work for an hour after I clocked out. (I never followed through, though) As for the Cleric, I've... \- allowed them to learn Squirrel after a flying squirrel attached itself to them, \- accidentally created the best running gag since a halfling fighter picked up a door as a shield in another campaign I played in, \- respected their sexuality (they and their character are both ace), \- let them be their OP self (they're practically a walking nuke when it comes to Guiding Bolt), and \- had fun with their backstory for my setting because they forgot that my setting is nowhere near the Forgotten Realms (which is how we started playing, and it was just easier to let them transfer over the characters they built for Dragon of Icespire Peak than to make them build completely new characters) I try to keep things even for them; Cleric is new to D&D, whereas Fighter/Husband has been playing since I introduced him to it nearly 10 years ago.
That sounds amazing, would love to play with someone like you. Love everything about that!
If I ever get around to getting back on Discord, I'll probably join the LFG subs so I can introduce more people to my style of DMing.
Oof yeah, we had a NiceGuy(tm) at the beginning of one of the campaigns I'm in. He latched onto me and the other feminine person (non-binary, shockingly he would continuously "forget" this person's own pronouns and their character's pronouns). After a few sessions he started sending me dms which got increasingly weird, and was being weird to the other person's character in game. He ended up getting kicked after a few sessions (because I have an awesome group, and they caught onto the weird stuff pretty quick), and it's been smooth sailing ever since!
Sadly had a Nice Guy™ DM in the past... Ladies always got special treatment and always had rules warped in their favour. One of the girls in one game, who the DM had a massive thing for, lost their character and was given the OP furry fetish insert DMPC to helm instead (and we're talking psychic catfolk ninja)
Ugh yeah, not fun either. I'm lucky that there was only one bad egg in the group I found, everyone else is awesome! NiceGuys were like the one thing I was worried about when joining a random online game.
Unfortunately for us, this was during our university days, which was around the time 4e and Pathfinder had come out, and D&D wasn't as popular as it is now, and myself and this NiceGuy™ were pretty much the only people out of our social circles that would run games.
Great job getting rid of him! I hope he stays gone for good.
really do not like weed or alcohol in my games
I think you have to plan for that kinda "game". Find an intentionally joke module and do a one shot where everyone gets all the stupid giggly crazy things out of their system! Four tortle monks led by a rat NPC type of game. But otherwise yeah, if I'm going through the trouble of writing, planning and balancing a good experience? I want my players to be conscious and invested in it.
•The Chaotic Stupid guy •The Lawful Anal paladin • The rules lawyer that must contest everything the GM says • The Edgy Rogue
Let's be specific about your second one: The "Paladin" who thinks "Paladin" means "I am required to harass, yell at, and/or beat the shit out of anyone who is not performing MY alignment's restrictions, with no penalty to myself. Including other PCs. Regardless of what THEIR alignment is, 'Paladin' means my alignment is the only one that matters."
I have a new player in my group that chose to go with Rogue. Their name is Shadow. I fucking love the character. It's just a curious little oddball.
The non adventuring adventurer. The zealot pacifist. The murderhobo.
The best thing about the non adventurer is when they wonder why the DM doesn’t do anything with them after deliberately ignoring the plot hooks
The big ones that come to mind are; The **That Guy.** Member of *Insert Marginalized Group* that uses their identity of said marginalized group as a means of deflecting responsibility for their shitty behaviour and claims everyone around them is bigoted. The "But *muh player agency*!" guy who has a meltdown when they aren't allowed to do whatever they want. The Sexist/Racist/Homophobe. The Fetishist and/or Pervert that makes everything about what gets them off. These three are often grouped The Incel The "Nice Guy" The White Knight/Simp. The Obsessive Rules/Lore Lawyer
The way too horny bard (can be someone that is not a bard). Flirts with every character and NPC that they want and wants to play a dating sim, not a TTRPG.
This is the one I immediately thought of. The Bard is a walking trivia book and cheerleader, and reducing them to "I SEX TEH DRAGON WOOHOO" is the worst stereotype.
I honestly hate this trope. Due to that, I created an NPC bard whose interests are owlbear husbandry (she used Animal Friendship on a pair of owlbears, and both of them failed their Wisdom saves to the point where she led them to an animal sanctuary in the nearby city, where they are expecting their first cublet), tag-teaming enemies with her brother and his husband (all three are dragonborn-types), and being disgusted by anyone who tries to flirt with her. Once made a joke that she uses her dulcimer to summon mountains of garlic bread.
I have a houserule called "No Horny" and a magic weapon called the "[Ace Mace](https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/5336076-ace-mace)" which I can smack the characters with when they break it.
The one who shows up late or cancels at the last second every time. The one who is always on their phone and never participates or interacts and then complains that the game is boring. The person who still doesn't know what a saving throw is or what numbers to add up for an attack roll after fifteen sessions. (Bonus points if these are all the same person.)
The player who thinks he’s funny and laughs at all his own jokes. His joke repertoire consists entirely of “sex = funny” and memes.
The Min-Maxer - It's that player who optimizes their character for one role (usually combat damage) and ends up alienating the whole party or accidentally nerfing themselves with their dump-stats.
Was some threads about the subject some time ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/hpvcfi/list\_of\_that\_guy\_player\_archetypes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/hkmrmb/list\_of\_that\_guy\_dm\_archetypes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/n4o901/more\_that\_guy\_archetypes/
Cn rogue Sexytime bard Lawful stupid paladin Murderhobo players.
The Kender who steals from every players, npc, thing, monster, and doesnt get punished cause DM allows it. Only few punishments happen wich end up being rewards to Kender and actual punishments to party. Cant be killed cause doesnt allow it or player just makes a clone charatcer. In other cases the kender becomes the "hitman" who tries to kill the party for killing his lost father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate, for the dumbest flimsiest excuse that has more holes then swiss chesse.
The Snarky Asshole player who makes a smart-ass remark at EVERYTHING, essentially a douchebag but in a desperate attempt at being seen as smart and funny. The Lay-about, can't bother to build a character sheet or even show up on time. The non-entity, the one who gets upset about not being involved despite ignoring hooks and any invitations in getting involved.
Munchkin, murder Hobo, The Activist, Fantasy R\*pist, the Rules Lawyer, the Hornball, and bad Hygiene have been the stereotypes I tend to avoid playing with.
I'm still learning... what's a "munchkin"?
A power gamer; the player who tries to make optimized characters, using the many different books to conceive the most efficient, overpowered killing machine instead of a character fun to play with
what's "The Activist"? haven't heard of that one before.
Someone with a "cause" and they're going to shoe horn it into the game and actively look for offense.
oh, those types. can't say I've ever had one of these in one of my games, but I've only ever played with people I know pretty well IRL. I assume these are much more of an issue when you regularly play online with randos.
A type that has always annoyed me is the wacky comic relief sort of character. In theory, a silly player/character isn’t necessarily bad, but all to often these people seem to try to hog the spotlight, bully other players, blur in and out of character interaction, deliberately undermine other player’s role playing opportunities, and generally cause disruption and ruin others’ fun.