One of my main flags I have found is the player that comes in and says they are gonna be the "leader/main character" during the interview process... saying things will change and they will make "good" decisions for the party. I am sorry, but party dynamics are too important for D&D to be destroyed by one of these people.
Yeah. But then again, you could make this a game mechanic: If they make a genuinely good decision (one made with the input of the party, that benefits as many people as reasonable, and causes the least problems), they get advantage on their next roll. Just a small one, of course, but still. On the other hand, bad decisions could give disadvantage. Basically, if a player wants to be a leader, then teach them to be a good one.
The thing with good leaders is that while they often make decisions, they are also responsible for everyone they are working with. I had a leader character who generally made it his thing for his squad to operate the best they could be, but also regularly inquired and had a Jedi commander (another pc who definitely wasn’t a leader character, but was highest rank by virtue of being a Jedi) that he regularly checked in with before implementing his schemes. Dillinger really died too soon. Though yeah, people who think they are good at making decisions usually aren’t. That dynamic needs a lot of respect.
That really only works if everybody is on-board with it. D4: Deep Dive recently did a Commander character build that was built around giving the rest of the party extra attacks, extra movement, advantage, etc. that looked pretty fun, which could work with that group dynamic.
@@Kartoffelkamm No. Absolutely not. This person just announced with a bullhorn that they don't give a crap about the group. It's all about them. Get rid of them
Going with Ailius on this one... I know it's an old thread... BUT there's a fine point to make. O.P. (Tyler up there) specified that this "Problem Player" said this "during the interview" as in that interview many of us GM's have with a Player BEFORE they even enter our Game... A good leader is also a GREAT follower. That's about the most sage advice I can give... AND if you need an example, Go check out a bunch of the short "What to do with a bad boss" themed videos on Jocko Willink's channel. Jocko is a retired Navy Seal, and he'll explain how he gets his ideas out to an obstinate boss figure so the BOSS thinks he thought of them, himself... Usually by asking questions and pointing out details... Rather than doling out a big exposition about how he's wrong and Jocko knows better and what "better" really is. BUT go and listen to it. You'll understand how "side-stepping" the confrontation can turn others around to better decisions and actions, and not stall out the whole conversation into a shouting or pissing match... and we DO NOT NEED the rulers out to measure d*cks at the Gaming Table!! NOBODY likes being told "what their problem is"... We hate that as much as someone "psychoanalyzing us" even if they're correct in every word they say (which they won't be as a general rule)... SO no... A Player that INTERVIEWS with "I'll be the leader you didn't ask for but needed this whole time" ALREADY told you s/he has "Main Character Syndrome" in just as many words. BOOT, meet ASS. ASS, this is BOOT... ;o)
This is just a long series of red flags that I’m going to tell with a story. I have a friend that rolled up a rogue with the criminal background. He then proceeded to add every flaw from the criminal background, so bad start already. He then consistently stole from the party, going as far as stealing one of the other members newly acquired magic weapons and burying it somewhere random. That character was later killed by us after he became a massive terrorist and destroyed nearly half of a city, killing countless people. Thankfully, that friend did realize what he did wrong, in fact he did far before that, technically it was the DM using his character as a villain at that point. His next character was an oath of glory paladin, so he managed to turn himself around in the end and we are still playing in that same campaign together.
A character with every single criminal flaw sounds like an awesome RP character. Obviously what happened in your story is unfortunate, but having a character who's goal is to overcome their flaws, using adventure as an excuse to begin, is super cool
Not gonna lie, your friend's rogue character would have been a very good Big Bad Evil Guy. Considering how he traveled with the party from the very beginning, he would have known everything they could do and viseversa. Hell, considering how he became a terrorist and destroyed nearly half of a city and killed possibly thousands of people, I'd say he had done a good job of it in the end.
Had the exact same scenario play out. One of my players (against instruction) created a Chaotic Evil Rogue as his first PC in my first campaign. He was incredibly disruptive, mugging people, killing, stealing and poisoning the city's grain supply for literally no reason. The dude practically turned into a backstabbing villain by the end and got his entire party killed including himself. When we continued the campaign and everyone went to their backup character he made the most good hearted down to Earth paladin. It isn't a red flag if you manage to turn into a fun story at the end I suppose.
Had a friend once that started off being hated by everyone else in our game. Then one day my SO was b*tching about the player and I just asked him a simple question. "Have you noticed that when you point out X behavior annoys you he appoligizes and tries to change his behavior?" My SO had NOT noticed, but he did from then on. I asked my other friends at the table the same question, and they too looked at the player with a different light. That one question helped the player to become my friend and the friend of everyone else at the table. I'm not saying this is always the case with problem players, because there are plenty of examples of people who actually are jerks. Just important to remember that sometimes, people just have poor socialization skills, but if they show a willingness to learn and improve themselves, then it doesn't hurt to take a bit of time to help them learn to NOT be THAT PLAYER. Again, I know this is an exception, but it's still an important one to look out for, especially among younger players.
Oh aye. Sometimes we make mistakes out of eagerness, but sometimes we just need to be a little more patient and not be so quick to pigeonhole folk. Communication is key in both life and roleplaying
Red flag; Chaotic Evil Bards. I have had about 12 people try to run one. Every single one of them has turned into a murder hobo and not the fun kind. The last one I remember was so obnoxious the 2 druids in the party used create/destroy earth to make a 5ft wide 30ft deep hole in the ground to bury the player while he slept. Then the bugbear in the party lifted a 200lb rock and placed it over the hole. The bard demanded I do something; so I told him if he could roll out of it I might. He lost his shit and was never heard from again. PS Spoiler; Next season Im bringing his character back as a Litch because he had secretly stolen part of the mcguffin for the up coming season
@@douglasdiggins8296 the mcguffin piece is the lore reason for him coming back; he had a piece of a staff they will need to open a puzzle in the bbe dungeon and while i could just let it be i think it would be more fun to let the players have some pay back. To this day he comes up in their campfire talks. So i figure to sooth their characters trauma (which this guy did a number on them); let them give him his just rewards and be rewarded for it. I might include some extras it depends on how much side content they do.
I generally don't allow people to run CE characters very few people understand what it means because their are so few examples of people behaving like that in real life.
@@larrydotson2625 Being CE doesn't mean murderhoboing everything within reach. Such a character is insane, not necessarily CE. Everyone has motivations for what they do and preferred methods, based on experience, training, intelligence and how averse they are to risk. There are two general things to remember about CE though; maliciousness (evil) and a total lack of ethics (chaotic). They will do what's best for them and that is the only consideration. The vast majority of the time, this does NOT include slaughtering everyone they meet or betraying the party at every turn. Doing so is actually against the character's best interests. Not to say that a CE character won't engage in a spot of murder or betray a party member if it serves their interests. They will likely have ZERO second thoughts about doing so when they need to, in spite of any ties they may have to whatever victim in question. It's also important to point out that what the character sees as being in their best interests is likely to change regularly (just as with any chaotic character) but there must be a reason for this. It's not like they see a sign with red paint on it and go "Oh, time to go murder a child".
Dms whose primary goal is to kill players. Had one of those for my very first game and he went out of his way to target me because I was new. Thankfully, an awesome player at the table (our barbarian) took me under his wing and saved my ass more than once during that mini campaign. Our dm technicallyyyy failed to kill anyone, but during his campaign wrap up he did “kill off” one of the characters by having her get possessed by the spirit of the BBEG. She played really smart and managed to take very little to no damage the entire campaign so he wanted to get back at her 🙄 that campaign was his last with us before he moved and I’m not sad about it
this one always baffles me. I think it might be a cultural thing with D&D specifically where the culture since the early days has developed this weird adversarial mindset, but it doesn't make sense. it's not much of a fun story if your players get crushed every time and you counter any attempt they make to do anything. even if you're going for a grim tone, it's kind of boring if you end up having everything contrive to crush them without exception.
@@Graknorke I’ve had a few dms since then and I’m happy to report he was the only one who did that. I don’t want to bash on the guy too harshly, he had some cool ideas and the way he set the scenes got me invested for sure! He made me want to carry on to the end so we could solve the mystery of what was killing everyone. I think the biggest issue was he just seemed to be unwilling to work with us or our ideas because he wanted us to fail. It got super frustrating. To be clear; totally okay with dms killing players. Would totally have been okay losing my character. I just don’t like that I was being targeted. If he’d asked me or if it had been something that just sort of happened naturally, I would have happily played along. I just don’t understand why anyone would make it their goal to get a TPK. If killing a character is “fun” it’s because of the emotional impact. Everything about it is cheapened when that’s literally all you do.
my red flags are when someone believes they have to act a certain way because of their class (looking at you rogues "i have to steal stuff from the party cause im a rogue") and people who bring way to much sexuality to a game without bringing it up before hand (played/playing with someone whos first thing they do is yell out "i roll to seduce the mayor" and then roll expecting the DM to allow it. luckily they rolled a nat 1.)
Let them roll. A 20 and the mayor thinks its a funny joke, roll low and now their are weird rumors to spread and a mayor who doesn't want to talk to that player.
@@FrostTurnip the DM is super fresh and young which isnt bad (im not the DM) but a problem player taking advantage of young inexperienced DM is probably gonna be a big problem
I had a DM that planned to play Monday at 12:00 over discord, but that dm over booked and went and did something els while we the players tried contacting them, finally like an hour or so later they messaged us and said “sorry, I was doing something” but didn’t think to let us know that the game was canceled. I had canceled plans with friends to play. Little off topic but that same person will say they can play video games in a few minutes when I ask if they wanna play THEN they will ignore me for the rest of the day.
Red flag player: stealing from the party. Had a rogue who would do it so often to me and another character and only us. When the other player asked him to stop the rogue told him to roll to catch him before telling the DM he was going to take the other guy's weapon. At one point we had to hold the other guy back from punching the rogue who was sitting there smugly. That is why I ban it from my table. Red flag DM: punishing players for choosing race or classes you don't like. My very first character was an elf ranger and the DM hated elves but never said it until my character got thrown out of town and was told he wasn't allowed to buy anything.
Gonna have to disagree partially about the character race thing: one of the key points of the race system should be that certain interactions and paths forward are gated to at least some extent for different races, thereby having to overcome these challenges expands the potential for role play and character growth. However there is a right and a wrong way to approach this, and it can be a slippery slope and even turn into a heated topic. Just being malicious towards certain races just because the DM doesn't like them is unjustifiable, especially if the DM didn't give any heads up beforehand. That's not cool.
This. Unless you get consent from the group in session zero it's an absolute no go area for me. I'll warn once but then they're out. I really dislike how Critical Role has seemingly made this a thing. So many players do it now because it's apparently "fun" (and yes they say "because Crit Role does it!" when you call them on it)
One of the red flags I've noticed, specifically in DMs are those that go on long dialogues between two NPCs and long descriptions, even making actions for the player, like opening a door. If you want to write a book write a book.
Red flags I've found as both player and DM. 1.) They try to make their idealized self in game (turns them rolling a failure into a personal attack.) 2.) Not bothering to ask about the world, and what sort of things are in it or what various cultures are like. Example, the Drow in my setting, by the point I do most campaigns, are effectively the First Estate of France. Instead of asking what the Drow of my world were like. This gal rocks up with a Drow Matriarch claiming to be the daughter of Lolth. A NPC I had with the party, who was an expert on Elven gods simply asked "What is a Lolth?" 3.) If they can't leave their irl politics (left, right, center, I do not care so long as it isn't at my table) out of my game. I'm not going to let you play (insert preferred horrible regime here) personified. No, you can't make one dice roll to try and start a revolution. No, the king doesn't care that you think his economics are bad, he is only talking to you people so you'll go kill a monster for gold. In my experience, tankies are the worst about this, but your mileage may vary. 4.) Will not communicate plans with the DM, especially big elaborate plans with a specific goal in mind. I don't care what you think should happen, I can't implement it unless you tell me before hand. 5.) Does not listen to what is going on with other players.
I had a couple of players way back who were notorious for 4 and 5, like we'd schedule session zeros for character creation, goals, what were the expectations for the game, what kind of style of game (dungeon crawls, open ended, sand box or pre written module) stuff like that, but they would routinely show up with ready made characters, usually related to each other and part of some covent they've already created, or factions and npcs, so it was always next to impossible to get any group cohesion or reason all the players would have any reason to actually be a group in game
Yeah, 3 can be a huge ditch to deal with. And yeah, the tankies have been the worst of it for me. Rather than ban the commie characters tho, I allow them.....but their alignment is locked to LE, regardless of whatever else they do. A puppy loving, humanitarian, pacifist, truly gentle soul who has never even thought of hurting another person? Sounds Neutral Good to me. ...who is also a communist or socialist? Lawful Evil it is then. Has absolutely zero impact on the game mechanics and alignment isn't even something I bring up unless its used to describe an Outsider, but for some reason, it seems to be a deal breaker for the tankies.
@@TheDarkdoomfulI mean calling socialists “lawful evil” shows hilarious lack of knowledge on what socialists are like. But tankies are just fascists and deserved to be messed with. They can call themselves whatever they want, their actions speak louder than words.
DMPCs. I am always wary of a DM who insists on having a DMPC in the group. We had one DM who would insist on their high level character joining the party, then either they would do nothing as ‘they wanted to see how the characters coped’ normally this would end with them having to step in as each encounter was tailored for the high level DMPC, or the whole scenario would just be a matter of watching just how ‘amazing’ this DMPC was, at everything. Another DM would also put a DMPC in the group, but always with the intention of betraying the group, of course being a DMPC they automaticity knew the answers to any puzzles and were always one or more steps ahead of us. Our group turned into murder hobos, any NPC that asked to join the group was likely to be stabbed in the back while sleeping.
I feel you there. My friend and I where in a group previously where the dm had a massively homebrewed campaign. We were supposed to be high ranking members of the military in a kingdom, but he had a bunch of DMPCs as well. Almost every time we dod something, whether we succeeded or failed, they would condescendingly point out every mistake we made, or belittle our every action. We left that group after things further degraded.
Some DMs think this high level character is supposed to be super cool to the players, but most players just resent a high level DMPC. If they're allies from a distance, it's fine. If they're in the party, they're stealing the spotlight from the players and giving it to the DM who is already in control of everything.
In my opinion a DMPC can work, my first DM, my dad, did multiple in the parties we ran with, and what he would do is leave most of the decision making to us, but do his own rolls and character design, basically the only time he would actively play his character was in combat situations that we weren't doing super well in, and he ran an interesting character build for one of them which I thought was cool, TL;DR: DMPCS can work in a semi passive roll.
I ran with a DM who put a DMPC in, but she ran a no-level system that put him on equal footing with the others no matter what (you "leveled" with what amounted to standard and then custom feats rather than scaling levels). She also was absolutely brutal to him, and even crippled him in order to alert people to a trap-happy BBEG and get them leading themselves. So, it depends on the DM.
This goes on both the DM and player side: but, when it's clear that neither has done any planning ahead: either with Player Characters (PC) or with the world build and are just BSing things on the day of. I once tried to join with a random group, DM thought of a singular adventure hook, but, not any of the steps to get there, they also didn't have a session 0, and assumed potential newcomers would be fully ready with characters and wouldn't need help making/balancing characters. Things quickly turned into a mess.
When a player ignores the first line of a spell. "So I'm going to try to cast this silently from a distance." "Is that how it works?" "I think so" "Let me see" Spell: "You speak a single word to a creature that can hear you..."
Looking at the player who wanted to "roll for" everything, ever notice how those players ALSO never seem to roll a 4 when seeing if they find the +2 armor or whatever?
I have the pleasure of playing with real life friends. Each one who joined was a great adition and each one who left for their reasons we were sad to se them go. I don't know redd flags as I love every player I had at "my" table. Thank you guys, you'r the best group I could ever wish for.
This one’s a pretty normal red flag, but players who will attempt to seduce everyone and everything in their path. For the love of god, it may be a fantasy game, but that doesn’t mean you can live out those kinds of fantasies.
Shitty character idea: Oath of Conquest Changeling paladin who worships a fertility goddess. Views literally every living thing as a "Conquest" to be made.
The most I got into that was a warforged fighter who was rather naive and left an...appendage...on that his creator had given him because he liked the looks and attention he got from people. He was regularly confused by the ones who kept asking if he was "fully functional". Very fun character to play.
This is the first time I played in a DnD group, so my red flags weren't about the game, but about how the DM treated the group. The game itself was fun, which is the only reason the group lasted so long. However, the DM was a complete narcissist, and I mean clinically. My first big Red Flag was that he would completely deny things that he did. He'd manipulate people, start fights, and then when he was called out on it, just say that he never said/did that. Very much like a certain President we all know and hate. He even went from dating one woman (my best friend) to sleeping with another (mutual friend) and acting like everybody was totally aware of what was going on and it was no big deal. I knew my best friend, and I was pretty sure that he did not inform her that they were no longer dating when we found out that he was now living with this other friend. He was very controlling of our time, as well, demanding that we all be at (his now girlfriend's) house at 7 pm, but sitting on his couch playing Halo until at least 10. He often insisted on playing until 3 or 4 am. Also, we played 3-4 times a week, at his call. If we brought food, because we knew we were going to be there for hours, he'd ask why we didn't bring food for everybody. We were all unemployed at the time and having a pretty hard time finding time to look for work with our grueling DnD schedule. He did bring the manipulation into the game, my friend was very attached to her animal companions and he'd constantly threaten to do horrible things to them, just to see her squirm. My character was a Halfling Rogue and he kept guiding her to be dark and evil, giving her magical items that were Loth adjacent (I had no idea who Loth even was at the time) spiderweb cloak, sacrificial dagger, etc. I finally had enough of this guy when he made friends with a fellow narcissist and the guy would be his mini-me. Sitting next to "the boss" and just shit-talking everybody in the room at will. Then saying it was "just a joke" if anybody complained. I started to question why I was even tolerating this and one day just stood up and left, permanently. It was probably another 10 years before I was willing to try DnD again.
When I am trying to put together session zero/get basic character details so i can actually finalise how their character fits in the campaign, just going totally silent and not responding. For weeks.
I'm officially making the "DM that cancels for months resulting in roughly 1 or 2 sessions per month for a game that was supposed to be weekly" a Red Flag. Honestly, it just seemed like he didn't want to run the campaign. He always had some WILD excuse (family member in the hospital, family member bit by a vampire, people hit the power pole outside our house, work rescheduled consult with god on a certain day, my brother has to do a thing with a thing). We as players stuck around with this DM for a year because when we DID play, games were fantastic. (Usually.) Eventually everyone quit when he suddenly reappeared after 4 months of cancellations saying, "Well since most of the others quit, how about we run a pathfinder campaign?" Which, to add more context, was something he kept mentioning as a desire to run during the D&D campaign. He was notorious for going on half an hour or longer rambles or conversations during our rare sessions of playtime. Sometimes a cumulative two hours or more of a game session would be just him talking about anything and everything and not running the game we were there for. I'm not against side conversation but it started to feel like a waste of time very often and it wouldn't be so bad if we played more sessions consistently to begin with. Which reminds me that he would ALSO cut some sessions short by an hour or two at random with some excuse (i.e. "my throat hurts" or "family member has explosive shits" or "the car is barking"). Anyway. I was okay with the concept of playing Pathfinder with him because he was a Great DM when we WOULD have games... but all we did was a session 0 before he vanished again. I'm never going to his table again and if I see similar behavior out of another DM I'm leaving sooner rather than later. Respect my time or I'm out.
Playing a pirate campaign and I'm a sea singer bard. The captain asked me to come along to sell something cause I had the highest charisma then proceeded to ignore my opinion on how to sell said item and just did it himself.
whenever the DM is telling the story but issuing no opportunity for character interaction: i was playing a Warhammer variant TTRPG via discord: i remember partying with 2 other player, the DM was describing the lore and why we were their, we had just been dropped to an LZ: and right before we had any opportunity to talk to eachother as our characters the DM basically said "you two head into the nearby bunker" no plan, no introductions, we just walked in, didn't even get an opportunity to discuss how our characters even knew eachother. glad I'm now with other people. mainly playing DnD 5E
I'm a little embarrassed to admit it but I used to be like some of the people mentioned in this vid, this was back when I was only just getting into DnD and wasn't overly familiar with most of the rules. I wasn't trying to be a bad person but my lack of knowledge created some issues with the group I was playing with every now and then, Thankfully both the DM and the Group i played with were very nice and helped explain anything I didn't quite understand. I've been playing with this group for just over 2 years now and I've been having a blast with them.
I once had a player who would hardly participate in anything except when it came to making plans on how to handle situations, mostly it was just him telling players what to do (which he would do above table and not even in character which often led to meta gaming). Whenever he did have attention on him he would often start backseat dming and start calling for rolls from other players. On top of all of this he was very unreliable. I held voting each week for my players so we can all come to an agreement on which day we will play and he would only vote last minute or not at all. This would often have us questioning if he would be attending most weeks. After an unrelated heated discussion he just stopped showing up altogether.
The unreliable player bit did hit me, being someone who unfortunately is *always* busy. I always wanted to play, but I would really love to actually have the time to do so for once.
Player that constantly tried to be the “main character” and even went as far as to attempt to enslave another players character… he also did everything he could to horde AC items and any magical item found while playing. Even attempting to steal gold from the party at times
As a DM in my personal friend group... have done so for 6 years at this point... Due to various situations sometimes I have a player leave a group or want to have a new player join the group... A thing that I have done ever since my very first game (I DMed for 3 of my closest friends) is following a certain rule set for who can get into my games. Rule 1- The two vouch rule, a new player must be known and vouched for by at least two people in my trust circle for me to entertain the thought of inviting them to my game. Rule 2 - The veto rule, once someone has 2 vouches, through private messages, I let my other players know that a new player is being proposed, the name of the potential new player, and ask if they have any issues with this person who has been vouched for joining in the game at this time allowing players to veto a new player joining... for me playing personal games with friends I know irl, or extended friend groups (friends of some of my other friends) it works well and has prevented people who do not mesh with my group from playing at my table and causing issues. (a good person/player can still cause problems if they do not jive well with everyone else.)
I had a player that started out great but over time he got more and more violent in game (attacking before talking, killing without considering other options, and blatant torture for information). He told me out of game after a particularly brutal one-shot (in which his actions led to a TPK) that he had a lot of violent thoughts and feelings towards people that he works with and D&D was his way to get those feelings out without “really hurting someone”. I haven’t played with him since.
One I think I’ll be holding onto is when the GM states one of their home rules (as in they do this in all their games for this system: 5E) is that any roll that results in a negative modifier, the entire party suffers. Worse so if it was a Nat 1.
Honestly my huge red flag is when player is angry at me because of consequences ( I specifically told them that every action has consequences) For example.: he wants to steal money from everyone and after a while of stealing he was surprised that he has a lot of money but... no merchants or smiths to trade with. Every NPC after 3 thefts left the town. These players just cant handle when something is not going how they want...
The one time I played D&D with a group was 1986 with a group of my shipmates. We holed up for a weekend in an unoccupied berthing on an aircraft carrier that was in the yards. The DM PK'd me first round of the first encounter, no saving throws and refused to allow me to roll a new character. I caught the hint, left and never asked to play again. Instead focused on my watch station qualifications as an Engine room mechanic on said aircraft carrier. Most all my knowledge of D&D comes from playing Neverwinter Nights 2, and the Neverwinter ARPG on PC. WoW is my current primary fantasy entertainment.
Love this content, super sick so its nice to listen to these in the background when resting. Also my red flags are people who put minimal effort into backstories. One player I have's backstory is 12 words.
Big one for me that's come up recently is controlling behaviour. The player who never likes anyone else's ideas, has to have the final say on who gets loot (or usually insists on controlling the party loot), doesn't like chaotic behaviour and wants to talk everything through (ie until everyone agrees with their idea), the one who pouts when things don't go their way, keeps giving other players suggestions on what they should do or is condescending when someone does something well. These are often overlooked as small things but they can really bring the group down if left unchecked. Basically, if you feel it's just "easier" to give them what they want so they're happy, kick them out. They might be 'happy' for all of five minutes but I can assure you, the rest of the group is starting to regret signing up. Another one is people who fail to recognise selfishness and entitlement as evil traits. I know a lot of people don't really give a crap about alignments, and whilst I don't expect everyone to stick to them like glue, I do think they matter. To the point where if you keep treating people, especially other party members, like crap, I'm going to apply a neutral or evil alignment to your character accordingly. No amount of persuasion rolls are going to change the fact you chose a pile of gold over helping civilians, stealing constantly for yourself (ie not a Robin Hood), lying or gaslighting people (there is a line between persuasion and manipulation that some people just can't see). And no, doing grandiose acts of 'kindness' is not going to gloss over the fact that you just shot an elderly woman in the back whilst she was running away. You fuck around, you find out. A note FOR background players, look some of us are just really happy to be sitting at a table with a group of people, especially if we don't have the best social skills and trying to learn how to make friends. It's hard, and often we don't say much because we don't want to fuck it up.
I'm actually okay with characters doing their own scheming and double-crossing behind the party's back, as long as every player is okay with it when we discuss on session zero. Some of my most memorable RPG experiences involved a character revealing a scheme to the group, betray their interest, or fail their schemes dramatically. One red flag I understand is the "main character" attitude. I've had a player that would only be happy when his plans/actions succeeded, and started to drift away or sulk when things didn't go his way, even telling they were getting bored of the game (which is always something fun to hear in the middle of a session). Eventually, I told the player something like this: "Look, you obviously have a lot of ideas with your characters and the story, and it's fun to have that around the table. But if the only way you can have fun is by having everything go exactly like you imagine, you do not want to play a roleplaying game. What you want is write a novel, and have others listen to it." He did not take that with a smile, but got the message. He actually stuck around until the end of the campaign, and I believe he managed to have some fun, even considering that incident. Another red flag is with players willing to argue over 5 minutes about a ruling I made. Here's an example: a dwarf cleric stepped into a room, then an animated rug started enveloping him, trying to suffocate him. The cleric's player asked if he could still cast a spell with verbal components. I allowed it, but explained that since he was essentially holding his breath here, the casting of the spell would reduce the amount of time he had before he passed out due to lack of oxygen. The player spent 20+ minutes arguing that this wasn't included in the rules, and I shouldn't add that degree of realism in a sword-and-sorcery fantasy game. That player did not end up staying (I let him go), but at least we were adults about it: I told him my style of GMing and his style of play evidently don't match, he ended up agreeing, and we just went on our separate ways, no hard feelings afterwards. Did not have a "catastrophic" player situation yet (at least not that I can remember), so I can consider myself lucky.
In one campaign, Waterdeep I believe, where I was a player we had one person playing a rogue. Who would just not stop stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. Annoying but we all kinda went with it for a while IC but glared OOC. Keeping in mind the rest of the party was a crazy conspiracy theorist bard with an otamatone, a druid on a permanent sugar high that adopted a flock of tengu and my Only-Sane-Man-in-the-Party Paladin. The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was when the rogue stole a donation mug from some orphans. All three of us immediately turned one the rogue and where seconds from handing them over to the enraged mob for their justly due punishment. However after having the entire table, DM included (despite the DM being the rogue's girlfriend), the rogue agreed to clean up their act and save the sticky fingers for things that would actually help the party. A quick application of 'Paladin Charisma' and the mob was calmed and the campaign got to continue for another session until the DMs living arrangements changed. So basically we had a red flag situation and managed to resolve it with some character building both in and out of character.
TLDR: No interaction in a place that specifically encourages interaction. Imagine going to a party to hide under the sink. Created a Discord server for better communication, planning and full on interaction. Out of 17 members two of us are currently DMs and a third has 6 years experience of being one (I was a player in his games). Every member was asked beforehand if they were even interested in not only DnD, but in Pen & Paper games alltogether. A red flag that kind of became a meme between us if not just a pet peeve: Players that vanish from existence when there is no current game. Session ends? "Goodnight" and instant logoff. No one answers group messages/inquiries and when called out admit they didnt read it in the first place (even with pings). Related to that, long answer times. Admittedly, real life goes first, but after weeks or months without answers that are relevant for writing and planning I decide to kick the worst offenders off my games (meanwhile the same people find the time to play some other game for 10 hours straight). Since it's very hard to find players in the first place we put up with A LOT before throwing someone out of a game. Not the server though, perhaps someday a DM arises with the patience of a saint willing to wait 'til eternity when setting up a game or campaign.
No communication at all is just annoying; I wouldn’t even call it a red flag, more like a full-on STOP sign. Just leads to poor party dynamics, immersion breakage, and frustration. Side note… If you want a replacement for one of those ghosts, I’d be willing to join that server 🥺❤️
@@Muropfel ok cool, dann wünsche ich euch noch viel Spaß damit und hoffe, dass ihr auch mal in den Genuss kommt einen Charakter im höheren Level zu spielen. :-)
Seeing a party worrywort about every little thing and bringing too much reality intk a campaign. It's really a drag and slows anything and everything that's happening
that's the fault of either the game itself or the way the GM runs it. if your players are getting paranoid and worrying about everything, odds are it's because you've given them reason to. if you keep springing catastrophic traps on them you can't complain if they get paranoid over traps.
@@Graknorke Or, now hear me out, the players could just be seriously overthinking it and afraid to fail. It's a game... yet some people treat it like real life is going to come crashing down.
@@Ailieorz yeah people want to win games. that's normal. if you're going to punish them for every little thing they're going to be careful about avoiding those things, it's natural.
A Dm made an overleved enemy for an encounter. When we asked if he would change it or scale it down he said no, that's too bad, only after I noted my 500lbs character could smash it to bits instantly (jumping on it) did he do anything to fix it. (Big 8ft warforged juggernaut) A quick edit: the way he fixed it was letting the character 1 hit it. He didn't want to actually exert himself to rework the encounter
I would have walked after the "No, that's too bad", as in packed up my shit right there and leave. I've dealt with too many DMs like that. It never gets better.
Only half a campaign under my belt as DM, and I've played with nice people so my red flags are more like peach coloured or tan. But I've seen attempts to control or inhibit others actions, people trying to reroll failed checks, trying to centre the session on themselves, (and this one was egregious to me) making an assumption about how familiar they were personally with an NPC based on the fact they spent 15 minutes chatting. Bro this old adventurer has known your kobold character for shorter than he's probably spent slaying your kinsmen, don't assume this guy trusts you after one charisma check.
My main red flag, even just as a player, is that one player that no matter what has to make it about them, but when it's about them it's just them screaming, be annoying, interrupting other players, being there just for the memes, and they never take anything in the story seriously. The last campaign I had was at my school's D&D club, and it was a large group of other students, and a teacher as the DM. Since he was a teacher he made sure everybody followed the school rules, but even then he was a super chill and fun guy to play D&D with. He made every player feel like they were special, and took time out of every meeting to ask what the players wanted to do, and would pull players aside to tell them about secrets that tie to their backstory or something to do with the plot. We had *two* players, that either 1) Never showed up 2) Did all the red flags I just listed and 3) would never pay attention and then would get mad when we moved on without them. One session we dedicated our whole 1 hour of playing just to roleplaying and figuring out what we need to do next, and as I was roleplaying some important things, these two players wouldn't let me talk, were just annoying and running around, and when I was trying to say important things they were like "ANYTHING ELSE (character name here)!?!? HUH?! HUH!?". My DM yelled at them to be quiet and let me roleplay, and they never showed up to another meeting. So if you are out there reading this, Mr. C, you are the freaking best DM ever. I am going to be a DM for the first time soon, and I'm very excited, but if anyone acts like that, I'm going to ban them from ever playing in a campaign with me again.
Had a guy join the table recently who did just that. He was a cleric. Said he was going to be "group dad" and told the DM he would be trying to herd the group to his best ability. Even went so far as to very intently point out that he "wouldn't heal stupid." He left without explanation in a couple sessions after no one took his preaching very seriously.
As a new DM? powerhungriness, and or just... players NOT DOING ANYTHING even with multiple options before them, and even willing to roll with unlisted options, as a dm should. but they just... stare. Like. I dont wanna railroad people. ill gently nudge, but im not gonna pull you around and then have you get all huffy like a shiba inu and just sit and do that weird scrunchy face from refusing to move. I... dont get it.
I had the Not Doing Anything group the other day. I set the scene, gave out the hooks and info, had the table ready and... Crickets and blank looks... It was a first for me, and it just felt so *wrong*...
A while ago, one of the teachers in my middle school had hosted a campaign. We had a Changeling Rogue, a Human Monk, a Fire Genasi Claric, a Centaur Barbarian, and Me, a Copper Dragonborn Wizard. So, our final encounter had ended with the barbarian grappling our final boss, who was a hag, and throwing her into the void. Reasonably our DM wasn't to happy about it. So it tak s him around 10 minutes to get over it. Then we end up remembering that My Dragonborn's mother, who was a Ancient Copper Dragon, told us. That hags work in covens. And that is what ended that campaign.
we had a player who refused to listen and then got mad at us, left the session without warning and lied, turned out they just wanted to play an xbox game(we where playing over discord and theater of the mind), so currently my red flag is any player wanting to play a gnome.
This is a cooperative experience, it's not a game you can win, it's something you get to play. I struggle so hard with the balance of making something for people to enjoy. On one hand the game is for the players, the story is about them, but often times I can't rely on them. Sometimes it's stressful, sometimes people just don't want to do anything, sonetimes people want to do their own thing. At some point you have to take control though and lead them through the adventure. It's not steam rolling if everyone is just sitting around. Also, with all the creativity and demanding presence that some players have for their characters and their own game that they're making I wonder why they don't run a game themselves.
A player who runs off to do whatever they want to pursue their own interests, regardless of story or their character. A "friend" (more like acquaintance) habitually would get involved in random shenanigans in some bid to make his character "more powerful." It was almost like he was playing a video game and needed to find one more item to buff his character. He would also go after random things he found funny, even to the point of drinking/doing drugs which then removed all his monk powers due to the oath he took. I eventually realized that he was not playing different characters, he was playing himself. The closest I came to reining this guy in was to create a barbarian character for him in my "amnesia campaign" where none of the characters knew who they were, what there level was, or what class they had. He was so full of health that he could run off and be ambushed by 30 goblins and at least hold them off before his friends could save him. I got him so wrapped up in discovering his character's story every session that he just did whatever I told him. Also nearly every door in the "facility" where he woke up had something that tried to kill him if HE opened it up first.
I played with someone a few years back who always took it really personally if one of our characters disagreed with their character. They were basically just playing their fursona, which was probably why it all felt so personal. They were essentially just playing themselves in game. It all eventually came to a head over a disagreement over one of the NPCs we had been working with. This NPC was very clearly an evil person, but we had interests in common, so she was helping us out. (Its no good if we all die to the group of dragons trying to take over the world). But because we were all okay working with her, this player got really upset. We told them we'd deal with her when we had time, but again, but we had other priorities at the moment. They exploded over us "never listening to them" and then them refusing to participate for the rest of the session. They were gently removed from the group shortly after.
9:57 its like going to a store that sells only soup looking for clothes, and rolling a nat 20. clothes arent just gonna appear out of thin air in the soup store
Well, I might trigger some red flags. I mean I wanted do discover d&d so a friend bring me to one of his session. They were already level 4 so I had 10 min to create a character. English is not my native language (while is everyone else 😅) so I stay silent because I might not understand everything. I play a fighter (easy to learn it seems) so I am completely useless out of battle. Meaning I really like to hit things hard 😁 Anyway, I am having fun but I don't want to ruin it for other 😕
Listen, you are doing your best. Given the circumstances, that doesn't make you a red flag player. You're not doing it on purpose or for laughs. If you are being genuine in the game, the group will understand. But if they're dicks to you about English not being your native language, then you don't really need them anyway.
I'm surprised no one brought up phones at the table yet personally, I think phones themselves are fine. I prefer a paper character sheet, but go ahead and look up rules or spells on your device. there are also some people who can do stuff on their phone and pay attention at the same time, sometimes they can pay more attention then the other players. the real problem is the players who plug themselves in and might as well not be there in the first place. then, when it finally gets to their turn in combat, you have to poke them to get them to take their turn and then they have to figure out what's going on before they take their turn.
For me and this is a campaign I’m about to start, the guy who thinks any npc that is a female can and will be charmed with his charisma rolls. I possibly have a that guy in this campaign I’m starting and at session zero he goes on a rant how his first time playing DnD he charmed an Ancient Red Dragon and made her his family’s servant. Forget the fact that as legendary creature the red dragon could 3 times a day just pass a failed saving throw. It’s the fact that he was proud of making her and I quote “my party’s and family’s maid”
Not a DM, but they're from my first campaign (and the only one I've played so far). Now these two are friends of mine and I've known them since freshman year in high school. Now none of us had ever played before except for our DM who was DMing for the first time. We never had time to meet up in person so we played over video call. Now one of them, I'll call him Noah (dw not his real name) was never focused. I know that he has adhd, but that didn't excuse what he did. Now, sometimes we would take bathroom breaks. That usually just meant (for me at least) when my turn came around I would ask to use the bathroom. Noah, however, would leave during the middle of someone elses turn without saying anything. Then when it was his turn, we we're confused because he wasn't there. His boyfriend, I'll call him Kai (again, not his real name), who was at Noah's house to play, just said that he left. Not to mention Noah and Kai were NEVER paying attention and the number of times our DM had to summarize what just happened was just really sad tbh. We were planning another campaign but we're all about to go off to college so we're all busy and really don't have time for D&D rn. I feel guilty because they are still my friends, but I'm glad I don't have to play with them anymore.
I have a DM with such a long list of things that should have been red flags that listen them would be an essay. Nice guy, but he had no idea how to run a DnD game, homebrewed and ignored mechanics to the extent I think he wanted to do a freeform fantasy RP and just call it DnD. He found us players on a public platform, we were all strangers. Game-breaking homebrew aside, I think the two most last straw things were his out of game behaviours. Firstly, a couple of times he directed someone to draw a map, only for the map to never become relevant. Secondly, he started retconning things he's said previously, but WITHOUT telling. So he'd start describing something different to before and eventually, after much confusion, someone would realise a retcon was happening. He was an older guy who preferred to play in person but our city went into lockdown soon after the start, and he was struggling a little with online play. I think he also started drinking a lot while DMing which probably led to these nonsensical moments. It was a very strange experience.
Here's a few red flags I have noticed as a player and a dm. Favoritism usually the small ways such as a player never getting targeted despite in combat healing or damaging mobs or just being in the perfect position for a mob to target them, or oh this person has found every single item even if they don't roll for investigation. As a dm I lay it down in session one and before each session of how the game is going to be taken and address any concerns before starting I find it's a good way to get players to be more active and care about each session. I did have a red flag when a certain someone goes oh she's going to make this move or this spell meanwhile said person is like well I was going to do this actually and said player goes but this is a better option so you will do this. I end sessions or put a break in sessions when I see anything of this sort and say look you guys are a team no one is here to bully others around it will not happen again, usually people understand and don't do it but if someone chooses to purposely cause drama kick them out of the group. As for you fellow dms I get it dming can be stressful but use communication and be fair about it your the story teller and not every story is perfect.
My red flag for DMs is DMPCs I think it's a cheap excuse for them to constantly steal the spotlight and just want to play their characters My red flag for players is When they, several session in, still ask "what do I do now?" When performing a skill check I shouldn't need to tell you, rolling the d20 is what you need to do Asking for what stat is totally fine, but please, take a bit of effort into playing
Once upon a player, [TLDR] Before Session Zero -A forever DM of 12+ Years -Never played a Published adventure -A sorcerer with very high stats (rolled) -Complains when told to use point buy or standard -Asks to use spells in unconventional ways Session 1-5 -Misreads all cantrips/spells -CE declarations (He's LG) -Waterboards a goblin (Goblin was helping them, sorta) -[Audited his rolls one session] 23 rolls, (+ mods) none were below 16. I mean come on. -Spotlight stealing -Separating from the group all the time Time of Death Dude was clearly being a nuisance in the group and decided to take advantage of a PC take down and boot. Bugbear caved in his head bashing his brains out without ever seeing it coming.
In my opinion a red flag is someone who thinks there the main character and the DM also makes them the main character, I have never I countered this but I wish to fucken not
0:35 - Welp, I've done that before! I've found many groups have had problems even without me in. It's really hard to get on with other people in character when they have their own goals and opinions on the internet!
A friend of mine doesn't exactly talk down or bad about a previous group he was in, but it was obvious that the other players had their own problems that conflicted with his, and seeing them all in action as a spectator myself, I can say he was better off not being in that group anymore. It depends quite a bit on what kind of players they are in a given group I suppose!
Split personality disorders in game. Only seen one person pull it off correctly and with flair, as each assisted the party. The other EIGHT times are people hiding a pet murder hobo behind lip service. Its ended games, friendships, and even a ten year marriage. Don't do it to be a killer...instead aim for a different approach, one which gells with the party...instead of setting it on fire.
Red flags for me; Players who insist on playing an Evil character, even when it is insisted that there are no evil characters allowed. (IE; making their character but secretly making them still evil, by maybe going C/N) Players who act out toward others at the table. Players who see D&D as a video game, where they "deserve" a power fantasy. Here's a couple DM red flags; DM insists on rolling his dice in public (seriously, this ruins the potential for a DM to flub things for the sake of fun. Had goblins kill a whole party I was in in first combat because he rolled so many 20s) DMs who use average numbers for enemy damage as opposed to rolling for it.
"But they're a good person really!" they say as they just immolate the enemies for a third time whilst they try and drag what's left of their group out of the death trap they created for them... it's like you can see the actual crazy in their eyes
1) Players who constantly try PvP - "I want to steal from party member", "I cast x against party member" etc. Shows a huge inability / unwillingness to play in a group...which is an issue since DnD is a group game. 2) Players who want to play as evil or chaotic-neutral in a non-evil campaign. Quick sidenote: I get evil campaigns and if that everyone's down for, awesome. Aside from that its always players who want to screw everything and everyone over and then have no consequences because "its my alignment" 3) Anyone who wants to hide rolls - this includes rolling on their phone, rolling a dice then picking it up before anyone can see and the infamous "I rolled this up at home" character sheets. If you're playing fair and honest, you have no problem with people seeing your dice rolls.
Red Flags are about the standard, but I've developed several Yellow Flags 1) If the character portrait is a real person. I don't know why, but the majority of problem players I've had used real people as their face claim. Graduates to Red Flag if the photo is a sexy woman. 2) Introducing themselves by informing me of their Depression/Anxiety/Autism/etc. This just signals to me that you're expecting to be a problem and want to excuse your actions ahead of time. Plus, those are all extremely personal things that you should not feel comfortable talking to a complete stranger about. 3) Talking about your political beliefs. Again, that's personal and you should not feel comfortable talking to complete strangers about it. 4) Using slang like snowflake, redpilled, based, special, sjw, privileged, etc. Not taking things like Hard and Soft Limits seriously. Or saying things like "I don't bullshit around, I say what I mean!" This screams to me "I don't have very good manners, and rather than improve my social competence I'd rather blame others for being offended when I say offensive things."
Joke characters need to have the right execution to work well. It’s one thing to have a peasant named Jake from the State Farm. That works great as an NPC, but will get old fast if it’s in the main party. The best executions I’ve seen of joke characters are when they seem perfectly normal, and then one particular event set up in advance with the DM reveals the joke. It takes time, and it takes patience. But the reward is huge, especially if it’s a really, really bad pun that will get dice thrown at you.
Had a dm who would basically say you can’t have anything happen or exist that doesn’t comport to pre-Christian European values and cultures and refused to include them in his world or alow players to allude to them or even have names that sounded like they could be similar. If a dm is uses stopping “that guy” for too many arbitrary things I feel like it’s best to dip. So “a dm says something like I won’t include cultures just for the sake inclusion (as if only reason they should be there) or just sees on western ideas as “other” or wrong.”
Feel like this is more about how much of a PoS this guy was. Like making a friend of mine who had trauma with sexual assault read a let’s say, choicely themed fanfic:
I've been DMing for a while and i have only two BIG red flags 1 when the player does not understand the type of campaign you are running ,they want to play a combat heavy campaign, while the camping itself is more of a political and investigation campaign 2 when the player what to "sexualize" spells , to give more context the player in question wanted to cast a C*m ball , and wanted all the enemy's to roll to get a boner
I mean, with the 2nd one, if it was a one-off no damage spell, that took the place of fireball, I'd be like WTF? Fine, they are distracted and miss one turn. Don't do that again.
See, the second type comes up so often that I can't believe people are still 'surprised' when players treat women like shit at the table.... like how big of a red flag do you need
Player here but my biggest red flag is players being unwilling to change or Reroll the “God character”. Rolling for stats and everything is 15+ while everyone else in the party has a niche role? “Well I rolled them so I earned them”, I understand that rolling for stats makes unbalanced games but nobody wants to be in a party of Krillin, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Chichi and Videl just to find out the last character is SS3 Goku.
Context: Star Wars DnD 5e. DM is my sister's fiance. Players are me, my sister, and the DM's daughter. The daughter made a wookie character and became obsessed with a joke about collecting arms. It kinda gets under my skin a bit, and it ruins the vibe of the game sometimes.
My biggest red flags happened all in one night. I was asked by a dm friend to join a Star Wars game. I warned the dm ahead of time that I really did not know Star Wars lore at all and he assured me it was fine. This is also a warning to the readers: this happened a few years back and I still don't know that much about Star Wars, so if I use incorrect phrasing or I'm vague, please don't judge me too harshly. I created a droid of some kind for my character and was basically a lackey for the mob boss, ordered to go with the three man crew he hired to check out and secure a base. Despite my repeated asks for more details about the boss or the type of droid I was, all I got was "good character" back. In the game, the three players proceeded to ignore me most of the time, preferring to interact with each other. At the time, I chalked this up to them having established relationships while I was just some rando (irl and in game), but after that our session, I realized that none of them even tried to engage with me and the few interactions we had were prompted by the dm or myself and dropped as soon as possible. As the game went on, I played the put upon droid trying to wrangle three bounty hunters who all thought they were Han Solo minus the morals. And then near the end, I was like, you know what? These bounty hunters are kind of making sense. My boss is a dick! I think I'll let them get away with something! So I let them hide a vehicle that the boss said he wanted if it was there. My dm friend told me that it was basically not possible for me to do that because it went against my programming. I replied out of character that I didn't know and he went on this tangent about how certain books or comics would go in depth about how droid programming work. I hadn't even seen all of the movies at the time. The other players were getting restless because they hadn't been playing for five minutes, so we moved on. I came up with an excuse for my actions by saying the landing had been pretty rough and I had taken a hit, so it messed with my programming enough to allow me to start having treasonous thoughts. The dm informed me that my character would likely be factory reset or simply trashed when she got back to the mob boss but I didn't care. By then I already knew this was going to be a one-shot for me. TL;DR: My red flags are: when the dm doesn't give you enough information about the established setting and it results in not being able to make informed choices; when the other players don't engage with the new person; and when the dm seems uninterested or unwilling to help a player so everyone has fun.
I roll stat's at home for new characters until my DM insisted I reroll them. I wanted to save play time. So he taught me about point buy that way "your character dies" isn't a session ender. He knows they're all point buy and I can have a new character prepared in 2 minutes.
Player: I'm a dwarf! DM:. That's not part of the setting. Player: But I want to be a dwarf! DM:. That means you're just a very short human. Player: But dwarves are neat and get these advantages. DM:. Not in this setting. They're just very small humans. Did you read the handout with the guide for character creation? Player (proudly):. Why, no! DM allowed player to run a NPC that was meant to be a throwaway.
Red flags I've experienced; A rogue that is min-maxed in a party of non-min-maxed characters that constantly shows everyone up, has main character syndrome, refuses to work with the party, threatens to kill the main healer to their face (aka me after I explicitly went OOC hey, dude, this isn't okay, this needs to stop) and then bragged about it later to the entire party, made unwanted sexual advances on the barbarian who was mentally a child whilst their PC was a teenager, stole everything, made every NPC not trust us, and generally was an absolute scumbag in and out of character and one of 'those guys' that parroted 'that's what my character would do' 24/7. This guy was a red flag from the start though considering his intro was one-shotting everything in the encounter after just jumping out of the trees and stealing the bag of holding to put the decapitated head of the opponent he killed in it. Tied into that is the red flag DM that ran that game, aka a douche that played favorites, bullied PC's, railroaded, didn't care at all about our backstories, threw OP DMPC's at us to make us all look like fools in need of rescuing, called people trying to play outside of that railroad 'ruining HIS story,' and stole my character sheet. The first dead giveaway should have been the second he threw 7 ghouls at a bunch of new players and made players take psychic damage for coming up with clever plans he didn't like.
For me it's when players don't read the stuff I send them. I run a custom setting with rules for character generation. I ask players to limit it to a set of books. So when people send me their character and it's all these things from books that are all on the "do not use" list it tells me they aren't following instructions.
