In today's episode of RPG Horror Stories, we have a tale about a dungeons and dragons player that has Main Character Syndrome and can't stand anyone else having the spotlight, and more
Hey! This is the DM from the first story! Forgot to add, for the first session, I took the approach of, "everyone meets by accident and works together because combat," to double as introductory, see strategies, and to get the main plot rolling. Combat was rough, I was still trying to figure out Roll20, and so OP (a lovely artist, thanks Lemon) for sketching up a combat map. It was simple, fun, and straightforward. After wrapping up, they left the area and was just heading back. There was very little on skill checks (because combat took up most of the session) and I asked what everyone wanted to see in the campaign, maybe plot a littke bit ahead, and he tells me, "I wanna see more skill checks!" I was baffled at such, because of how little was done at the time. He also made me sketch up not one, but THREE towns just for his backstory. Whole towns, not just little hamlets or villages. He also wanted me to use a lot of the feywild, I don't know how to run the feywild and had to do serious research on just that to make it appropriate, and as it tied into his backstory and homebrew race, I didn't wanna skimp out. So when I told him to just homebrew some lore, he came back with those homebrew stats too. I like being open to homebrew (after all, homebrew game) but I feel there's a limit. We weren't gonna post this originally, I felt it was a bit tame and uninteresting. Turns out I was wrong, this is the third cover of it. Hindsight on all the interactions, I should have done it and dropped him sooner. First time I was playing in two years, first time DMing in three, sorry guys. But thank you all for the support! OP and I appreciate it! Thanks Doge for the read! My players just recently jumped the BBEG (the lich who's making people into sentient undead) and got, well, got. They just got raised as undead under him and are now trying to work on undermining him without drawing too mucb attention. Stay safe, and stay saucy everyone!
I suggest he take two chill pills in the form of suppositories and to pull that stick out of his ass. Hopefully that narcissistic tendency should clear up.
Last story: Dude. OP needs to grow a backbone. The correct response is to leave that new campaign (seriously, you've only had two games; you can't be that attached to the campaign) and boot from her campaign everyone who participated.
People need to stop mistaking “Eh I’ll forgive this” for lack of a backbone. This particular story aside-people who say this annoy me cause they pretty much are just myopically equating taking the “stance” that they would have taken with strength. Its just a very flawed way of thinking that doesn’t really take into account the values of the other person.
I think the key reason as to why OP didn't dip out immediately is purely because they mentioned being very close to most of the people involved out of game, and probably wanted to give them a second chance to see if they could work through it productively. I personally would be strongly considering cutting all ties with those people except for rogue (who I think tried to do the right thing) and maybe bard (who may have only been non-responsive due to not being confident enough to speak up about it like rogue did). Based on the last part of the post, it sounds like if things go poorly during the discussion OP is planning to have with everyone, then they'll likely boot anyone who doesn't genuinely regret what happened.
No, Doge. That DM in the last story had NO remorse for what he did. Sure, I suspect the Sorcerer instigated it but the DM went with it and didn’t once claim to have said no. AT MOST the DM is just feeling guilty because he knows what he did was sick and creepy. The fact he tried to play it off as “non-canon just goes to show that he knows it but doesn’t think he’s wrong. Anything sort of each and every one of them groveling at OP’s feet, begging for forgiveness is grounds for her to leave, not only the campaign but also they whole friend group
I've been listening to tons of these DnD stories on my commutes and one thing always stands out in my mind: why tf do people let these players stay in their games so long?? in all these stories I can't see a situation where I would let myself be repeatedly harassed or a group letting a player stay in the game when everyone supposedly hates playing with them. is it someone's little brother? spouse? depressed best friend? added context is always nice because man I feel like there must be a big subset of players out there who don't have a spine and would rather suffer for months than address the issue? don't get me wrong the stories are still entertaining but I find myself always being more frustrated at the OP or DM than the actual troublemaker lol. if someone was cutting off another player constantly in their own scenes I would shut that down so fast.
Its D&D stories this is the entirety of these peoples social lives there is no backbone to begin with because they dont know how bad it is and dont want to rock the boat
Yeah, I feel like that statement was supposed to come out like the quote from Wheatley from Portal 2, "you might have a very minor case of serious brain damage"
Story #1 - Glad things worked out for the group. Story #2 - Seriously messed up. I don't care what kind of excuses the Sorceror makes, he should be kicked.
Ironically, my most beloved character is a short, arrogant resident of the Feywild... But I’ve made it so that he’s on track to get a reality check. His name is Fern. He’s a former archfey turned into a chibi pixie the size of a halfling (stat wise, he’s a halfling sorcerer with a clumsy flight speed and archfey ancestry). He was isekai’d out of his area in the Autumn Court one day for reasons unknown with a fraction of his original power as the Archfey of the Fall Harvest and he desperately wants to return before autumn so that he can successfully manage the harvest sprites to bring about the crops. He believes that the fey are superior beings to those in the Material Plane and he has a burning hatred towards elves due to a war against them long ago... But what he says about his hatred is a half truth. Fey can’t lie due to a compromise after the war. The elves would leave the Feywild and no longer call it their home and the fey would lose their ability to lie. The one thing that Fern desperately wants to not reveal was that he was friends with an elf before the war... And even fell in love with her. But when the war broke out, she instantly sided with her people instead of taking a neutral ground with him like he had suggested. This made him disillusioned with elves as a whole and joined in fighting against them. Even now, he doesn’t feel like the war is truly over and calls each one a ‘traitor’ to project how betrayed he still feels. He calls the party his ‘bodyguards’ and still thinks of himself as a strong entity, but he’s obviously not and he pretty much acts like a total Karen when there’s a rude merchant or person talking down to him. The main plan for him is to give him a good dose of humility, empathy, and to find the truth of why the one he love chose to go against him.
I know my last DnD game years ago, I was very guilty of the "Metagame teleport" a lot of the time mainly because of FOMO. Apart from that I tried to keep any and all Metagaming to a minimum
This wasn't mild main character syndrome, it wanted to be the only character period. I wouldn't have given this guy one bloody centimeter. Ever time he tried to step on me I'd snap back, hard.
Hey Doge, it's Labour Day (I'm from Canada hence the spelling) - shouldn't you be taking the day off. Well we also get Simba and Nipsy out of the deal. Thanks, you've also shook me out of a funk with your post so thank you very much.
major respect for you not cencering the nasty elements of the last story we deserve better then infantilization this site forces it makes it so these horrifying things can be swept under the rug
It's ironic because Lalafells are supposed to be a friendly and chill race, but a lot of people play them like they have a Napoleon complex (Source: A fellow FF14 player)
Last story: idgaf if it was a hypothetical/what if scenario or if DM stated it was noncannon. That's absolutely fucking weird to even consider or playout. Op should have left because nothing was done about it. It's that whole "it's just a joke/just kidding haha" type of energy. The outcome didn't need to matter because it was already acted out, instead of doing to it an NPC they chose another PC. And it's not small flirt type of thing either...the last one is unnerving.
😓 I'm guessing Half Pint is a problematic Lalafell player... *shiver* Also why does Asta being used as a thumbnail for main character syndrome videos make me lmao?
As a Lalafell player in FFXIV, I take great offense to that first story; how dare that feind claim to be one of us! While it is true that Lalafell are the "am smol" race in FFXIV, and you'd want to carry them around "because smol", they are in fact FFXIV's Dwarves & Hobbits/Halflings as a single race... Contrary to this goober's behavior, they are FAR from helpless or reliant on their adorable appearance... In fact, within the lore, they're half a reason for a global flood one time, The War of the Magi... The short of that being, they got really good at magic and went full "Shadow Wizard Money Gang!", and "legalize nuclear bombs", bullying demons into submission and used them as minions (and magic-batteries) as they would spread their conquest of Eorzea... So yeah, that dude sucks!
A Lalafell? Yeah they're great at Magic, and I think he inspired his character on Chantoto, who is very self agrandizing, and behaves like she knows more than anyone else (she is a teacher) and she has pretty cool mechanic in Dissidia which is the more bravery she has the stronger and more spectacular her magic is.
I still dont understand why when someone comes in causing shit, its everyone elses fault if they dont like it. Like all TTRPG players have their spines torn out at birth or something.
OP is terrible in telling stories. Character description is NOT a story. Ok, this guy is bad. I get it. Aaaand? What exactly happened next? How exactly did he threw a fit?
We had a player like that Main Character guy once; he didnt last very long. We have very good DMs. The moment someone starts bullshitting you get 1 warning then after that everyone mutes you. Edit: of course the dude was a Lalafell from FFXIV. And of course OP called him half pint. I refuse to believe OP doesn't know what they did there. There a youtubers named Pint who plays a Lalafell.
