7 Types Of Toxic Players In D&D

here are the seven types of problem player in DND and also how to handle them as a DM so they're not problem players anymore so this video is going to use footage of people playing ttrpgs like critical role or Harman Quest so if I show that footage I'm not saying that those people are problem players it's just for context okay death threat subverted let's dive in the protagonist the protagonist is dangerous to play groups they might Jam themselves into every conversation they might demand special treatment or items from the GM or punch a town guard in the face when they get bored because they are the main character this is their story and all the other players are just NPCs when not in the spotlights the protagonist is the most likely to sulk they might mentally check out of a game the second they roll badly because they're not interested in failing they want to win all the time they are the least likely to engage with other people's stories and the most likely to enter corrupt those stories to bring the attention back to them now everyone in D D should feel like the main character sometimes everyone should get their epic moments everyone should get their awesome combo to work but as a collaborative game it's obviously important that those moments are spread around so how can we solve this behavior when it's getting problematic while being empathetic and not starting a massive argument well many protagonist players don't realize what they're doing they just know that they have the most fun when they're in the spotlight so they try and get in the spotlight they love their character they want to play them and that's a good thing you want people to be hyped to play the trick here is to show them that collaborative gameplay is even more fun than going solo remind them that everyone can share the spotlights if you role play with others and engage in their stories if you can get the protagonist invested in other players stories as well the game will naturally be more engaging for them and they'll give other people space maybe sharing some live plays with great collaboration can help too like critical role or Dimension 20. but if you thought someone who thought they were the main character was bad what about someone who thinks they are every character at the table the backseat gamer unless your fetish is having your own character explained to you backseat Gamers suck usually this archetype takes the form of a more experienced player or just someone who thinks they're more experienced butting in to tell another player what to do forget everything you think you know about your character the backseat gamer thinks they know better and will tell you where you went wrong now sometimes giving advice is okay hey don't forget you have Bardock inspiration isn't a bad reminder to have the obnoxious Vibes come in when the backseat gamer starts telling other players what they should be doing or even worse shaming them for doing the wrong thing blame gets thrown around by the backseat gamer when things don't go to their liking which is just toxic as hell the backseat gamer is a self-appointed battlefield Commander telling everyone what they should be doing taking charge and often putting meta game knowledge to use not only is this patronizing but it slows the game down because now every turn is governed by consensus a variant of this archetype is the backseat GM who is possibly even more dangerous this is usually an experienced GM interrupting the current one and telling them how to run the game it could be pointless rules lawyering after the GM has made a call and wants to move on or telling them that they're running a monster incorrectly or telling them that their yellow hat looks stupid even though they think it brings out their eyes but fine I'll take it off I guess now some backseat Gamers genuinely just think they're being helpful and they don't want other players to make a mistake if you have this type of player someone who is genuinely worried about failing then you can privately remind them that failing is okay some of the best d d moments come from bad roles this is also a behavior that can be shut down at the table very easily a simple hey y'all remember to let everyone take their own turns is usually enough to get the backseat gamer to chill out doctor this DND campaign is dying dear God the combat is boring the game is burned out and there are no giant ghost whales that can swallow City's Hall we need 50 cc's of ryoko's guys stats it's too late I'm dying never you get me an all-new Kaiju Battle system I want Attack on Titan God of War Legend of Zelda and Shadow of the Colossus inspiration injecting his Argent scale balance system that empowers both DMS and players quick adding 12 new races 12 new subcusses 100 magic items and over 40 new spells including the one where you punch someone with a tiger's face which is also on fire done and finally give me the most badass dragon mini ever made here this one perfect I'm alive I'm alive oh thank God now eat this Dragon what's in it ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms is the ultimate D expansion overflowing with new rule systems subclasses enhancements to martial characters incredible monsters and a brand new element Bender class it comes out on Kickstarter in just over two weeks or if you're watching this in the future it's probably out right now sign up now to be notified when it launches and receive a set of free beautiful resin dice exclusive to early backers Kickstarter link and all the free Early Access play test materials are in the description check it out now step into the the Yokai realms the enemy the enemy is probably the most common archetype among new players because they haven't had their expectations set for what d d is they play the heroes the GM plays the monsters therefore the GM is the enemy right this misunderstanding leads to a lot of frustrating Behavior usually revolving around concealing intentions from the GF this makes the game worse for everyone because now the GM can't work with that player to make sure their goals are met if you don't tell the GM what you want they can't give it to you the enemy mindset can also lead to the bad type of meta gaming or power gaming looking up crazy powerful combos online with the express intention of surprising the GM with them experienced GMS don't mind this but some GMS get very threatened by spikes of power because they aren't confident that they can keep the game challenging and fun they might even just shut down the combo mid game which can cause bad feelings and argument by the way this needn't be the case handling strong combos as a GM really isn't difficult you just need to know how I should probably make a video about that one day anyway it is probably worth remembering that the enemy mindset can be the result of an inexperienced gm2 if the GM treats the players like enemies they will probably act like it there's a subspecies of this group the player enemy that's a person who views the other players as rivals or opponents this just doesn't work you want people to be working together that doesn't mean players can't disagree or even be Rivals with each other that actually sounds like a pretty interesting Dynamic but the players controlling those characters need to be working together that is collaborative storytelling enemy players might betray other characters or purposefully undermine their powers and abilities which obviously sucks this behavior is just a simple misunderstanding of the game when players understand that everyone's on the same side it's helps pretty quick honorable mention here the enemy is probably the most likely type of player to cheat lying about the result they get on the dice this drives some GM's crazy personally I don't mind at all I mean I think it's lame and cringy but it doesn't affect my fun when I run games online I give people the option of rolling in real life and just telling me what they get there's nothing stopping them from lying it's cliche but cheetahs only really cheat themselves out of exciting experiences in reality cheating is usually done because the player thinks they'll have a better experience if they cheat and succeed rather than fail it comes to them not trusting the game to provide a good experience if they don't always win GMS that give players confidence and make sure that rolling low numbers still equals a good time basically remove the need for cheating altogether the snail big on snail yeah yeah nobody likes the snail this is slow play to the max the snail take forever compared to almost any other game d d is incredibly slow if you're playing God of War for example you are playing the game all the time in DND combat unless you're the GM you're already only playing one-fifth of the time and so slow play is incredibly painful there are many types of snail the new player obviously is gonna take a little bit longer and nobody Minds that because they'll speed up naturally as they learn then there's the inattentive snail who just doesn't pay attention so they need to spend two minutes at the start of every single turn working out what's going on before they can even make their go then there's the uncertain snail who Dithers around for minutes wondering about what they should do to be the most optimal these snails are nervous about making mistakes which ironically makes them make the mistake of slowing the game down to a crawl you can help the uncertain Snail out by reminding them that you're not gonna tpk the party just because they played slightly on similarly encourage them to embrace the chaos once in a while and just see what happens do something it's fun possibly the most dangerous type is the shopping snail the player who grinds everything to a halt outside of combat this is the snail who wants to role play every tiny little thing even if it really doesn't matter they can turn a small shopping trip for three potions of healing into four hours of gameplay that can be really cool if everyone is involved but if it's just one long dull argument with a shopkeeper that leaves everyone else on the sidelines it is boring that's straying into protagonist's territory with the snail taking all the attention for themselves for hours at a time GMS can mitigate this by literally speeding things along feel free to sometimes say okay this happens and now we're moving over here to make sure some players aren't just sitting around another trick to help out in combat is to always let the next player know that their turn is coming up if it's player azgo turn to play play a B and say hey B you're up next and that way as the first player takes their move the second player can plan for theirs some GMS even experiment with a one minute timer to speed combat along it's never something that I've done but it does sound interesting let me know in the comments if you're a GM and that's ever worked for you so we can all learn from your GM wisdom the anti-adventura this might be the second deadliest type of player to DND games these are the players who turn down the calls to Adventure actively avoiding progressing the main story there are two subspecies the subverter is the character who does everything they can to actively not do what the game is telling them to do there's rumors of a dragon guarding treasure everyone is hyped up for a fight or maybe a heist and then the subverter is the guy who decides to go shopping they are Bilbo in the hobbits except he never actually goes on the adventure this might be because they've heard about railroading online and think that to avoid it they need to actively avoid any plot hooks the GM lays down now it is great to come up with unique approaches to problems and you should explore the world around you at your own pace it can lead to Great Adventures but the subverter straight up ignores the world entirely unfortunately if you don't take the bait a little bit d games just end up spinning their wheels the second type is the murder hobo these are the people who just want to rip and tear until it is done now that can be okay if the whole party is down for it but when it's just one player things can get a bit messy they kill or start fights with every NPC they meet making it practically impossible to get any sort of Adventure going nobody can role play nobody can use their skills and any spell that isn't a fireball is a total waste in the right game this can work with everyone tearing through dungeons in a Slaughter Fest but in the wrong game it derails things pretty fast you can't run a character-driven game if every NPC gets instantly slaughtered dealing with an anti-adventura comes down to making sure that everyone is on the same side to get a game moving it's healthy to have everyone engaging with the world and not you know ignoring it or setting it on fire the edge Lord The Edge Lord is basically the person without boundaries you can be an edgy little ninja if you want if everyone is cool with it but the edge Lord becomes a problem when everyone isn't cool with it for example outright murdering people might make some players uncomfortable violence against innocence or trying to take slaves or sexual activity or body horror are all things that some players and GMS understandably might not want in their DND game The Edge Lord just has a different line when it comes to jokes or sexual themes or violence dealing with an edge Lord is all about communication it's about very clearly establishing what is and isn't on the table Grand Theft Auto is a game where you can pretty much play as a total psychopath but but there is no kids in those games that could be a simple rule for your game no kids get hurt having these rules in place means you need to take the step of asking the players to tell the GM what they are not comfortable with and then the GM has to communicate that to the entire group if those topics are making other people unhappy they might not even realize after all we don't know what experiences other people have had we don't want to make light of something that for us is just dumb fantasy but for someone else is traumatic if the edge Lord wants to play a super dark intense game they totally can they just need to make sure they find the right group to do it the extra dimensional jerk okay this player is the worst so far all these problems have been in game related sure maybe it's a bit inconsiderate but it's stuff that can be solved in game the extra dimensional jerk may not actually be a problem in game they're a problem out of it we're talking about being rude to other players being on welcome to new players drunkenness doing drugs being abusive racist homophobic or ordering pizza for the entire group and putting pineapple on every single one sometimes this Behavior can be tied to the game sometimes people are lovely until they start rolling bad and it brings out the worst in them mean jokes aggressive behavior I mean there's a million ways to be a jerk right there are endless ttrpg horror stories on Reddit about these types of players and even though I'm sure most of them are made up for internet points these people do exist the tricks to handling these players as it should be with anyone in your life who just sucks is to get out of there abuse isn't worth it I've said this before but no d d is better than bad d d happy people don't treat others like crap The Jerk clearly isn't happy the other players aren't happy dealing with them so why keep making each other miserable and just ask the jerk to leave if you're the GM or if you're another player just just leave yourself I wish there was a better answer but Life's Too Short there's enough people in the world who I love who I don't get to spend enough time with anyway no way do I recommend spending time with people you actively don't like so I consulted with a lot of friends and other GMS when making this list because honestly I don't think I've ever really had a problematic player experience and I've GM for literally hundreds of players all over the world sure nobody's perfect but you can usually shut down problematic behavior in game without making anyone feel bad or called out my point is yes these players exist but they are not common it is incredibly rare even though the internet would have you believe they're sneaking around in every single game and with the exception of the extra dimensional jerk people get better at playing with support even if someone annoys you come at it in a constructive empathetic way work together and you will be able to find a way forward ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms launches in just over two weeks link is up here and also down there you can sign up to receive free play test materials to explore and enhance your games and also leave feedback to impact the final book and remember if you pledge earlier you get this free beautiful resin die set a full die set completely for free to not miss that sign up on the kickstarter page to get notified when it goes live and you can also pick up this sexy dragon as well thanks for watching remember to check out other videos on the channel and yeah I'll see you next time

Channel: DnD Shorts

Views: 430,222

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Id: 2z1yrVQZRTw

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2023