Started up a new campaign in 3.5 because I was sick of having like 3 skills in 5e, the usual. It’s going well I suppose, nice and structured while also giving the players freedom. Last week, however, sucked. This player – and I won’t call him a problem player because he’s really not like that – absolutely ruined the session by talking over me and everyone else and just being drunk af (which I have since forbidden from my house).
I have 3 players – my housemate, my friend (interstate) and our mate who lives nearby. And ftr we are all neurodivergent so accommodations are easy, and I don’t think this issue has to do with that aspect.
This guy just…doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t do anything that makes sense. He’s got a bit of an RP addiction so we’ve had to drag him away from NPCs a few times, but since he’s new to the game the other two players and I agreed to railroad him into a good old fashioned dungeon, just this once, so he can maybe learn some game mechanics and be away from NPCs.
Some key moments: —NPC delivered them a message with the quest. Had to make her literally run away and the other players physically restrain his character from chasing her down to talk to her.
-they had to walk about 10 hours to this location, random wolf encounter on the road. Player tried to keep one as a pet. Insisted they must be part of some plot.
-random encounter with a roadside bandit. Player was convinced there was a wide plot and had to investigate the entire area
-in the dungeon (an old temple) he did literally everything possible to avoid interacting with the two very obvious very easy puzzles to progress to the last room. Example: a smashed mosaic on the floor opened the next door if repaired and a crystal was used to direct light to the floor. He cast mending 5 times despite me repeatedly telling him that all it does is reattach a few tiles, you have to physically move the tiles. This took over half an hour.
-in the last session, he tried to interrogate every nameless NPC in a town, then tried tk refuse to visit the story-relevant NPC they had gone to the city to meet, because she was going to reward them for rescuing her niece. The other players had to drag him there too.
I just…cannot understand this line of thinking. Today’s session was pretty good all things considered but still he was reading into meaningless things and completely ignoring story things. I even took everyone aside to describe dream sequences related to their backstories, and he spent about three seconds mentioning it to another player then insisting on trying to find hidden meaning in a symbol of a deity his knowledge religion check (and the lore doc) had already thoroughly explained.
I feel like I’m losing my mind here- it’s like this guy is playing a different game in his head. And I will never again ask the others (it was actually their idea) to break the fourth wall for him again.
How in the hells can I communicate to this dude what is and isn’t important? I’ve had to impose rules about cantrips and bardic abilities just to make him do anything but just using every single skill and feat he possesses. He’s constantly trying to have conversations during combat – I’m like, if you can’t say it in six seconds you don’t say it at all. But every. Damn. Time.
I just need advice. And if you’re gonna say “don’t let newbie players be bards/rogues” I’m already regretting it.
TL;DR player is being a total pain in my ass because it’s like he reads the blank page around the letters instead of the actual words
submitted by /u/crustdrunk
[link] [comments]
r/DnD Started up a new campaign in 3.5 because I was sick of having like 3 skills in 5e, the usual. It’s going well I suppose, nice and structured while also giving the players freedom. Last week, however, sucked. This player – and I won’t call him a problem player because he’s really not like that – absolutely ruined the session by talking over me and everyone else and just being drunk af (which I have since forbidden from my house). I have 3 players – my housemate, my friend (interstate) and our mate who lives nearby. And ftr we are all neurodivergent so accommodations are easy, and I don’t think this issue has to do with that aspect. This guy just…doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t do anything that makes sense. He’s got a bit of an RP addiction so we’ve had to drag him away from NPCs a few times, but since he’s new to the game the other two players and I agreed to railroad him into a good old fashioned dungeon, just this once, so he can maybe learn some game mechanics and be away from NPCs. Some key moments: —NPC delivered them a message with the quest. Had to make her literally run away and the other players physically restrain his character from chasing her down to talk to her. -they had to walk about 10 hours to this location, random wolf encounter on the road. Player tried to keep one as a pet. Insisted they must be part of some plot. -random encounter with a roadside bandit. Player was convinced there was a wide plot and had to investigate the entire area -in the dungeon (an old temple) he did literally everything possible to avoid interacting with the two very obvious very easy puzzles to progress to the last room. Example: a smashed mosaic on the floor opened the next door if repaired and a crystal was used to direct light to the floor. He cast mending 5 times despite me repeatedly telling him that all it does is reattach a few tiles, you have to physically move the tiles. This took over half an hour. -in the last session, he tried to interrogate every nameless NPC in a town, then tried tk refuse to visit the story-relevant NPC they had gone to the city to meet, because she was going to reward them for rescuing her niece. The other players had to drag him there too. I just…cannot understand this line of thinking. Today’s session was pretty good all things considered but still he was reading into meaningless things and completely ignoring story things. I even took everyone aside to describe dream sequences related to their backstories, and he spent about three seconds mentioning it to another player then insisting on trying to find hidden meaning in a symbol of a deity his knowledge religion check (and the lore doc) had already thoroughly explained. I feel like I’m losing my mind here- it’s like this guy is playing a different game in his head. And I will never again ask the others (it was actually their idea) to break the fourth wall for him again. How in the hells can I communicate to this dude what is and isn’t important? I’ve had to impose rules about cantrips and bardic abilities just to make him do anything but just using every single skill and feat he possesses. He’s constantly trying to have conversations during combat – I’m like, if you can’t say it in six seconds you don’t say it at all. But every. Damn. Time. I just need advice. And if you’re gonna say “don’t let newbie players be bards/rogues” I’m already regretting it. TL;DR player is being a total pain in my ass because it’s like he reads the blank page around the letters instead of the actual words submitted by /u/crustdrunk [link] [comments]
Started up a new campaign in 3.5 because I was sick of having like 3 skills in 5e, the usual. It’s going well I suppose, nice and structured while also giving the players freedom. Last week, however, sucked. This player – and I won’t call him a problem player because he’s really not like that – absolutely ruined the session by talking over me and everyone else and just being drunk af (which I have since forbidden from my house).
I have 3 players – my housemate, my friend (interstate) and our mate who lives nearby. And ftr we are all neurodivergent so accommodations are easy, and I don’t think this issue has to do with that aspect.
This guy just…doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t do anything that makes sense. He’s got a bit of an RP addiction so we’ve had to drag him away from NPCs a few times, but since he’s new to the game the other two players and I agreed to railroad him into a good old fashioned dungeon, just this once, so he can maybe learn some game mechanics and be away from NPCs.
Some key moments: —NPC delivered them a message with the quest. Had to make her literally run away and the other players physically restrain his character from chasing her down to talk to her.
-they had to walk about 10 hours to this location, random wolf encounter on the road. Player tried to keep one as a pet. Insisted they must be part of some plot.
-random encounter with a roadside bandit. Player was convinced there was a wide plot and had to investigate the entire area
-in the dungeon (an old temple) he did literally everything possible to avoid interacting with the two very obvious very easy puzzles to progress to the last room. Example: a smashed mosaic on the floor opened the next door if repaired and a crystal was used to direct light to the floor. He cast mending 5 times despite me repeatedly telling him that all it does is reattach a few tiles, you have to physically move the tiles. This took over half an hour.
-in the last session, he tried to interrogate every nameless NPC in a town, then tried tk refuse to visit the story-relevant NPC they had gone to the city to meet, because she was going to reward them for rescuing her niece. The other players had to drag him there too.
I just…cannot understand this line of thinking. Today’s session was pretty good all things considered but still he was reading into meaningless things and completely ignoring story things. I even took everyone aside to describe dream sequences related to their backstories, and he spent about three seconds mentioning it to another player then insisting on trying to find hidden meaning in a symbol of a deity his knowledge religion check (and the lore doc) had already thoroughly explained.
I feel like I’m losing my mind here- it’s like this guy is playing a different game in his head. And I will never again ask the others (it was actually their idea) to break the fourth wall for him again.
How in the hells can I communicate to this dude what is and isn’t important? I’ve had to impose rules about cantrips and bardic abilities just to make him do anything but just using every single skill and feat he possesses. He’s constantly trying to have conversations during combat – I’m like, if you can’t say it in six seconds you don’t say it at all. But every. Damn. Time.
I just need advice. And if you’re gonna say “don’t let newbie players be bards/rogues” I’m already regretting it.
TL;DR player is being a total pain in my ass because it’s like he reads the blank page around the letters instead of the actual words
submitted by /u/crustdrunk
[link] [comments]