Warning signs to watch out for in GMs/Players

[Nevelon]

Some rules rapists come with the "bullying" skill, and there are some GMs that are poorly equipped to deal. The more benign type just gets some sort of thrill from playing the silly build they came up with; they think it's funny. Instant Change Usable On Others, anyone?

I'll admit to being a minimaxer, mainly because my free time is too valuable for me to spend it sitting around playing an unconscious character.

Sometimes it's not so much bullying, but good salesmanship (aka fast talk)and receptive GMs. One of the GMs in my group will let almost anything fly as long as you can pitch him a good story. One of his tenants of GMing is try to make sure the players are having fun, so he wants people to enjoy their characters. Unfortunately one of our players exploits this mercilessly, so party balance in his games is always bad (unless the rest of us step up the power-cheese)

I'll admit to having made a character with instant change usable against others. He was a very old wizard in the modern day, and insisted that dinner was a formal affair, not just a burger on the go. Anyone who showed up at the base during the dinner hour would be changed into formal attire, and whatever (city threatening) business that brought them to the door WOULD wait until after mealtime. No exceptions.

But yeah, in the wrong hands instant change means every BBEG is going to be wearing a pink tutu or a clown outfit.

[Ian Mackinder]

15. The GM who keeps making rules changes on the fly - because he doesn't like whatever results he is getting.
16. The GM so dissatisfied with the game system that he works up entire volumes of rules changes and additional new rules.

[Orion]

17. The host's house (or the gaming store) has been compared to a pig sty, you are scared to use the bathroom, portions of the building have the stench of a cat litterbox, and fleas are in carpet and furniture. And the rest of the group sees nothing wrong with this....

[Cygnia]

18. They will never chip in for drinks & pizza or bring over munchies, but will always leech off everyone else's snacks without giving any compensation.
19. When borrowing other people's books, they treat them like crap (spills, breaking spines, rips, etc.) Worse case scenario, they will then "lose" said books. Conversely, they never seem willing to lend out any of their books if other people need them.

[megaplayboy]

20. People with dice-related OCD. They either obsess over a series of "bad" rolls, or they become reluctant to lend out their dice, or they ask for your dice because they seem to be "luckier" than theirs.

[Shadow Hawk]

Is it a bad sign when you notice that most of your group has none of these tendencies, but you do?

[megaplayboy]

21. Anybody with anger-management issues. Having a game interrupted by a rage-a-thon isn't much fun.

[Cygnia]

Is it a bad sign when you notice that most of your group has none of these tendencies, but you do?

It is, but hopefully that means you then have the self-awareness to actually want to change your behaviour for the better.

[ercarlson1974]

22. Blatant favoritism of one character/player over others for no remotely good reason. Conversely, blatant hatred/exclusion of certain characters/players for no good reason.

[Shadow Hawk]

22. Blatant favoritism of one character/player over others for no remotely good reason. Conversely, blatant hatred/exclusion of certain characters/players for no good reason.

22a: include character classes, races, archtypes, etc in both catagories. The most common ones I found were "All Paladins are fools", "All Bricks are stupid", "All mages are brilliant in all things", "All martial artists kick ass over any other character class".

[Steve]

The Talker: A person who constantly interrupts game flow by talking about a movie/book/anime/comic/personal experience that the game scenario brings to mind. I enjoy side-chatter to a degree. Some people just won't shut up.

[CrosshairCollie]

22a: include character classes, races, archtypes, etc in both catagories. The most common ones I found were "All Paladins are fools", "All Bricks are stupid", "All mages are brilliant in all things", "All martial artists kick ass over any other character class".

And don't forget 'Elves are AWESOME'.

[Steve]

Regarding the Rules Lawyer, an interesting variant emerged in my local gaming group that we call the Rules Paralegal.

[Cygnia]

23. If there's a woman already in the group and she resents other women joining -- even if those women are already in relationships/have no interest in dating fellow gamers. Can tie into GMing/playing with significant others/spouses sometimes.

[megaplayboy]

24. The guy who shows up with his friend, doesn't know the rules, and appears to have the attitude that he will never make an effort to learn them, either.
25. The guy whose characters all seem to make similar errors in judgment, all the time, regardless of character concept(i.e., the player is making frequent errors in judgment and failing to learn anything from it).
26. The guy who asks the GM(in a non-espionage game) "how many points for a license to kill?"