Home » Ancient Posts » A Really Extreme Case of Player Entitlement?    
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Ed Allen

Better luck with the next person. Hopefully a sane one.

HeroForge

I once had to deal with a player who wanted very specific things with our game, but didn't have the courtesy to tell anyone. Instead, he kept it all to himself and got more frustrated with every session that passed without the changes he wanted. He kept his frustration hidden as well, until he finally reached the point of exploding. The resulting hour-long tirade ruined an entire game night and only resulted in getting him thrown out of the group, with everyone upset.

gregarious monk

C) could almost be taken as a semi-reasonable request, subject to a group vote if the GM didn't really care.

A, B, and D are just outright insanely selfish things to ask for in a mature group with most members enjoying what they're doing.

Total. Asshat. At least he didn't ruin your game during play and left without too much of a fuss. Kudos to you for giving him the floor to air his requests, my group probably would have shown him the door after (A).

jkovesi

It is really strange, I don't have any clue why he think, that the dm change the whole setting?
A warhammer setting was closed after two game because of one of the players decided to leaveing. He didn't tell me why, just he said:"You are a good man, your game was ok, but not what I expected." He didn't explain what are his points. It was strange too.

Darcy Perry

Forgotten Realms? John's in luck! Balders Gate is a computer game set there. He can decide on the type of characters that join his party and everything! Seriously though, I hope you were kind. I have been Mr Doe. Well, not quite. However, I left a group because I wasn't having fun. I knew the guys in the group well enough but the DM was new. He taught me a lot about what I like in my gaming experience by giving me examples of what I don't like, each challenging session, week after week, until I realised it.

Thanks to that revelation, I started research; studying RPGs, playing tabletop games with old friends and reading online gaming blogs. A personal journey that lead me to the OSR. Through investigating the roots of the game, I discovered what I love about it. This knowledge has made me a better gamer.

Your John Doe is on his own journey. God bless him.

Todd

I think you should stop complaining about this and start blogging about bunnykins. Everyone can find something interesting about bunnykins china and figurines, not your nasty make-believe stories.

TheShadowKnows

You were far too polite. I would have resorted to mocking laughter after the first demand and profanity after the second.

Dyvers

That's the strangest player I've ever read. I'd have stopped him after the first one as it's complete bull to expect anyone else – who's had a long term character – to suddenly give up the character for someone new. What an ass.

Martim

You are to kind, my reply, even to my friends, usually start with "No. But tell me for my curiosity". Then i can make changes. 😛

But seriously. Where do you get such player?!!!

Noah S.

Yeah, give it up – was he 12, or 13?

Let me guess… Paladin?

No wait, some kind of dark elf shadowdancer. Or some stupid thing.

I've heard of weird shit like this before but it's always the superficially charming sociopaths

Anonymous

The best of all for me was "let's teleport everyone to a wildly different campaign setting with no logical reason!" As Kelvin said, I would have thought he was joking; it sounds like a jab at how 12 year olds play rather than a serious suggestion.

garrisonjames

This makes no sense to me. What a ridiculous bunch of demands. Absolutely insulting and like you said, Entitled. He should go start his own group, not try to take over yours by imposing all sorts of conditions and requirements after-the-fact.

Tenkar

Wow.

Simply wow.

My group would have tortured his PC, then lit him on fire in a mine cart followed by a good shove.

And that's just the characters that are of good alignment 😉

Randall

Alec: That was the strangest thing about this. John seems like a good player who was really enjoying the game — for 3 sessions yet. He did argue against breaking off dungeon exploration to go fight bandits, but he wasn't unreasonable about it. No hint of problems until the end of the game last Sunday.

Alec Semicognito

Surprising he was able to collaborate with others even for just a few sessions.

ravencrowking

Gob-smacked.

People are absolutely entitled to decide what games they are willing to play in, and they are absolutely welcome to the door if they choose not to play in the game you are running.

No one is entitled to demand that you run the game that they want to play in, or that the other players must play in the same.

Nor are games a democracy. If you don't want to run something, you don't have to. If John doesn't want to play in something, he doesn't have to. No one else's "vote" counts.

Joe Nelson

Wow. Just…wow.

To actually call out two of his fellow players' characters as being incompatible with his was the first thing I noticed. And first thing I would have stopped him at.

Unless a player is playing a character that is completely at odds with the majority of the table (and it'd have to be pretty damn serious for that to happen) I would never, ever tell any of my players to do away with their favored characters.

Hell, I don't even force my players to create a "balanced" party. If three of them feel like playing fighters then go for it. It probably just means they want a game with more action.

I believe gamemasters should work their players needs into the game. After all, there is no game without players. But that respect is a two-way street, and if you aren't willing to extend the same courtesy to the GM, then you can find another group.

Unknown

Probably learned it from mom & dad. Ridiculous.

Brett Slocum

I'm trying to figure out if he's done this before and was successful. Where does someone learn that this is okay?

thekelvingreen

That's bonkers. If he'd given that list of demands to me I'd assume he was joking, given that it's so bizarre and unreasonable.

-C

Awesome.

Yes. Entitlement. Why would he think he would get those things?

Anonymous

So let's get this straight:

– He likes stories, but obviously he only likes his stories because he wants to shut down the "plot" of two other characters to allow for his "plot".

– He likes stories, but he hates it when characters abandon the exploration of a dungeon in order to react to a crisis which threatens the life of one of their friends – you know, like you'd expect the heroes of a story to do if the author has actually paid attention to their motivations and priorities.

– He likes stories, but he insists that magic items must be distributed randomly, rather than being given to those who can use them best… you know, like how characters in a story whose lives depend on their fellow party members' being able to work at the peak of their abilities would distribute treasure.

– He likes stories, but he wants to cut off every single ongoing "plot" the party is involved in in your campaign so that they can be shunted off to a different setting via a deus ex machina – a setting whether the characters have no allies, no enemies, no roots, no stakes, and in short none of the things which make stories interesting.

It sounds like Tigger here doesn't have a damn clue what he actually likes.