Frustrating Roleplayer - Help Me

ashderf

Channel: dungeons-n-drags

So I am preparing to DM for the first time, at least in an official game. I have ran a few roleplaying groups without any dice and just going by agreed upon reasoning.

Anyway, I am going to be running the game with the usually crew that I have played with before as a player.

One guy in the group is "that guy". In every game I have played with him, he is Link. This player will be referred to as Link from here on out.

Friend running a generic fantasy game, and Link asks when he will get the Master sword.

In every dungeon he runs three rooms ahead of the group, because we go to slow for his pace. We told him to wait for us because we are searching for items and hidden stuff. He says he is too used to his Legend of Zelda pace.

He always makes his characters mute. Every. Single. Time. He doesn't even give a backstory for it. I wouldn't mind if there was one. Instead it is just " Link can't talk".

Yesterday I had an argument with him about whether the Master sword is a late game item or not. He keeps trying to get it early game.

He has played every Zelda game at least three times, is bored with all of them, but never plays anything else.

In the campaign, he will shout "hyaa hyaah" whenever trying to get attention.

His character in the current campaign is a 17 year old wood elf ranger. 17 only because Legend of Zelda. Even though the elf maturity age is 100.

His ringtone is Legend of Zelda.

His bedspread at home is Legend of Zelda.

He only has Legend of Zelda posters.

He reads Hylian and insisted on making that a language in the campaign.

He wants the pantheon to have the Legend of Zelda goddess so he can worship her.

The BBEG of the current campaign is Ganondorf. And that's cause the DM is giving in to Link's every demand.

The campaign I am planning would fall apart with Legend of Zelda being forced in for this guy.

I don't know how to tell this guy off. This guy is so obsessed with Legend of Zelda that I don't know if he will stick around.

And if he walks, I am not sure how many other guys in the group will stick around.

Short of bending to this guys obsessive mental disorder to make his every waking breath about Legend of Zelda, how the hell do I keep him interested and not derailing a campaign?!?

+161

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Favorited:	7
Submitted:	12/24/2015

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+76

#14 - dongers (12/24/2015) [-]

A few of these i would give him;
- Making his character mute, sure why not, that way other PCs can just ignore him
- Wanting the master sword, give him the "master sword" as in give him a cursed item
- With the character age stuff just force him to take a child template if his age fits it for his race.
- BBEG make it a free world campaign and tell him "you can go after Ganondorf if you want, you'll have to find him though." And no npc has heard of him unless he makes a huge ass gather info check, then it turns out he died a long as time ago or something anticlimactic like that.
- If hes running ahead of the party then remember this: traps ************ . Many of them will make it so he HAS to wait for the party.

Don't tell him off, don't ask him to stop, make being link unfun.

#70 to #14 - pantheonguy ONLINE (12/25/2015) [-]

I may disagree with this. It works, it's good advice, but I disagree.

As a DM, you should never make anything about your campaigns 'unfun', and you ESPECIALLY shouldn't do it by being meta. That's a good way to have your players think you're a passive-agressive egotistical asshole.

Full explanation over here >>#57

#58 to #14 - skeltaljones (12/24/2015) [-]

Hey Ashderf. If I might give some advice, I'd be wary of everyone saying that you should make being Link as unfun as possible, since it would kind of eliminate the purpose of playing a roleplay game, what with it supposed to be done in the name of fun for everyone, so with that please don't turn into one of those killer GM's or the ones who try to make it the GM vs the players. Since at that point you might as well just tell him no to the idea of being link and save the guy no doubt at least an hour of character generating.

As for my advice if you don't mind him being in the game, just let him be Link but make up some homebrew crap, he wants a "Master sword" make him earn that **** , it was hardly ever handed to Link, he wants a couple goddesses, what's the problem with that? Just make it just as annoying to win their favor as any other god. He wants to be mute, then let him live with that with all it's downsides, force him to be creative in how he communicates since shrieking and pointing probably won't get much across. As for inventory weight limits, then just play it fair and let him have a bag of holding (Assuming this is a dnd setting for your game) assuming he can afford one. If you don't want his elf being a 3 year old in elf terms then just say that when he gets the master sword that "it rabidly ages the user by a couple hundred years and that's why only he could use it yadda yada" and if you want it to be balanced for early play make it to where it starts in a nerfed state and have him have to go on some side quests to restore it's power. And so on. And as for his BBEG Gannon, just have him be a miniboss sidequest, like a bandit leader with ambitions of ruling the world.

#59 to #58 - skeltaljones (12/24/2015) [-]

Oh and if you don't like him rushing ahead of the party, like Dongers said. TRAPS! AMBUSHES! Swarm encounters! Save or die spells for those STR mcCON SCORE players. Just make it sort of essential after a while to be in a group.

#27 to #14 - ninjamanfu ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

yes! dongers has the right ideas!

#52 to #14 - eaglesking (12/24/2015) [-]

Other ways to make it unfun to be link:

1. Green cloth tunic would have REALLY bad armor stats, it's basically clothing, so no AC bonus (assuming he's not getting armor, but if you give him the tunic, he might not go for armor.)

2. Track carry weight, Link collects all kinds of garbage and random doodads, if he's REALLY trying to be link, he's going to get things like iron boots and massive spiked chain balls that don't really do anything. Give them too him, give it ALL to him, but make sure he knows that it weighs a ton, and it will slow him down. He also won't be proficient in most of it without a ton of wasted feats.

3. Link is actually an idiot if you think about it. He can't swim unless it's a newer LoZ game, it can take him hours to solve basic puzzles, he can't/doesn't talk so anything like "Solve the riddle" would be impossible for him without an option menu.

4. Give him Navi. Seriously, give him a tiny pixie helper with no magic skills or abilities except the power to yell things at him. He's trying to sneak? "LOOK!" alerted guards. He's trying to avoid a trap? "LISTEN!" Navi flies over to the tripwire and roll a % to trip it. He's in combat? Navi IS TARGETABLE! he's going to go out of his way to protect the fairy, and might even waste potions on it, especially if it doesn't level with the party, so every encounter will be incredibly deadly for it. Since he cannot speak to it, he can't tell it to stay back. BUT, the fairy is an ally, so when the little annoying **** is flying around an enemy, give a flanking bonus, give Navi a huge bonus to spot checks to point out hidden stuff, make Navi worth keeping for him so he wants to keep it alive.

+10

#37 to #14 - realmanbraum (12/24/2015) [-]

make the Master sword a cursed Item that only deals a set damage against a set unit type eg. Undead, human. The curse will involve a few things, Mute will be one, so he cannot make a single sound not even the hyaah bit. The sword will talk, and that will be DM, making a suggestion (Not always helpful, like lead the party to traps, or goodies) that way it will always be an uncertainty with the group. it will also deal the same amount of damage as the average of the party's melee weapon stats eg, Rogue uses a dagger, paladin uses a mace, and fighter uses a sword, combine and divide that damage, that way it gets the party to decide if he is useful in combat or not. and final curse. whatever the sword suggests, he is forced to follow it. if not, he has to role an intelligence check (Don't tell him this ahead of time. Tell him after he gets the item and rolls his stats) This way, you can make an interesting side story that can involve the entire group.I am more than willing to spitball more ideas if need be. or completely ignore this, entirely up to you

#38 to #37 - dongers (12/24/2015) [-]

I like the idea of the curse doing specific things, but instead of making him mute have the sword be made by a chaotic evil bard. When you pick up the sword you are told to make a perform check, the entire time you hold the sword you are singing an opera of the bard's life and why he hates you. (or something of the sort)

I don't like the force them to do action thing because that's just bad design. You have to make the player feel like they can play how they want, but steer them in the direction of making the game fun for everyone.
I would understand a will save vs compulsion kind of thing but make sure to have a defined reason for it in the story other than just "I don't want you to play Link" Like have the person that made have set the item to get the player to revive him (even though hes been dead from old age and can't be resurrected.) Also because i forgot to mention it, in most of my campaigns cursed items can't be easily gotten rid of, like you can set them down but you then realize it's in your other hand etc.

#48 to #38 - realmanbraum (12/24/2015) [-]

I like that idea, kinda like how Percy jackson's sword worked. But a cursed weapon needs some sort of balance, for each negative a positive. so maybe a +2 or +4 to hit evil creatures. or undead, (Up to DM) it could give a stat as well or something along the lines. make it useable after applying the curses and such

#79 to #48 - mossjesus (12/25/2015) [-]

it was made by an evil bard, so why not give it a big damage against good and have him be forced to use it as his only melee weapon, so far as i know once link has the master sword their isn't a game were he can swap away from it

#82 to #79 - realmanbraum (12/25/2015) [-]

aside from the bigoron sword, not much else

#66 to #48 - dongers (12/25/2015) [-]

Well, cursed is cursed for a reason. I don't think it needs many positives but we may just be arguing differences of the norm for different verisons. In dnd 3.5 cursed items are usually an entirely bad thing and you just don't realize it at first

#69 to #66 - Bion ONLINE (12/25/2015) [-]

In my experience with cursed items, they have better stats or effects that make it tempting to equip them early on.

Then you find out that it's cursed, you can't unequip it, and you constantly lose HP until you die, keep chugging pots, get the item removed by an enchanter, or get it exorcised. Last option often making it even more powerful, but with no bad things.

+27

#57 - pantheonguy ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

OP, this is a long post, but you need to read it.
I've been GMing (Gamemaster, it's a general term for DMing outside D&D) a few years, and the stuff that everyone else is saying is good advice. I disagree with it, but I acknowledge it's good advice.

"Tell him no and force him to play your way"
He's going to lose interest or try to force Link in anyways.

"Make being Link end up hurting him or play against him"
He'll call you out on being passive-aggressive, or he'll lose interest because it's not what he wanted, or he gets frustrated with the way things are going and stops showing up.

There's a reason we hate players like this. There's really little you can do about cancerous and outright disrespectful playstyles, but the absolute worst thing you can do is violate the golden rule of GM/DMing and hurt him through meta. Here's what I'd say to do:

1.) Compromise pace. He's running ahead too often? Either give him something to be doing on his own while he's running around without the group (like a side quest that artificially slows his progress through the dungeon or some puzzle that stalls him out) or have some incentive for the whole party to move through the area quickly, like SOMETHING slowly advancing on the party, room by room, stopping them from spending turns and turns inspecting and searching every object.

2.) Let him be Link. If he wants his character to be link, he can be link, but the BBEG isn't ganondorf, you aren't in hyrule, and the princess is not Zelda. If he wants Legend of Zelda, he can play Legend of Zelda. But this is YOUR story dude. If you let him ruin your story, a) you won't get to tell it like you wanted ever again, b) he's going to get bored of it like he has every other Zelda game, c) you're hurting your other players by dragging them along. I can't stress this enough: players DO NOT know what they want out of your story. Compromise on pace or style, not story.

3.) Let your players be awesome often, at least at the beginning of your new adventure. Have them save the day for some townspeople, and have it be a big deal. Have them make a 'hard' choice that ends up being the right thing to do, resulting in praise and gushing admiration by NPCs. Save a little girl from a terrifying monster. Give somebody a title. Give somebody an heirloom as a token of gratitude for them to hold dear. Players don't know it, but 90% of whether or not they like a campaign is how proud they are of what they've done. Which is why railroading 'you can't do that' DMs are hated, and you see so many green-texts of awesome DMs letting their players suplex dragons, play as bear rogues, or pull off some crazy stunt. The players were proud of their awesome feats, or awesome humor. Let your players be awesome often. If that means letting your pal pretend to be Link, so be it. Let him, and let him feel awesome doing it. Make it so when your friends leave for the night, they walk away high-fiving each other, eagerly anticipating what's coming next.

#71 to #57 - deathtouch (12/25/2015) [-]

I don't have enough thumbs for this...

#63 to #57 - windbound (12/24/2015) [-]

This is actually good advice

+22

#24 - anon (12/24/2015) [-]

3 ways to go about this.

1) Grow some balls. Tell him no and explain why. Your other friends probably feel the same way.

2) Set traps that are themed around all character back stories. Set multiple ones for Link. Bitch splits party and runs into room. Grabs ocarina and is shut in. Only way out is for other players to get him out with insanely hard puzzle. They have a choice to let his character die. After going out of their way to save Link multiple times, it will only stoke the fire and give players reason to be pissed at Link. Extremely passive aggressive route obviously. If Link is such a dickwad then every trap will be sprung. As a DM you only set the traps, so there's not much you can be blamed for.

3) roll20.com is free and you can use a dice generator on that. You only need a computer and Internet, which it seems you already have.

I would personally set a trap where he fights an insanely high level mob (and name is Ganon). He would be too wrapped up in his Zelda fantasy to realize he is about to get destroyed. Also have a high level mimic type mob named that looks like Zelda. If on the off chance he beats the Ganon mob, "Zelda" could finish the job.

#26 to #24 - ninjamanfu ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

the roll20.com dice generator is horribly flawed, but i like your other ideas

#30 to #26 - sketchE (12/24/2015) [-]

whats wrong with it. ive been using it for a year now

#31 to #30 - ninjamanfu ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

the coding for the doce roller gives you a higher chance of rolling a 1-10 then rolling an 11-20 with increasing results. a nat 20 drops 1-2% of the time while a 1 drops almost 7-8% of the time. with real precision dice the chance for each number is exactly 5%. even with the cheap dice the chance is still ~4-6%.

#32 to #31 - sketchE (12/24/2015) [-]

hm. that explains why my paladin fought an ancient black dragon a few sessions ago

#33 to #32 - ninjamanfu ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

do tell, i love dnd stories

#35 to #33 - sketchE (12/24/2015) [-]

terr-solum.net/tools/fumble_chart_spiffy.jpg
weve been using this for nat 1s in combat. he rolled an 85. i rolled to see how powerful the dragon was. got a ten. rolled to see how long it lasted got a 4.

correction he didnt roll the 1. his opponent in the arena did. so a whole was ripped open in thespace time continuum and a black dragon appears. for its first turn it smashed our paladins opponent. for his second turn he breathed acid at the paladin. who saved for half and healed himself back to full health. the dragon thinking his work was done decided to make fishsticks of the audience. the paladin thought stabbing it in the ankle was a good idea. for the dragons last turn he tried melting the paladin once again. he did 53 damage. the paladin had 56 health. im not using the massive damage rule because im nice like that

+18

#4 - silversea ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Just tell him that he can play whatever character he wants, but none of his lore will be supported. He'll be worshiping fake gods, searching for fake enemies, and there's no Master Sword or Triforce. He can play Link, but make sure he knows and the group knows that his hopes will be severely dashed. Given that he knows this, let him play Link, and don't fall for his Elven seductions.

Pic unrelated.

#6 to #4 - lollypopalopicus ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

I want to know who made that, because it is hilarious.

+11

#7 to #6 - silversea ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

I did.
I make Jones.

#20 to #7 - satrenkotheone (12/24/2015) [-]

I am scaroused.

#21 to #20 - silversea ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Sometimes Jones arouses me too.

#39 to #7 - anatidaephilia (12/24/2015) [-]

Do you have more, O' Great Master of Jones?

#73 to #39 - silversea ONLINE (12/25/2015) [-]

These are some of the earliest records of Jones. It seems the creators did not posses the cropping skill that was perfected in later generations.

#74 to #73 - silversea ONLINE (12/25/2015) [-]

#75 to #74 - silversea ONLINE (12/25/2015) [-]

#8 to #6 - lollypopalopicus ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Then you are awesome. I have to ask though. What inspired it?

#11 to #8 - silversea ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Jones did.
He speaks to me at night.

#16 to #11 - lollypopalopicus ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Makes sense.

#19 to #16 - silversea ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Yes.
Yes it does.

+11

#43 - arwendar (12/24/2015) [-]

Runs ahead in dungeons? Place traps, mini-bosses, one-way doors, etc.
Wants the master sword? Put fancy cursed sword in your dungeon.
Make the BBEG kidnap a princess, then when they confront him, eviscerate her before his very eyes.
Place nice hidden items in certain rooms for the other PC's to find, since they do take the time to search the room.
Plays nothing but wood elves? Create a setting where elves are extinct.

Or just generally tell him that his shenenigans won't fly in your campaign.

+10

#25 - ninjamanfu ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

no need to tell him off, just say 'no' and give no explaination besides 'it wouldnt work'
"when do i get a master sword" he asks "cant tell you, it would spoil the story (real anwser never)"

"im a 17 yr old wood elf" says link. "minimum age 100 unless you want to change race" you reply

"we speak hillian" he insists "we speak common", you reply in a flat tone "but you can have that as a bonus language (with abolulty no use)"

"you find 3 iron scraps, 17 silver, and-" you explain as he interupts "you mean ruppees?" "no, you find silver coins with a little symbol on it; the currancy of the realm"

when he says something tactical, or anything during a battle. remind him he is mute.

when he runs the dungeons at ahead of the party, throw him a supprise! a pitfall trap, so far from civilization his legs cant be insta-healed and are broken. his friends pull him to a safe spot outside the dungeon and set him up nice and comfy. later, after the minor boss/big monster in the dungeon, someone spies a hidden door. inside is a masterwork, sharp enchanted, hand-and-a-half longsword with 3 triangles emblazoned on the side. naturally this will pike links intrest, but when he tries to say something about it remind hi he is not only mute but outside the dungeon where he couldnt communicate with the party anyway.

LO there is some more dungeon, a few creeps and lots of rooms to explore. link get impatient and crawls back inside the dungeon, but his movments are reopening his wounds. soon he is taking bleeding damage, soon he is dead.

TL;DR make 'links' decisions hurt him, he will learn

#68 - jettom (12/25/2015) [-]

Oh my ******* God, I've been in your PRECISE situation. I'm wondering if your friend's name is Nick for the sheer accuracy of the whole thing.

I got 3 clever ways to ruin it for players like this:
1. Traps. Use them.
2. Ambushes. Monsters will set them up. If he charges into a room alone, he should be shot at by 50 goblins and killed on the spot.
3. Rangers have spells. They need to utilize these spells to be even somewhat effective. Tell him he needs to speak if he wants to cast spells.

Also if you're playing 5e I'd recommend putting in a homebrew rule that says Rangers have bucklers, not shields. Make it a 1+ AC that you can do a 1d4 bludgeoning attack with as a secondary attack when you use Two Weapon Fighting. If he's bothered by this tell him, and I quote: "I looked it up Online and it seems to be the general consensus as it fits better with the Ranger fantasy and archetype"

You could also scrap the Ranger class altogether and opt to go with this version instead, it's an official replacement: media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DX_0907_UA_RangerOptions.pdf
Do the same thing with bucklers here.

But yeah. Traps. If a person charges ahead of the group in my campaign, he's dead within the minute. Just ask heartsickruben or maxmekker about that.

And as a person experienced with playing together with a Zelda-otaku, I feel sorry for you. I ******* despite the entire franchise now because of the guy I had to DM for. I also found that having intelligent boss design made them more likely to follow suite. Don't just do "This monster has much HP and deals damage." Read up on spells. Base a monster around the most retardedly OP way to use the spell. Give him other spells to compliment it.

Put a bunch of fire skeletons behind a waterfall that the party has no ******* way to defeat without using the waterfall.

Create a huge rock minotaur that covers 15 squares that charges back and forth a tunnel dealing 5d8 on a hit and petrifies any it hits. Make it defend a canal, or remove the canal if any spellcaster in your group can use ice.

Just **** your party over big time.

#72 to #68 - kanatana (12/25/2015) [-]

**kanatana used "*roll picture*"**
**kanatana rolled image** Ashderf, listen to this man. He has EVERYTHING you need to nerf this nerf herder.

#83 to #68 - heartsickruben (12/25/2015) [-]

I IZ SAD ORC
BUT DO NOT WORRY GROTZ. NOW I BE THE CAP'N OF THIS SMALL VESSAL.

#22 - Bruda ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

How to **** with him quickly. Master sword is the key to stop a trap. He runs in a room ahead of the rest of the party with the sword. There's a note hidden among a dead enemy that the rest of the party were looting and it has a triforce. It says the master sword is the only way to deactivate traps so be careful not to be caught in one while holding it as there's no escape. There's no ******** about it being targeted at him since you literally gave him key to escape and his team could've saved him. Not only that it fits the Zelda theme.

#15 - gunmandude (12/24/2015) [-]

I can see 3 potential options here for this guy's obsession.

1) Tell him to **** off and find another group.

2) Get him to try something on the completely opposite side of the spectrum. This could be attempted by using an argument such as saying, "Look, I understand that you really like playing Link, but I know that after enough time you ended up getting bored with all the video games in the series. Rather than running the risk of burning yourself out on the franchise altogether, try another race/class. After all, with the way you are playing you are only scratching the surface of D&D. And besides you have a fair bit of conflict with the party, what with running so far ahead of them and all. Working together with them will prove to be a very fun experience.". Or something like that. (I don't expect it to work but there is a chance nonetheless)

3) Make him rethink his character by being overly critical on him intentionally. He breaks open random pots in a dungeon? It just happened to be filled with snakes. Running ahead of the party by about 3 rooms? Little did you know that the last one is a trap that makes you 1v1 a really tough creature with no means of escape. Does he keep screaming "Hyahh!"? The blind but sound-sensitive monsters nearby heard that and are now hunting him. Hell, you could even remove him entirely for a session (before he re-writes his character sheet) by saying that you are cracking down on his age and that little wood elf toddlers are not old enough to leave the house yet without adult supervision (or crack down on the fact that Link is a solo-adventurer and that being in a party is something he doesn't do).

It may sound a bit over the top but that is all that I could come up with. I hope that it helps in some way.

#64 to #15 - jiud (12/25/2015) [-]

You should look into pathfinder for wrestling style classes. Pathfinder is basically a cleaned up 3.5 and has rules to convert 3.5 to pathfinder and vice versa. They actually have a wrestling style monk worked out to level 20 as well as a fighter. I don't remember the name of the monk but the fighter class is called a grappler. The website below has everything on pathfinder including 3rd party information.

D20pfsrd.Com has

#28 - brolylssj ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

"Hey can I *something stupid*"
"No."
God isn't Stupid.
DM is God.
I am DM.
Pretty solid logic.

#41 - metalheadtildeath (12/24/2015) [-]

drop his ass, or force him to play as a useless character. can't speak? can't communicate. AT ALL. wnats to run ahead? set up traps JUST for him. the real dick move? give him the master sword, then steal it from him and kill his pc. either break him of it, or tell him to **** off. i used to have to deal with a guy that was OBSESSED with playing as the frankenstein monster. that didn't end well

#29 - sketchE (12/24/2015) [-]

kill his character. over and over.
let him run ahead. kill him
let him ignore the guard interrogating him. kill him
let him worship a fake god. kill him (with an angry mob of religious nuts)
let him find "ganondorf". let the massive pig thing kill him
hylian is simple if he insists on not talking there will be no one to speak it with him. you could honestly let him have that one and never bring it up. or bring it up to **** with his mute aspect. then kill him
let him be a 17 year old woodelf. let a elven pedophile rape him to death.

it sounds a bit mean but hell get the message or leave. if he tries calling you out on it point out his mistakes. in all honsety if you talk to him and just ask to tone it down a bit and he doesnt hes not worth the trouble.

there are plenty of ways to meet a middle ground and give him options. one player wanted to breath fire. hes a human so i worked out a trick to do that. another player wanted to be a wrestling style monk. we worked out rules for it. flexibility is one of the most important things a DM can have, but so is sticking to your guns. if you dont want it to happen it doesnt happen

#67 - battletechmech (12/25/2015) [-]

Player refused to stick with the party and throws caution to the wind? Have a mimic in the early game, it'll put him in line.

archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/alumni/20060927a

#55 - loonquawl (12/24/2015) [-]

You're the Dungeon Master, you're basically God.
You can totally **** him up.

#51 - iceblue (12/24/2015) [-]

The key to being a DM is that you have to be flexible, no matter what your PC's decide that they want. You have to be able to go with the flow, even if one of them completely destroys your storyline.
We had a Dwarf Fighter one time (18 Str, 17 Dex, 14 Con, 7 Int, 8 Wis, 10 Cha), who was both the luckiest and stupidest character I have ever seen. This is before my DMing days, so I was just a PC at the time with a kick ass half elf paladin. Our DM had spent MONTHS drawing up a very elaborate labyrinth, complete with traps, monsters, and a Minotaur as the BBEG. Right as we are walking into the labyrinth, the dwarf sees a very large boulder off to the side. Now, he had an item that was very special; The Bag of Terminal Velocity. Basically a bag of holding in that you could put whatever you wanted into it, but with one exception: whatever was put into the bag came out as fast as it could possibly go when the bag was opened the second time. Basically a really powerful magical cannon. Well, the dwarf put the boulder in the bag. When we walked into the labyrinth (which was set up in a very large circle with the treasure at the center) and arrived at the first turn, the dwarf opens the bag facing the center of the maze. Blew a giant hole/tunnel all the way to the center of the thing. We walked right in, loaded up on gold and what magic items we could find, and walked right out. Ran into the minotaur on the way back out, and the dwarf sucks it into the bag. Months of set up for this campaign, and this stupid little dwarf blows it to hell in 10 minutes.
Several sessions later, we find ourselves up against a dragon. We go around to set up defensive spells, see what gear we want to use, and overall get a strategy going. We get to the dwarf, and this little bastard just walks out into the dragons lair where he can be easily seen. When the dragon starts bellowing about thieves and the like, he opens the bag again. One shotted a red dragon with a minotaur cannonball.
Point to this is: No matter what your PC's decide, you have to be able to roll with it. Now, if they do something completely stupid, then slaughtering their character with pure unadulterated rage is still an option.

#61 to #51 - anon (12/24/2015) [-]

that magical bag is ******* retarded. whatever DM let his players have or use that item deserved whatever was thrown at him.

#85 to #61 - iceblue (12/26/2015) [-]

He actually told us that he wanted to see what we could do with it. He was a cool guy, and could come up with some wicked stuff pretty much on the fly. One of the greatest DM's I have played with. And one of the best campaigns that I have been a part of was one that we completely blew his storyline to hell and he had to almost completely ditch his original idea and come up with new stuff on the spot.

#45 - ImmortalBaconEater ONLINE (12/24/2015) [-]

Just don't give him the mastersword. Do not include it at all. Keep hinting at it being soon but never give it to him.

#44 - AnimalsConscience (12/24/2015) [-]

I know it's been said quite a lot, but I really think your best option is going to be to come to him and, without being rude, tell him that this isn't a Legend of Zelda game. Tell him he can have a character that is like link in whatever way he wants, but that since it isn't Hyrule, the results will be different. If he's okay with being a baby elf character just for the sake of saying he's -just like Link-, then that's alright I guess, but he should know that he won't be able to actually...do anything. Tell him that if he wants to be at what the elf equivalent of 17 for a human is, then you can work that in. If he wants to follow a god, he should choose one in your pantheon that fits the kind of character he wants, or follow an ideal. The fact that even Paladins and Clerics can, instead of following an actual god, can follow an idea or belief that is less concrete than a deity really adds a lot to the game. Above all else, be clear with him that you aren't trying to force him to play a certain way. Your key phrase should not be "No", it should be "No, but". If that's not enough though, then it's unfortunately the time to part ways, because nobody has fun with that.

#40 - bigbadplaid (12/24/2015) [-]

You, as DM, come first. Make the game you want to make. The game might stray from your intended path during sessions, but you still must want to run the game.
Best solution, don't invite him to the game. If this fails, like you said, everyone else might bail (Which why? This guy sounds like a dick, and wouldn't be fun to game with at all), then use his tendencies against him. He likes exploring 3 rooms ahead? Well, you just found the mini-boss, and everyone else is trapped outside. Want a Master Sword? It's an astral beacon that draws very powerful monster to the party, never letting them fully rest, until the exhaustion forces them to take measures.
You could force Link's action to severly harm or possibly kill the party. Design an dungeon that if just plowed through, causes it to collapse/flood/lots of traps, etc, basically a dungeon that if Link just was staying with and protecting the group, they would all survive. Sadly, this can have the undesired effect of making the players hate you, and not Link.

#34 - linkedgamr (12/24/2015) [-]

Read the first 6 lines and I sat there and thought " ******* this is about me ain't" since most of my friends call me Link since I started my online name as Linkmanalex. Then I got to the 7th line and thought "ohthankgod im not that autistic."

#17 - oubliette (12/24/2015) [-]

**oubliette used "*roll picture*"**
**oubliette rolled image**
autistic faglord leaves= other ppl will leave?
other ppl= autistic faggots that need to suckle on autistic faglord nippul
wooried those othr ppl will leave?= r u an autistic fegget?

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[ 86 comments ]