5e is the worst published game, except for every other one.
I really don't get why you've been waging your private war against a game for years now, still in that larval stage where you give a shit what publishers do when all publishers are just pushing uncostomized products you should have moved past by now.
It's pretty much guaranteed you don't play any games and just come here to be a basic b***h troll by shitposting about whatever happens to be the most popular thing on a board.
>DnD is hugely unpopular due to WotC's constant abuse and dumbing down of the property >Even the general thread is full of batching and negativity >Be (you) and still moronic enough to think all the negativity around D&D is one person
This is what a professional shill looks like, kids.
>WHOA, PEOPLE HAVE PICKED UP ON MY ANTI-D&D SHITSPAMMING, I BETTER SAMEgay TO SHOW THAT I'M NOT OBESSSED WITH A GAME I DON'T EVEN PLAY
lol, you really are the worst.
>Include a question in your application where you ask player what their favorite TTRPG is >They answer D&D 5e
If you think 5e is the worst ttrpg ever made, you haven't played many/any TTRPGs. As someone who's actually played things that aren't D&D and D&D clones (this includes TSR/OSR and Pathfinder 1e/2e) I can safely say 5e is at its worst painfully average. It's mediocre, average, just okay.
If you want an actually dogshit TTRPG, go look up Tokyo Heroes or BESM 3rd Edition, those games are some of the worst godawful dogshit I've ever had the displeasure of touching and if you disagree you're just being a contrarian homosexual who doesn't know anything about either system.
Hardly, it's not even in the bottom 5. Again, BESM mogs it in every department as a worse game. At least 5e has fricking rules for combat instead of BESM where it's basically just "you can do whatever the GM feels like is okay :)". BESM doesn't even have fricking ranges, it's literally all GM may I and even as a GM I found that obnoxious as frick, not to mention BESM copies the power list from M&M (another dogshit game mogged by its peers btw) and forces the GM to sit down and ban like 70% of the powers if you want anything resembling a fun game and even then good luck with your encounter design because players WILL build the most moronic shit ever and make the game unplayable because BESM doesn't even want to try and help you understand it, you're either going to waste your time dealing with its bullshit or, the smart option, find a better game. Yes, even 5e is a better game than BESM.
I would rather spend the rest of my life running and playing vanilla 5e than ever, EVER touch BESM in ANY of its editions EVER again.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>At least 5e has fricking rules for combat instead of BESM where it's basically just "you can do whatever the GM feels like is okay :)".
D&D has rule 0.
3 months ago
Anonymous
All games have rule 0. All games are ruled by GM's prerogative, even that danger-hair slop which claims otherwise. And that is because GM is generally the least-coveted role.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Rule 0 is inherently anti-game structure.
The players of a game are made aware of how their skills and luck will be challenged and there are clear measurements and boundaries established before play. With rule 0, decisions are made on whim and meta-bullshit outside the established parameters.
So, NO game has rule 0, actually.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Based on irl events: >guy arrives uninvited >he hides on the staircase, silently watching and taking notes. >you don't know who this guy even is. >he has a voice recorder
That was the weirdest session I was a part of. At least the stairs were comfy.
Rule 0 dates back from to the original Kriegsspiele, which was a non fiction battlefield simulation for German military. It literally started as a rule that rulings of the umpire (typically a senior officer) are the law.
[...]
If you think 5e is the worst ttrpg ever made, you haven't played many/any TTRPGs. As someone who's actually played things that aren't D&D and D&D clones (this includes TSR/OSR and Pathfinder 1e/2e) I can safely say 5e is at its worst painfully average. It's mediocre, average, just okay.
If you want an actually dogshit TTRPG, go look up Tokyo Heroes or BESM 3rd Edition, those games are some of the worst godawful dogshit I've ever had the displeasure of touching and if you disagree you're just being a contrarian homosexual who doesn't know anything about either system.
Yes, because those games suck ass and 5e is at worst average. It's a better game, plain and simple.
How would you rate BESM 2nd edition? I wanted to port it for Touhou RPG for my new group.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>rule zero dates back wark wark appeal-to-authority wark wark
Doesn't make a violation of player agency (skill and luck) conducive to game structure.
Getting inspiration for buying pizza is just as much in violation of game structure as getting a home run because the umpire likes your shoes.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Found the leftie homosexual. have a nice day you weak willed b***h.
Also there's no skill involved in TTRPGs because one bad roll can frick you over, and no matter how much you try to mitigate that bad roll it's still got a chance of happening.
3 months ago
Anonymous
BESM 2e is basically just a clone of Mutants and Masterminds, take that as you will. I'd go hunt down some fan-made touhou system instead, it'll do you better than generic slop.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Thanks. Though the sad state of fan made Touhou systems I keep on finding is making me thing on just whinging it by mixing Nechronica with Gumshoe.
>rule zero dates back wark wark appeal-to-authority wark wark
Doesn't make a violation of player agency (skill and luck) conducive to game structure.
Getting inspiration for buying pizza is just as much in violation of game structure as getting a home run because the umpire likes your shoes.
This is the nature of the umpire based games and it's done that way by the design, since they weren't supposed to be a games in classical sense in the first place. I unironically suggest you to try unpireless skirmish games or character focused board games instead, if you want a full player agency.
3 months ago
Anonymous
see
All games have rule 0. All games are ruled by GM's prerogative, even that danger-hair slop which claims otherwise. And that is because GM is generally the least-coveted role.
More importantly though, 5e has baked in combat mechanics that actually do what they say on the tin, whereas BESM does not.
3 months ago
Anonymous
See: rule 0, which allows the DM to ignore whatever the tin says.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Yes, they can, but if I'm going to just ignore all of the rules of the game I'd rather just make my own, which is what I've fricking done and am still doing.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Anon, the thing is that people won't play BESM, FATAL or whatnot, but they will play D&D 5e.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Yes, because those games suck ass and 5e is at worst average. It's a better game, plain and simple.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Nah 5e is judeo-satantic trash wrapped in dnd packaging
>except for every other one.
It sucks.
Although it is better than PF2e, if just because it's less weirdly autistic about random shit. If I could convince my group to leave 5e behind forever I fricking would. It's so fricking boring.
newbies can't deal with anonymity.
Discord gays are known to make up names to """call them out""", whatever the frick this means on an anonymous forum.
newbies can't deal with anonymity.
Discord gays are known to make up names to """call them out""", whatever the frick this means on an anonymous forum.
It's not one person, it's a bunch of moronic contrarians like (You) who hate 5e because it's popular, so you try to label it TEH WORST GAME EVAR!!!1 when in reality it's nowhere near that. I have played and run worse games than 5e. If you think 5e is the worst TTRPG ever made, or even that it's anything less than average, you haven't run or played enough TTRPGs.
So, I will posit to you the question you posit to others:
Have you tried not playing D&D?
At some point I realized my HMOFA fantasies were due to how garbage the dating scene is these days. You cannot suspend disbelief and think of a loyal, earnest h*man woman so you start thinking, what if I dated a mouse and bam you're a furry
>"How about we play d&d/5e instead?" >"Btw i already made my character" >"My character is ![FOM character]" >"Alignment? I'm C/N obviously" >"My character is a Tiefling/Dragonborn/Goblin/Firbolg/Genasi/Tortle/Kenku/Tabaxi/Drow/Aasimar/bullshit race" >"My character is a dusk/hexblade/battlemaster/swordsage/bullshit class" >[Dangerhair moron] >[Smelly fatass neckbeard] >"[Insert popculture reference here]" >Watches neckberdia
These aren't foolproof, but here's a few of mine: >3.5/PF - but this one doesn't really matter since I don't play or run those systems any more. >"Can't we just play [other system]?" >Asking to have carry-over from other games with other groups/GMs >Groups 'looking for a GM' who specifically lay out what game they want >Players who sperg about real life politics in the game or OOC. >Players who flake on short notice, players who lie about why they flaked (instant kick) >Players who constantly try to sabotage the group, unless it's a theme of the scenario (Children of the Horned Rat), or the group know each other pretty well by this point >Showing up with a character they totally rolled legitimately, trust me bro >Players who talk about their character solely in terms of their mechanical function >Players who want to play a "e-girl." >Players who want to play stupid, disruptive gimmick characters from an anime or video game. >Lesbian players who want to play a tiefling. >Players who mention Critical Reddit or other stupid e-celeb grifters beyond a passing disparaging remark. >Players who do not generate their character in the allotted time frame. >Players who do not know the central resolution mechanic, or who ignore houserules you provided in advance.
Semi-related, I'm running a game of pathfinder for the very first time and I feel completely out of my depth. Three third-level characters are not only obliterating every encounter I make, they're doing so without expending any resources. My players are telling me that they're good at the game (5+ years of experience each, whereas this is my 2nd time ever interacting with the system) and made functional, but not optimized, characters, but they've completely raped the CR tables. I've been told to just turn up the CR by 2 or 3, but even that doesn't seem to be good enough. Should I just completely ignore APL and CR in general and just throw monsters at them until their characters are in real danger?
CR is barely useful at all. Keep turning things up by degrees, you'll learn. Better is to analyze what the PCs seem to be good at and why they're bodying your encounters and use enemies and situations that counter those expertise (not to a roflstomp degree, but enough to make them think). This requires some homework on your part obviously, but you seem willing.
>Notice the men are sickly and rail thin; The women are all fat >Men still list their obvious pronouns as if there would be confusion >Women are all she/they or something else make-believe >Trigger warnings for Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu
Guess some DMs can restrain their autism. Played a game were the DMs buddy was playing the main character of the book and was allowed to go past the level cap of 9 everyone else was stuck at. Left that pretty quick
Here is a system redflag for my wargame bros: >Rules are written as pure statblocks rather than extensions of the in universe weapon.
Shits me off systems that can't have consistent properties with weapons with similar ammo types or even the same weapon on different units.
Age of Sigmar pisses me off to no end with this. Early on spears and swords and stuff were somewhat consistent but now you charge a unit with swords and they’ll have 3 different abilities to keep track of.
Red flags are a great way to gatekeep your sessions.
Imagine getting filtered by a DM who constates dwarves to be knife-ears. Instant protection against Redditors.
For GM >GM is drinking or getting high before the wrap up >GM let’s players drink or get high before wrap up >GM let’s more experienced players steamroll and lawyer him in rulings >GM gets impatient or dismissive with new or lazy players instead of making time to sit down with them and a rule book before each session. >GM doesn’t make anonymous surveys or regular feedback forms to gauge what players think of their group, system, and GM style, as well as expectations for the future. >GM tosses a few rule books at players at session zero and tells them to make any character they want.
Player red flags >forgets a pencil >argues any of the above
>>GM doesn’t make anonymous surveys or regular feedback forms to gauge what players think of their group, system, and GM style, as well as expectations for the future.
Imagine thinking a worthless player (You) had any worthwhile opinions
>Mentions any sort of politics, either for or against >Players can't shut the frick up about their political views >Characters are just self-inserts of the players >Character is just an expy of an existing character with no changes to fit the setting >Character clearly doesn't fit the setting >GM didn't upload a setting primer complete with houserules, banned or limited options, homebrew, and basic setting info for all the options >Paid GM >System is some obscure dogshit nobody plays >System is TSR/OSR >System is any edition of D&D >System is any edition of Pathfinder >System has a d20 as a core roll >Setting is described as "Gritty" or "Realistic" >Bonus points if the system used is not compatible with those adjectives >Setting clearly has zero effort put into it >GM allows you to play any character options from the system in their setting (it's going to be dogshit because it's not curated)
Am I the only who has a 100% different IRL gaming experience than this board usually describes?
I will tell you how I think everyone played these games before I came here: >have nerdy friend of varying degrees because you're also a nerd of some degree >have interest in a TTRPG, get some rulebooks and start playing >whenever you meet new people who are also nerdy, get to talk about the hobby and potentially establish a new group, these people turn into friends sooner or later since you regularly play >after a few years in the hobby you have one or several groups of friends and good acquaintance you regularly play with
Where is there room for any red flags? You're playing with your friends, not some randoms you don't know. And once you have your 1-4 groups of people, you play with those.
Good friends often aren't good DND players. Plenty of good people might sulk after a series of bad rolls, struggle to stay in character, or prioritise taking short-notice shifts at work over the scheduled weekly DND session. That doesn't make them a bad person, but it will probably make playing with them less fun.
I'm using the same vetting system for past 15 years, so the red flags are limited entirely to reactions to the vetting. And the process is about doing a meet-up with the new people in a regular bar. No fancy place, no gaming place, just a fricking bar. If they don't show for any given reason - you just avoided great deal of trouble. If they show up and comment on how this place doesn't suit them, it means they care more about the game than anything else, which is usually good and avoids you all kinds of red flags, too. Then you just talk with them about some casual bullshit, drink a beer or two and see how they roll with you and the other member(s) of the group present.
Gaming preferences and tabletop behaviour are absolutely secondary to how those people interact with everyone else in a casual situation and their ability to show up on time for a meet-up. They can be the worst kind of player imaginable, but I would take them anyway, as you can unfrick them easily, as long as they are on time and fun to be with around.
Based out-of-the-box thinker. (Not that "just meet with them in a pub" is earthshaking, but it's still the kind of solution most GMs don't come up with. We're stuck with sessions zero and checklists and other familiar ways of thinking.)
But that does only attracts homosexuals you want to avoid. You DON'T want to get "gaming people". They are always the worst, and unfricking them is the hardest. You want people that are fun to hang with. It's going to carry you far, far, FAR fricking longer than getting any kind of gaming homosexualry in your group by selecting people over bullshit like gaming experience, system familiarity or system preferences. To say nothing about the simple act of meeting in a casual place is going to instantly vet out any try-hards.
As for "out of the box" - it really isn't. The box is simply labelled "don't get homosexuals", rather than "get gamers".
>Include a question in your application where you ask player what their favorite TTRPG is
>They answer D&D 5e
5e is the worst published game, except for every other one.
I really don't get why you've been waging your private war against a game for years now, still in that larval stage where you give a shit what publishers do when all publishers are just pushing uncostomized products you should have moved past by now.
It's pretty much guaranteed you don't play any games and just come here to be a basic b***h troll by shitposting about whatever happens to be the most popular thing on a board.
>DnD is hugely unpopular due to WotC's constant abuse and dumbing down of the property
>Even the general thread is full of batching and negativity
>Be (you) and still moronic enough to think all the negativity around D&D is one person
This is what a professional shill looks like, kids.
Not even a shill, just some moron who's made DnD his entire identity.
>WHOA, PEOPLE HAVE PICKED UP ON MY ANTI-D&D SHITSPAMMING, I BETTER SAMEgay TO SHOW THAT I'M NOT OBESSSED WITH A GAME I DON'T EVEN PLAY
lol, you really are the worst.
>12 posters
>14 replies
>2 of which are (you)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Anon got on 12 different computers/phones just to samegay some random moronic kid on the internet.
Also, DnD is a shit game.
If you think 5e is the worst ttrpg ever made, you haven't played many/any TTRPGs. As someone who's actually played things that aren't D&D and D&D clones (this includes TSR/OSR and Pathfinder 1e/2e) I can safely say 5e is at its worst painfully average. It's mediocre, average, just okay.
If you want an actually dogshit TTRPG, go look up Tokyo Heroes or BESM 3rd Edition, those games are some of the worst godawful dogshit I've ever had the displeasure of touching and if you disagree you're just being a contrarian homosexual who doesn't know anything about either system.
D&D 5e isn't the worst TTRPG ever made, but it's often the worst one will ever play.
Hardly, it's not even in the bottom 5. Again, BESM mogs it in every department as a worse game. At least 5e has fricking rules for combat instead of BESM where it's basically just "you can do whatever the GM feels like is okay :)". BESM doesn't even have fricking ranges, it's literally all GM may I and even as a GM I found that obnoxious as frick, not to mention BESM copies the power list from M&M (another dogshit game mogged by its peers btw) and forces the GM to sit down and ban like 70% of the powers if you want anything resembling a fun game and even then good luck with your encounter design because players WILL build the most moronic shit ever and make the game unplayable because BESM doesn't even want to try and help you understand it, you're either going to waste your time dealing with its bullshit or, the smart option, find a better game. Yes, even 5e is a better game than BESM.
I would rather spend the rest of my life running and playing vanilla 5e than ever, EVER touch BESM in ANY of its editions EVER again.
>At least 5e has fricking rules for combat instead of BESM where it's basically just "you can do whatever the GM feels like is okay :)".
D&D has rule 0.
All games have rule 0. All games are ruled by GM's prerogative, even that danger-hair slop which claims otherwise. And that is because GM is generally the least-coveted role.
Rule 0 is inherently anti-game structure.
The players of a game are made aware of how their skills and luck will be challenged and there are clear measurements and boundaries established before play. With rule 0, decisions are made on whim and meta-bullshit outside the established parameters.
So, NO game has rule 0, actually.
Based on irl events:
>guy arrives uninvited
>he hides on the staircase, silently watching and taking notes.
>you don't know who this guy even is.
>he has a voice recorder
That was the weirdest session I was a part of. At least the stairs were comfy.
Rule 0 dates back from to the original Kriegsspiele, which was a non fiction battlefield simulation for German military. It literally started as a rule that rulings of the umpire (typically a senior officer) are the law.
How would you rate BESM 2nd edition? I wanted to port it for Touhou RPG for my new group.
>rule zero dates back wark wark appeal-to-authority wark wark
Doesn't make a violation of player agency (skill and luck) conducive to game structure.
Getting inspiration for buying pizza is just as much in violation of game structure as getting a home run because the umpire likes your shoes.
Found the leftie homosexual. have a nice day you weak willed b***h.
>Luck
>Agency
Luck isn't agency, it's chaotic randomness.
Also there's no skill involved in TTRPGs because one bad roll can frick you over, and no matter how much you try to mitigate that bad roll it's still got a chance of happening.
BESM 2e is basically just a clone of Mutants and Masterminds, take that as you will. I'd go hunt down some fan-made touhou system instead, it'll do you better than generic slop.
Thanks. Though the sad state of fan made Touhou systems I keep on finding is making me thing on just whinging it by mixing Nechronica with Gumshoe.
This is the nature of the umpire based games and it's done that way by the design, since they weren't supposed to be a games in classical sense in the first place. I unironically suggest you to try unpireless skirmish games or character focused board games instead, if you want a full player agency.
see
More importantly though, 5e has baked in combat mechanics that actually do what they say on the tin, whereas BESM does not.
See: rule 0, which allows the DM to ignore whatever the tin says.
Yes, they can, but if I'm going to just ignore all of the rules of the game I'd rather just make my own, which is what I've fricking done and am still doing.
Anon, the thing is that people won't play BESM, FATAL or whatnot, but they will play D&D 5e.
Yes, because those games suck ass and 5e is at worst average. It's a better game, plain and simple.
Nah 5e is judeo-satantic trash wrapped in dnd packaging
>Nah 5e is [schizophrenic ramblings]
>>>/x/
Choose one and go back.
>except for every other one.
It sucks.
Although it is better than PF2e, if just because it's less weirdly autistic about random shit. If I could convince my group to leave 5e behind forever I fricking would. It's so fricking boring.
Thank you for being an obnoxious twat and justifying my claims that DnD-favorite players are a HUGE red flag.
Here is your (you). I even gave you an image this time. Now frick off for awhile and touch some grass.
The fact that you're still under the delusion that it's just one person is fricking insane, it's like some sort of reverse solipsism
>solipsism
You keep using this word Nigel, even in your /misc/ posts...the irony of wearing it out must not escape you
>assuming the poster is British because he uses a four-syllable word
Do you really think so poorly of your own people's vocabulary?
newbies can't deal with anonymity.
Discord gays are known to make up names to """call them out""", whatever the frick this means on an anonymous forum.
>ESL can't into plural
It's not one person, it's a bunch of moronic contrarians like (You) who hate 5e because it's popular, so you try to label it TEH WORST GAME EVAR!!!1 when in reality it's nowhere near that. I have played and run worse games than 5e. If you think 5e is the worst TTRPG ever made, or even that it's anything less than average, you haven't run or played enough TTRPGs.
So, I will posit to you the question you posit to others:
Have you tried not playing D&D?
Very good, little shill. The 0.02$ surely will be on your bank account soon
Being a furry is just unecessary. It's not a legitimate pasttime.
Being a furry is how white women justify their fetish for dog dick.
At some point I realized my HMOFA fantasies were due to how garbage the dating scene is these days. You cannot suspend disbelief and think of a loyal, earnest h*man woman so you start thinking, what if I dated a mouse and bam you're a furry
>fine print
>end
Story is fake and gay. A real furry would have shirtless wolf-men right on the front page. Impossible to miss.
>"How about we play d&d/5e instead?"
>"Btw i already made my character"
>"My character is ![FOM character]"
>"Alignment? I'm C/N obviously"
>"My character is a Tiefling/Dragonborn/Goblin/Firbolg/Genasi/Tortle/Kenku/Tabaxi/Drow/Aasimar/bullshit race"
>"My character is a dusk/hexblade/battlemaster/swordsage/bullshit class"
>[Dangerhair moron]
>[Smelly fatass neckbeard]
>"[Insert popculture reference here]"
>Watches neckberdia
>the first flag disqualifies DnD
>most of the rest of the flags rant about DnD-specific concepts anyway
This is not your list, you just want to vent.
These aren't foolproof, but here's a few of mine:
>3.5/PF - but this one doesn't really matter since I don't play or run those systems any more.
>"Can't we just play [other system]?"
>Asking to have carry-over from other games with other groups/GMs
>Groups 'looking for a GM' who specifically lay out what game they want
>Players who sperg about real life politics in the game or OOC.
>Players who flake on short notice, players who lie about why they flaked (instant kick)
>Players who constantly try to sabotage the group, unless it's a theme of the scenario (Children of the Horned Rat), or the group know each other pretty well by this point
>Showing up with a character they totally rolled legitimately, trust me bro
>Players who talk about their character solely in terms of their mechanical function
>Players who want to play a "e-girl."
>Players who want to play stupid, disruptive gimmick characters from an anime or video game.
>Lesbian players who want to play a tiefling.
>Players who mention Critical Reddit or other stupid e-celeb grifters beyond a passing disparaging remark.
>Players who do not generate their character in the allotted time frame.
>Players who do not know the central resolution mechanic, or who ignore houserules you provided in advance.
>Lesbian players who want to play a tiefling.
It's just that every time I've seen that combo, the player has exploded or flaked.
Semi-related, I'm running a game of pathfinder for the very first time and I feel completely out of my depth. Three third-level characters are not only obliterating every encounter I make, they're doing so without expending any resources. My players are telling me that they're good at the game (5+ years of experience each, whereas this is my 2nd time ever interacting with the system) and made functional, but not optimized, characters, but they've completely raped the CR tables. I've been told to just turn up the CR by 2 or 3, but even that doesn't seem to be good enough. Should I just completely ignore APL and CR in general and just throw monsters at them until their characters are in real danger?
Pathfinder 1e or 2e?
Who cares, shitseeker is a terrible game and anon will never have fun running it
CR is barely useful at all. Keep turning things up by degrees, you'll learn. Better is to analyze what the PCs seem to be good at and why they're bodying your encounters and use enemies and situations that counter those expertise (not to a roflstomp degree, but enough to make them think). This requires some homework on your part obviously, but you seem willing.
My red flags are
>player is not a friend of mine
>player is not a friend of a friend of mine either
I will not play with you.
>Notice the men are sickly and rail thin; The women are all fat
>Men still list their obvious pronouns as if there would be confusion
>Women are all she/they or something else make-believe
>Trigger warnings for Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu
>Trigger warnings for Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu
>DM says they’re writing a book set in the same setting as the game
Had an amazing GM who did that. The thing with writing and shit GMing is a myth
Pretty sure that whole thing was cope created by NPCs who couldn't handle a roleplaying game going "off book".
Guess some DMs can restrain their autism. Played a game were the DMs buddy was playing the main character of the book and was allowed to go past the level cap of 9 everyone else was stuck at. Left that pretty quick
>Spellcaster doesn't know their spells.
>No southerners or blacks
>Everyone keeps saying "y'all"
>You are from the Bay Area
Big red flag.
>cross-thread shitposting
Please reconsider
>Tell me about the place we're starting off so I can think of a character
>Just do whatever 🙂 I allow these splatbooks:
ALWAYS a shit game
Sauce?
All of group us my friends, why would I look for faults in my friends? I already know what they are.
>He would spend time with the kind of person who plays RPGs outside of that context
>he plays with randos
All of your problems would be solved if your hobby time was spent with people you already like and have a connection with.
Here is a system redflag for my wargame bros:
>Rules are written as pure statblocks rather than extensions of the in universe weapon.
Shits me off systems that can't have consistent properties with weapons with similar ammo types or even the same weapon on different units.
Age of Sigmar pisses me off to no end with this. Early on spears and swords and stuff were somewhat consistent but now you charge a unit with swords and they’ll have 3 different abilities to keep track of.
Red flags are a great way to gatekeep your sessions.
Imagine getting filtered by a DM who constates dwarves to be knife-ears. Instant protection against Redditors.
For GM
>GM is drinking or getting high before the wrap up
>GM let’s players drink or get high before wrap up
>GM let’s more experienced players steamroll and lawyer him in rulings
>GM gets impatient or dismissive with new or lazy players instead of making time to sit down with them and a rule book before each session.
>GM doesn’t make anonymous surveys or regular feedback forms to gauge what players think of their group, system, and GM style, as well as expectations for the future.
>GM tosses a few rule books at players at session zero and tells them to make any character they want.
Player red flags
>forgets a pencil
>argues any of the above
>>GM doesn’t make anonymous surveys or regular feedback forms to gauge what players think of their group, system, and GM style, as well as expectations for the future.
Imagine thinking a worthless player (You) had any worthwhile opinions
>Mentions any sort of politics, either for or against
>Players can't shut the frick up about their political views
>Characters are just self-inserts of the players
>Character is just an expy of an existing character with no changes to fit the setting
>Character clearly doesn't fit the setting
>GM didn't upload a setting primer complete with houserules, banned or limited options, homebrew, and basic setting info for all the options
>Paid GM
>System is some obscure dogshit nobody plays
>System is TSR/OSR
>System is any edition of D&D
>System is any edition of Pathfinder
>System has a d20 as a core roll
>Setting is described as "Gritty" or "Realistic"
>Bonus points if the system used is not compatible with those adjectives
>Setting clearly has zero effort put into it
>GM allows you to play any character options from the system in their setting (it's going to be dogshit because it's not curated)
Am I the only who has a 100% different IRL gaming experience than this board usually describes?
I will tell you how I think everyone played these games before I came here:
>have nerdy friend of varying degrees because you're also a nerd of some degree
>have interest in a TTRPG, get some rulebooks and start playing
>whenever you meet new people who are also nerdy, get to talk about the hobby and potentially establish a new group, these people turn into friends sooner or later since you regularly play
>after a few years in the hobby you have one or several groups of friends and good acquaintance you regularly play with
Where is there room for any red flags? You're playing with your friends, not some randoms you don't know. And once you have your 1-4 groups of people, you play with those.
Good friends often aren't good DND players. Plenty of good people might sulk after a series of bad rolls, struggle to stay in character, or prioritise taking short-notice shifts at work over the scheduled weekly DND session. That doesn't make them a bad person, but it will probably make playing with them less fun.
I'm using the same vetting system for past 15 years, so the red flags are limited entirely to reactions to the vetting. And the process is about doing a meet-up with the new people in a regular bar. No fancy place, no gaming place, just a fricking bar. If they don't show for any given reason - you just avoided great deal of trouble. If they show up and comment on how this place doesn't suit them, it means they care more about the game than anything else, which is usually good and avoids you all kinds of red flags, too. Then you just talk with them about some casual bullshit, drink a beer or two and see how they roll with you and the other member(s) of the group present.
Gaming preferences and tabletop behaviour are absolutely secondary to how those people interact with everyone else in a casual situation and their ability to show up on time for a meet-up. They can be the worst kind of player imaginable, but I would take them anyway, as you can unfrick them easily, as long as they are on time and fun to be with around.
t. forever GM since '02
Based out-of-the-box thinker. (Not that "just meet with them in a pub" is earthshaking, but it's still the kind of solution most GMs don't come up with. We're stuck with sessions zero and checklists and other familiar ways of thinking.)
But that does only attracts homosexuals you want to avoid. You DON'T want to get "gaming people". They are always the worst, and unfricking them is the hardest. You want people that are fun to hang with. It's going to carry you far, far, FAR fricking longer than getting any kind of gaming homosexualry in your group by selecting people over bullshit like gaming experience, system familiarity or system preferences. To say nothing about the simple act of meeting in a casual place is going to instantly vet out any try-hards.
As for "out of the box" - it really isn't. The box is simply labelled "don't get homosexuals", rather than "get gamers".
I will refuse to play settings without cute fluffy girls