Why do you call that evil?
Some of you know that I run my own D20 game. Not a home game, but a published game. We recently had the first local playtest of events that I could not attend. One of my business partners promised to run it and take good notes for me.
The minor complaint involves: It took 10 days for the guy to get the notes to me. When he did, I had to call him to translate his comments (as in, "Why does someone's poise need a DC? Oh, you meant poison.") But, those aren't really role playing sucks.
Turns out that one of the players unveiled his new character. It was a low level event, so a good test for new PCs. But, then:
1. His new, 1st level character knew everything that had happened in all 50 of our previous events. He declared himself the team leader and spoke over everyone. The judge said that he was more interested in play testing his character than the event.
2. This guy's Chaotic Neutral character tortured and murdered one of the suspects, demanding more information than the NPC had. Worse, the NPC was written as a coward who would spill his guts at a threat of violence. And, then the guy criticised the event for, "forcing the PCs down dark paths."
3. When presented with an opportunity to rob NPCs not detailed in the module, he criticised the judge for not letting him. And, criticised the event for, "not accounting for the PC's motivations." (The character creation guidelines specify to play heroic characters even though all non-Evil alignments are allowed.)
4. Despite every NPC saying that a certain person (Otto) was behind the Evil Plot, this guy decided that another NPC (Charles) who was only mentioned once, was the Big Bad. He murdered him, and his wife, and declared the event over 90 minutes earlier than the scheduled ending. He then criticised the event for being "too short."
5. Oh, and he also said, "It makes no sense for Charles's wife to be there." He attacked the man in his own home!
6. He said, "The group unanimously hated the ending. It did not feel like an appropriate conclusion to the series." Again, he didn't play to the end, or let the others continue. Once Charles and his poor innocent wife were dead, he was done.
I am really tempted to not invite him back to playtest. But, he is usually better than this. He is one of our regulars, testing about 50% of our events.
Theno
The minor complaint involves: It took 10 days for the guy to get the notes to me. When he did, I had to call him to translate his comments (as in, "Why does someone's poise need a DC? Oh, you meant poison.") But, those aren't really role playing sucks.
Turns out that one of the players unveiled his new character. It was a low level event, so a good test for new PCs. But, then:
1. His new, 1st level character knew everything that had happened in all 50 of our previous events. He declared himself the team leader and spoke over everyone. The judge said that he was more interested in play testing his character than the event.
2. This guy's Chaotic Neutral character tortured and murdered one of the suspects, demanding more information than the NPC had. Worse, the NPC was written as a coward who would spill his guts at a threat of violence. And, then the guy criticised the event for, "forcing the PCs down dark paths."
3. When presented with an opportunity to rob NPCs not detailed in the module, he criticised the judge for not letting him. And, criticised the event for, "not accounting for the PC's motivations." (The character creation guidelines specify to play heroic characters even though all non-Evil alignments are allowed.)
4. Despite every NPC saying that a certain person (Otto) was behind the Evil Plot, this guy decided that another NPC (Charles) who was only mentioned once, was the Big Bad. He murdered him, and his wife, and declared the event over 90 minutes earlier than the scheduled ending. He then criticised the event for being "too short."
5. Oh, and he also said, "It makes no sense for Charles's wife to be there." He attacked the man in his own home!
6. He said, "The group unanimously hated the ending. It did not feel like an appropriate conclusion to the series." Again, he didn't play to the end, or let the others continue. Once Charles and his poor innocent wife were dead, he was done.
I am really tempted to not invite him back to playtest. But, he is usually better than this. He is one of our regulars, testing about 50% of our events.
Theno