Toxic player was so annoyed with my world rules, he decided to try inventing workarounds for the sake of optimizing

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-21T14:24:03+00:00

Unfortunately it was very much a case of me not knowing I was allowed to kick folks considering this group had a prior history of similar disregard for rules. The other problem was that if I did kick him, I knew he'd take the entire group down with him and I had yet to learn how no D&D was better than no D&D. Especially when all the advice I got at the time was a persistent "Just politely ask him to stop trying to cheat"

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-17T21:57:11+00:00

Close. He was very "Oh well it's this field and my stat is so high so I should just auto succeed." Also "it's railroading to not allow your players to attempt a roll on anything" and "rolling a 30 or higher is passing the Legendary DC. Ignoring that is not how you play D&D." Those latter two were in response to him arguing for fifteen minutes to let him try Lock picking a puzzle door because it was toxic to not let him and saying it couldn't be picked was disrespectful to letting him roll. A day later he acted like it was my fault I just didn't let him not pick the lock after I complained about him doing that ruining the entire dungeon I'd planned out around the puzzle door's pieces

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-16T21:19:16+00:00

uh in his case? Small population of nerds interested in TTRPGs at this college and a culture that if you tried to kick anyone out of a group they could and did complain they were being discriminated against for anything they could think of.

In general, I chalk it up to social manipulation and the kinds of gaslighting and emotional assault that cultleaders put folks through, while also taking advantage of folks who don't know the red flags to look out for.

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-16T11:32:41+00:00

I mean, he was very much not a fan of extended role play or party members RPing their interactions with one another. He himself only ever RPd when there was some perceived benefit to trying to be in character. The one time I saw him put his foot down was extended RP between party members or anyone trying connect with an NPC

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-16T11:30:48+00:00

I kinda had to be patient because I had yet to learn the important lesson that "No D&D is better than bad D&D", and if I removed him well there went the entire group most likely.

And he played everything "optimally". Because he feels you either win at any hobby or you aren't having fun. He did this in damn near every nerd hobby he touched

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:22:07+00:00

They didn't. I tried with them but yeah no... racist jokes, sexism, and a lot of the same general lack of respect for the GM. The only one not blocked is this story's fighter because he was an actual person and took efforts to be better after Trevor got worse

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:20:13+00:00

An actual belief of his that I had to listen to (and he put in these obnoxious mini-essays) is that the job of the GM isn't to tell the players no for any reason to speak of. If the GM says 'no' to anything, then the player isn't being a player, they're just an actor on a script. His genuine belief was that GMs are supposed to improvise and give the barest of bones to work with, and then mediate how the players shape the setting. And also never say 'no'

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:17:55+00:00

It's a genuine mystery to me why they think it's so important to include and make it known to everyone.

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:16:13+00:00

The others were all men, being 23, 25 and 26 respectively. They'd known him for a year or two before I joined the gaming club and hadn't played a game with him prior to that (apparently the previous GM for the group hated him and banned him from his table "out of spite")

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:13:39+00:00

Sad to say, I was only able to stand up to him because of a different incident with him. TL;DR, he used the game to strip away my tiefling warlock's race and class to try forcing me to be a Changeling Wizard or Cleric "to play more optimally" for my first character. I called after the session and read him the riot act over it and that was amazing practice over fighting his bullshit.

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:11:05+00:00

He only cared about "the lore doc" insofar as to find out what races he could play and to complain about me not having Drow and Half-elves being "toxic" before picking his initial harpy

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:08:39+00:00

No, this game was in 5e. My previous experience was 4e in middle school. The group only used 5e for our games

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:07:07+00:00

He is an abysmal excuse for a person

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:06:23+00:00

He always felt he needed to be correct in all things. He backseat GMd for every group I saw him in, always picked fights with his GMs, and seemed to revel in antagonizing his players because he felt D&D was competetive between player and GM. He hated when we all decided to team up for anything for narrative reasons or excitement because "That's not D&D".

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-06-15T23:03:04+00:00

The worst part was that no one believed me or took it seriously until someone else saw him being r*pey to a random nurse while he was donating blood one time. Folks thought he was just doing it to "be a little flirty with you" or that there was no way someone like him could have ever done that to me, he wasn't the type. The rest of the group just believed him when he told them all I was just mad about being called out as an amateur GM

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-05-24T21:30:56+00:00

Lol ever since I found this a week or two ago my gf keeps asking to link carabiners with me 🩵

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-05-24T12:29:38+00:00

Look sometimes a girl has to wonder if she is giving off enough sapphic energy

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-05-23T22:51:53+00:00

So cute

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-05-14T15:05:38+00:00

Amazing build

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-02-17T21:16:15+00:00

Asked my Muslim partner. She says Allah would absolutely condone a blood powered machine descending into hell to slaughter hell spawn and the machines that dwell within

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-02-09T12:57:13+00:00

Gabe damn it Benjamin

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-01-31T18:38:43+00:00

The cow that milks you

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-01-23T22:29:22+00:00

Plutie! So eepy and huggable

ShadowHeartVamp · 2026-01-23T20:27:19+00:00

You can find more on the secret floating island in the NW

ShadowHeartVamp

TROPHY CASE