So my buddies spent about 200 in dnd books so far and we ran one trial run. It failed but was very fun.
There's little behavior I actively dislike - most of it stems from the general theme of "not working together as a group". This includes everyone, the DM included. Some examples I can remember...
- not giving reasonable aid to a teammate (casting a Remove Curse, for instance), because you think it's "their own fault" or something like that. All it does is add tension and lessen enjoyment for everyone involved.
- spoiling someone else's "moment" or actively harming something they're trying to do
- some others I can't think of
Most of these kinds of things come down to one main thing, and that's the group expectation about the game. When anyone sits down to start playing any Tabletop game, we all bring our own expectations and ideas with us; something that I've come to believe is important and extremely helpful is the "pre-campaign session", where everyone basically sits down together and talks out a lot of the core ideas about what kind of game you all want to play going forward (not just this session or next session, but long-term, going forward). This is also a perfect time to work out who will play what to get all the bases covered, and possibly weave characters' backstories into one another (perhaps two characters are siblings, lovers, friends, or even rivals).
This is when you work out the campaign expectations so everyone is on the same page - is the game going to be more like The Lord of the Rings or Unforgotten Realms? Is it going to a long, over-arching story with a specific ending (again like Lord of the Rings), or more episodic (think Star Trek) where single adventures don't generally have connections to each other (minor ones, like being in the same town or meeting the same NPCs are common, but the core of the adventures have no connection to each other). This is also where you decide if you want to be serious or silly, whether you will be generally good or neutral (possibly evil, but I don't recommend it) and other things like this.
This is a good time to mention that just like a board game, concert, party, or anything else, a tabletop game is a social environment first; you generally should play with people you would enjoy being in other social environments with. Someone you think is an asshole everywhere else will likely be an asshole gaming too.
Once those things are worked out, you tend to be in a pretty good spot. People understand what everyone else is also expecting from the game and will not try to get in the way or interfere with it. This helps side-step a lot of potential problems at the outset. I've had sessions here and there where the actions of one or two players can sometimes leave a bit of a "meh" feeling to the whole session; it's not like they were strictly doing anything wrong or being dicks, but rather that the juxtaposition of their expectations to others' expectations was always going to cause at least a few moments like this over time; some were interested in playing things straight and seriously, while others were interested in joking around and being ridiculous; again, both are perfectly acceptable and I've had tons of fun doing it either way, but if you walk into a theater expecting a comedy and get a gritty drama instead, it's never going to be quite what you wanted, no matter how good the movie is. Gaming is the same way.
One thing I do despise as a DM that my players generally don't do (thank God), is actively hide information or lie to the DM. Although the DM controls all the bad guys, everyone is still working together - you'll all using your collective imaginations to create a story of some kind together, and have a good time doing it. So you're not "against" the DM, nor should the DM be purposefully trying to kill players (this is a classic mark of a bad DM).
You're trying to create some kind of interactive story - typically drama - together, and it requires all the parts working in sync - the party functioning as members of a team, the DM functioning as storyteller and arbiter, and everyone being cooperative and helpful to everyone else out-of-game. That's how you get a good game, and that's how you get the stories you'll want to tell years from now about how you killed a doppelganger posing as one of the three leaders of the country, or how barely fought off lions that ambushed your party as you traveled the woods, or the time you had to travel to the Elemental Plane of Fire through a portal guarded by a village of bipedal ant people when you're level 1 and the level 7s are in the back saying "You are fucking suicidal, I'm not going anywhere near that thing".
Well, those are my stories. You'll have to get your own. :p
There's little behavior I actively dislike - most of it stems from the general theme of "not working together as a group". This includes everyone, the DM included. Some examples I can remember...
- not giving reasonable aid to a teammate (casting a _Remove Curse_, for instance), because you think it's "their own fault" or something like that. All it does is add tension and lessen enjoyment for everyone involved.
- spoiling someone else's "moment" or actively harming something they're trying to do
- some others I can't think of
Most of these kinds of things come down to one main thing, and that's the _group expectation about the game_. When anyone sits down to start playing any Tabletop game, we all bring our own expectations and ideas with us; something that I've come to believe is important and extremely helpful is the "pre-campaign session", where everyone basically sits down together and talks out a lot of the core ideas about what kind of game you all want to play going forward (not just this session or next session, but long-term, going forward). This is also a perfect time to work out who will play what to get all the bases covered, and possibly weave characters' backstories into one another (perhaps two characters are siblings, lovers, friends, or even rivals).
This is when you work out the campaign expectations so everyone is on the same page - is the game going to be more like _The Lord of the Rings_ or _[Unforgotten Realms](https://youtu.be/DxzZTKhGjLc?t=1m)_? Is it going to a long, over-arching story with a specific ending (again like _Lord of the Rings_), or more episodic (think _Star Trek_) where single adventures don't _generally_ have connections to each other (minor ones, like being in the same town or meeting the same NPCs are common, but the core of the adventures have no connection to each other). This is also where you decide if you want to be serious or silly, whether you will be generally good or neutral (possibly evil, but I don't recommend it) and other things like this.
This is a good time to mention that just like a board game, concert, party, or anything else, a tabletop game is a social environment first; you generally should play with people you would enjoy being in _other_ social environments with. Someone you think is an asshole everywhere else will likely be an asshole gaming too.
Once those things are worked out, you tend to be in a pretty good spot. People understand what everyone else is also expecting from the game and will not try to get in the way or interfere with it. This helps side-step a lot of potential problems at the outset. I've had sessions here and there where the actions of one or two players can sometimes leave a bit of a "meh" feeling to the whole session; it's not like they were strictly doing anything wrong or being dicks, but rather that the juxtaposition of their expectations to others' expectations was always going to cause at least a few moments like this over time; some were interested in playing things straight and seriously, while others were interested in joking around and being ridiculous; again, both are perfectly acceptable and I've had tons of fun doing it either way, but if you walk into a theater expecting a comedy and get a gritty drama instead, it's never going to be _quite_ what you wanted, no matter how good the movie is. Gaming is the same way.
One thing I do despise as a DM that my players generally don't do (thank God), is actively hide information or lie to the DM. Although the DM controls all the bad guys, everyone is still working together - you'll all using your collective imaginations to create a story of some kind together, and have a good time doing it. So you're not "against" the DM, nor should the DM be purposefully trying to kill players (this is a classic mark of a bad DM).
You're trying to create some kind of interactive story - typically drama - together, and it requires all the parts working in sync - the party functioning as members of a team, the DM functioning as storyteller and arbiter, and everyone being cooperative and helpful to everyone else out-of-game. That's how you get a good game, and that's how you get the stories you'll want to tell years from now about how you killed a doppelganger posing as one of the three leaders of the country, or how barely fought off lions that ambushed your party as you traveled the woods, or the time you had to travel to the _Elemental Plane of Fire_ through a portal guarded by a village of bipedal ant people when you're level 1 and the level 7s are in the back saying "You are fucking suicidal, I'm not going anywhere near that thing".
Well, those are my stories. You'll have to get your own. :p
I will man! I have so many questions its crazy! What behaviors do you dislike as a dm?