I've been gaming for well over 30 years and I've seen a whole lot of weird quirks, rituals and superstitions.
One of mine is that I'll always cast my spells in latin from memory.
Light: by the grace of Mystra bring forth light / per gratiam candorem adducam Mystra
Sacred Flame: by holy Mystra might be purged / a sanctis Mystra purgarentur
Cure Wounds: by the grace of Mystra be healed / per gratiam sanetur Mystra
It gets me some weird looks at times, but then it also suddenly makes things a lot more real for the characters.
So what's your personal idiosyncrasy or something weird you've seen or done?
My personal idiosyncrasy is that I am like two different people at the table - the first is dedicated to the game and everyone at the table playing having fun and contributing while we all reveal the tale being told (and usually there is a serious tone to said story); the second's "arrival" is announced with a burst of unexplained laughter, as I have just had some humorous thought vaguely related to what is going on in the game or what someone else at the table has just said and found it so amusing I couldn't contain it, so we have an aside, everyone laughs, I appologize for the distraction, and we get back to the game until the next one.
I've been lucky to not have run into a group of players that find it to be too annoying that I do this, even though these "comic relief" moments tend to spring up even when we are deep in some dark cerebral horror story (such as mid-reveal of some insiduous horror's true influence during a session of Call of Cthulhu, which seems like a really inappropriate time for a joke, and yet I get laughs and the players keep coming back for more).
I think my current gaming quirk is that I've become less and less tolerant of people's gaming quirks. An example, something I've noticed has begun to grate on me, that is unfortunately all too common...
No, we don't need to wait while you rummage around in your dice bag for a different d20 because the one you've been using "is cold" or "isn't being nice to you right now". It's a random number generator. Sometimes the random numbers it gives you aren't the ones you want. Get over it and just roll already. Ugh.
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Also, on a semi-related not, I've always tried not to care too much about other people pulling their little cheats. I figure they are pursuing their own kind of cathartic fun. If never failing is so important to your enjoyment that you have to cheat on your rolls, whatevs? If always having just the right spell for the job (and/or available slot) is your shtick, so much that you write it down real quick when no one is looking (or fail to mark off spell slots to preserve them), okay I guess? If being knocked unconscious or killed would ruin your night, so much so that you have to fudge the damage you take to stay up, I suppose I shouldn't care? But lately it's really started to irritate me when I see it happening.
Damn, I must be getting old. I sound like a cranky geezer yelling at the kids to stop playing on his lawn...
I can't stand players that have to reference their spells or class abilities in the middle of combat. If they have to look up what they are summoning or shapechanging into on their turn then they don't need to be playing that class. Beginners excluded.
We have a 5 quart cast iron skillet. All dice are rolled in it. If any dice leave the skillet it is an automatic failure/fumble.
2) (i play alot of 1e) Character sheets: my favorite character sheets are the old white/2 tone gold AD&D1e ones that had the honor bubble (for use with 1e Oriental Adventures). Despite being able to print these off anytime I please, I STILL scour the dealer room at GenCon each year for unopened packs of them.....
draegn wrote:
I always crumple up my character sheet, first thing. Keeps me from becoming annoyed when it eventually does get crumpled.
Artifact wrote:
Not a bad way to look at it, really. We're all at the table to have fun. But it is unfair to the rest of the group that actually does have to deal with the luck of the dice, or playing by the rules.
I believe red dice roll better (okay, I know they don’t, but it amuses me to think that they abide by Ork rules), but have a fondness for particularly hideously colored dice.
My quirk is that I'm generally unsatisfied with the "official" character sheets of most games. So, I create my own character sheets that are both highly organized and incredibly easy to read. I havent yet done this for 5e ... but I have for every previous edition, as well as for many other RPG systems.
Kayal wrote:
When throwing dice, I always roll them on gaming books. When it comes to D&D 5e, I am absolutely sure I roll better when using the monster manual as "dice ground".
Before play begins, I set all my dice so the '1' side faces up.
I also like dice that appear to be made from semiprecious stones more than I like dice that appear to be made from gems. They seem to be easier to read.
(Although I DO want a set of dice that appears to be made from rubies.)
draegn wrote:
BRJN wrote:
BRJN wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
I have a few of these quirks myself.
- I always place my dice in either a horizontal or vertical line, in ascending order going from either left to right or bottom to top.
- I always roll my dice on a pad of paper. I don't like the loud clacking of dice vigorously rolled on a wooden table. I've also found that a pad of paper gives the dice better bounce so they actually roll better (roll in the sense of tumbling, not necessarily in the sense of die result).
- I place myself substantially in the mindset of my character, so I often adopt/reflect some of the personality traits or physical mannerisms she may have.
- If my character can speak a language no other character in the party knows, I may speak gibberish while writing a note to the DM so (s)he knows what I said to a monster/NPC.
Shasarak wrote:
BRJN wrote: