Good evening Allstars! Tonight, I want to go over a very serious topic. Dungeons & Dragons provides players with a variety of ways to have fun. The game involves something for everyone, whether it’s combat and experience gaining, role-playing, treasure, character building or even world building and story writing, D&D has a little bit of everything. Although Dungeons & Dragons provides players an opportunity to work on their communication skills, math skills and form lasting friendships, some players choose to entertain themselves through more devious means. Griefing, also known as Trolling is something that every gamer has experienced at some point in their gaming career. If you have ever played an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online game) or if you’ve ever played a Player versus Player First Person Shooter you have probably encountered one Griefer or another. Griefing is when a player deliberately and purposefully pursues a goal or set of goals that are intended to upset another player. Griefers often times find it entertaining or humorous to go out of their way to make playing a game more difficult for another player. In online games this often takes the form of higher-level Player Characters harassing lower level PC’s in any way that they can.
In Dungeons & Dragons Griefing can be taken to an even more frustrating and potentially dangerous level. Many players find that one of the most appealing characteristics of D&D is the fact that they are not limited by the same rules that are imposed upon them in many video games. This gives many PC’s the ability to really let their imaginations go wild. Sometimes, this level of freedom can get out of hand. Another attractive aspect of Dungeons & Dragons is that many groups play in person around a table, with miniatures, and maps and pencil and paper. This means that when a player chooses to Troll another player, the victim is often times face to face with their aggressor. Situations where one player chooses to pursue a personal vendetta against a fellow party member, with no real in-game motivator, can escalate very quickly. In a situation like this it is likely that the victim will become defensive or even confrontational towards the Griefer. In some cases, like when the harassment has persisted over several sessions, the victim may even become aggressive, and the situation could easily teeter into violence if the activity is allowed to continue.
Now we all want to have fun when we play games, that’s the point of playing right? However, our fun should not come at the expense of another player. It is one thing for the Rouge to pickpocket a few coins from the purses of the other party members when they aren’t looking, it is another, completely inappropriate thing to purposefully target one member of the party with the intention of making the game less fun for them. If you are a Dungeon Master, and you notice one of your players is harassing one or more of their party members it is your responsibility to put an end to the behavior. You should pull the aggressor aside either after the session or before the next session and have a private conversation with them about their behavior. It is possible that the Griefer in the party just isn’t having fun, and is searching for other ways to enjoy themselves. Whatever their reason, it is not appropriate to purposefully agitate another player for personal enjoyment. If the behavior continues, then the Griefer may be asked to leave the group.
Party Members have a responsibility to step in as well. If you notice one of your party members harassing another PC, call them out on it at the table. If you prefer a less direct approach, talk to your DM after the session and tell them about what you’ve observed. We are all responsible for our own ability to have fun, but we should all be considerate of one another and play together as a group. As always, thank you for reading.
