One player at the table going by their own rules
Just a quick preface: this isn't a “should I leave the table?” post. I already talked to the DM, made my peace with it, and left on good terms. I just thought the actual table interaction was funny enough to share.
I joined a campaign being run by a friend I’d played with before. Immediately, I thought it was a little odd that one player wasn’t going to be at session 0. We were told she “doesn’t take the game as seriously” and didn’t see the point of it.
I used to DM, so I’m always a little hesitant to tell other people how to run their tables. I figured it probably wasn’t a huge deal and let it go.
Session 1 starts, and things get weird fast.
The missing player is a Wild Magic Sorcerer who appears to just be… a normal girl from Earth transported into a fantasy world. During combat, she starts announcing spells I’ve never heard of and calling Wild Magic Surges completely at random, including during other people’s turns.
I thought it was strange, but it was the first session and I didn’t want to start drama in a new group.
Session 2 comes around and the same stuff keeps happening, except now she’s using spells I do recognize, but with completely different effects.
Shocking Grasp incapacitated someone.
Sorcerous Burst exploded midair for AoE damage.
At the end of the session, I finally asked the DM what was going on.
She explained that since she “doesn’t take the game as seriously as the rest of us,” she never actually bothered reading the rules. Apparently she made her character in D&D Beyond by choosing things entirely based on names and vibes, then just decides what they do in the moment.
The DM then explained that D&D is a cooperative game, so it’s not like anything overpowered she does hurts the party. In fact, she said we should probably be happy she can freely warp reality however she wants.
By session 3, the Calvinball energy had become fully unhinged.
Apparently the sorcerer player had started playing BG3 and now had a vague understanding of the rules, which somehow made things even worse.
In a single combat, she:
used Sneak Attack
healed a downed party member
cast Witch Bolt
then had the Witch Bolt chain lightning around the battlefield
I looked over at the DM.
She just nodded at me like this was all perfectly normal.
After the session, the sorcerer player started talking about Rule 0 and how this was totally fine because she was having fun.
And honestly?
The worst part is that, despite my overwhelming nerd rage, in some horrible way… she’s kind of right.