Yesterday, I outlined some of the reasons I love roleplaying. Here are some of my least favorite parts of it.

Bad dice. Don’t get me wrong: a failed roll at a crucial juncture can lead to some truly awesome moments. I’m all for that. I just have a problem when the dice are against you for routine stuff that just slows down the story. It’s annoying when you just can’t catch a break in combat, for no other reason than a spiteful d20. Speaking of slowness and combat…

Slow, boring combat. In a good action movie, the fight scenes are fast-paced and adrenaline-laced. Whoa. Action rhyme. But even in the best of RPG systems, combat grinds into turn-based slow motion. Worse, players and gamemasters alike often reduce the action to “I shoot,” and “You hit. Roll damage.”

You can speed things up by knowing your bonuses and the rules behind your abilities. You can spice things up with a little description. What else can we do to make RPG combat exciting again?

Side note: never grapple. It will stall the game for at least 30 minutes as you try to figure out how it works.

Tone clash. I love getting immersed in a game. That’s why I find it so jarring when someone makes a dumb, goofy comment at a serious moment, or suddenly starts a Shakespearean soliloquy at a lighthearted moment. Sometimes a sharp change in tone is needed in order to break tension or create it. There’s a huge difference between that (good storytelling) and something so out of place that it knocks you out of the experience (just annoying).

I’m thinking you could alleviate this problem by setting an overall tone early in the game. Also, let players who tend to make off-the-wall comments play characters who are maybe a little deranged. That way, the randomness is at least in character.

Do have any good solutions? Do you have other annoyances?