this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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I mean, a lot of the time its just how the DM runs the game. They make it a meat grinder and the players go in expecting a meat grinder, so you get a full table of That Guys because... otherwise your character gets turned to paste inside the first ten minutes of the game.
I remember the RPGA in college and it absolutely minted "That Guy" players because so many of the DMs were just in it to collect scalps.
I contend that That Guys either exist without the need for such DMs or such DMs had already minted them at a cultural/playerbase level and spread from there.
It could go either way. Some of the earliest DMs were douchebags like Gary Gygax who did see the game as some slaughterfest designed to kill player characters for his own amusement, and encouraged cruelty and metagaming to overcome his whims, such as (CW: slavery, murder)
spoiler
the party enslaving "born evil" goblinoid tribes and forcing them to run the Tomb of Horrors gauntlet to die in every possible way to clear a path to the end.