In most genres and settings, there are certain character types that are expected. For example, if you’re playing a game set in the world of The Dumb Jousting Movie with the Kid from the Patriot, you can expect some commoners pretending to be knights, armorers with product placement deals, naked literary greats, and comical Tudyks. Some games lock you into the stereotypical options, but most allow you to play any character that fits the setting. Want to play a wandering friar? Go for it. A foreigner who owes another character a life debt? Worked for Morgan Freeman. A witchfinder? Sure, as long as the other characters are cool with the whole “tortures and burns random peasants” thing. A gluten-free space elf werewolf with machine gun arms? Ok, that one breaks so many basic assumptions about the game setting that the other players probably won’t go for it. If you can talk them into it, though, more power to you.

Even though you can theoretically play just about any kind of character that fits into the game world (and maybe even some that don’t), there are still certain character types that have a long and storied history of irritating other players and disrupting games. Some of these character types just don’t work, but many of them are considered “problem characters” because most people play them very, very badly. Here are five character types that you should approach with caution, if not avoid entirely.