Dealing with problem players

>Since this is a GMing list I can barely keep this on topic by asking the
>rest of you how you deal with the situation of realizing a player is just
>not worth dealing with?  It can be hard since often they are or were 
>friends
>or at least people you may run into again.
>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ryan Fisk

Simple: I just moved to Florida.  Just kidding (though I did move here...)

Actually, that's never an easy situation.  I think that it does require a 
certain level of tact and maturity to handle the situation with a minimum of 
hurt feelings.  Of course, the recipient has to have enough maturity to 
handle what you're telling him (but if he was mature in the first place the 
whole situation probably wouldn't have come up...).

I know that the new DMG for D&D has a small section on dealing with problems 
in and out of game.  Every sitation is different, so their advice may be 
less than helpful.

Good luck,
Alan H.
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Dealing with problem players

On 13 Dec 2000, at 20:01, Alan T. Haley wrote:

> Simple: I just moved to Florida.  Just kidding (though I did move here...)

You realize, of course, that you've just made yourself a target for 
election "humor"... :}

-- 
Karen J. Cravens (silver@phoenyx.net)
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Dealing with problem players

On 13 Dec 2000, at 20:01, Alan T. Haley wrote:

> >Since this is a GMing list I can barely keep this on topic by asking the
> >rest of you how you deal with the situation of realizing a player is just
> >not worth dealing with?  It can be hard since often they are or were 
> >friends
> >or at least people you may run into again.
> >
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Ryan Fisk
> 
> Simple: I just moved to Florida.  Just kidding (though I did move here...)
> 
> Actually, that's never an easy situation.  I think that it does require a 
> certain level of tact and maturity to handle the situation with a minimum of
> hurt feelings.  Of course, the recipient has to have enough maturity to handle
> what you're telling him (but if he was mature in the first place the whole
> situation probably wouldn't have come up...).
> 
> I know that the new DMG for D&D has a small section on dealing with problems in
> and out of game.  Every sitation is different, so their advice may be less than
> helpful.

Usually we just use them as our next sacrificial victim. Oh, wait - that went 
out of style in the mid 80's...

Assuming that just being honest with the person and saying, "Look, it's just 
not working" isn't an option:   

You can always move the game to a very inconvenient time for the player then 
tell them how well things went with their character NPCed.  Hmm, maybe that's 
why the troupe moved the games to Sunday at 2:15 am...

"Dude!  Like give me your phone number again.  The old phone I had stopped 
working an' all the numbers on the speed dial were like lost."  This also works 
with email addresses.  If you learn how to forge email headers like some 
spammers, you can make it look like your message was sent a week ago.

Invite a "guest player" to join your troupe for the express purpose of killing 
the offending player's characters, repeatedly.  Repeat until desired result is 
attained.

If the offending player has a certain genre/system, switch away temporarily to 
something they dislike.

Tongue planted firmly in cheek,
Coyt
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Dealing with problem players

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan T. Haley 


>>Since this is a GMing list I can barely keep this on topic by asking the
>>rest of you how you deal with the situation of realizing a player is just
>>not worth dealing with?  It can be hard since often they are or were
>>friends
>>or at least people you may run into again.
>
>Simple: I just moved to Florida.  Just kidding (though I did move here...)


I have had the opposite problem, I moved back to where I grew up and have
found that over the past couple of years that I have been back that my
gaming tastes have evolved into something quite different from most of my
old friends.  It has forced me to find new gaming companions, which is cool,
but to miss games with old ones because we don't get as much enjoyment from
them.  (I have lived in Florida for 3 years though, 91-93 or so)

>
>Actually, that's never an easy situation.  I think that it does require a
>certain level of tact and maturity to handle the situation with a minimum
of
>hurt feelings.  Of course, the recipient has to have enough maturity to
>handle what you're telling him (but if he was mature in the first place the
>whole situation probably wouldn't have come up...).

Agreed, though it can be tough, especially when one problem player is the
brother of another player you wanted to keep.  I played in this one group
that was great in many ways except that we could deal with only one of the
brothers at a time, each had a very distinctive style and found the others
style annoying.  Unfortunately I am not gaming with either anymore, they
simply refused to game apart no matter how much they annoyed each other.
Strange.  Though I did meet a guy that I game with occasionally that was
from this group.

>
>I know that the new DMG for D&D has a small section on dealing with
problems
>in and out of game.  Every sitation is different, so their advice may be
>less than helpful.

I was glad to see it, but I agree that the information is fairly generic.

Later,

Ryan Fisk
voivode@voyager.net


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