Living Greyhawk, or "Whiny Player Syndrome"

Alright, I've been playing home games of DnD for a fews years, but thats about it. Until one of my friends clues me into Living Greyhawk a few days ago, says he's running a game. I look into it online' I'm enthralled. The idea is so cool. We start setting things up for the adventure he's running.

Now comes the "fun" part. There's 10 players that want in. So the DM decides to do things randomly. He assigns us all numbers, rolls dice using an online service, and gets 6 of us chosen.

Then the 'whiny' part. One of the players doesn't like that not everyone can play. In fact, unless we give in and let everyone play that wants to, he'll leave. Problem is, he's friends with a good bunch of the group, so this causes a big problem with them. Damn the fact that a sanctioned living Greyhawk game has a maximum of 6 players.

Okay, so this guy is new to the game and might not realize that games with 10 players get really boring as the DM has little time for you, and adventures get really hard to balance appropriately.

Or am I wrong and we should be complaining to the living Greyhawk team to up the party limit?

I'm going to assume he doesn't know about the limitation, so explain it to him slowly and politely. The only other possibility is that the DM could run two modules separately and split the groups to five players, or someone else could DM for the other four players.


I don't think you should be beating down the doors of the RPGA people -- I think the limitation is well-conceived. If the guy can't accept it, then let him walk; see if the others will walk with him. If they do... then scout around for some other players. If they don't... then GAME ON!

I'm pretty sure this is what we're going to end up doing. I just needed someone else to say it as me and the DM seem to be the only ones thinking this way.

Advocate General of the Boot

I'm an advocate of the boot. I say get rid of him, by night, with a hammer, in the basement, if you have to

Seriously though, I like to nip these players in their butt send them yapping. The whining won't stop. Now that you've given him some rope, he'll just hang you all with it. He'll just drag you down until the entire group splits up. Such people aren't satisfied with just gaming, they have to be the be all and end all of the game and are willing to destroy everything to get their way. In fact, I say thump him for being so incredibly disrespectful and selfish.

I just kicked out a guy from my online PBP for being a whiny little beatch who caused problems at every step of the game, both in game and out of game. He took hours and hours of talking to online and still couldn't even adhere to the very basic requirements of the game. He was just lazy and selfish and the only reason I gave him any leeway at all was because I had thought we were friends. But to me, causing problems like he did is just disrespectful of everybody in the game and selfish. So instead of letting it slide for another six months until all the other players were at his throat and I was at my wits end, I just nipped it in the bud and kicked him out wholesale.

Even though it meant he now won't talk to me and has banned me from his chatroom, in the long run I feel I did what's best for the benefit of the group and the game. There are five other people aside from him in the game, all of whom have put in a great deal of effort and are all doing their best to participate at a reasonable level without being total PITA. If they can do it, then I see no reason why I, and the other players, should put up with one person who can't.

So I'd speak to the DM and tell him plain, get rid of the guy before it causes more pain down the line. 'Cause I garauntee you from VAST experience, this is just the beginning of the problems he'll cause...

I'm not so sure, Fourecks...

I don't know if I'd be so hasty, Fourecks -- Dwarf did say the guy was new to the game. He simply might not understand the way the Living Greyhawk stipulations work. He might not understand why these limitations are in place. Jumping on him might drive him away, when he could be a good, yet presently inexperienced player.

Re: I'm not so sure, Fourecks...

Eh, maybe... but the personality type is still there. It's the "Me, me, me, want, want, want, mine, mine, mine!" thing that has presented itself. Maybe I'm wrong, hey, I'm not there, I don't know the sitch, maybe DWARF is the real problem

But if there's one single aspect of gaming that I can undoubtedly claim to have boatloads of experience with, it's forming new groups and thus interacting with a PLETHORA of players and player types. And the fact is, that it's hard enough to get a good group to stay together without troublemakers ruining it for everyone. In my experience, a group will work much better if you get rid of the troublemakers early on. There may be resentment at the start, even from the other players, but as a DM I've learned to wear it and keep the game running because at the end of the day, they'll forget about the other guy after a few sessions. Especially if those sessions run a lot smoother and are more enjoyable for his absence, even if they don't realize this because the situation hasn't gotten to a head (like in the case of nipping things in the bud where it might not be obvious to others but is obvious to the DM).

Umm, tell him that them's the rulez. Six players, no more. Can't do anything about it. Displace responsibility: he can go complain to the RPGA if he wants. It's not like they'll actually listen to him: six players maximum is a very obvious and rational limitation in the eyes of experience.

If he doesn't want to play without the others, say "Cool. Hey you guys over there, we got one more seat!"