What to do when play styles don't mesh

The problem is that in our game group we have two players who's style of play does not mesh well with the rest of the group. My question is what is the best way to handle it?

We have a 7 person group currently, and could just kick the other two out, but that does not feel right. On the other side, we have been trying to gell a campaign for some time now and they are a serious detriment to group cohesion. The different DM's have had a hard time working with them and keeping the game going at all.

To make it harder they are both good guys, and have done nothing to overtly cause problems.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

More information is needed. They have not done anything 'overtly to cause problems', so what exactly are they doing then to earn the label of 'serious detriment to group cohesion'?

Have the group fight to the death. The four surviving players continue to play.

Seriously, though - the answer is compromise. Assuming you can talk about your problems/worries like adults (I know - a lot of people can't do that, I've gamed with them) try to reach a balance that pleases everyone playing. D&D and its variants appeal to a wide variety of gamers because it blends a lot of possible styles into the game. People can come to the table expecting a lot of different things. The key is to be up front about what you/they are expecting and what you/they are actually willing to provide. A balance is possible. Find it.

Basically we have two power gaming rules lawyers, who see the in game world in a totally different way than the DM and the rest of the players. Strangely enough the way they see the world is always in theor favor. Both of them are actually lawyers IRL, and can never be wrong.

One player likes to be overbearing, has issues dealing with women gamers, and likes to talk down to players who disagree with his rules interpretations. Sometimes he is right, but when that is the case rather than just accepting the fact that he won the argument, he likes to make the loser feel stupid. He also is playing a Neutral PC in an evil campaign, and likes to stall the gmeplay to argue his personal interpretation of games rules, and the setting.

The second player wants to be in charge all of the time and dominate the table, but wont admit it. He has very little grasp of the rules, though he tries to rules lawyer. He is friends with player one and they always agree with each other, and the rest of us are obviously crazy. Player two asks for little concessions, and tries to win points by being overtly reasonable; if he doesn't get his way he starts whining. If you give him anything he is not happy he instead asks for more concessions. Though he does not want to make a leader type PC, he wants to be in charge of the game group and run everything.

This is just my perspective of course, but it is their personalities that I am responding to. I have seen my own DMing fade under their assult, and lose its vibrancy. The other players seem to lose themselves in all the discussion that goes on, when we should be roleplaying, and everything about the game has become a beurocratic nightmare. We can no longer just divide the treasure after adventures, there is now a process that we have to go through. If anyone speaks out, they are squashed, even though there are 4 other players at he table and a DM.

One of the reasons this is an issue is the appearant reasonableness of their approach. THe problem is that while they appear reasonable, in actuality they are not. And these two players are forming a clique inside the game group, working against he rest of the group in favor of themselves.

Anyway, we have had this grow over about a years time, to where it is now becoming an issue. We have had two DM's in that time and the issues have continued to mount up. Though we are attempting to compromise the problems get worse. I just want tot get some ideas on where to go from here.

After reading about the two players I have to ask: Why is kicking them to the curb a bad idea??

That's not different play styles, that's disruptive, unpleasant people. That makes it a much easier question to answer.

Talk crap about each other behind each other's back, but continue to game together. That's what I've always observed.

I think one of the reasons it is a question is that it is through small observable things that this gets noticed. It is nothing overt, and it has taken a year to get to this point. Plus outside of the game they are pleasant interesting regular people, the personality issues only rise up in the game itself.

Necros said:

the personality issues only rise up in the game itself.

Click to expand...

This statement should give you a hint as to the solution...Hint: Rhymes with "Stick to blurb"

Necros said:

The problem is that in our game group we have two players who's style of play does not mesh well with the rest of the group. My question is what is the best way to handle it?

Click to expand...

Kill them.