D&D 5E How to engage a "poke the bear" player?

[transtemporal]

There was a NPC in an old game I played in. He was absurdly powerful and he had a particular talent with transformation magic. Anyway, he was generous as long as we were polite and civilised. No cursing, no raised voices, no inappropriate topics. As soon as anyone did, they got turned into a piece of antique furniture, permanently. His favorite object was a persian rug. Lot of people lost their characters to that NPC, lol.

 

[Shiroiken]

My preferred method would be to somehow engage them in a manner that would make the player not want to act like this all the time, rather than simply confronting them and telling them to cut it out. As far as I'm concerned, that's a last resort.

Now, I don't want to focus on answering questions about this player or his PC in particular but rather would just like to get some general advice on how to engage someone like this. How do other people deal with "poke the bear" style of player? How do you get them to do more than just start fights for no reason?

The only thing you can do in game is to show him that actions have consequences. Some simple examples would be for NPCs to shun him due to his reputation, have him arrested for assault (with NPCs swearing that he started the fight, even if he didn't), and having nobles/officials treat him as scum. If these don't work, have someone hire thugs/assassin to teach him a lesson. Another (more severe) response is to have the NPC be a retired high level adventurer who kicks the crap out of him (polymorph is fun for this).

An immature player will eventually learn the lesson, but expect a lot of resentment along the way. Some players simply enjoy being disruptive, however, and will enjoy the extra attention their shenanigans get them (even if negative in nature).

 

[S'mon]

I would just GM it out and if he pokes the wrong bear he dies.

Do the other players have an issue with it? Do they feel compelled to support him? You should encourage the other players to have their PCs react naturally, eg not to tolerate his PC just because he's a PC.

 

[TallIan]

You need to question why he's doing this, if you know him well enough this doesn't have to be an actual conversation. It's hard to give you an answer without more information.

Is he doing this because he is bored? It might just be that he doesn't like the social pillar very much. Depending on the rest of the players you could have less social interaction and move the game to more hack and slash. If everyone else is really enjoying the social pillar of the game then maybe he just needs to bring a deck of cards or an X-Box, or you can inform him ahead of time that the next session if RP heavy and he may want to make other plans.

Does he think he being in character as an evil PC? Far too many players seem to equate evil (especially chaotic evil) with dysfunctional psychopath. Psychopaths who can't control every impulse to do harm are in jail - normal society won't leave them running around after they kill someone for no reason. The big stick approach advocated by many posters here is probably the only way to deal with this in game.

Is he just being immature? This could be linked to boredom with some or all of the game, but can only really be dealt with outside the game with the talk you don't want to have, but sometimes that's necessary.

Rather than having every NPC a lvl 20 something or other, normal social reactions to things could work. If he threatens the shopkeeper, he will find himself unable to buy goods. If he punches the town elder, next time he'll find the gate bared and he'll be sleeping outside the town. This will take some time to sink in though, not every reaction immediately follows the causing action. There is also the possibility of bad blood arising between the players if these sorts of things affect the whole group.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

As others have said, there are many options. Have him poke the wrong bear - a high level paladin who's slumming or the like. Have him arrested or start trouble in the wrong bar, which belongs to the thieves guild, who drug him and sell him into slavery. Etc.

 

[TwoSix]

Have you considered hiring a real life bear?

 

[Saeviomagy]

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/3avp57/resolving_basic_behavioral_problems_in_your/

Note step 1

 

[Sadras]

My guess is, the player's antics will probably worsen as his character increases in power. If the PCs are running around in villages and towns at level 10, then yes this guy can and will intimidate your NPCs. You need to change the environment where acting so boldly will result in infavourable consequences for him and/or the party. You can generally rely on other players shutting an abrasive PC if their own characters become threatened or suffer a loss.

Change up the setting/location to a city of Psions or Magic Users, perhaps take it to the planes...he will be far less inclined to be intimidating in unsual surroundings.

If however this is low levels, then its easy. A few NPCs lodge a complaint to the local magistrate, perhaps one of the NPC's offended is a distant relative of the nearby Lord/Baron. An arrest warrant is issued and the character is arrested in rather humiliating circumstances - set a court trial, play the entire session as a massive social skill challenge. Have NPCs and the party testify for or against him. Have the PCs attempt to find/bribe NPCs that will testify on his behalf (if they can find any). Have his character suffer a violent beat-down in jail should he against become difficult or perhaps have him make contact with a criminal element of the city, where his character is coerced to serving the local crime lord...seed for next adventure.

 

[ExploderWizard]

OK, I've made it very clear in my OP that I want to hear about creative suggestions on how to engage a player in game and also made it clear that I'm not interested in "talk the player" responses. I know very well I can talk the player, this is a group that has been together for three years and I know the player well as a friend. I know I can confront him about it if that's necessary, but as I said, I'm looking for in game ways of engaging them.

If you can't respect that, then keep your -posts to yourself.

You mentioned in your OP that this behavior was starting to annoy the other players. You owe it to the group as a whole to stop this before the good players start dropping out of the game. Talk with the other members of the group and get their perspective on why this player may be acting this way. See if the whole group can talk about this together. If everyone else at the table lets this player know that he is ruining their game then he will either:
A- start being more considerate and change behavior
B- not give a damn and keep annoying everyone
C- quit the game

Options A & C fix the issue. Option B means you eject him from the group. If you have someone in the group that craps over everyone else's good time, and it made aware of it, and then proceeds to keep doing it, then they have proven that they have no regard for other people and need to be booted at once.

So my advice is to meet this head on as a group for the sake of everyone's good time.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Trying to "fix" player behaviour with in-game methods is almost always a bad idea. Talking to people and finding out what they want from the game works much better.

If a player is constantly looking for trouble they probably don't really care what happens to their PC, so letting them suffer horrible consequences will usually just amuse the player, who will then be right back with a new character and the same behavior.