Player problem...

[Sirius_Black]

Go ahead and set a firm schedule. If he wants to play, he'll schedule other stuff around it. Part of being an adult is learning how to organize your life.

Yes, but some of the "adults" need someone to pin a note to their shirt reminding them of this fact.

 

[hunter1828]

1. Start using NPC's

I already do. There are four NPCs in the party

2. Commit to a schedule that all parties are applicable to and set a time.

He's the only one that refuses to play when the other three have set time to play. Why? So he can drive an hour back to his home town and drink beer and play cards in the local bar. That's his excuse. It pisses me off.

 

[the Jester]

I already do. There are four NPCs in the party


He's the only one that refuses to play when the other three have set time to play. Why? So he can drive an hour back to his home town and drink beer and play cards in the local bar. That's his excuse. It pisses me off.

The game goes on without him.

I'd say that drinking beer and playing cards in the local bar is his choice to make, and it sounds like cards are his favored game anyway. So I'd just let him know that you'll no longer cancel or reschedule around him and let the cards fall where they may. If he really likes gaming he'll start trying to schedule his time with the games you guys play in mind.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Go ahead and set a firm schedule. If he wants to play, he'll schedule other stuff around it. Part of being an adult is learning how to organize your life. It sucks, but it's true.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Set a schedule. Those who really want to play will be there.

I had a group of 5 players, but 4 of them could never commit to a schedule. When I finally made a set schedule, only 1 was able to commit to it. So that's the player who gets my sole DM's attention and lovingly crafted adventures. Don't be afraid of gaming with just a few players - in my experience, those can be some of the greatest games.

 

[Hecateus]

hmmm sounds like a bit of a jerk, but:

since he likes cards, is there anyway of integrating card games into your RPG? perhaps that would keep him involved enough to play consistently.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Why? So he can drive an hour back to his home town and drink beer and play cards in the local bar. That's his excuse. It pisses me off.

I realize you've indicated you don't want to lose players due to difficulties in backfilling in your area, but... some people just aren't built to be roleplayers (choosing card games in the bar over a regular RPG session is a pretty good indication of that), and some people just aren't at a place in their lives where they're ready or willing to commit to doing *anything* according to other people's schedules. Either or both could apply to your fellow, and player shortage or not, it's not worth wasting your team's time and brain-space anguishing about it.

Talk it over if you must to see if there's anythign you guys can do to make it work, but ultimately set a time & place, and cut him loose if he can't/won't commit to showing up.

Best of luck.

 

[Leopold]

I already do. There are four NPCs in the party


He's the only one that refuses to play when the other three have set time to play. Why? So he can drive an hour back to his home town and drink beer and play cards in the local bar. That's his excuse. It pisses me off.

then drop him plain and simple

 

[der_kluge]

I agree with Leopold. If his excuse was to go visit his ailing grandmother that'd be one thing, but to leave early to go play cards and get drunk sounds like an alcoholic to me.

I'd flat out tell him - you need to make a choice - either commit to us full time, or we'd rather not have you play at all. It's that simple.

I know exactly what you're going through. I played with a couple of brothers briefly. We played Star Wars (west end games version). They were roommates, and their sister, and one of their girlfriends played with us as well. Well, they insisted on playing on Thursday nights, since one of the brothers wanted to go clubbing on Friday nights, and sometimes on Thursday nights he'd either be really late, or would leave early to go to the club. And the other brother was always wanting to go to bed early since he would have something important going on at work the next day, or something. And the girlfriend was just there because the boyfriend wanted here - she wasn't into it.

So, eventually I left that group. Which was a shame, because they were decent people I could have easily hung out with, but the level of commitment just wasn't there for them.

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

I've got a friend that acts the same way.

When I was running a campaign, he showed up the first couple of times, then missed the rest of the module (yay Sunless Citadel!).

Now that we've switched over to another game, the same guy indicated interest, but missed the first session at the last minute.

Later on, when he apologized to the DM, and offered to show up next time, the DM told him not to bother.

He's still a friend, and we all hang out as much as we ever did... he's just not a part of our gaming group, because he's unable to make it a priority and to commit to the game.

If he ever decided that gaming was a priority, I'm sure we'd let him back into the game on a trial basis.

That being said, I think your idea is probably the best way to deal with it.

-F

 

[hunter1828]

hmmm sounds like a bit of a jerk, but:

since he likes cards, is there anyway of integrating card games into your RPG? perhaps that would keep him involved enough to play consistently.

Nope. I hate card games and so do the other two players. If his character wants to play cards it's done by saying "My character goes and plays cards for a while."

hunter1828