Problem with Cry baby player

[kkoie]

Reminds me of a group I was a part of some years ago. One of the players was always doing something stupid. It got to the point where before he showed up, everyone else would take bets as to how long his character would go before dieing. The DMs (we rotated a bit) seemed to have the strategy of killing his character off early, then letting him spend the rest of the night rolling up a new character. I myself tried to remain neutral, but stupidity does get annoying after a while.

If I was the DM, I'd be torn between telling him to shape up or ship out, or having some fun and basically kill off his uber powered character each and every game session. It would be interesting to see how long I could keep up his deaths before he got a clue.

 

[Summoner]

I could use some help too.

We are currently involved in two Scarred Lands campaigns. One set in the city of Shalizar (sp?) and another as a party of roving adventures.

I will start with the roving campaign description first. It is a combat oriented game, about two encounters per night and has 112!!! players. Nothing wrong with this but the DM doesn't always have time to throw in a lot of character development and such. But, its fun for the company. The player in question is playing a Cleric of Madriel, who is primarily a courtesan style character. Very heavily roleplay oriented. Than he complains that he doesn't get to roleplay his character and his character is worthless and that he should just quit playing. He whines that the rest of us aren't into roleplaying and so on and so forth. He refuses to take Meta-Magic and Item Creation feats and instead takes SKill Focus: Perform (Seduction) and other skills that are relatively worthless in a combat oriented campaign.

Our Shalizar campaign is quite the opposite. There are 3-5 players depending on the night we get together and it is very roleplaying oriented. We have been playing for a long time and have had maybe a dozen combats (been playing for about 40 sessions) been a strictly roleplaying and investigation based campaign. He makes up a Half Dragon Fighter with just fighter skills. He complains in this game that there is too little roleplaying as well. Now, he wants to bring up a Artisan and get more roleplaying.

The catch is all he does is sit there. Even when given the oppritunity to roleplay, he does not get into it. He stutters and ummms alot, and ends up making the situation worse, because our GMs give a bonus or penalty based on roleplaying for Gather Information, Bluff, Diplomacy, or Innuendo rolls. I am not sure if I want him around any more, as a player, what can I do?

 

[Sodalis]

just point him to this thread. After reading all tehse posts, he will be so embarrassed that he will stop (or so I hope)

or else talk to the DM to not allow PrC like candy. ake him pay for it like everyone else... or else you join a PrC just to take him down... like an assassin. And unles she meta games- he won't know that you are trying to hit him if he is playing right...
Hire assassins, poison his food, tell him there is no trap and have him walk ahead (cause he's the strongest)...

Otherwise- leave.. it's not worth stressignover.

DND is more popular than ever- and i dont think you will have a problem findign a game...

 

[madriel]

So, Summoner, he basically rolls up a character that's exactly the opposite of what the campaign focuses on? Ooo-kay then.

And a cleric who's a courtesan taking ranks in seduction. I'd see a courtesan as more of a Bard, personally.

He sounds like a focus hog to me. Has to be the centre of attention whether it's good or bad. How old is he anyway?

 

[Summoner]

He's 24!

 

[Storm Raven]

Re: I could use some help too.

I will start with the roving campaign description first. It is a combat oriented game, about two encounters per night and has 112!!! players.

112 Players? Wow. That may very well be the largest group of players for a single game ever!

 

[Pielorinho]

This kind of thing is, I think, easier to prevent than to fix.

At the beginning of a campaign, I always talk with the players about the type of campaign, and make sure they understand that they're responsible for coming up with an appropriate character. My job is to come up with interesting story possibilities and decent plot hooks; their job is to make sure their characters are easily motivated into the adventures I create. It's a cooperative endeavor, and if they can't motivate their PCs, they need to make up new PCs or leave the game.

I'm going to institute a new rule in my game, that PrCs can't be entered into without justification. That is, I don't normally require training for leveling up, but except in very rare cases, I'm going to require training to enter a PrC. Which means the PC has to find someone who has a couple levels of the PrC currently and who's willing to teach them the ropes (alternately, a book of techniques, a la Crouching Tiger, can work).

Now that your game is currently going, though, this is a bit harder. Talking to the tweaker is a good idea, but you'll probably want to talk with him without saying, "STOP BEING A TWEAKER!" Instead, figure out ways of gently nudging him toward the direction you want. Explain to him the story reasons for limiting PrCs, and make sure he knows that the DM determines whether his PrC list makes sense. He doesn't get the final vote on that.

As for hissy fits if PCs don't make him the items he wants -- too bad! Explain to him that he should create PCs on the ASSUMPTION that other PCs won't make him any item. Then, if he can sweet-talk them into making an item, it's a bonus.

If all else fails, there's always the tried-and-true method of ending the campaign, waiting a month or two, and surreptitiously starting it back up again, minus one tweaker. I'm sure many of us have resorted to that dirty trick before....

 

[Summoner]

Sorry Fat Fingered

12 Players

 

[Sodalis]

we had a player that was nothign but trouble- he was constantly doing things that wasted time...

one time we had a rich boy and was holding him for randsome from his father. While I was tying him up, the guy kept wanting to poke him and stab him to watch him bleed. Sadistic bastard.

After pushing him away, he attacked me. So I cast darknes on his armor so I can continue without his meddling. He began to rain arrown of the group- shooting at us from ten feet away- idiot.

After that game, we kinda just "lost" his phone and email and so couldnt invite him to any of our games anymore.... because we could not contact him *wink*.

 

[Codragon]

litmus test

Before I attempt to advise you on this, I would like to ask a small favor:

Could you post what you know of the troublesome player's character's stats?

What are his race, class(es), level, and hit points? Any powerful magic items?

Thanks in advance!

(no problem if you are unable or unwilling to do this)