[ot rant] a player who annoys me to the point of psychotic thoughts

eXodus · Feb 7, 2002

i have been running a game nearly every week since november. all of my players came to me over the waves of cyberspace, ie i found them online.

i got really fortunate with all of them. all of them except one that is.

one guy is just not working out exactly as i had hoped.

he is the youngest of all of the players at 22. everyone else is at least 26. this guy came into the game with wild ideas of character concepts. first he wanted to play wolverine. i do not mean a character inspired by wolverine, he wanted to PLAY wolverine. i vetoed that. he was deadset on playing a jedi knight conversion. how in the hell do you convert a d20 star wars class to a d20 d&d class? anyhow. i again vetoed that. even though i explained my premise in the first meeting with him still he pushed and pushed as far as ability scores, races, and classes.

i am not exaggerating at all when i say that if he could just drop a dragonball z character into my forgotten realms game he would.

i am a nice guy. it is one of my downfalls. i am too tolerant of his outbursts, lack of attention to the game and just general annoyance.

he settled on a monk who met a horrible end at the blade of a dwarven fighter's axe. the monk's name was goku. so his new character was a rogue/fighter. a good character even.

but the problem i am running into is he just will not shut up about his star wars jedi knight

e. he goes into little ramblings about it midgame as i am trying to conduct my dming business.

it is driving me and the other players insane. and i think i will have to remove him from the group if i cannot reign him in.

diplomacy is how i would like to handle it all.

i would love some help in how to deal with 1. trying to explain to him that i need him to focus on the game at hand, and conform to what the rest of us are doing. and 2. how to remove him from the game without any problems if it comes to it.

this is all new to me as i have never had any problems with a gamer before. i have always been very fortunate.

thank you folks.

reapersaurus · Feb 7, 2002

wasn't there a thread almost exactly like this about 6 months ago? *confused at my memory - deja vu all over again*

Sir Osis of Liver · Feb 7, 2002

Wow that sucks! I've seen that type of stuff from some 14/15 year olds i've played with, but 22? URRG!

I usally exclusivly play these days, but at one time I switch off with my current DM Regularly that is entil his girlfriend got herself dueced. She was used to being favoered when he DMed, you immune to death, extra focus and praise for "good Role play", gimme items, advanced plot line notice, ect. Needless to say she like being one face in the crowd, and really flipped when she died.
Addmitatedly there was some contraversy, but everyone finally said i made the right call. I felt bad, I heard through the grape vine that she took the hole thing as a personnal attack, so ilet told her she could make an thing she wanted for her new charater of course i was rewarded with a wemic shaman, in my rahter urban campaign, needless to say the whole thing fell apart and i don't dm there now.
Of course she still plays with us, she married our DM, and while as person she fine, nice as can be, when comes to the game she a real psycho!

Any way I empathize with you it sucks to be burdened with a straight up bad player.

William Ronald · Feb 7, 2002

I would talk to him in private explaining that his compaints are distracting you from your DMing duties and hurting your enjoyment of the game. The reason we play is to have fun.

Explain why you did not allow the Jedi Knight or Wolverine. There are such things as campaign consistency. (Which is one of many reasons that Superman and Batman do not appear in my D&D game. Who would last longer? Batman. The man of steel is a man of mush when magic is thrown at him.)

Also let him know that other people may feel the same way.

If he is mature (a BIG IF), he will reform. If not, he may decide to take off. I hesitate in advising you to ask him to leave unless it is clear that he is so disruptive that he is spoiling everyone's fun.

Try to reason with him. Even if the guy walks off, you will have at least tried your best to keep him in the campaign.

el-remmen · Feb 7, 2002

Warn him, then boot him.

Falcon · Feb 7, 2002

If one player is reducing the enjoyment of many, I take them aside and talk to them, and if they continue in their ways, they are asked to leave. I favor the good of the many over the good of the one in this regard.

rounser · Feb 7, 2002

nemmerle said:
Warn him, then boot him.

You can tell you're a moderator, nemmerle.

Corinth · Feb 7, 2002

Gotta Agree With The Nem-Man

This boy is 22 years old; he's an adult, so he damn well ought to know better than to be such a bloody wanker about it. You explained it to him once, then twice and he still doesn't get with the program.

Warn him, then whack him over the head with a shovel and toss his into the incinerator if he doesn't shape up and fly right. You'll do the world a favor.

eXodus · Feb 7, 2002

one thing that really makes it suck even more is that i try to tailor my storylines around the goals, ambitions, backgrounds, and histories of the characters.

and currently his character is being a rather important part of the story. so i really would be strapped for reworking the story if i were forced to remove him from the game at this time.

thank you all for your empathy and advice. sometimes one just needs to vent. and now is one of those times.