Izmo
First Post
I'm a bit at my wits end with my situation. I dug myself into this situation, I know ...
TLDR version: How do you handle a friend who's making the group slowly miserable.
I've always had a pretty small pool of players to draw from for my games. Awhile ago we ended up playing with someone, who I'll call John, who had been a friend of mine. The other players were ok with it, and we got to gaming. Over time we really grew tired of his style of play though.
John is the most cautious player I've ever seen. John is the kind of guy that will hide a hundred feet away and watch a combat to see if he's needed, and runs at the first sign of trouble. When threatened with getting no xp, he figures out the least amount of work he can do to get credit, all while making sure he never draws fire on himself. It's hard to describe, but he's been a master of skirting the edge for awhile now.
Eventually our game fell apart, though not because of him. When a few newer friends of mine started talking about wanting to me to start up a game, I was excited. John heard about this, and wanted to jump in. I was cautious, and should have listened to my gut, but why not? "He's a friend, let's do this!" And I finally had a group again.
Ever since then we've had problems with him. I don't know if I can convey it well enough here, but again, he's the master of skirting that edge. Sometimes it's just bad playing, sometimes you can't figure out if he's doing it on purpose, and he's still completely concerned about dying. His most famous moment was when the group brought a Xill down to the brink of death, (one hit point), and rather then punching him in the face, as monks are known for doing I assume, he went total defense. For twenty seven rounds. While the group is down and dying. The group exploded on him, but decided not to kick him out.
John still plays overly cautious, even to the point of rolling multiple dice, over and over again in silence, to see which one is going to roll well before he commits to an action. He seemingly waits to make "the big play" instead of participating in every round of combat, like spending 5 rounds hiding, going invisible, casting fly, slowly going up the cliff, then, rounds later, casting Mage Armor and lying in wait, all so that he could grab a player out of a grapple and Dimension Door him to safety. He continues to drive the group mad with wonky characters, like making a sorcerer that rolls percentage to see if he's going to cast spells or fire his crossbow. He makes comments like his character has plans to wipe the entire group and "jokes" about how he's going to kill each one. Last week, when his character died, he calmly suggested we scrap the entire campaign story, and possibly scrap my world I've had going for 15 years, because he didn't care for the story or any of the other players' characters.
We've talked to him before, but he doesn't take any of the new players seriously, since he's been in the group longer. He laughs at concerns and thinks everyone ELSE is playing bad and not keeping up to his level. The worst is that he's not always this bad. Like I said earlier, he's the master of balancing on that edge and when he starts to push his luck, he backs off just enough.
So what should I do? What's the best way to go about solving this problem? Straight kick, no chaser? Group pow-wow? Start a three strike process? I've never had to kick a player before, ever, so I don't know how to go about it.
TLDR version: How do you handle a friend who's making the group slowly miserable.
I've always had a pretty small pool of players to draw from for my games. Awhile ago we ended up playing with someone, who I'll call John, who had been a friend of mine. The other players were ok with it, and we got to gaming. Over time we really grew tired of his style of play though.
John is the most cautious player I've ever seen. John is the kind of guy that will hide a hundred feet away and watch a combat to see if he's needed, and runs at the first sign of trouble. When threatened with getting no xp, he figures out the least amount of work he can do to get credit, all while making sure he never draws fire on himself. It's hard to describe, but he's been a master of skirting the edge for awhile now.
Eventually our game fell apart, though not because of him. When a few newer friends of mine started talking about wanting to me to start up a game, I was excited. John heard about this, and wanted to jump in. I was cautious, and should have listened to my gut, but why not? "He's a friend, let's do this!" And I finally had a group again.
Ever since then we've had problems with him. I don't know if I can convey it well enough here, but again, he's the master of skirting that edge. Sometimes it's just bad playing, sometimes you can't figure out if he's doing it on purpose, and he's still completely concerned about dying. His most famous moment was when the group brought a Xill down to the brink of death, (one hit point), and rather then punching him in the face, as monks are known for doing I assume, he went total defense. For twenty seven rounds. While the group is down and dying. The group exploded on him, but decided not to kick him out.
John still plays overly cautious, even to the point of rolling multiple dice, over and over again in silence, to see which one is going to roll well before he commits to an action. He seemingly waits to make "the big play" instead of participating in every round of combat, like spending 5 rounds hiding, going invisible, casting fly, slowly going up the cliff, then, rounds later, casting Mage Armor and lying in wait, all so that he could grab a player out of a grapple and Dimension Door him to safety. He continues to drive the group mad with wonky characters, like making a sorcerer that rolls percentage to see if he's going to cast spells or fire his crossbow. He makes comments like his character has plans to wipe the entire group and "jokes" about how he's going to kill each one. Last week, when his character died, he calmly suggested we scrap the entire campaign story, and possibly scrap my world I've had going for 15 years, because he didn't care for the story or any of the other players' characters.
We've talked to him before, but he doesn't take any of the new players seriously, since he's been in the group longer. He laughs at concerns and thinks everyone ELSE is playing bad and not keeping up to his level. The worst is that he's not always this bad. Like I said earlier, he's the master of balancing on that edge and when he starts to push his luck, he backs off just enough.
So what should I do? What's the best way to go about solving this problem? Straight kick, no chaser? Group pow-wow? Start a three strike process? I've never had to kick a player before, ever, so I don't know how to go about it.
