Booting players - What are your nightmare stories?

[sniffles]

Nobody has ever been booted out of a game in our group, but I will admit I was almost "disinvited" to join a new campaign. The GM had some issues with my behavior in a previous campaign and wasn't sure he wanted to put up with it a second time. I was pretty upset, though on reflection I think that was mainly due to the way he presented the problem to me: he emailed me and said he was thinking of excluding me from his new game, after the new game had already been proposed and I was getting enthusiastic about it. I wish he'd said something earlier, and perhaps in person. Oddly, one of the things I did that annoyed him was "conversational bulldozing", i.e. talking over other people, which his new wife does constantly.

We have had a couple of players who are just not invited to join us anymore. One of them was one of the people who helped introduce me to roleplaying. When I first RP'd with him I thought he was very considerate. Either I was oblivious or he's changed over the years. He's now very competitive and wants to "win" at everything, by being best in combat, getting the most treasure, etc. He finds our group boring because we want to roleplay, not just kill monsters and get stuff. He also cheats on his dice rolls and argues constantly about rules. One GM in the group actually did kick him out of a campaign I'm not involved in, which was pretty surprising because this GM is an old friend and is usually extremely tolerant.

Lately I've noticed that there is one player who is gradually being eased out of the group. As we like to say, he doesn't play a character, he plays a character sheet. This isn't meshing well with the play style of the group these days. In the past he was always included because we usually played at his place, but since several of the other player/GMs have recently purchased homes with dedicated gaming space, we've started playing at their homes. This player will not accept a ride from anyone and doesn't own a car. He complained about the bus ride to get to one GM's home, so we just assumed it would be a problem for him and didn't include him when we started a new game. It actually worked out really well for us because the remaining players can now roleplay our little hearts out without being annoyed by his erratic "rollplaying".

 

[cuteasaurus]

We, as a group, had to boot one DM's girlfriend. She was loud, a bit obnoxious, loved to be the center of attention, etc... It got to the boiling point when she and he got into a loud verbal argument over the semantics of village vs. town... It was then that some of my fellow players got with him and told him that she wasn't "fitting" with the group. She was driving all of us nuts with her behavior. I was glad to see her go, then we could really get back to the fun we'd had before and now have!

You booted the GM's gf and he was ok with it? I'm a little confused...

 

[frankthedm]

I have chased off about 10 players total. Most left when I decided a run of Call of cthulhu game. I knew it would trim the herd It was going to start off with the "Delta green PX Poker Night”. They bailed when they saw I had actually bought the cards and poker chips

Heroine addict #1 [co DM to #2]
Pothead pushover DM #2 "charging an enemy? go ahead and full attack"
New players only there to hang out with friends #3, 4 & 5.
Females only there because they were Chaotic stupid player's current girlfriend#6 & 7
Queen Bee type gamer there for the attention #8
Annoying powergaming FR Nut #9
Annoying player of sub par intelligence #10
Decent if nature favoring gamer, whose ride was #10 [only one welcome back]

Banned from any game I run.

1. Annoying associate I have known for years who is getting into D&D [He is going to run on off days, the rest of the group intends to powergame so fragging hard he never wants come back.]

2. The Chaotic stupid player. Nuff said.

 

[werk]

Never been booted, but got pretty close because I wanted to play D&D and the rest of the group wanted to talk about everquest for HOURS every session (I hate everquest).

I've left a few groups, largely because I move every few years and find groups from online and game store bulletin board recruitment and it's hard to find truely compatible groups this way initially. Usually I left these groups because the players were racist/sexist or just said the most horrible statements trying to get attention.

I've booted a couple of players, usually through the 'sneaky' approach, generally because of immaturity (innuendo/distractions/ADHD), lack of social aptitude (way too many to list but includes: getting into a fight with the pizza guy because the pizza guy delivered what he ordered instead of what he meant to order), or because they were violently argumentative or confrontational (or all the above).

Never really had any problems with any of the above. Just business.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Never been booted, but got pretty close because I wanted to play D&D and the rest of the group wanted to talk about everquest for HOURS every session (I hate everquest).

I dislike World of Warcraft for that reason. When the addicts start talking, you can as well stop listening, cause you won't understand them. This scores double if it's on a party. Then you can as well leave. Doesn't matter if it's just half past eight, this will go on till all the beer's gone and people pass out, their last words being "I'm such a good healer"

 

[Baragos]

Haven't exactly booted anyone, but has "not invited" a few people over the years as well as given warnings.

The first guy I stopped inviting to games is an old friend whom I taught to play D&D 16 years ago. He likes being in the middle of things, always makes the same characters, who have some weird sexual deviance. And when he was the DM he'd have his favorite NPC dominate the game to such an extent that none of the PCs actually needed be there.

One of my current players, and a good friend to boot, has been warned a couple of times and have at one point "booted himself". He likes to make "interesting" characters and take it personal if that character doesn't fit in. For instance, he mad a cleric of Wee Jas in a good aligned party and didn't understand it when the other characters (not players) objected to him walking around with zombie servants. One of the other guys was a cleric of a good god and naturally objected when he started raising the recently dead. That lead to a "you're ruining my character concept" argument. Then he made a Dwarf Monk/Battle Sorcerer specializing in grappling and was furious when they had to fight a flying creature with a ranged attack. Or when they had to fight creatures too strong to grapple. Several times he has "sowed negativity" with complaining during or after the game, and it annoys us. So he's been told that if he can't enjoy the game he should at least stop ruining it for the rest of us.

Ohh, and once I was about to boot a player because he never had time to play. He always called and told me that he couldn't come, but as he was getting behind in levels (3 levels behind in the end) and never really knew what was going on, I decided to booot him. But he "beat me too it" by calling and saying that he didn't have the time to play and that he thought it was unfair on the rest of us that he never showed. So that was actually quite positive, I think...

 

[Darth K'Trava]

You booted the GM's gf and he was ok with it? I'm a little confused...

He'd have lost the rest of the group and the home to run his game in if he didn't ditch the gf from his game. She plays in some sort of "evil game" he runs elsewhere. But she was annoying the hell out of the rest of us and making us not have fun.

 

[Brakkart]

I've had to boot players a few times in my 16 years fo running D&D, but the most notable was a few years back when I was running a Greyhawk campaign using pre-written modules and adapting them into one flowing storyline. I found out that this player was buying every single module I was running, and not only deliberately using out of character info in the game, but he was offering the same info to my other players away from the table in exchange for first cut of treasure etc.

Thankfully my other players were a lot less larcenous and one of them made sure I knew what was going on. I confronted the player and told him that either he cut it out or I would have to get rid of him and he was very apologetic and such. And then about 5 days later I overheard him in the FLGS (I was sat down the back on the floor, pretty much hidden) trying to get another of my group to go along with him in what he had been doing, because it would be harder for me to pin the blame on any one person if more than one of the players were "running the game from other side of the screen".

I took a vote at the next session, and the group all agreed he had to go. He wasn't at that session, I saw him in the games shop a couple days later and told him that he was no longer welcome at my table. To his credit he took it well.

In addition to that I have a few local players who I know of by reputation (some of whom I have DM'ed for/played with in the past) who would never be welcome at my table, foremost among them is my brother who is the worst powergamer I have ever encountered and who seems determined to destroy any campaign he plays in. Quite why people continue to RP with him I have no idea, as everyone I've talked too has the same opinion of him.

 

[Bront]

Not a RPG group, but I was in a boardgame group that got togeather every saturday (And still does, though I am a rare show for that due to work) with, among other people, my mother and father. One person general had a persicution complex. Said person would complain about many things, including that any kind of music other than folk music bothered her even as soft background music (generaly my mother liked to put on some soft pop, jazz, or maybe the occasional classic rock album in the changed and let it go to town, but that was optional, and usually barely audable). Well, I wasn't at the offending session, but apparently this person got in such a tizzy about something that she sent my mother off crying (And my mother is generaly quite tollerant of other people). My father stated, on no uncertaint terms, that said person was not allowed in his how again, and other than a christmas party, I have not seen this person since. Amazingly, no one else objected.

I have been in once campaign that ground to a hault. There were some incompatibility issues with one of the players (Who, in general, is a nice guy, and still someone I consider a friend), and was amorably halted when I became no longer available, which was basicly a convenient way to say "This isn't working, but now we can let it die and have no hard feelings."

I'm now running my current campaign, and had hoped a player would be available to join, but it appears he may not. I'm going to call/e-mail him at some point to find out if he would like me to keep his spot open or if he wouldn't mind me filling it with someone else. I'm honestly more worried about my campaign crumbling under my weight, as I sometime have trouble fitting togeather a good and constant story line, and while as a player I'm generaly creative and play well off the cuff, I seem to be a lousy GM at it. I'm hoping to get 10-20 sessions out of my campaign, 2 down so far.

 

[Turanil]

I have to say she had a real over inflated view of her own gaming skill after listening to her.

"Gaming skill", as if it would be something to be especially proud of. **Rolleyes**