Hoki said:
What were the younger players doing that bothered everyone?
<snip>
Hey! It's my first post...
Here is a little summary of what they were doing:
Player 1 - 19 yr. old male college student: Every rule he didn't like was "retarded." He often started arguments with other players about the rules and was a munchkin and rules lawyer. When he decided that he didn't like a player, he approached other players at the table (sometimes, or he went on his own) and gave the group a "he goes or I go" proclamation. I got 3 of these in 3 years from him. If I made a rules decision that was technically incorrect, he would argue it if it hurt his PC, but if it benefitted his PC, he would not say anything until later, when he would mock me for my ignorance of the rules for several weeks afterward. He played the game "to win," saying that his goal was to beat any opponent I could throw at him. This often led to the deaths of other characters when he got them into situations only his PC could handle. His opinion was, "Well, then they need to learn to build characters better." He would actively root for the deaths of PC's he didn't like or that had "survived too long." He was very actively against fudging to save a PC's life, be it a wound system to avoid death, a fudged roll, divine intervention, or sometimes magical means. When his paladin died, he was furious with me for weeks that his deity would have intervened (he was killed by a priest of Orcus in a desecrated temple of St. Cuthbert) since Orcus is "such a p***y." He ridiculed the name of every NPC I ever introduced (ie. Gyanis became guy-anus) and especially if I set up a long-term villain, he would berate them aloud in every session, even getting out books after the session to prove that his deity was better than theirs (using the diety's HP, AC, Attacks, Damage, etc. as "proof"). His PC's often had VERY abrasive personalities, so much so that a few years ago, when the party was travelling by boat, another PC slit his PC's throat and pushed him overboard while he and the rest of the party slept. The party did not search for the body for long. During his final few weeks with us, if he landed the killing blow, he would stand and do the "falchion dance" (in effect LARP'ing what his PC was doing). Before every combat, he would call out menu choices, like "bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, rye toast, grits with butter and hash browns!" as he charged into battle (he was an archer, but charged in with his falchion anyway). At his last session, he took everyone's cell phones when they weren't looking and programmed obscenities into their welcome screens. Whenever I asked the group or him a question during his last two sessions, he would loudly call out, "NOT IT!" He eventually got all of the under 21 crowd to do it, as they thought it was hilarious, so I never got a straight answer to anything from the party anymore (ie. DM: "Is anyone checking the bodies of the gnolls?" Players: "NOT IT!!!").
Player 2 - 18 yr. old male high school student: Participated in the "Not it!" calling, also programmed obscenities into cell phones. The extent of his role-playing was, "Upok cut!" His barbarian's name was Upok. He had never really gamed before and barely participated in the sessions. He was frequently depressed, left early from most sessions and was generally disagreeable.
Player 3 - 19 year old male college student: Actually a good player for the most part. He still calls and comes around occasionally. The only strange thing he did was have a PC fake his own death so the party would criss-cross an entire continent searching for him. It ate several sessions of game time.
Player 4 - 18 year old female college student: Very sweet girl whose boyfriend/ex-boyfriend/mutually co-dependent clinger-on was Player 2. She was new to role-playing was did a good job with it. She was almost too nice/sweet for her own good, since every male at the table, including the older, married players were at least mildly attracted to her. All of her PC's had the entire rest of the party mentoring or "sworn to protect" her. It was very distracting. One player, who left before my purge, had left the group, but returned after she joined and set about doing whatever he could do to get her into his bed. As I said, very distracting. She also thought Players 1 & 2's antics were hilarious. She still calls and emails me and we are on good terms.
So, there you have it. The only solution I could come up with was to let all of them go and find some new players more my age (I am 35, the other players who stayed were 30, 36, 37, the new players are 28, 30, 31, 33; and the 36 yr. old has left us).
BTW, congratulations on your first post!!!
DM
) but young players tend to act really, really stupid.
