Gut-feelings and new players

[TheNovaLord]

That depends:
1. How many more players are you likely to lose because of this one person's actions?
If the answer is greater than 0, you need to boot the player. Do it politely, and do it with dignity and grace. After you do it, tell the player who left because of the bootee that he's gone and that you'd like him (the good player who left) to rejoin.

2. How much are you enjoying the game with this one player in it?
If the answer is you're not enjoying it, or you're enjoying it less, then see above.

Booting a player from a game is the worst part of being a DM.

I hope this helps.

It does

1. Another 1 who phoned me today and said he'd had enough
2. Less and less

we have contact with more players who wanna join, so i guess i should boot captain chaos b4 who does stuff to put the others off.

Its wierd you meet no new roleplayers for ages then D3 come along at once!*

Thanks, just have to find the write choice of words.

JohnD

 

[fusangite]

Socially, no. When my gut tells me someone doesn't belong in the game and they get in anyway, either because I'm not the GM or it becomes a social necessity to include them due to a dynamic amongst my friends, it never works out.

I've had to experiment with gaming with strangers here. It's tough work reconstituting a group; there's about a 15% compatibility rate for players who respond to ads for games that I run. But once you find that person, they best way to build a new group is to go with their friends, rather than continuing to screen strangers.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

This whole "gaming with complete strangers" thing is alien to me. Why would you want to game with someone who isn't a friend?

Only at cons have I gamed with non-friends. But our weekly games are with friends. And they're real particular about who they let in... They didn't let in this one guy we knew. He liked to spend time when visiting, talking about both himself, politics and the wonders that are GW Bush. They didn't know him that well nor his playing style.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

It does

1. Another 1 who phoned me today and said he'd had enough
2. Less and less

we have contact with more players who wanna join, so i guess i should boot captain chaos b4 who does stuff to put the others off.

Its wierd you meet no new roleplayers for ages then D3 come along at once!*

Thanks, just have to find the write choice of words.

JohnD

Yes, you should boot captain chaos before you lose the rest of your friends/players. When you do, you should call those who left and tell them that "mr. jackass" is now gone and see if they want to come back.

 

[Emirikol]

People think I'm crazy, but we still screen players with a questionaire (attached).

Ditch this new guy and keep looking.

jh

 

[Chimera]

Yes, it can. Total Party Kill because the newbie turned out to be a PKing psychopath, deriving most of his joy from causing as much strife as possible by sneak attacking the cleric in the middle of a major fight and taking him down.

See, there's where I think you might be making a mistake. At the point where a new player announced that he was doing something like this, I'd stop the game COLD and we'd have a little discussion. If I got any sense that the player was intent on these kind of things, we'd put the game on hold for a few minutes while that player was escorted out the door.

I won't let a bad situation be created that ruins the campaign or requires a reset, just because some new guy wants to demonstrate his complete lack of social mores.

 

[merelycompetent]

1. Another 1 who phoned me today and said he'd had enough
2. Less and less

....Thanks, just have to find the write choice of words.

Ouch.

Well, I strongly suggest that you be as polite as possible and don't do the booting in front of the other players. I believe there was another thread around here about how to boot a player from a game, including some suggested wording and other advice, but I can't find it.

Perhaps someone else with better Google-fu can find it?

Good luck!

 

[merelycompetent]

See, there's where I think you might be making a mistake. At the point where a new player announced that he was doing something like this, I'd stop the game COLD and we'd have a little discussion. If I got any sense that the player was intent on these kind of things, we'd put the game on hold for a few minutes while that player was escorted out the door.

I won't let a bad situation be created that ruins the campaign or requires a reset, just because some new guy wants to demonstrate his complete lack of social mores.

I wasn't the DM for that session, just a player (first time playing under 2nd Ed). Our DM was also a new DM (second campaign), and admitted to his mistake the following week. But what would have otherwise been an enjoyable evening blew up spectacularly because of this one walk-in, and a simple DM mistake from lack of experience. Thus the reset and resolution to not let it happen again.

Your way (and one I adopted after the aforementioned events) is the right way to handle it, IMO.

P.S. Our DM at the time went on to become a very fine DM. Best of all: He learned from the experience, and so did the rest of us. It hurt our enjoyment of his campaign, but didn't ruin it.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

This is actually interesting to read. Although the comment about why you would want to game with people who aren't your friends concerns me. Yes, it's hard to find people who are competent gamers and most importantly, not immature or imbeciles who don't understand how to have fun. I guess this harkens back to the old perception of gamers being socially stunted when it comes to strangers.

Well, no. For me, it comes down to this: I would rather not game at all than have a bad time gaming. When it's good, it's great; when it's bad, it's worse than it otherwise would be because I know how good it can be.

I can't guarantee that J. Random Gamer is going to be fun to play with. Therefore, I'd rather get to know a guy or girl first before I play with them.

Luckily, I'm involved with SUTEKH at the University of Sydney, so I meet lots of new gamers and potential gamers every year. I get the chance to make friends with them before I have a chance to play with them.

 

[Nomad4life]

I’ve made the mistake of ignoring my gut feeling far too often in the past.

I don’t do that anymore.