Help satisfying a challenging player

[DiStegro]

Hi guys, so, I have a problem that I wondered if anyone would have some suggestions for.
There's three of us in our group, myself and one of the others GM (let's call him Steve for the sake of anonymity) while the third is always a player (who shall be known as Jim), we don't get to meet regularly and between this and transport issues we usually set aside a whole day whenever we get to play. The problem is that whenever I'm GMing Steve gets bored. For a little bit more context, Steve usually plays Chaotic Evil, and prefers sandbox murdering with no plot, while Jim flits around Good and Neutral, and prefers heroic-ish plots, and no one will make a character before the session, because of this I tend to work adventures to be based around following the rumours surrounding something powerful (for first level, at least) early on, then add in nods to backstories either on the fly or in later adventures, rather than motivating them by the saving/damning of the town/country/world.
But on to the problem:
Steve ends up unhappy with anything I do, if I throw in a dungeon, or any other kind of relatively structured part he complains about being railroaded, forced through nothing but dungeons, and so on. If I try to give him the social sections that he's asking for, he complains that nothing ever goes his way and attempts to murder as much of the town/village as he can before the guards get him.
This has happened enough times that both me and Jim are losing patience, if we try to point it out to him he adamantly refuses to believe that what he refers to as "playing his alignment" could annoy anybody.
One thing I will admit that I have thought of and not tried is running an evil campaign, which I was attempting to stay away from for Jim's sake.
But any suggestions anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, Steve would have a problem in my game because I've banned evil alignments. And he would try to murder everyone in one of my villages exactly once. If he's unsatisified with your game, I'd recommend to ask him to look for a different game group. Preferably after you've found a player to replace him in your group

Seriously: With that setup none of you will be happy in the long run. Either you or one of your players will have to go. My vote goes to Steve because you make him sound like a jerk.

 

[delericho]

Yep, what he said. But less tactful.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

For your next campaign I think you should lay down some expectations that the players agree to adhere to. These might include playing non-evil characters who have a heroic bend to them, actions will have repercussions (i.e., killing whole villages will draw the attention of protectors), discussing characters as a group so they fit well together, creating characters before the first session.

Then work with the players to determine the sort of game that you want. Should it be a sandbox game? Should it focus on social scenarios? Should it have dungeons?

After everything is discussed and agreed upon give Steve one chance to play in the campaign. If he cannot play in the sort of game that you want to run, then you should part ways because it's not worth either of you wasting your time on a game that you don't enjoy.

 

[pemerton]

But any suggestions anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

It's a little from left field, but you might want to have a look at the Christopher Kubasik essays linked here.

There's stuff in them that's probably not relevant to you, like advice on resolution mechanics. But the stuff on PC building, and how GMs and players can work together on that, might be helpful. Or not. It's not clear to me, from your post, whether "Steve" is looking for a game focused on the aspirations of his PC, or whether he just wants to indulge in murder fantasies.

If the latter, maybe he's not a good gaming partner. But the last time I had a player like that, once he realised that he didn't have to play out murder fantasies in order to be free to play his PC as he wanted to, he let his murderer PC be caught and punished, and brought in a new PC who was much more interesting and enjoyable (both for me as GM, and for the other players).