How to break old school Monty Haul players?

[Flexor the Mighty!]

My brother is playing a Wizard in my Greyhawk campaign. Him and I have been playing since the mid 80's and he has never gotten out of the mindset that it's a competition against the DM and the players to have the most powerful character in the party. He is incapable of having fun unless he has an uber-character. That's bad but not the worst part. He likes to antagonize me and he's always saying stuff like, "your boys are going down" when referring to the monsters and he constantly accuses me of trying to screw them when I tell them a rule that makes some unreasonable action they are taking illegal. He also keeps telling me the games "score" He likes to say, "Player 1 - DM 0" as if to show he's winning. That in turn makes me kind of antagonistic towards the party and isn't good for the game. He told me he would have no problem if EVERY encounter they go through was a breeze and they never had any challanges that may kill them. Sometimes I want to tell him to raise his PC to 20th level, give him everything he wants from the DM's guide and call it a campaign. He will have then "won" by his own view.

How to deal with someone who has been powergaming for 15+ years?

 

[Numion]

You see,how should I put this?

First you take the shovel. Then you find a suitable patch of semi-soft land. Then you just sorta WHA....

*Numion gets angry looks*

*Numion looks around*

Oops.. wrong boards

*Numion drops shovel and runs away!*

 

[Darkness]

You have tried telling him, right? Directly, that is.

And he still doesn't get it?

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

Some people like that kinda thing, and best of luck to them if thats how they want to play the game...
.... the probelm is in a situation liek this when he can prove to be disrupting to the group as a whole...

An adventure that I have converted the only 2 power gamers I have come across was the old A4 In The Dungeons of the Slave Lords (I think thast what it was called)
But the basis of the adventure was to take verything away from the characters that made them feel comfortabel, in the adventure the ended up in a cave system of dungeon with all their possessions gone, haveing to survive on their wiles and a couple of pointy sticks..
But I feel that you brother would just take this as a personal assault and bicker and winge all the more..

Some people may be to stuck in their ways to change, or indeed want to change... I mean if you wre playing in teh mid 80's he must be around 26, adn if this is still the attitude he has now to your gameing style.... well.....

 

[Ciaran]

It sounds like there's a fundamental incompatibility between the game you want to run and the game he wants to play. I recommend talking to your brother, explaining the sort of game play that you like and how it differs from what he likes, and asking if there's some kind of compromise the two of you can come to. Of course, there's a good chance that there is no compromise possible, in which case you should either find some new players, or (if you can't find other players in your neck of the woods and your non-gaming friends refuse to try) just suck it up and keep running games for him that neither of you will entirely enjoy. With luck, though, he'll at least make the attempt to try playing with a non-powergamey attitude every so often if you give him lots of easy, mindless encounters the rest of the time -- preferably in 2 different campaigns, of course. If you're really lucky, he may even learn to like Real Roleplaying(tm).

Good luck!

- Eric

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Some people like that kinda thing, and best of luck to them if thats how they want to play the game...
.... the probelm is in a situation liek this when he can prove to be disrupting to the group as a whole...

An adventure that I have converted the only 2 power gamers I have come across was the old A4 In The Dungeons of the Slave Lords (I think thast what it was called)
But the basis of the adventure was to take verything away from the characters that made them feel comfortabel, in the adventure the ended up in a cave system of dungeon with all their possessions gone, haveing to survive on their wiles and a couple of pointy sticks..
But I feel that you brother would just take this as a personal assault and bicker and winge all the more..

Some people may be to stuck in their ways to change, or indeed want to change... I mean if you wre playing in teh mid 80's he must be around 26, adn if this is still the attitude he has now to your gameing style.... well.....

He's 29 going on 30 next month! For example, we used to play the FASA Star Trek RPG. If they had an Enterprise class cruiser and it was damaged and I wanted to run them through some stuff with a small vessel until the big boy was fixed he wouldn't have any fun. So he would bitch and ruin the game if he was in a situation that you described in that adventure. They are 5th level and he wants magic items that would be too powerful for a 12th level party! The thing that really gets me is that when I give them a ruling that shoots down some foolish rule violating action they are taking he tries to make everyone think I'm trying to take their fun away and stifle them. Like I'm trying to "win".

 

[Veldrin]

IMHO the easiest way to deal with someone like this is NOT to. Talk to him, if that does not work, you do not have to game with him. He will just have to understand that people have differing gaming styles and some people change thier styles. Its not a big deal, even though he is your brother.

If all else fails, pull out all stops, and perform a very cheesy TPK (Total Party Kill) using your favorite monster that is 6-10 ELs higher than the group. When the last character drops, jump up and scream "I won!!!". I like to do that during playtest sessions where the monsters completely outclass the party, it promotes group harmony

Good luck with this, gaming style differences can be VERY hard to deal with or it could be easy, it all depends on the personalities of the people involved.

 

[Aaron L]

Tell him to play Diablo. Nothing against Diablo, I love that game, but what he wants is a video game, not an RPG.

 

[Ciaran]

If all else fails, pull out all stops, and perform a very cheesy TPK (Total Party Kill) using your favorite monster that is 6-10 ELs higher than the group. When the last character drops, jump up and scream "I won!!!".

Wow, I like that! -10 points for tact, but +20 for sheer malicious fun.

- Eric

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

I think another good idea might be to actually show him this thread..... see what he has to say about the various comments