How to Manage a Player

[jdrakeh]

Is this more of a vigilantism charge situation or cold-blooded murder?

Note that, in most societies, there isn't a difference. If you kill someone illegally, it's murder

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

1) Talk to the rest of the group (individually or together) to see whether there's any interest in continuing the campaign. If they're not asking about it, it doesn't sound like there is.

2) Talk the problem player. If the campaign is going to continue, his choice is pretty simple: either play or don't.

3) Move the campaign along. At the very least, it sounds like they're not into the current story scenario.

4) For those problem players who want to ruin everything for everybody else, just kill their characters. Don't waste time. Don't listen to their antics. Don't ruin a good game just to adhere to what they say their characters do. Just kill the PC. Preferably in a way that's as equally silly as the actions they're trying to justify taking. For example, "Out of nowhere, a blood-thirsy wererabbit leaps up at you and chews your head off. It all happened so fast, no one else even noticed and your character's fate ends up a mystery. Sorry, you're dead. New character time!"

 

[Banshee16]

This is really tangential, but...

Is this more of a vigilantism charge situation or cold-blooded murder?
Who were the villains the PCs killed? What had they done?
Did the players and/or PCs know this would make them criminals?

In this particular case, the characters had been in a town in Montaigne, in the middle of another series of quests. They encountered an NPC, an archaeologist, who was seeking an escort to a local ruined castle once belonging to an ancient order of knights who had been wiped out a few centuries before.

A local inquisitor found out about their quest. The inquisitors don't like anyone tampering with the ruins, and they have some authority in the region. It's not like orcs or something, where there's a license to kill them.

Anyways, the inquisitors tracked them to the ruins, and tried to trap them inside a room underground by blocking the entrance, and leaving them to starve. The PCs escaped through a secret passage, encountered the Inquisitors, and the Inquisitors tried to capture them. The PCs fought back, successfully, and defeated the Inquisitors. But after disarming them, getting them to surrender etc. one of the PCs, who is a former priest who has decided that he hates the Inquisition, gets it in his head to not just let them surrender, but kill them. Then, the character run by the problem player joined in, and together they executed the survivors, against the wishes of two other party members, who weren't so sure that was a good idea.

A few Inquisitors had escaped, and they came back, realized what had happened, and reported the PCs to the local authorities.

Banshee

 

[Stalker0]

Just to put in the player's point of view consider this:

The last session was horrible for the players. Was that your fault? Not one bit. Does that matter? Not one bit. Bad rolls happen, but that doesn't make it any less crappy for the players, especially when someone dies to it.

Now, normally you get back on the horse, try to get some good mojo going in the next session, and leave that session behind. But in your case, it was 2 months later. That's two months to stew over a bad experience, two months to leave it fester without a chance to make it better.

With all of that, its understandable that some of the players may not be so thrilled to go back to that game.

 

[Corsair]

I agree with the above poster that the two month delay probably will make it more difficult to get back into the saddle. Generally when something bad happens in game, for whatever reason, I hate to just leave off. I would much rather play again as soon as possible and try to get back on the "right track" again.

 

[Banshee16]

I agree with the above poster that the two month delay probably will make it more difficult to get back into the saddle. Generally when something bad happens in game, for whatever reason, I hate to just leave off. I would much rather play again as soon as possible and try to get back on the "right track" again.

That's an interesting point. One of the players just e-mailed in response to my asking him. It's the guy whose character was killed. I guess he feels that he's not interested in playing in that campaign again. He didn't feel that the encounter was fair at the time. Incidentally, his character in a different campaign he was playing in (different DM) was killed just a few weeks before that. And I guess he left that campaign. So I probably should have talked to him about it immediately.

The fact that it took so long to get playing again definitely didn't help. Unfortunately, I was getting married, and the game just had to take a back seat to the wedding preparations until I was through that period of life.

I'll see what the other one says. He's generally been pretty laissez-faire about the whole thing. He's a good roleplayer, and seems willing to try just about anything. The two new guys are *really* strong roleplayers, and they were pretty willing to try the campaign we're leaving behind.

Banshee

 

[VirgilCaine]

A local inquisitor found out about their quest. The inquisitors don't like anyone tampering with the ruins, and they have some authority in the region. It's not like orcs or something, where there's a license to kill them.

A few Inquisitors had escaped, and they came back, realized what had happened, and reported the PCs to the local authorities.

Ah. Inquisitors as in "members of The Church out to destroy evil"...Jesus, the PCs didn't have any way to get rid of the bodies or anything. This is like killing cops.

Wow. These guys are boned.

 

[Particle_Man]

I have a solution.

Same campaign: New characters. Have the players play Inquisitors hunting down the (now NPC) bastards that killed their friends.

 

[Banshee16]

Ah. Inquisitors as in "members of The Church out to destroy evil"...Jesus, the PCs didn't have any way to get rid of the bodies or anything. This is like killing cops.

Wow. These guys are boned.

Yes. Those kinds of Inquisitors. I had a pair of NPCs...the archaeologist they were guarding, and a noble, who both advised against killing the Inquisitors, but the PCs didn't listen.

It really put me in a difficult position, as it derailed the campaign. I hadn't intended for them to be fugitives.

Banshee

 

[Jakar]

Electrodes to the genitals always seem to work in this situation.