Moment ruiners

[Tinker Gnome]

Sounds familiar. Not necessarily to those extremes, but familiar nonetheless.

Various members of my group have, in character, insulted NPCs for no apparent reason (esp. when it was evidently unwise to do so), pick fights with other PCs, play pranks on other PCs (which proved detrimental to party survival later in the game), start fights with other PCs, & other nonsensical stuff that really serves no purpose at all.

What makes things worse is that if this is an attempt by 1 of the players for more attention/focus on his character, then it often proves not to be worth it, since said player will eventually wind up losing interest in the game & not attend for months on end (what makes matters worse is that the player doesn't say he wants to quit for a while--instead he makes up excuses to not attend, or say that he'll attend but never shows at all).

To a degree, it just may be boredom with the game (or with gaming overall--more of a "been there, done that" attitude). However, it's aggravating since it ruins the fun for some of the other players in the group, and it really makes me less interested in playing games or running games, since I can generally expect this sort of stuff to happen.

Yeah, I feel for ya man. It is tough keeping some players on task. This game, I yelled rather loudly when ever they got off the game. It seems to work fairly well.

Anybody else have moment ruiners in their games?

 

[S'mon]

He is my older brother...

I'd give him a disgusted look and say "Shut Up*" or (depending on the group) "Shut the Hell Up" or "Shut the F**k Up" - whatever gets the message across. If he absolutely will not stop I'd tell him I don't want him to play.

*These two words actually seem to work very well with onnoxious players and students (I teach) in my experience.

 

[Ottergame]

In a game I am playing in, my character was having a pretty open and heartfelt discussion conversation with two of the other players, who were somewhat of my characters apprentices. My character was trying to comfort the young rogue in the party who had just killed someone for the first time, and tried to make an effort to get his two students to abandon the group and go back home. It was pretty emotional, but the entire time a 4th player was making off handed remarks about the sceen, really murdering the mood of the entire thing. Finally I just told him flat out I didn't appreciate what he was doing, and hopefully the matter won't come up again.

 

[Wycen]

In one of the groups I play with, we have a punster, every damn opportunity to make a pun is taken. And another guy often talks out loud when they are conversing with NPC's, usually with comments that should be kept to himself, meant to insult the NPC. I have to admit sometimes it is funny and I participate, but by the middle of the game I'm sick of it and sometimes I wish the DM would take the comment "in character" and lay some smack down.

 

[Nine Hands]

I can't stop laughing. This sounds so screwed up and also sounds rather familiar. We have a guy that we no longer play with that does the same thing. Its pretty gross.

If this dude is causing problems tell him to knock it off or toss his rump out on the street, especially if he upsetting other players.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Sounds quite immature. It's one thing to joke around once in a while, but not during what is clearly intended to be a sweet moment, unless that is how the entire group is.

My biggest moment ruiner is when someone is talking and the games being serious and someone in the group belches loudly. I understand sometimes people can't help it, but it just kind of grosses me out and ruins the moment for me.

:\

 

[Dark Jezter]

Nothing is sacred to my group, and we like it that way.

If a moment occurs that is supposed to be dramatic, sweet, tragic, et cetera, then I can expect at least half of the people at the table to crack a joke related to the situation.

There have been a few times where the game stopped for a few minutes because we were all laughing so hard.

I love my gaming group.

 

[Faraer]

Drama and emotion just embarrass some people and they feel an impulse to break the tension -- same reason people laugh in cinemas at things that disturb them or they don't understand. It's usually best to gloss over those things during play, and talk to the player afterwards and get them to stop out of courtesy, or moral or social pressure. Removing the impulse to so disrupt is more difficult.

 

[Nightfall]

This is kind of why I'm glad I just run online games. Running commentary is hard to do when you have to type it.