Player problems

[DralonXitz]

Wow, pretty dishonest player. I do all of my players sheets for them, in front of them, and keep them with me to avoid cheating. Of course, they have enough sense not to cheat on my campaigns, as I am not a GM who tolerates this. The moment my player cheats, I dont do subterfuge about it, I have a Dark Jedi Guardian rush in from the darkness and pull off a 6d8 attack on him with a Double Bladed Lightsaber, ripping him to pieces.

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

I'm having a problem with a player. Let me start from the beginning. We first started playing years ago and I never realized what kind of power player he was. He has a character in which he used one die to roll his stats with. We normally use 4 dice, rerolling any ones, once. He wanted to use on die. I let him, my mistake. However the character he's playing now is some part of a prophecy from Krynn. Not to mention, noone in the group likes Krynn. Not one of his scores has anything below a fifteen. He has two 18's and a 19 at first level. I should never have let him bring it in. yes. However, I need a subtle way to kill his character. If he doesn't change it, I suppose the Lady of Pain could maze him, I could trick him into signing his soul away to a Baatezu, or something. Does any one else have any good ideas?

Maybe its just me, but I am confused about some things...

1.) You have a system that you use to gen character stats. You have a player that didn't want to use that system, so you let him use another.
[DM Mistake you have admitted]

2.) He did not roll his characters in front of the group or the DM.
[Why do you think this person cheated on his stats? I have personally seen many characters with stats all above 15's. They were all rolled on the gaming table. Granted this has been in 20+ years of gaming, but is is possible nonetheless.]

3.) He has a character now that is part of a Krynnish prophecy, yet no one in the group including you don't like Krynn.
[Then if your the DM how did he become part of this prophecy?]

4.) Why do you feel the need to kill his character? This character as far as I can see was created fairly, and with the DM's ok. If he cheated and you know he did this for a fact then fine...tell him he cant play the character and why. I personally dont think that just killing a character outright subtley or not is the way to go. Especially if it is one you have seemed to put your approval on in the first place. If you didnt he should have never been allowed to play the character in the first place.

Penalizing a player for a character that you allowed in the first place is not only unfair to the player who created the character, but will later on open the door for others to question your integrity as a DM.

There really isnt any easy answer to this situation you have created...

I personally would let the player play the character...Two wrongs dont make a right.

I would also make it known that in the future that all stats will be rolled in front of the DM.
We roll stats a certain way and thats it. Period.
As far as story lines you the DM have total control over that...If you dont like Krynn, dont allow a Krynnish prophecy to affect or even be in your game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That sounds like a pretty dishonest player to me.

There are subtle solutions to your problem.

Either fudge a couple of rolls that wouldn't normally be lethal to him, or don't fudge a die roll that would save him and let the PC die.

Personally, I prefer the latter. It serves 2 purposes- it gets rid of the suspect character and it sets a tone for the campaign that death is possible. That will make your players make more realistic decisions.

 

[BSF]

One word for you: Communication.

If the PC won't work, tell the player. Find a way to work it out, or have the player shelve the concept for a different game. Talking through things is a better long term solution - every time. If communication doesn't work, then you have fundamental differences that will probably get in the way every time, no matter what any given PC looks like.

*wave to Crothian* Hey man, it seems like you and I say the same things a lot on the problem player topics.

 

[Bauglir]

Many players have dice superstitions, In fact I've seen several debates over this on the general board in the short few months I've been here. I myself have some quirks which I use to roll stats, and while they have no physical results, they make me feel better. There is no reason why rolling one die to roll stats should have an adverse effect on the outcome of the player's stats. He just happened to assign them well. I don't think the solitary die is your problem.

Actually, rolling one die is very different to rolling 3.

With only one die, there is an equal chance that any value will be rolled - on 1d20, each value has a 1/20 chance to come up - a 1 is as likely as a 10, or a 20.

With 3d6, average results are much more likely than extremes. An 18 can only be achieved with 3 rolls of 6 - there is only a 1/216 chance to roll an 18 on 3d6.

An 11 on the other hand, can be achieved by rolling 4+4+3, 5+3+3, 5+4+2, 5+5+1 (and also by rolling these results ordered differently) - there is a 1/18 chance to roll an 11 on 3d6 - 12 times more likely than rolling an 18.

If you roll more dice, then extreme results are even less likely - the likelihood of rolling 60 on 10d6 is only 1/60466176.

4d6, drop lowest is a little harder to represent mathematically - results a little above the average (in the 12-14ish range) are the most likely to come out. Rolling an 18 is 6 times more likely under this scheme than with straight 3d6 (although that's still 1/36), and rolling a 1 is 6 times less likely (1/1296).

IANAS (I am not a statistician )

 

[Bagpuss]

He has a character in which he used one die to roll his stats with. We normally use 4 dice, rerolling any ones, once. He wanted to use one die. I let him, my mistake.

One weighted die. Kick him in the nuts and tell him to grow up.

 

[JoeBlank]

This is why I refuse to roll up characters at home, and why I actually like point buy.

If the DM says "Just roll up your character using 4d6 drop, I trust you" then I say "no thanks, I'll wait until someone can witness me rolling."

If there is a reason why we need to have characters made before the first session then point buy or standard allocation works best. This way no one is questioned on whether his character is legitimate.

Of course, this does not rule out the possibility of weighted dice, but if you can't trust your players not to use those then you need some new players.

 

[JoeGKushner]

This is one of the reasons I love point buy. "I've rolled my stats! Man, how lucky eh? Three 18s!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. We're using a point buy method. 32 points. Pretty high fantasy there buddy!"

I'd agree with Corithian on the straight talk but as a GM, I've killed off characters who've cheated on the sly. "Man, I can't believe that guy criticalled you with a great axe! Man, power attack is harsh with that weapon on a critical!"

 

[diaglo]

This is why I refuse to roll up characters at home, and why I actually like point buy.

If the DM says "Just roll up your character using 4d6 drop, I trust you" then I say "no thanks, I'll wait until someone can witness me rolling."

what do you say when the referee tells you: you have to roll 3d6 in order in front of him.... or choose a pregen he already rolled.


you still have to roll hps.

 

[Ibram]

what I dont understand is the whole Kyrn prophicy thing. If your not playing a Dragonlance game then what does it matter? Even if you are playing a Planescape game (which is what it sounds like) then his prophicy is still useless as long as you dont go to Kyrn.

Where did this Prophicy come from anyway? if hes the only one who likes Dragonlance then how did it become part of his character? Did he just say "my character is part of an important prophicy on Kryn!"? If so then you are under no obligation to use this in the game. You could even treat it like the character is delusional ("Sure you are are part of an important prophicy, and I bet you were the one who won the War of the Lance as well.")