Problem Player Woes

[Kingreaper]

Perhaps if you got him playing an assassin, with lots of poisons and stuff he can apply to weapons?

Skirt the edges of the combat, preparing for a chance to strike...

It's not exactly optimal play for an assassin, but I suspect that an assassin is the optimal class for that kind of play.

 

[Odhanan]

Tell me you have talked with him about it already.

If not... why not?!

 

[cdrcjsn]

Have him read this thread.

Tell him to shape up or ship out.

Honestly, I can't stand cowardly players. Not cowardly PCs, but players who play all of their characters like abject cowards. I don't know if it says something about me, but I've met players like this before. They've all turned out to be people I can't trust or stand to be around.

I have a theory that some types of gaming offers an insight to how people would behave if you remove normal social constraints. Consequently, I'm bothered by non-team players.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Last week, when his character died, he calmly suggested we scrap the entire campaign story, and possibly scrap my world I've had going for 15 years, because he didn't care for the story or any of the other players' characters.

Did you make it clear at that point that he was free to leave?

 

[Ourph]

So what should I do? What's the best way to go about solving this problem? Straight kick, no chaser? Group pow-wow? Start a three strike process? I've never had to kick a player before, ever, so I don't know how to go about it.

It sounds like the group has had a lot of experience with John's playstyle, so instituting a "group pow-wow" or a "three strike process" isn't really a solution, it's just another way of postponing the inevitable. John's playstyle doesn't mesh with the rest of the group and it's ruining the game for everyone involved (John included). Simply "talking it out" isn't going to solve the underlying problem.

It seems to me you've got 4 choices...

1 - Keep going with John in the game until everyone gets so miserable that the game implodes.

2 - Cancel the game and stay friends with everyone. Do something other than D&D when you get together.

3 - Tell John you're cancelling the game and continue playing with everyone else in secret. (Note: John will probably find out eventually and be very hurt. You might lose him as a friend.)

4 - Tell John he can't play anymore because his playstyle doesn't fit with the rest of the group and potentially lose him as a friend.

If I were in your position, I would choose #2 or #4. #1 is going to make everyone miserable and you might end up losing more than one friend in the fallout of the implosion. #3 might seem appealing, but it's also a copout and dishonest to boot. My recommendation is to cut one cord or the other and get the problem resolved permanently, then move on with your life.

 

[Herobizkit]

The bottom line, IMO, is that he just wants to be the hero, the one who saves the day, the one who arrives in just the nick of time. There's a word for those kinds of people... and it is the Glory Hound.

Glory Hounds (as people, not as characters) do not play well with other people. They want to be the star of the show all the time. In your Hound's case, he is willing to let all of the other people die/lose just so he can be the last man standing or whatever.

Remind him that the game is a team game, and if he's not interested in being part of a team, he's not welcome to play. On the flip side, you could offer to run him a Solo adventure/campaign and see how that goes.

 

[Gilladian]

One of the hardest things I had to do as DM a couple years ago was remove a player from my group.

Fortunately, it was right as the group was forming for the first time; 4 new players was really too many, and so I simply called the problem player and told him (actually, I told his wife, since he wasn't home) that since he was the final new player in the group, I was not going to be able to invite him back.

She wept and wailed on the phone and begged me not to make her tell him, even though I called 3 times and he'd never come to the phone. I felt sorry for her, but I could NOT let him stay in the group.

Once in a while, you have to be cruel to one person to be kind to everyone else. The rest of the group to this day expresses how glad they were that I booted him out.

 

[Kaladhan]

There's a word for those kinds of people... and it is the Glory Hound.

I totally agree with that. What do the other players think of his behavior? Are they more or less accepting then you are?

I had a similar situation a few years ago, although it was with a new player that I wasn't much accointed with. I spoke with my regular players and we agree that he didn't fit with the team. So I called him and asked him he wasn't invited again. He retaliated by posting false information on a board that I visited.

Oh the memories.

 

[Chimera]

Sounds somewhat similar to a former friend.

He always wanted to play complex, powerful characters with lots of Kewl Powerz, but never put in the effort to know how to use them. At the table, he was an absolute DRAG. Very gregarious and fun to have around, except for the whole GAME part, where when it got to his turn, he hadn't the slightest idea what was going on and would then proceed to very dramatically....take five minutes to carefully research what he was going to do.

THEN, more often than not, the end result of five minutes or more of dramatic sighs, pauses, staring at the board and slowly flipping through his rulebook was to.....move to there and do nothing.

One big battle against a demon and a bunch of lemures, he insisted on leaving his druid flying high (very high) above the battle watching what was going on until we stopped the game cold and told him to get into the battle or pack up and leave. His response was to fly down and land on a wall, and watch from there. Only an "if you don't get in this battle, you can find your own ride home and you never ride with me again" ultimatum got him to enter the battle at the very end, when my character was down to no spells, using a Wand of Magic Missile (1 missile at a time) against an assassin that was busy killing a government minister in front of me. Even then, he balked at actually having his druid wild shape into combat form and get involved, because he might get hit.

He's a former friend for that reason and others.

Look, the hardest thing ever in gaming is to dump bad players who happen to be friends. Because you usually lose them as friends. But seriously, if they act this way in-game, how bad are they out of the game? My advice is to dump the guy from the game, for the sake of you, the other players, and the game.

There is an old expression among paper and pencil gamers: "Paper Soldiers Never Die". Soldiers in simulations act much more suicidal than real soldiers. Enemies attack until they are slaughtered to the last. In the end, it is just a piece of paper. If he is so afraid that something might happen to that character, as the former friend above, then he needs to reconsider WHY THE %$%#$ he is playing the game. Because he's not playing the game. He, like FF above, is only there to socialize.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There's a player in my group with a, well deserved, reputation for being extremely cowardly too. In our last game, a superhero campaign, he played a speedster and would literally run twenty miles away each round, after hitting his opponent. He probably had the best defences in the party, being invisible and able to go intangible as a reaction to being attacked. Though, to be fair, he was highly vulnerable to mental attacks and other weird stuff.

Still, running twenty miles away is pretty dang cowardly. He's always like that. We just put up with it. Though even his most defensive characters are a lot more effective offensively than your problem player, so I guess he's not as bad.