Problem Player

[Set]

Problem; Lone Wolf wants to break off from the group to go explore, leaving the other players bored and eventually drifting off to watch TV or play on their computers.

DM solution; <roll d20 behind screen a couple of times, hand Lone Wolf's player a note saying that he found X, but Y was too heavily patrolled and he had to turn back, he's back with the party now and can share information if he wants.>

Works for social situations, too. "Lone Wolf goes to chat up the merchant's daughter." <roll social roll> "Fine, he gets laid. He's out of this session. What's everyone else doing?"

Dice may be the role-players anathema, but they make great potty-training tools for players who would otherwise hog the entire game. Once he gives up on going off on his own, re-introduce occasional opportunities for him to get the spotlight, but at *your* discretion, not his. Your role is to control the pacing of the story, and that does mean sometimes having to reign in the drama queens. (Unless everyone at the table is thoroughly enjoying that! In which case, party on! The only way you can 'do it wrong' is if the people at the table, including yourself, aren't having fun!)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

If none of the other sugestions works for you, try 'doing unto others... first'! After the Lone Wolf (but I really like the 'you be the Cub' idea) gets back from their latest solo excursion, go on one yourself. And do it after every one of the other player's. If the GM asks you to stop, or tries to use the game conventions to penalize you, point to the other person. "They did it first, and you never asked them to stop/penalized them!"

 

[TerraDave]

My general solutions to this:

-use online posting to handle long solo efforts
-alternate through the PCs when seperated (so everyone gets a turn)
-subtly discourage (or sometimes just ignore) a single PCs effort to go off on a real tangent. Best when players take the lead on this.

Of course I'm the DM. But from my last point...we kind of like when players "police themselves". I don't really know the social dynamic of your group, so that may be a problem here.

 

[Festivus]

If none of the other sugestions works for you, try 'doing unto others... first'! After the Lone Wolf (but I really like the 'you be the Cub' idea) gets back from their latest solo excursion, go on one yourself. And do it after every one of the other player's. If the GM asks you to stop, or tries to use the game conventions to penalize you, point to the other person. "They did it first, and you never asked them to stop/penalized them!"

I'd only do this after bringing up your concerns about the spotlight with the DM. Perhaps offer up some of the off-camera suggestions here. Otherwise, due to the whole sleeping thing, you might open a can of worms and you won't win... particularly going in with an argumentitive opening line as suggested above. A better way to put it "I'd just like to have my opportunity to be in the spotlight."

 

[roguerouge]

Have you tried seducing your GM?




But seriously.... One of my GMs would do solo stuff in another room. While that was happening, it was on us players to plot and plan and argue out our priorities so that we could get right back into it. And some sessions were designated solo sessions, where you'd go off for 20 minutes once during the night with the GM and the others would hash things out. If you're into roleplaying and the GM's in the other room, that's a good time for non-plot advancing RPing. This is where the "we're buddies" part gets built.

Good times.

 

[S'mon]

As long as the star is sleeping with the GM, I can't see this changing. I'd suggest accepting that you are playing a supporting character to the star, the best you can hope for is to be part of his/her story. Or get a different GM.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Ah, I've never played Werewolf. I quite like the idea of "the pack" that's been created there. Maybe your character should encourage the rest of the pack to shun the star. A little "in game" control placed on them. Or would that just encourage more solo time?

 

[sniffles]

Oops, double post.

 

[sniffles]

Let's be honest here: if the spotlight-hog is the DM's SO, discussing it with the DM isn't likely to be fruitful. The DM probably doesn't want to risk being made to sleep on the couch just to keep you happy.

I'd recommend finding a way to reward the player for staying with the group. This is more likely to be successful than punishing the player for going solo, or complaining about the player's behavior to the DM.

 

[moritheil]

Every ST in WoD has had to deal with this; I don't believe that I've seen a single WoD campaign without at least one person trying to be the star.

I'd chalk it up to an effect of the setting (it draws in those players.)

If you have the ST's ear, maybe suggest that group time is group time and solo stuff can be noted in a char journal.