I have a Pathfinder group that I run once a week and I am having a bit of moral conflict within myself. The group is very small, four players to be exact and I have a...well...hes not a power gamer, hes more of delusional player. He sees the game as a giant math puzzle. He doesn't role play nearly as much as he crunches numbers and it aggravates me. He also ends up being totally detached from his character to the point of not caring if said character dies. He says and I quote "I have some awesome builds I've been waiting to play!" Now don't get me wrong building a strong Character is necessary to the survival of the PC, however without personal connection, or role play to me it feels too...robotic.
How you roleplay and how he plays will never be the same. Honestly, that's a good thing. If everyone played exactly the same, the game would get very boring. If he's having fun playing in the above manner, let him have his fun.
Even as the moderate RPer that I am, I love building characters, some for power, some for creativity, some for silly. And I go through moods with my characters, and even though I can become attached to them, I often feel like I'd rather be playing something else. And yeah, death is an excuse to do that.
This player also loves to call me out on every little thing, lets say I decide to give a monster 10 more HP because I consider it a little to weak, he'll pull up that monster on his phone and read the stats to me insisting that I am "cheating at the game".
This is a HUGE no-no. I have less of an issue with people looking things up during the game(provided it doesn't bog things down), than I do with calling me out for making changes. I custom-build almost all my NPCs(though I mostly play 4e), but still. I altered the HP, or the power, or the ability, or the class for a REASON. And that reason is generally "it makes the game better".
Preemptively, I often ask for phones to be turned off, or at least set aside during the game unless there is an emergency or a good reason not to...or my players show they're responsible people who can look away as needed.
I do want to mention, I don't mind my players reading the books or even using their phone, but they alone are not the only ones to define a "distraction", if other players find their behavior detrimental to the game, then hopefully those players will speak up, but if not, I will say something. I don't consider anything aside from my explicit plot notes to be "private information", since a player can simply look them up before/after the game.
I respond with "I am the DM, and I'm doing this in order to slightly raise the challenge rating. I have the authority to do so and I fail to see why you have such a problem with it."
This is the ONLY response you need to give. Anything more is unnecessary. If he doesn't like it, he needs to GTFO.
He goes on about numbers and exact rules, and tries to start a fight when I house rule things. For example in pathfinder you have to be level 2 to drop a shield in combat, I personally find this ridiculous and give it at level 1 instead. He argued with me for half and hour about this.
I would have showed him the door right then and there. I tolerate
reasonable discussion and am willing to compromise if there is a sound argument behind the claims, but otherwise, I am DM, if you don't like it, either sit down and be quiet or leave.
I honestly don't see what I'm doing wrong, its not like I am dramatically altering the rules or anything! I have no idea how to handle this. He keeps challenging me and I'm about ready to threaten to kick him out of this group! But the softer side of me feels that there is a better solution than that. So guys...how would you handle this situation? Am I wrong? Is he wrong? Are we both wrong? I am a big advocate of being attached to your character! If you're not attached to your character you might as well just play WOW or something. I find that the table top RPGs help you get far more intimate, and immersed in the fantasy world. I feel like its really a chance to bring a you that might have been to life!
Short of him being my best friend or husband, I would have shown him the door ages ago.
Also: to the bold: I love my WoW characters! I am very attached to them. The fact that they're a little less creative doesn't mean I can't add creativity of my own. Honestly the
lack of creativity in creating them I feel pushes me to come up with more creative concepts for them. "I look just like Other Human 36562, but how am I
different?" I can, and have written just as much material on some of my WoW or SWTOR or NWO characters as I have my D&D characters.
Further: I DO NOT, repeat DO NOT play "myself inserted into a fantasy world". Some people may, but I don't. I am a guy who plays elves and dwarves and women and half-elf/dwarf women who hate men! I hate the idea of playing a fantasy Mary-Sue, it just absolutely disgusts me. If you enjoy it, great, just don't expect that to be everyone's take on it. I create unique characters who are individuals all unto themselves.
