"....so we tossed the jerk out...."

[Wombat]

I am freezing out a player this week. This is the second time I've done this in 30 years.

The first guy was a problem in that my father put pressure on my to allow him in the game. We were both in the same Boy Scout troop and my dad was determined that I should allow anyone into the game who wanted to join. So I got The Dork Fish. I was stuck with him for a year. Finally all of us got together, told him to get lost, and then, as a group, went to my dad and said, "Dork Fish is gone. Don't even think about forcing us to take him back."

This time it's a little different.

On the surface the guy is okay, if a little flakey. He has some odd opinions, but who amongst us doesn't? But he is Mister Passive-Aggressive. "Well, if you guys don't want to play (fill in the blank style) of game, that's fine, but that's going to force me to reschedule my entire world to fit in with it, both in terms of lifestyle and work schedule, but if it's what you want..." (many pouty noises). He also critiques everyone else's characters, showing how they are not "in the spirit of the game", which is quite amazing since his characters always feel the most out of step. He also is involved in an on-line cooperative story writing group with the wife of one of our players and caused a huge ruckus there because everyone was "changing the setting we agreed on" (read: he entered a cooperative group, and then determined that "cooperative" meant "everyone plays in my world by my rules").

The breaking point has come, oddly enough, over how he is raising his child. The kid is a bit over a year old. He refuses to have her vaccinated against anything (apparently this has something to do with his very much mix-and-match religion) and has had to change doctors three times because the doctors have gotten angry with him. At a year the child has not even attempted to walk and doesn't even engage in basic verbalizations. He draws all the blinds at the house, never takes the child outside unless the poor kid is covered head to toe and then placed inside a totally screened-in buggy. He was amazed one time when I went over to his house and the kid actually giggled when I gave her tummy blurps -- apparently he never really interacts with her and was amazed at her reactions...

So we are not only freezing him out of the game but actually calling Child Protective Services on him.

This is scary...

 

[Xombie Master]

Last sunday, a guy showed up and told everyone he was changing his character's sex to male, because he didn't want to play a female anymore. I (the DM) said no, unless he found a spell or item to do that then he would be staying female. He said he would leave if I didn't let him change. I said see you later. Now at this point an adult (he's 30+ years old) would have said, alright let's play. Instead the player decided to call me a few "choice" words, to which I said he should stop whining. That set him off, and he threatened to "find me in a dark alley." That's right, he threatened to beat me up because I wouldn't let him change his character's sex. Now I am in no way averted to a good scrap, sorry to those who find it "immature" and "barbaric" but I'll fight if necessary. You threaten me or my family, and it's go time. I told him I'd knock out the rest of his teeth. Luckily for one of us he was stopped as he tried to come around the table at me.

After he left we had the best session we'd had in ages, and everyone had a blast. I mean it was like the perfect session. There were no rules arguments, no fits about bad die rolls, and no out of game talk that didn't involve the group as a whole. I do regret losing the player as when he's being reasonable he is pretty fun to game with. His friends at the game (I've never considered him a friend, because I can't stand his behavior) are used to seeing him throw fits. Hell he's even pulled a knife on the home owner before, but they keep giving him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[StupidSmurf]

I am freezing out a player this week. This is the second time I've done this in 30 years.

The first guy was a problem in that my father put pressure on my to allow him in the game. We were both in the same Boy Scout troop and my dad was determined that I should allow anyone into the game who wanted to join. So I got The Dork Fish. I was stuck with him for a year. Finally all of us got together, told him to get lost, and then, as a group, went to my dad and said, "Dork Fish is gone. Don't even think about forcing us to take him back."

This time it's a little different.

On the surface the guy is okay, if a little flakey. He has some odd opinions, but who amongst us doesn't? But he is Mister Passive-Aggressive. "Well, if you guys don't want to play (fill in the blank style) of game, that's fine, but that's going to force me to reschedule my entire world to fit in with it, both in terms of lifestyle and work schedule, but if it's what you want..." (many pouty noises). He also critiques everyone else's characters, showing how they are not "in the spirit of the game", which is quite amazing since his characters always feel the most out of step. He also is involved in an on-line cooperative story writing group with the wife of one of our players and caused a huge ruckus there because everyone was "changing the setting we agreed on" (read: he entered a cooperative group, and then determined that "cooperative" meant "everyone plays in my world by my rules").

The breaking point has come, oddly enough, over how he is raising his child. The kid is a bit over a year old. He refuses to have her vaccinated against anything (apparently this has something to do with his very much mix-and-match religion) and has had to change doctors three times because the doctors have gotten angry with him. At a year the child has not even attempted to walk and doesn't even engage in basic verbalizations. He draws all the blinds at the house, never takes the child outside unless the poor kid is covered head to toe and then placed inside a totally screened-in buggy. He was amazed one time when I went over to his house and the kid actually giggled when I gave her tummy blurps -- apparently he never really interacts with her and was amazed at her reactions...

So we are not only freezing him out of the game but actually calling Child Protective Services on him.

This is scary...

Speaking as a devoted parent, I am SO glad you ended with the bit about CPS.

 

[ForceUser]

idiot: "Guess what?"
GM: "what?"
idiot: "apparently my girlfriend was pregnant, and she had a miscarriage this weekend."
me: *stunned*
GM: "really?"
idiot: "yea, we didn't even know she was pregnant. I asked her if I could name the fetus Lumpy."
everyone: *stunned*

Good lord! That's awful.

 

[billd91]

The breaking point has come, oddly enough, over how he is raising his child. The kid is a bit over a year old. He refuses to have her vaccinated against anything (apparently this has something to do with his very much mix-and-match religion) and has had to change doctors three times because the doctors have gotten angry with him. At a year the child has not even attempted to walk and doesn't even engage in basic verbalizations. He draws all the blinds at the house, never takes the child outside unless the poor kid is covered head to toe and then placed inside a totally screened-in buggy. He was amazed one time when I went over to his house and the kid actually giggled when I gave her tummy blurps -- apparently he never really interacts with her and was amazed at her reactions...

So we are not only freezing him out of the game but actually calling Child Protective Services on him.

I hate to derail a thread, but where is this baby's mother?!?

My wife works for an agency that deals with kids with developmental disabilities, and while I'd hate to make an armchair diagnosis, if that baby hasn't attempted to walk and doesn't engage in verbalizations by the age of 1, something is wrong. It might just be bad socialization, but it's not typical. The sooner the baby can get help the better she'll be.

 

[Creeping Death]

whew

I always read these thread to make sure I'm not one of the people that are complained about. Glad I haven't made the thread yet.


In high school, there was always someone in one of my groups that thought the gods waited on mortals hand and foot. Every time he leveled, he would declare that he wanted to take a test to become a god.

Test? What? There's a written part too?

Anyways, campaigns never lasted past second level with him.

I've only met one or two people that had bad hygiene. I mean real bad. A skunk smelled pleasant compared to them. We all stopped playing right away and said good-by. It's people like that that keep me away from conventions.

Since this is a thread for venting here goes:

"Holy cow, what are you thinking? Where are you living? Jeez.... People! It's called soap, it doesn't hurt. Shower/bath, it can be your friend. Here's a toothbrush they say once you've used it a while, your gums toughen up and it doesn't hurt. I can understand if you have a medical condition that makes your breath stink, but I do not know of a medical condition where fuzz grows on your teeth!"

It's been over 10 years, and I still remember the smell.

I've put this in another thread a long time ago but... I was running a serious Dark Sun campaign using 2e. There were 5 players. Four of them were serious about it too. The fifth one, playing a Mul Gladiator, thought it would be funny to name his character Grizzly Rectumshaft. He always introduced himself like James Bond. That campaign didn't last long. We were in our early 20's. I expect a name like that in middle school not in college.

Anyways, thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I kicked out one player, he was always questioning rules, and had a creepy demenor that irritated the woman in the group as well as my wife (non-gaming) there was never anything specific he just had wierd vibes. Finally one of the other players said he didn't want to game with the first guy anymore and was just going to leave the group. After a moment or two of thought I called the others and we agreed to kick the creepy guy out instead.

Just recently my group asked 3 players to leave. With seven players it was a little hard to run, and one of the players didn't like newbie gamers or tactical mistakes. Even when it was his wife making them. I thought he was alright other than that, I asked if anyone wanted to drop out voulentarily (no one did) and 3 of the others decided that they didn't want to play with the critical player, or with their teenaged brother who was in the game.

Since then we set up a blinding voting system for resolving issues such as adding or dropping new players and out of game issues. The concept of a group that was not run wholely by whoever was DMing was entirely new to me.
The DM sometimes asked for options, but made the final call. Now the group is a democracy.

 

[jdrakeh]

Click & Go Mad!

[Note: Blame Al Bruno. He wrote it ]

 

[Ranes]

I once had a player who was allergic to bathing and I mean once. He never got asked back. Then there was a guy who rubbed everyone up the wrong way but little by little, so he lasted a while longer. However, when I came home from work one evening to find that he was already there (having been invited in by my girlfriend, to whom he had then been rude), that was it. I told him to go and not come back. I'm only 5'6" (in the morning) and this guy was well over 6' but I'm told I have the eyes of a psycho. They've certainly served me very well in confrontations.

Otherwise, considering the other tales of woe in this thread, I've been lucky.

 

[KenM]

I once had a player who was allergic to bathing and I mean once.

How did he know he was allergic if he did not even try it once.