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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DarrenGMiller" data-source="post: 2034410" data-attributes="member: 23174">@ Nightcloak - Thanks!  I appreciate your candor and advice.  Just a few weeks ago, I was helping somebody else with a similar problem, but as sometimes happens, I have now run up against a problem that is getting the best of me, and thanks to ENWORLD, others are helping me as I have helped in the past.  I think its great.  Okay, I have boiled down your advice and will respond with more specifics in an effort to get more to the crux of the problem if possible. After two sessions of utter silliness and distraction (during the second of which I made the arrow mistake), I privately polled my players by email (the means we normally use to communicate) about their enjoyment of the campaign, my GM style, the style of the campaign, etc.  The players involved in the undesirable behavior all agreed that they had gone way overboard and that they didn't want me to change a thing about the game.  Actually, I had recently run a series of campaigns that were darker and more role-playing heavy in tone and style.  This series of campaigns went about two years, when I discovered that I was unconsciously trying to gear my style toward the most vocal player at the table.  After serious discussion and reorganization of my group, we changed back to a more "classic 1E feel" and style.  The other players were VERY relieved to lighten up the tone a bit and I was liberated that I was going to get to play the game as it was when we started playing (and everyone agreed).  The player who was taking things too seriously had trouble with the change of style.  To make a long story short (and avoid awkward details), he is no longer at our table.  However, now the silliness factor is destroying the classic feel and it is drifting to a level of parody that would teach Hackmaster a thing or two about game parody. Anyway, after the surveys, we played another session last week.  We got more done, but the silliness and distraction still climbed.  Anything said at the table by anyone is becoming fair game for ridicule and heckling (see the thread on metaspeak and the thread on funny nicknames for NPC's).  One of our players came back last week after work conflicts left him out for a few weeks and he was frustrated that he couldn't get a straight answer to any questions about the game from anyone but me.  Also, another player was absent due to his wife being sick and he is one of the stronger voices of maturity at the table. It actually seems that the split is along age lines.  Two of our four younger players (19-21) are part of the problem and one of the remaining two would leave if I split those two out of the group.  The other two players are older (30's), as am I.  The only change I see out of game is that one of the players involved is now running a game one or two days a week (12 hour sessions) that is going on a pretty high level of silliness, though he is frustrated at players who don't take his game seriously. I am really not bitter or angry at any of the players, as I know it is not overtly an intentional effort to destroy the game.  I just want to save this particular campaign since it is the style and setting I have wanted to DM for a few years, but didn't since I didn't want to disappoint the player that was heavy into serious role-playing. Any help is appreciated.  I think dissecting these sorts of issues here helps all DM's. DM</blockquote>

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