Tips on weeding out lousy players from your group

Sifting Through Potential Players

shadow said:
My solution is simply to interview prospective players before letting them in the group.
Prior to accepting a new member, we extensively query via e-mail, converse on the phone, and hold an interview in a neutral location. We also reserve the right to dump the prospect at any point in this process.

Furthermore, after our last fiasco (see thread response #7), we are now emphasizing that the first few gaming sessions with us are probationary.

[A word to the wise ... some people sound great during the interview process, but you never know their potential to wreck your campaign until they actually play at your table.]
 

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Mark CMG said:
Although I thought it was extreme, I know a guy who was avidly against drugs and bought a retired drug-sniffing dog that he would use to help him check out anyone he would hang out with, gamer or otherwise. He wouldn't sell them out (as he put it) but he had no interest in hanging out with anyone who did illegal drugs because he worked in a sensitive field that he felt could be compromised. It was a beagal, I think.

He worked in a beagal??!!

Sorry... couldn't resist :D
 


Ulrick said:
2. If possible, host the game in your own home. Then you can ask yourself this question, "Would I invite this person into my home?" Also, if a bad gamer acts up, you can rightfully kick them out.
Heres a nice survey:

1; You enter a 10ft by 10ft by 10ft room, are you:
A) The Orc
B) The Treasure Chest
C) Hiding in the shadows to kill intruders
D) Hiding in the Shadows to steal all the treasure quietly to share
E) Hiding in the Shadows to steal all the treasure quietly to keep for yourself
F) Whispering amongst party members and tricking the Orc into giving you the treasure, as you are the new Treasurers for the BBEG.

2; Over the last two weeks you have been beset by a Troll Sorcerer/Barbarian (it rages, attacks and disappears). What do you do?:
A) Carry a bag of flour
B) Buy Goggles of Seeing
C) Declare all Trolls to be spies and murder any on site, Good or Evil!
D) Fireball the entire area, including party, within its permisable area, even if you dont know what it cast
E) If applicable, have a contingency that goes off when a troll appears to cast Power Word: Kill. Or spell to such effect.
F) We're all still alive right? One day he will suffer, his methods are annoying, and Im sure he's an underling anyway, we will meet him with his boss.

3; You happen across a pride of lions, you are level 5, travelling to a oasis and on to a city. The pride has caught 3 springboks and are eating, you are upwind and not seen. You...:
A) Plan the best form of attack, those evil Lions are attacking poor innocent and defensless springboks
B) Watch as they eat, admiring the pack order and how they eat. For natures beauty is not just the happy side.
C) Track clouds, and move on. You may be able to take them on if they hunt you down but for now they are simply keeping a balance in nature.
D) Dominate one and have it wander off, so the whining barbarian can have a pelt but not threaten you all running in. Preferably an old one.
E) Wildshape into a lion, waltz into the pride and have your way. Opposition will not be able to compete, you have spells after all.
F) Lions? what are these strange new creatures I have never seen ever before?

4; You notice a ring is magical, but it looks plain. None of your companions have noticed. What do you do?
A) Keep it till you can have it identified, use it or sell it for yourself.
B) Show the party what "Cool new toy" you found.
C) Keep it from the party, then sell it later, indulging your friends to their share in fineries and epicurial delight.
D) Donate it to a church that needs it, or could sell it for orphans, not telling the party at all.
E) Keep it for later when you reveal it as something you bought for an emergancy just like this one! Use the money its worth on beer and hookers.
F) Destroy it. It was obviously owned by an evil evil person to have you get it, therefore it must be destroyed!
G) Point it out for the Warforged with no gender/immunity to X/etc to pick it up and carry it.

5; A king has been kidnapped/captured/poisoned/or otherwise indisposed. You...:
A) Assume the position of King, my plan coming to full fruition!
B) Track down the culprits/cure to save the kingdom.
C) Leave the nation, things are going to get messy and theres not much you can or want to do to help either side.
D) I belive in a democracy, This is a chance for the king to die a matyr for his deathwish to be enacted to make the nation a strong democracy. Even if you have to forge a will.
E) I have finished my last god forsaken quest for this man, I will not endevour to save his life so he can send me off to usurp some other kingdom in revenge! Damn his tough hide for even still being savable, he shouldn't have sent you after every villain to his nation every time it came up. OH SURE! You were dependable, and had friends in the church of Fultys which raised you a few times. But something about the endless tyrade of missions versus just settling down back home seems to make you sway to settle down.
F) Wait, someone kidnapped/captured/poisoned/or otherwise indisposed me?

6; No one else saw it, but a star fell last night into a remote forest. Thinking nothing of it you went to bed and had a horrible nightmare. It seemed to be fortuitous, you awake the next morning to...:
A) Bed in breakfast like you ordered. The girl serving you also asks if you need a sponge bath.
B) Order a party of under-experienced adventurers to investigate.
C) Are ordered to investigate odd occurancies in a remote forest.
D) Ride out alone to take the stone of power.
E) Gather your old comrades from your assault the evil temple from last year to investigate the meteorite.
F) Generate a myth of great proportions about an old stone. Eons down the road of time a party of adventurers will take care of whatever happens.
G) Play something other than Dungeon Crawl Classic #10. You've played this before and would like something Different.

This ones annoying to read, and annoying to code/write
7; Favourite colour?
[sblock]
A) Green
B) Blue
C) Red
D) Crimson! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! Now where did I put my Defiler
E) Black, but its really a shade
F) White, but thats also really a shade
G) Pink
H) You forgot to list...
[/sblock]

8; If I could be any animal I would be...:
A) Lion, like I said before. Wildshape!
B) Bird (Crow, Eagle, Sparrow, whatever)
C) A Pony!
D) A seahorse
E) A bear
F) Marsupial
G) Dolphin
H) Shark
I) Other, the ___________! (Ocelot)

9; If I had to give up all but one thing in my life it would be:
A) My computer
B) My friends
C) My health
D) My job
E) A 1956 elderado convertable, with big baby fur seal eyes for head lights.

10; The most time wasting thing I did this year was:
A) Make a survey for new players to determine their play style.
B) Read a survey for new players to determine their play style.
C) Answer a survey for new players to determine their play style.
D) Add on to a survey for new players to determine their play style.
E) Actually liked question 7.
 

Tinner said:
Step One: Read this and realize that you don't have to be friends with everyone.

Step Two: Kick them to the curb.

It really can be that easy. Be honest with people. You can be polite and still be honest.
Something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I don't think this game is working out with this group. Let's cancel it right here, and I'll contact you another time, and we'll see if we can make a better fit."

It's truthful without being hurtful.

Step One: The link is broken.

Step Two: Definitely. Preserving everyone's enjoyment including and especially your own does not make you the bad guy.

DM
 

I had a guy cheat during my game. Since then we've been on hiatus- when we reconvene he won't be informed. It's that simple.
Edit: FYI, he's one of those guys that somehow has the disposable income to buy EVERY product wotc has ever made (plus a few that he probably bought in the future and brought back via time machine) and insists on trying to use rules, spells, classes, weapons, etc. from books the DM doesn't have specifically so he can try to cheat without the DM finding out. He is a rules lawyer as well (the bad kind) and also does his best to outshine other players by being the ugliest sort of twink, munchkin and powergamer. He even makes bold attempts at cheating. I told him he had X gp to spend on equipment as a 2nd level PC. He returned a list of what he bought (too late for me to go over it before the session) and the stuff he supposedly bought was worth more than double what I gave him and he topped it off by saying that his pc should have a merciful greatbow because it was in his backstory! The same backstory (which was chock full of statements saying how his PC is ALL about good and lawfulness and justice) that he apparently forgot the very first time the PCs got rewarded, since he tried to rip them off.

----

Back when my friend was DMing we had this bozo (an acquaintance of the DM's younger brother) who would bother other people's stuff (he broke the DM's range ruler by bending it), was an idiot (the next session he picked up the other range ruler and started bending it), would pass gas constantly and laugh about it (he was a senior in high school!) and was a close/slow talker. The only thing worse than someone who invades your space while talking to you is someone who also speaks very very slowly at the same time.
The only thing worse than that is that he OVER emphasized every word like he was about to tell you the location of Hoffa's body and it was IMPERATIVE that you hang on his every syllable. On top of that every damn thing he said was boring.
I threatened to shove the yardstick he was prodding my minis with up his wow-hole if he didn't cease and desist. Not long after that the DM quit informing him of our get togethers.
 
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The Thayan Menace said:
Charming .... I definitely would have fragged you. ;)

All of the other characters definately wanted to. :)

'Course I didn't go around tossing fireballs on top of the other party members or anything.

Everybody at the table seemed to love it. I wouldn't suggest it for every campaign, though, or every group of people.

--fje
 

For the last few years, I've only gamed with people whom I'm also friends with outside of the game. I haven't had any major problems in that time period.

This hasn't always been the case, though. In the past I have gamed with people I didn't know very well, and this has sometimes resulted in problems.
 

I would recommend gaming with people in another context it possible. Interviews don't always reveal what you want to know but seeing how people actually play their characters tells you a lot about their playstyle and what it's like to, well, play D&D with them. In this context, RPGA living games and con games can be very helpful. I was invited to join my current home group after meeting two members during one of the RPGA's Living Greyhawk cons.

If you don't want to do it that way, you could always make your interview a one-shot game at a game store or other neutral location. It would probably take longer but it might be a better way of seeing how people play.
 

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