Tips on weeding out lousy players from your group

[Tetsubo]

I had the unpleasant task once of having to kicked out a *room mate* from my game after one session. She hogged the spotlight. Did the whole Diva thing to the hilt. It was very annoying. Especially after she explained how she was a "team player". That her playing style was very "laid back". Ummm... no, it wasn't.

That was an awkward conversation...

I've also had to choose between two arguing room mates over which would stay in the game and which would have to leave. That was also not fun...

 

[Mystery Man]

Feel free to take a look at the finished product (see attached).

 

[Oryan77]

Furthermore, this offensive player would often brag about how his henchmen were the best fighters in the party

This is just hilarious. I DM rather than play PC's, but I'll have to remember that next time I'm a player. Heck, I could probably do that with the next NPC that travels with the group. What a great line. "I can hire henchmen that are more effective than you are with that sword!"

 

[The Thayan Menace]

This is just hilarious. I DM rather than play PC's, but I'll have to remember that next time I'm a player. Heck, I could probably do that with the next NPC that travels with the group. What a great line. "I can hire henchmen that are more effective than you are with that sword!"

If he had done his bragging in-character, I would totally agree with you ... however, he wasn't roleplaying when he did this; he was just rubbing it in the faces of the other players ... as a player.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

1. Only game with people you would enjoy yourself with in another social setting.
I think Monte Cook says this on his website and I know its been said elsewhere. But it is completely and totally true.

This is the main reason why I never go to conventions, and wouldn't try to get into a game if I ever did. It's not that I think conventions are full of awful people I don't want to know - it's more that I can't enjoy myself during a game if I don't already know and like the people with whom I'm playing.

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.

This one isn't practical for me - I live about forty-five minutes north of Sydney, everyone I play with lives about fifteen minutes west of Sydney in the inner western suburbs. However, this is really an extension of the first.

2. Don't "roleplay" your real-life annoyance with the bad gamer.

Definitely. Dealing with out-of-game problems in an in-game fashion is a serious mistake, whether it's DM-player conflict or player-player conflict.

 

[KenM]

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

I get page can't be shown when I click.

 

[winterwolf]

I have so far had pretty good players in the groups I play in...however, I once had a DM that the group ended up splitting away from because he was a jerk. Our party had spent a while playing when this guy came in. At the time, we were rotating turns as DM (as 3 of us wanted to be DMs) and the new guy came in (at the game store owner's insistance) and DM'd. We got halfway through the first map before the party realized that we really had no idea what we were there for, at which point we asked the DM. He looked at us rather surprised, and told us (with perfect honesty) that, "I just want to kill you all." and was doing his best to do so...with kobolds (something like 150 surrounding us, with +1 magic daggers) that were just peppering us with ranged weapons (most shots missed, but 1 in 20 were crits...). At 5th level, that was very bad for us.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

This is just hilarious. I DM rather than play PC's, but I'll have to remember that next time I'm a player. Heck, I could probably do that with the next NPC that travels with the group. What a great line. "I can hire henchmen that are more effective than you are with that sword!"

I actually did this last game.

It was an odd situation, but the campaign backstory had humans relegated to a slave-race. We were, ostensibly, "freedom fighters" out to change all of that, of course.

I was playing an evil Drow wizard teamed up with the underground for his own ends, which was fun, so I "hired" one of the other PCs for something like 1gp a day to be my personal bodyguard. Which role-played out quite well between the two of us.

And it helped that the other PC was the most twinked out combat demon I've EVER encountered. He could regularly thrash equal-CR monsters in 1-2 rounds. My evil Drow felt quite safe, and I'd lazily point out that MY minion was doing most of the work and the rest of the slackers were riding our coat-tails ... making them ... expendable.

--fje

 

[shadow]

My solution is simply to interview prospective players before letting them in the group. there are too many weirdos out there, and I don't need people coming to my apartment without meeting them first. Generally I set up a meeting at a neutral place (such as lunch at McDonalds) and just talk to them about gaming. Luckily all my players are really cool. I haven't had any problem players yet.

 

[Mark CMG]

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.