What do you do with difficult players?

[HellHound]

I mix Deal With It and Avoid It.

I split up my campaigns and invite different players to different campaigns.

 

[Emirikol]

Kz,

I just kick people out of the group. I have a brief set of house rules that I let all potential and new players know. Our group doesn't put up, nor do we care about your attitude. We tell potential players that we only invite peopel that we could also hang out with outside the game (even if we don't).

You show attitude EVEN ONE TIME and you're out. Players are dime a dozen and you will be replaced by people who aren't jerks. Thankfully, we've only had a couple dorks come through the doors. The "typical autistic gamer" is quickly dis-invited with a simple email saying, "The group has decided that we're going to pursue other players. Thanks for gaming and good luck with whatever group you join in the future."

This has gotten a lot easier as we've all aged too. Something about people who know who they are and can show some reservations of attitude in the face of adversity or frustration goes a long ways towards having a happier group in general.

jh

 

[Hussar]

I'm not quite as draconian as Jh above, but, I'm a big believer that life is too short for bad gaming. Because I do game with strangers by and large, it's really opened my eyes to the incredibly, and sadly, large number of mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, social troglydytes that infest our hobby.

The joys of gaming online with faceless entities. Sigh.

When I first started gaming over OpenRPG, I tried treating everyone like they were my friend and work out issues. Not any more. I'm very, very up front about what I expect from the players and what they can expect from me as a DM. The idea of Group Templates and social contracts has really made an impact on my DMing style.

Now, it's gotten to the point where I have no real compunction about ejecting someone from the group. If it gets to that point, I'm probably so annoyed anyway that punting him/her is better for everyone.

So, it's try to sort things out first and then part ways if you cannot.

 

[Ourph]

Not all of the people I game with are my close friends, but they're at least well behaved enough that their presence is an asset to the game rather than a distraction. If someone is making my time spent gaming un-fun, one of us is going to leave the group.

 

[S'mon]

These days, if I see a problem I aim to nip it in the bud. I have done the 'avoid it' thing before, usually with female players. I had one charismatic but disruptive player who identified each of the other players in turn as a problem player, and effectively tore the group apart. Somehow when it fell apart she remained on good terms with people she'd been telling me to boot from the group, while I was vilified! I don't plan to get into that situation again.