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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ramien Meltides" data-source="post: 2844628" data-attributes="member: 1475">So I've got this player in my group - there are 5 players in total, with myself as the DM - and we're having some communication issues. Things have recently gotten so bad that I'm giving serious thought to cutting this player loose to save myself the aggravation.Here's the setup: Player 1 is my good friend and roommate. Player 2 is also a good friend. Player 3 is a great guy and becoming a good friend. Player 4 is an acquaintance that I play other games with and have known for a good while - seems like a decent fellow (helped me move recently).Player 5 is not a friend, just an acquaintance (i.e., we don't really hang out or see each other outside of the gaming table). Player 5 also has his own game going right now to which he has invited myself and Player 1. Player 5 is also the one with whom the problems are occurring.Issue #1: ParticipationI like to reward participation and extra effort from my players. One method we use to do this is a round-table of each character's achievements during the game after the session. There's a reasonable time limit (we try not to spend more than thirty minutes on this), and I consider it to be a very cool way to end the game on a high note. Player 1 is VERY into this method, and Players 3 and 4 never seem to mind taking part - after all, everyone gets bonus xp's this way - Player 2 is only "kinda" into it. Player 5 refuses - soon as the game is over, he's gone. Poof! His reasoning makes sense, he just prefers not to participate and the activity is not mandatory.The group also does a bit of blue-booking in between sessions. For those who may not know the term, blue-booking describes activities performed by characters when not at the table (generally through e-mail). I also award bonus xp for this activity. The group all participates in blue-booking to various degrees. Player 5 chooses not to, on the basis outlined above.Recently, I attempted to engage Player 5 more fully in the game by introducing a subplot involving his family - his PC's mother wasn't dead after all, but had been instead incorporated into some horrible brain-computer research! Player 5's PC is a scientist, so this seemed like an interesting path he could explore. Player 5 said he would rather not roleplay along this line and would prefer it if his PC's mother was not involved. I changed the circumstances per his request.Issue #2: CommunicationI just seem to have a hard time getting across to this guy, and I feel like I have spent significant effort in the attempt. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />First example: One player couldn't make it to the regularly scheduled session, so I asked the group if we could shift things one day to accomodate the player. I was simply checking to see what (if anything) could be done. Player 5 assumes that the regularly scheduled game day is cancelled and schedules a different game on that day. Players being players, we managed to get everyone together for the regularly scheduled day...except Player 5. From that point on, I made it a point to type in all caps WE ARE NOT CANCELLING if we needed to talk about rescheduling.Second example: So Player 5 can't make it to the session. There's quite a bit of science-y stuff happening, so I asked him if he would like to get some advanced info on what the group would be encountering so that he could respond to it in-character and I could relay that to the players on the game day. He agreed.I diligently worked up a file in science-speak for him to look at and eagerly awaited his response so I could prepare it to give to the players that weekend. I waited...and waited. And waited.A few days before the session, I e-mailed him asking for whatever he had at that point. His response: Sorry, can't possibly get around to that until after the weekend.To say that I was dissapointed was an understatement. I understand being busy, but we're talking about several days here - plenty of time to let me know further in advance. I wrote him back saying it was a real shame that the opportunity was wasted, and I received a lecture in reply saying how I shouldn't expect people to do any work outside of the gaming table.....so that's the situation. Right now I'm disinclined to put any extra effort into the game for his character. Looking at the above issues, any of them taken on it's own is pretty minor. All together, I just feel tired. I don't want to make this guy uncomfortable (he's actually pretty decent in person), but I think the game might be better off without him - or at least, I would feel better about how I spend my time in relation to the game without him around.What do you folks think?</blockquote>

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