Few days ago I saw results of a poll on one of RPG boards:
Best solution for irritating players
Kill’em – 18%
Send them with a suicide mission – 24%
Lower their stats – 16%
Do nothing – 12%
Send thieves on them – 22%
Give them a reward – 5%
I am not going to discuss the results right now. What I want to say is that none of the solutions presented above can improve the situation. To be honest, I don’t really now what is the purpose of actions listed. I mean non of those is going to improve the situation. However, they may make it worse.
Firstly, what is the reason to punish such ‘irritating’ players (whatever it means). The only one I can think of is making a GM feel better. “He is getting on my nerves. I know, I will kill him!”. Yes… so mature and intelligent… It doesn’t help at all.
What we want to achieve is to make the player change his behavior (a better option) or leave. There is no other way to solve this. There is a RPG rule that I really like:
“Don’t play with people you wouldn’t like to meet on another occasion.”
So, we want the player to stop irritating us. If we “do nothing” - nothing is going to change. Of course there is some chance that the player will mature or something and stops irritating us , but it’s not very likely. “Give them a reward” is even worse. The player may think that his behavior is good and is how he should act while playing. The rest of the options listed involve punishing the player and his character in a very unfair way. There is quite a big chance that the player doesn’t even know something is wrong in the way he plays. Moreover, killing the character etc. may lead to an open war between you (GM) and the player. All sorts of real aggression and nastiness are not what we want to achieve, as they are no fun. And fun is what we are looking for in RPG.
What should we do about such a situation. As mentioned above: we want the player change his behavior (a better option) or leave. I guess a straight talk with the player is a very good idea. Even better if there will be other players around, so they can say what they think about the situation. Then play some games to see if the player has changed. If not, you would probably have to say goodbye to each other. With no harsh feelings. It happens that one style of gaming doesn’t work with another one. Both of you should find players that you will enjoy playing with.
Have you ever experienced a situation of a player irritating the GM. Game master taking revenge on the player? Please share your experience in a comment.
Please forgive me if the post is a bit chaotic in style. I am not feeling very well lately.
I think part of the issue is what is causing the irritation. I know a lot of DM/Gm’s & other players get irritated when the players are playing around with dice. (Of course, rolling a few random dice behind the DM/GM’s screen is a very useful tool for DM/GM’s to get the players back on track
)
If the irritation is due to conflicts with the PC’s personallity, the DM/GM should have considered this at the PC creation (e.g., if the player states that the PC is a kleptomaniac with Tourrette’s syndrom, the DM/GM should state that this is not acceptable at the beginning of the campaign.) OTOH, if the issue is due to the DM/GM not having the proper motivation for the PC (e.g., the CN thief is supposed to help the widow for the “good of his heart”; the paladin is supposed to let the helpless/innocent suffer/die because the adventure/campaign says so) then the DM/GM is the cause for the irritation.
If the problem is with how the people want to play the game, make certain that everyone DM/GM & the other players know what type of game is being played. If you’re into hack-n-slash you’re going to get irritated if someone is a major “role-player”/actor and wants to take an hour doing what you consider non-essential (e.g., shopping, gambling, flirting, conversing with NPC’s). The DM/GM needs to clearly state what type of game is going to be played and limit play that is not accpetable.
With all things, the best way to eliminate or minimize the irration is simple- COMMUNICATION. In most cases, talking with your group or the individuals causing the problem can correct any behavior problems. Players also need to give the DM/GM a break sometimes, especially for new/uncertain DM/GM’s. If their DM/GM can’t come up with a reason why the PC should do X, the Players should see if they can think of some reasons and pass it to the DM/GM (e.g., in the paladin example above - the paladin could get a vision from his diety; the other PC’s could restrain him; the DM/GM could speed up events so that there’s no way for the paladin to save the innocents). Finally, for the conflicting player types, the DM/GM needs to clearly state what type of game/campaign is being played. Try to let all of the players be in the spotlight at least once an adventure if possible.
You and Zelgar each make good points. You’re right, punishing the character will– almost never– help, and will often lead to real life resentment.
Hard as it is, the best solution is to say, “You’re irritating me. Let’s find a way to make us want to spend our fun time together or one of us is going to have to leave.”
But you and 24% of respondents know what you really want to do.
– Send them on a suicide mission
Hey, I’m definitely including this post in my list of great roleplaying articles. Great post, the end.
The funniest thing is what your post URL is. (Don’t change it without 301′ing to the new URL.)
LOL. Thanks.