Discussion:What should I do about troublesome players?

Pain in the Ass Players

ShadowyFigure 12:48, 10 April 2008 (MDT)

Ok I just wanted an opinion on something, if a player is constantly complaining for no reason saying your unfair when other players agree with you and generally just being a pain in the A$$ player what methods of control can I use to prevent him doing this or at least keep the game running while he has his tantrum?

Eiji 22:35, 10 April 2008 (MDT)

Background needed.

Are you the DM? Is this in or out of character complaining? How do the other players feel about this person? And have you spoke to them before?

In any case you'll want to do whatever is most fun for everyone, him included, but it seems like you might have to patch out some things out of the game first.

ShadowyFigure 00:30, 11 April 2008 (MDT)

Ok I DM a short hour long session on Mondays and a longer 2-3 hour session on Fridays, at these sessions we are playing a Forgotten Realms campaign I ave put together. At these sessions the player in question plays a halfling who is forgetful and a pyrotechnic, now these are both flaws located on D&D wiki and I said flaws could be taken on one condition, they are role played. He doesn't and I don't feel able to approach him about this because any rule decisions I make seem to alway apparently penilise him, for example because he is small sized I wouldn't let him hide in an allies square which is by the rules yet he argued about this losing us 10 minutes of game time and he does this kin of thing 3-4 times a session thats up to half n hour of playing lost. On top of the that he contradicts me when it comes to our new player saying some of my rule decisions would never be made in some else's game by a different DM, for example I asked the new kid to roll his own dice no matter what luck he is currently having.

Me and him are ctually meant to be really good freinds and as we take it in turns DMing and when he did the sessions seemed completely unplanned and I ended up pointing out a few things he could to make the session better or a house rule I felt was a bit unfair (Such as the one were a drow couldn't use the sword from a huge monstrous spider and yes it was spider rider)he seems to be trying to ruing the game for the rest of the players.

85.158.139.99 09:19, 30 July 2008 (MDT)

it depends how you put your suggestions across. maybe he is trying to help the same as you were. in which case, have a word out of game, mention that it makes you feel uncomfortable and you feel it holds up the game, you're happy for criticism and advice but not mid session.

i have a similar problem with one of my players who is a bit of a know-it-all when it comes to the rules. i'll give him about 5 minutes of arguing a session then tell him "it's a homebrew world mate, the rules work the way i say they work."

either that or you can kill his character. then kill the next one he rolls up. then kills that character. when he complains point out that he knew you were an unfair DM already. (note: this is bad advice!)

66.188.248.199 18:54, 11 May 2009 (MDT)

No one ever seems to have good luck when sharing, splitting, or trading dm responsibilities. even when playing a pre-made published adventure, no two dms will adjudicate the same way. dual dm is bad juju. your trouble-maker needs to deal with the fact that you are the dm and what you say goes, although that's not to say that you shouldn't be open to advice or correction. it sounds like you need to have words outside the game (and by words i mean an open, honest, straight-forward conversation) to work things out. and that may mean both of you making compromises. you might also try taking rights away from him, like you'll be rolling his dice or a curse or disease takes his character out of play for awhile. if its just about his refusal to roll play quirks that he himself chose, then maybe killing his character will solve it (though drastic, i know). make him continue making characters until he gets one that he wants to roll play. Or you could let him have his way all the time and hope his reckless abandon prompts policing from the other players. I would be curious to know how your other players feel about the whole thing.

Jadebrain 6:15, 23 May 2009 (EST)

I remember the first time I tried roleplaying. It was actually Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but oh well. There was this one player that no one liked (he was a jerk to everyone). So The DM had an idea... Every time a player made the DM angry (or, less often, one of the gods of the game, which this player also did), he would put a letter on the player's character sheet representing that either he or one of the gods was angry. Needless to say, there were more D's on the player's sheet than I could care to count (there was also one M, for the God of Death whose name I can't remember). And throughout the course of the game, the DM would make random misfortunes happen to the player's character, such as random lightning bolts and getting singled out for having a halberd-wielding guard repeatedly attack the character in the, uh, man parts. And every time one of these misfortunes would happen, a letter would be taken off. The campaign ended before even half the letters were taken off.

TK-Squared 06:15, 23 May 2009 (MDT)

Malal or Mork?

Jadebrain 11:10, 31 May 2009 (EST)

I think it was Mork.

Sam Kay 14:51, 31 May 2009 (MDT)

The orc god commonly described as "Kunnin' but figh'y"?

173.89.25.106 16:46, 2 June 2009 (MDT)

A few key problems you are presenting.

1. Limited play time - One hour sessions are not nearly long enough to resolve much.

2. A player who doesn't know the rules - If they don't know what Hide does, why are they trying to use the skill?

3. Disrespect for the game - Kinda 1&2 combined, with the abuse of the flaws and the unproductive questioning of your rulings

The best thing you could do would be to drop the 1 hour sessions.

I think you can resolve your issues with the one player by having a conversation when the two of you are away from the game table. Let him know that he needs to play up his flaws. If he refuses, make the in-game meta-reality kick in. The next time he levels, his guild will refuse to train him. "You're not the same Bailey "Forgetful Flame" Underhill the guild sponsored at 1st level. We think you are an impostor."

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