Difficult players.

[pblackcrow]

First off, we are talking a player v/s player v/s GM type of game of pirate, privateer, psionic, and magician. We use Palladium Fantasy rules. We each have miniatures, to scale plans of what our ships look like, and the like. And Miniature ships, thanks in part to Sails of Glory..

Now, that said...my wizard has 5 ships in play...2 modified corsairs, 2 modified briganteens, and 1 modified frigate. But he has far more than that...all told, he has 14 ships. Let's just call him John, the player in question I mean, has 5 HMS Victory's (Manowar gun ships) that he acquired...not threw game play, but by means of a back story. It is rather amusing that GMress Emmaly put him and me in the same clan in hopes I could educate him on the finer points, and rolled for him to encounter me as his first encounter. John had seen us playing at the game store. Figured he would pick the most powerful ship, not just one but 5 to start off.

We were both under the same flag (dragon clan pirate). He didn't understand the game mechanics, he panicked when I suddenly appeared behind his ship floating, in full dragon clan mage regalia, and feathered dragon on my shoulder, and said "Ship ahoy fellow dragon clansmen, might I board your vessel and speak to the captain, cook, and the supply officer?" I wanted to see if he needed anything or had anything to trade. He pulled a musket on me and fired. He rolled 20...so it made it past my armor of ithain. To which I responded by setting his sails ablaze and using my ring of teleportation to return to my ship and send faeries to um, shall we say "Have some fun."

In retrospect he probably didn't expect to be dealing with a then 9th level wizard, muchless one with 5 night elf faeries at his command, or a feathered mini dragon for his familiar whose nest is the crowsnest and she is the lookout. She can see for upto 2 miles, night vision upto 1500 feet...I will ask the GM to do a writeup on the feather dragons class a bit later. But the point is, I saw them before they saw me.

Then I explained why I'm launching the attack and Emmaly asks him again if he wants a do-over? At that point, instead of apologizing and asking for a do-over, he gets pissed at Emmaly and me for not pointing out that we were of the same clan. And we both laughed, and played back the video. He got pissed off even more and says that the video's been tampered with. Emmaly offers him a do-over for the 3rd time. But he just storms off in a huff. Leaving his stuff behind, and he then accuses Emmaly of theft and the store owner told the cops: he has his stuff there for him and exactly what happened. Even shows the them the videos. Then the guy claims he signed no release to be recorded. Sign on the door plus he did signed an agreement for the game to be taped and put on YouTube. However, she didn't upload that it to YouTube. She won't upload an unfinished game. So now he wants to finish the game. And we are like "Hell no". He has been banned from the game store for knocking over 3 gaming tables, and breaking a display case when another game didn't go as he wanted...his family has paid for everything.

But, YEAH...I'm happy to be moving. I want to hear what your difficult players have been.

[kiralon]

Was doing dragon mountain for some friends, some bad guys ambushed the party from some trees and the assassin/thief character wanted to capture and question them but the assassin/mage (brothers funnily enough) thought it was a waste of time because he was pretty sure were they were from a particular bad guy, which they were, but he fireballed them to stop the waste of time of capturing and interrogating them. They all died, and the assassin/thief chucked a wobbly and started to do his signature move which was a teleport backstab, something that he always did to pretty much every bad guy, so the assassin mage teleported and cast disintegrate. The assassin thief actually asked how the mage knew what he was going to do without using player knowledge, but grudgingly agreed when I explained to him just how many bad guys he had used it on.
He then rolled 1 to save vs disintegrate so him and his stuff turned to dust.
The guys then playing the assassin/thief got up and punched the assassin/mage in the face irl and stormed out.
The guy playing the assassin/mage laughed and said something like it was worth it (brothers remember)
Next week they were back and playing as per normal (the puncher had to be voted back into the party though)
The look on both their faces still makes me laugh when I remember.

But I have been offered violence a few times when characters have died (e.g. don't pick a fight with a gorgon, or what a lot of people call a medusa that is a swordmaster and fight it blindfolded or you will most likely die)
Dragon mountain was pretty bad, you had to go up a long tunnel where an age 12 red dragon is waiting for you, a couple of breaths down the tunnel kills pretty much everything.

[Veknironth]

Well, I've never seen physical violence at the table. Maybe something to hope for at the Open House! We've had a few players who were disruptive and they usually were handled in game. We had a guy who was playing a really annoying young wizard. This character kept pestering the older, more established wizard for spell knowledge and such. The player was playing the PC in character, and we did the same. We told the character we were departing for the Western Empire and gave the ship and dock information. We then took a different ship to Timiro.

There was also a guy who didn't seem to understand or care to play within the rules. He had a warlock and he wanted to buy some items from the Alchemist in Old Timiro. He didn't like the prices, which were basically the book prices. So, he decided to go back and rob the alchemist. That...did not go well for him and he chose not to roll up a new character.


-Vek
"If this were in the RIFTS forum, the stories of troublesome players would be legion."

[pblackcrow]

"If this were in the RIFTS forum, the stories of troublesome players would be legion."

That's the truth!

[Hotrod]

The difficult player that stands out the most to me comes from my first-ever adventure at a scout camp with a group of older boys. My elf character, an Elf mercenary, got murdered with poison by another member of the party, a kobold assassin, shortly after the adventure began. When I asked why he did it, the player explained that kobolds hate elves.

This was difficult in a different sense than the temper tantrum discussed above. On one hand, the action was arguably playing in-character. On the other, it ruined the game for someone else. I'm not opposed to player characters fighting against each other in principle, especially if it's over a cause or done in a way that makes the game more interesting. That said, this came across as a bullying move masqueraded as playing in-character. Looking back on it, I'm not 100% sure how I'd handle it if I were the GM.

[Jack Burton]

The difficult player that stands out the most to me comes from my first-ever adventure at a scout camp with a group of older boys. My elf character, an Elf mercenary, got murdered with poison by another member of the party, a kobold assassin, shortly after the adventure began. When I asked why he did it, the player explained that kobolds hate elves.

This was difficult in a different sense than the temper tantrum discussed above. On one hand, the action was arguably playing in-character. On the other, it ruined the game for someone else. I'm not opposed to player characters fighting against each other in principle, especially if it's over a cause or done in a way that makes the game more interesting. That said, this came across as a bullying move masqueraded as playing in-character. Looking back on it, I'm not 100% sure how I'd handle it if I were the GM.

That reminds me of my 7 year old son when we play Little Wizards with his sisters. He's a horrible team player, so when he pulls one of his moves that goes contrary to general decency, something inevitably happens to his character that isn't so fun for him. The last time the kids played, he tried to turn a nice dragon to stone for no reason other than to upset his sisters. For his troubles, he ended up getting his clothes scortched up by the dragon's firey breath, missing out on some treasure the dragon rewarded the girls with, and didn't get to ride on the dragon's back over the countryside. That's just the most recent example I can think of off the top of my head.

He's slowly learning his lesson that it's OK to be independent, make your own decisions, and seperate from the party to do your own thing, but slash and burn role playing for his own amusement at the expense of others won't be tolerated by the RPG gods. It's funny, because he actually gets along well with others in real life. He just loses his mind when he role plays.

Anyone have any suggestions for me to help him play in less of a scortched-earth fashion? Thanks!

[Hotrod]

That reminds me of my 7 year old son when we play Little Wizards with his sisters. He's a horrible team player, so when he pulls one of his moves that goes contrary to general decency, something inevitably happens to his character that isn't so fun for him. The last time the kids played, he tried to turn a nice dragon to stone for no reason other than to upset his sisters. For his troubles, he ended up getting his clothes scortched up by the dragon's firey breath, missing out on some treasure the dragon rewarded the girls with, and didn't get to ride on the dragon's back over the countryside. That's just the most recent example I can think of off the top of my head.

He's slowly learning his lesson that it's OK to be independent, make your own decisions, and seperate from the party to do your own thing, but slash and burn role playing for his own amusement at the expense of others won't be tolerated by the RPG gods. It's funny, because he actually gets along well with others in real life. He just loses his mind when he role plays.

Anyone have any suggestions for me to help him play in less of a scortched-earth fashion? Thanks!

First off, seven years old is pretty young, and boys tend to be pretty squirrely even when they are behaving. My older kids, when they were that way, often played make-believe games in which they, or their representative stuffed animal, pretended to misbehave. I'm no shrink, but I think what your son is doing is normal and pretty healthy.

Second, I think you might try some creative approaches that could both use some of those tendencies creatively and show him that such choices have consequences, even in a pretend world. For example, you might give him a villainous character to play and let him and his sisters go player vs player in a game built for such a purpose. Miniature-based gaming can help with this (orks vs sisters of battle in 40k might be fun for them). In the context of Palladium games, a dragon hatchling character might be a great choice for him.

Finally, this could be a useful opportunity for you as a parent. By showing him the consequences of making bad choices in an RPG, he could learn some valuable lessons about risk assessment and teamwork. If his choices get his character killed, there might be good lessons there.

I hope this helps. Have a great day!

[Jack Burton]

Hahaha... good idea.. Sisters vs. Brother!

[RockJock]

Have you tried setting it up where he has to be a team player to win? Needing three keys to be turned at once to enter the treasure room, or something like that?

[Jack Burton]

Have you tried setting it up where he has to be a team player to win? Needing three keys to be turned at once to enter the treasure room, or something like that?

There's an idea!

[Hotrod]

One trick you might use with cooperation: take a sharpie and a piece of cheap printer paper. Cut the paper into 3-4 pieces of identical dimentions. Write out a key phrase, combination, location, name, et cetera on these cards, but do it in such a way that what you write makes sense when you layer each piece of paper together, line them up, and hold them up to a light source.

I do this with my kids sometimes for their annual Easter Egg hunt. Each of them have to follow their own set of clues, but the final clue requires each to complete their own part of the hunt and cooperate with siblings.