Some Genuine Advice for a struggling group


Gamer Life General Discussion


So my group has gotten together a few times to play a campaign that my DM is just absolutely in love with.

But there are some major problems - first off, almost all of our characters are diplomats (high charisma, low combat ability)

All of our character hate one another pretty deeply, our DM wouldn't let us discuss our characters before hand so we made really conflicting personalities.

(fair example of this: we have a gnome amongst us that hates uncommon races [basically anything not the core book], the rest of us are all uncommon races.....)

I can appreciate a good conflict amongst a group but our personalities are so adverse it's hard to even work together.

He won't let us remake the characters either to try and find a better balance. (which is understandable but frustrating)

The singular worst part about it however is that the campaign is completely boring. The only one having any fun whatsoever is the DM himself.

Our group whispers to me about how much they hate it but then no one is willing to back me up when I try to bring it up. (I'm our groups other DM so they usually use me to balance him and Vice-verse)

What have you guys done in similar situations that might help me figure out how to deal with this issue.


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I suggest talking out your problems with your GM and fellow players.


Personally if the GM isn't listening I would try and get everyone to quit... or I would just quit. if the game is no longer fun, there is literally no reason to play. You are simply wasting your time and, often times, everyone else's time because your disinterest will eventually bleed into the game.


Remember that personality traits are starting qualities. Characters can and should change and grow over time, and develop new perspectives. The gnome, for example, has an opportunity to realize his prejudice is unwarranted, having now met, adventured with, and perhaps even been saved once or twice by -- "non-core" races (I'm also trying to imagine how the character pulls that off without metagaming, but that's another issue.) Such an epiphany expressed in game, after a harrowing battle, is juicy roleplay.

Characters whose attitudes are the same at the end of a story as they are at the beginning make for boring stories, to say the least.

Silver Crusade

Next time you start a campaign, start with a special session for creating characters. That's GMing 101. The kind of stuff you describe is pretty common when people make characters without discussing it with each other.

Discuss characters in advance and you are all much more likely to get along well, and the entire campaign is much more likely to work out well for everyone. Especially the GM.

Discuss it with your GM and with the other players. If the GM won't be flexible then leave, because that means it's not going to work out well.

Liberty's Edge

KillerGlitch wrote:
our DM wouldn't let us discuss our characters before hand

That is SO opposite of what I did for my game. I made it a requirement that all of the characters needed to know each other and be friendly.

While conflicts work fine in PC PRG games or in fantasy novels, all to often the same type of conflict leads to combative players. I have heard way too many stories about groups breaking up due to this.

But here is the other thing. Why is it players feel the need to have their characters have such extreme personalities? To the OP, you essentially described your gnome as a racist? Why?

It is a game. Try this one one: when creating and playing your character, have the focus be getting along with the other players.

Sovereign Court

If its not fun you should say so. If it becomes too much of an issue and nobody backs you up then you should excuse yourself. Its only going to get worse for everyone.

I will admit oddly I stepped down GMing and turned the reins over in one of my groups. Despite having a chargen session none of the characters want to trust one another. Its really odd to me this has not happened before with this group. Though one of the players has been in trend lately where every character he makes is based on Don Logan though he doesn't realize it so its been causing issue. We called him out on it and I made him watch sexy beast. He's been much better at the table lately.


From your original post, I'm not seeing ANY reason you should stay in that game unless you're being forced to play at gunpoint.

Walk out. Tell the other GM & players WHY you're walking out. If none of them follow, their loss.


If you've all played together before and are friends, I would ask the GM why he wanted characters created in isolation. Maybe there's a story reason that he could explain, at least a little, to give the players some better context and understanding. To get a coherent group from the start, you really need to discuss character generation together.

I second the motion of having the characters learning from each other and changing and growing in their viewpoints. Role play that out and form a cohesive group that can go forward.


WendyWitch wrote:
I second the motion of having the characters learning from each other and changing and growing in their viewpoints. Role play that out and form a cohesive group that can go forward.

Plan B: Have everyone die in horrible, pointless PVP. At least it'll be over.

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