how do people deal with players that...


Advice


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

constantly make characters that have no intention or reason to join the party or even when they begrudgingly do, do not push the story forward.

I seriously just had PCs(2/6) flee from combat at the start for no reason. when I asked what their intentions were, they basically said to go do character related stuff. I told them if they effectively leave the party(no intention of rejoining) their characters effectively leave the campaign and would become NPCs.

at this they continued retreating, and after their characters left the map, they left the voip call without explaining themselves. Still haven't gotten an answer from them, but i seriously don't know what they expected. Their characters didn't participate in combat except for a few times and definitely never actively tried to defeat their enemy for every round of combat.

they don't make characters like this constantly, but they definitely do a lot. characters with no general motivation to save some town, or even help other people in the party, or even sometimes when reward or punishment is directly cited.

I do allow and do support player character personal goals, but i won't and it doesn't make sense that they could have conceived that the player goals would be more important than the main goal of the party at hand, i definitely would not GM for 2 simultaneous parties either.

what would other have done?

if you want any more specifics I can answer them, for instance this went down at thistletop in RotRLs as they were attacked at midnight for sleeping on the other side of the bridge(by 2 goblin dogs and 2 goblin commandos, wasn't that hard for them).


Are you sure they're right for the group? Or the group is right for them? Do the other players have issues with this? I'd recommend sitting down with the players at hand and talk to them about it. Your Adults, act like it. And in the case that you can't compromise they may have to find a new group.

Grand Lodge

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Let those types of players go.

The real party doesn't like playing with people like that. I had one in PFS that would try and start other encounters while the team fought. Really ticked off the table.

I feel your pain...but its best to replace those kinds of players.


It sounds to me like they weren't having a good time, and decided to leave.

A lack of face-to-face social interaction is one of the reasons I have migrated away from online gaming in general. There is fun to be had, but some people don't seem to understand that sitting in your home instead of at a table with friends doesn't give you the excuse to not show up on time, or to goof off.


I recently had one player decide that they wanted to covertly begin working with/for the enemy. They came up with an excuse to separate from the party, made contact and began their evil works. I'm fine with players deciding to go another way, so long as they're fine with the consequences.

Obviously, in an AP something like this wouldn't really work. In those cases, you should probably try to keep everybody on task. If people want to split the party, let them know you're not okay with that unless it's for tactical/story appropriate reasons. Divide into two flanks to encircle, sure. Quieter half of the party go ahead to scout, while loud and heavy hold in reserve, okay. Face and mage teleport to sell/buy gear while melee and cleric keep an eye on things, fine. Solo character (let alone two) wanders off to go make oil paintings/cook a roast/carouse/stare at clouds while everybody else fights, no.

Players that can't abide to stay with the party probably aren't suited to an AP.


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I feel like this is a common problem. Party cohesion is tough, and getting a good adventure hook that gives away enough to let people align their backstory with the adventure, without giving TOO much away, is challenging.

One idea I've come up with is using "connection stories". As part of their backstory, ask players to write about how their character has previously met at least one of the other characters. The idea is, if the characters already know each other and have had some sort of meaningful interaction, there should be a stronger reason for them to stick together.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

they made it clear they wanted to just leave. but the lack of talk on it, is what makes me confused/post it here. they gave no explanation and have yet to respond to any inquiries.

I'm fine with them turning an AP on it's head, but they just seemed to actively ignore it.

they also seemed to like the parts where they got to curfuffle about with their character related stuff (which involved lichdom at the tail end for one of them several levels from here), so them suddenly leaving really confused me.


I have never played an online game like what is being described. The closest I had was PBeM. Is there a way you can post a list of what you expect out of the players? It sounds like you have had this problem multiple times with different people.

In what ever kind of game you are playing, it can be hard to judge your players. You get people that are really into video games and others that maybe played Star Wars at the table but want D&D. You get all kinds.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
ngc7293 wrote:

I have never played an online game like what is being described. The closest I had was PBeM. Is there a way you can post a list of what you expect out of the players? It sounds like you have had this problem multiple times with different people.

In what ever kind of game you are playing, it can be hard to judge your players. You get people that are really into video games and others that maybe played Star Wars at the table but want D&D. You get all kinds.

i know all of the people involved, we just all live far away from each other now. I suppose this is another reason for my conscern.


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Before the game starts, tell everybody that they need to make characters who have a motivation to do the heroic adventurer thing and are willing to work with others. No brooding loners, no sociopaths.


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When I GM, I usually establish the following rules to my players:

A)You may make a character of -any- alignment, but I do not want any disruptive characters.

B)You can add as much flavour and ideas to your characters as you will, but I expect you to make compromises with your character, for the benefit of the group and the story, if necessary.

C)[if playing an AP] If guys still make the story, you push it along. But as we've agreed to play <AP name>, I expect you to help progress the story in the AP, although you are free to make what extra adventure you will on the way. If I feel we're getting too far from the established plot and it's about time we get back, I'll tell you.

And since I started doing so, I've had minimal problems of the kind you describe.

-Nearyn


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There's good advice in this post even though it is about being a great player in a PbP.

Scarab Sages

I was in a D&D encounters group like this. We literally had an encounter where half of our group dropped to 0 and was dying, and some of us were stuck in a trap, and the other members just wandered off and did something else, leaving us to the mercy of the assailants.

Fortunately we didn't wipe, but there's a reason I said I WAS in a group like this.


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Step 1: Talk to the players, make them undearstand that they're playing chracters that doesn't want to be played in your game.

Step 2: If they can't undearstand that, make them undearstand that there are 7 billion people in our world and then ask them why you should play a game with them when they're behaving like this.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: If they still don't get it, find some of those other 7 billion people and play with them instead.

Step 5: Profit


Rub-Eta wrote:
Step 4: If they still don't get it, find some of those other 7 billion people and play with them instead.

I don't think some have all the rulebooks......


Fruian Thistlefoot wrote:

Let those types of players go.

The real party doesn't like playing with people like that. I had one in PFS that would try and start other encounters while the team fought. Really ticked off the table.

I feel your pain...but its best to replace those kinds of players.

We once had a group like that. 3 level 11 casters (Druid, cleric, Sorc) we decided we'd each solo an encounter while the previous one was going on. We 3 outnumbered the entire adventure. It was a group effort to solo everything. When we made it to the boss we rolled D20's to see who would kill him. The druid (Me) Turned him into a rabbit.


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It kind of depends on why the players are making their characters leave the group.

I had a player who constantly left the group to do his own thing (didn't matter what game we were playing), then constantly interrupt the rest of the game with "What happens to me? What about me? What am I doing while the rest of them are saving the world?" Basically, he wanted all the attention and "camera time" to focus on him.

The problem here was that if I tried to "punish" his character or throw tough encounters at him to convince his character to rejoin the group for safety, I was actually giving the player exactly what he wanted: his own adventure, all by himself.

What finally worked with this guy was to just completely ignore him. Every instance of "what happens to me" was met with "Nothing. You wander around a while a go to sleep. The night passes uneventfully." Eventually, he figured out that I was not going to invent a plot just for his character alone, and he learned that his character could either join the story with the rest of the group or stay at home and do nothing.

And while he learned that, it didn't disrupt the rest of game.


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I wonder if there has ever been a solution to player-related problems that wasn't "talk to them" or "leave the group/kick them out."

Perhaps there should be a sticky thread that says "How to deal with problem players" as the title, and the entire content is "Attempt the following in this order: 1. Talk with them. 2. Kick them out. 3. Leave the group."

Scarab Sages

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Gwen Smith wrote:

It kind of depends on why the players are making their characters leave the group.

I had a player who constantly left the group to do his own thing (didn't matter what game we were playing), then constantly interrupt the rest of the game with "What happens to me? What about me? What am I doing while the rest of them are saving the world?" Basically, he wanted all the attention and "camera time" to focus on him.

The problem here was that if I tried to "punish" his character or throw tough encounters at him to convince his character to rejoin the group for safety, I was actually giving the player exactly what he wanted: his own adventure, all by himself.

What finally worked with this guy was to just completely ignore him. Every instance of "what happens to me" was met with "Nothing. You wander around a while a go to sleep. The night passes uneventfully." Eventually, he figured out that I was not going to invent a plot just for his character alone, and he learned that his character could either join the story with the rest of the group or stay at home and do nothing.

And while he learned that, it didn't disrupt the rest of game.

I did this to a character that decided to leave the group to their own devices in the first game of the new campaign. When the group almost wiped while he was off doing boring stuff, he learned. :P


Sounds like a party mismatch issue. I'd let them go, and look for different people. It's the sort of thing that happens.


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Fruian Thistlefoot wrote:

Let those types of players go.

The real party doesn't like playing with people like that. I had one in PFS that would try and start other encounters while the team fought. Really ticked off the table.

I feel your pain...but its best to replace those kinds of players.

Leeroy Jenkins!!


thegreenteagamer wrote:

I wonder if there has ever been a solution to player-related problems that wasn't "talk to them" or "leave the group/kick them out."

Perhaps there should be a sticky thread that says "How to deal with problem players" as the title, and the entire content is "Attempt the following in this order: 1. Talk with them. 2. Kick them out. 3. Leave the group."

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