I have been playing pathfinder for about three years and have been GMing for most of that. I am only able to play online games (generally via Roll20) due to real life reasons. Problem is online games tend to pull in some rather troublesome players. Over the years numerous campaigns have been sunk because of those said individuals. I have learned how to deal with these players more quickly once they start acting up but I have lately been trying tactics to prevent problems from happening in the first place. I want people's opinions on the tactics I have used so far and suggestions on what else I can do to avoid problems.
First I should state that in my games I put a strong emphasis on group cohesion both in character and out of character. I expect my players to not have fun at the expense of the other players. I have to do this to keep my online games stable since it is far too easy to lose good players. So I make it clear to all players that PvP of all types (including stealing from players, stealing loot before its split, social checks against platers, ect). Sadly clearly stating rules from the get go has proven ineffective.
Here are the key tactics I have tried so far:
1. Through screening process: I interview all my candidates and have a list of standard questions that I have designed to spot problematic behavior. The problem is that while this has managed to get me some great players it still doesn't spot all problem players since some people are very good at answering correctly rather than honestly.
2. Banned the CN alignment: while the evil alignments generally are also banned in my games CN is banned twice as hard since players in my games generally use it as an excuse to do whatever they want in game rather than actually make a compelling character.
3. Banned the rogue class: The rogue is generally a pretty weak class but I have learned to ban it from my games.It became clear to me that 70% of the time the problem player was playing a rogue. Hell even player who are my friends and long time players in my campaigns suddenly started causing problems the second they play this class. I have come to realize that to often players use playing the rogue class as an excuse for committing disruptive behavior. I find this to be a shame since nothing about the rogue class actually mandates this kind of behavior, but sadly so far in my DMing experince too many players seem to think it does. At least the rogue class is easily replaced by the investigator.
So does anyone have any suggestions on how to approve my current approach? Does anyone have any new ideas that can help me?
