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I've seen a lot of advice on how to handle problem players, but none that really address this specific one. Please bear with me, and thank you in advance for any advice you could offer.
I have a player who plays the same basic personality in all his characters. The class, stats, race, even game systems differ, but his characters are as motivated as a mopey, slacker late-teen.
The character will pursue minor mysteries if forced to by the group, but will not take any plot hook more complex than going down to a tavern and getting smashed. Anything else elicits a steady stream of complaint, in character, mind you,about the effort involved in every task and challenge. Neither glory, riches, nor personal achievement motivates these characters. Doesn't matter if he's an elf bard with a kingdom thrust suddenly upon him in Pathfinder, or if he's a Werecat in the New World of Darkness.
His role-playing skills are phenomenal- the player has little resemblance to the slacker archetype, though I would also not classify him as a type-A personality. He's in his thirties, has held a steady job for years, has a good social life and a reasonable worldview, tends to be upbeat and enthusiastic.
His characters have made me drop out of campaigns where I was another player in the group, and has made me seriously consider banning him from games where I GM. Outside of gaming, I consider him a good friend. At the table, I want to do him bodily harm by the end of a gaming session.
Have you talked to him about how you feel? Does he do this on purpose?
I've seen a lot of advice on how to handle problem players, but none that really address this specific one. Please bear with me, and thank you in advance for any advice you could offer.
I have a player who plays the same basic personality in all his characters. The class, stats, race, even game systems differ, but his characters are as motivated as a mopey, slacker late-teen.
The character will pursue minor mysteries if forced to by the group, but will not take any plot hook more complex than going down to a tavern and getting smashed. Anything else elicits a steady stream of complaint, in character, mind you,about the effort involved in every task and challenge. Neither glory, riches, nor personal achievement motivates these characters. Doesn't matter if he's an elf bard with a kingdom thrust suddenly upon him in Pathfinder, or if he's a Werecat in the New World of Darkness.
His role-playing skills are phenomenal- the player has little resemblance to the slacker archetype, though I would also not classify him as a type-A personality. He's in his thirties, has held a steady job for years, has a good social life and a reasonable worldview, tends to be upbeat and enthusiastic.
His characters have made me drop out of campaigns where I was another player in the group, and has made me seriously consider banning him from games where I GM. Outside of gaming, I consider him a good friend. At the table, I want to do him bodily harm by the end of a gaming session.
Well, the first obvious question to ask is, have you discussed this habit with him out of game? Have you let him know how much this bothers you? Sometimes two-way communication can clear up a lot of issues before they get more complicated than they need to be.
Ninja'ed by Harpwizard. Glad to see I'm not the only one not sleeping tonight.
I have this same problem myself. >.< So any advice would be appreciated greatly.
The answer to this question is always, "a bolt from the heavens strikes your character dead." Now take some dice and make a new one.
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I have a player who plays the same basic personality in all his characters.
His role-playing skills are phenomenal-
These statements are contradictory. Being very in tune with one concept is not the same as being a phenomenal role-player.
Discuss it with him. Let him know that it's very tiring to see the same concept all the time and try to make him understand your frustrations.
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I have a player who plays the same basic personality in all his characters.His role-playing skills are phenomenal-These statements are contradictory. Being very in tune with one concept is not the same as being a phenomenal role-player.
Discuss it with him. Let him know that it's very tiring to see the same concept all the time and try to make him understand your frustrations.
I've been in games with him as GM, and he is capable of a variety of believable, fleshed out NPCs who don't suffer from this personality problem.
I will have a sit-down discussion with him; that is, after all, the most rational approach. Just not the first one that springs to mind in the middle of a bout of insomnia.
Thanks, all.
If he's actually role-playing laziness, more power to him. I'd love it if half the people in any of the groups I've ever been in role-played SOMETHING.
I wouldn't try to get him to stop, but I might add some plot that gets him into trouble because of his laziness. Like, somebody spikes his drink and kidnaps him, or something fun like that.
You just have to make the game world respond to his actions in a logical way. Kind of like how there was one guy who played a total coward in a 4.0 campaign I was in. I chewed him out in character, but I was totally fine with it out of character.
Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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I have a player in my group that does this. His reason (because we talked to him about it years ago) is that he likes to be the DM more than he likes to be a Player.
We rotate DMing between he, I, and another player because sometimes we need a break from running games (whether to create a new campaign, or just take a mental break from DMing). During his breaks, he plays in our campaigns, but he plays the same kind of apathetic character the OP describes. He doesn't mean anything by it, and doesn't disrupt the game (in fact, he's pretty good at problem-solving if the other PCs prompt him in-game), so we all work with it as an accepted player-style.
What really helped us understand where he was coming from, was to simply ask him about it, as others have mentioned up thread. Once we knew where he was coming from, no one took offense from his playing style, and we've been able to have fun gaming together for years!
Maybe, if he is also a frequent DM, he is asking for what his character is saying. He wants to be motivated by an outside source. If he has a backstory, see if you can't tie some of it into the initial game.
Or even start by bringing the adventure to him. So he starts out drinking in the inn of a small town. What does he do if a big bar fight breaks out, or his purse is stolen by a thief, or goblins raid the town and start burning things. Situations where it's either act or, get beaten up, robbed or burned alive.
If the out-of game talk doesn't work. have something totally benevolent but annoying happen to him at the bar. For example, if he's an elf, have a half-orc start flirting with him, or have a dwarf insulting him repetitively, or charge him more and more money for each drink, etc.
I've seen a lot of advice on how to handle problem players, but none that really address this specific one. Please bear with me, and thank you in advance for any advice you could offer.
I have a player who plays the same basic personality in all his characters. The class, stats, race, even game systems differ, but his characters are as motivated as a mopey, slacker late-teen.
The character will pursue minor mysteries if forced to by the group, but will not take any plot hook more complex than going down to a tavern and getting smashed. Anything else elicits a steady stream of complaint, in character, mind you,about the effort involved in every task and challenge. Neither glory, riches, nor personal achievement motivates these characters. Doesn't matter if he's an elf bard with a kingdom thrust suddenly upon him in Pathfinder, or if he's a Werecat in the New World of Darkness.
His role-playing skills are phenomenal- the player has little resemblance to the slacker archetype, though I would also not classify him as a type-A personality. He's in his thirties, has held a steady job for years, has a good social life and a reasonable worldview, tends to be upbeat and enthusiastic.
His characters have made me drop out of campaigns where I was another player in the group, and has made me seriously consider banning him from games where I GM. Outside of gaming, I consider him a good friend. At the table, I want to do him bodily harm by the end of a gaming session.
Yep, I've encountered this, sometimes it is just too f***ing hard. They are tired, they are distracted, they act in a similar fashion across characters. I really want to shake these people, what are you doing?! Get your s*** together! Whine whine whine.
You can have a discussion and let him know it is getting tiresome.
You can punish him, to try and tame him with the stick.
Or you can just boot him.
Rokka suggests some other in game possibilities. For me though, and his behaviour, it sounds like he wants to go down to the pub and get smashed. That is always a possibility instead of gaming.
The answer to this question is always, "a bolt from the heavens strikes your character dead." Now take some dice and make a new one.
Haha, or, his whining and complaint offends the gods of heroism. Down comes and avatar to challenge him to do his best, or die trying (or he can sit there, complain and be killed).
The player may also be in a stage of gaming burn-out, have a lot of issues that he wants to use gaming to resolve, by being a whiner. Stranger things have happened. I've seen a lonely dm going through a tough patch, kill players over and over through tpk to give himself something to laugh about. Hurting others and their characters to feel good, schadenfreude. We wanted some change, he didn't go for it, we quit, the game ended and he went into months of depression. Take that suckaaaaaa! (I was a player, and yes I too am evil).
I've had friends who always played the same type of character... and then we mocked them unmercifully.
While they pivot back to that sort of character on occassion, they shake it up.
Thats not helpful but it sort of worked for us.
Just talk to him - You always play a hippie stoner slacker type - why?
Hahahahah, yes!
"Wait, is that anoooother arrogant elven wizarrrd? Sure seem to be a lot of these around. How do we find so many?"
Since you are already considering talking it over with your friend, you could also consider this: the next time he makes a new character in your campaign (if you are DM-ing), discuss his background story with him. If he wants to play a slacker again, ask him what would get him motivated in game. And then create a situation in game which should get him motivated according to his back story. Make it into an interesting story, so that he e.g. will find his motivation around level 5, 6 or so and slowly works towards it.
If you are a player in the same campaign, you could suggest making 2 characters who are e.g. already related or already friends. They you could put something similar in his back story (e.g. only his brother knows how to get him motivated, etc.). This way you could hopefully turn this into a fun roleplaying experience, especially because you say your friend knows how to roleplay.
That said, there are players who play the same character time and time again, just because it is within their comfort zone. So I think you have to make some allowances for that.
This may sound comical and may not fit your GMing style, but an in-character way to address characters motivated by getting smashed is to take away the alchohol (as part of a plot), if they're motivated by laziness let there be a demon that haunts them when they slack, if they're motivated by lust add a curse that makes everyone look extremely ugly through their eyes.
Anybody who is still alive is motivated by something.
But really, the first step should probably talking this out with your friend.
Sounds to me that he wants his character thrust into the adventure so forget about offering plot hooks to the character and railroad his ass into adventure. Don't give his character a choice not to participate force him to react to outside events. Whenever he's alone ambush him with assassins forcing him to work with the group. At higher levels smack him with geases and quests so if he does nothing his character dies.
If none of that works it might mean that he really doesn't want to play but only wants to hang out with some buddies to get away from real life for a bit.
I can imagine a plot scenario whereupon his laziness in particular causes someone else to be allowed to come to harm. Maybe he's such a mainstay at the bar that the 'tender asks him to go fetch a keg from out back, and upon arrival he finds a woman being mugged. Not his problem, sure...until he finds out that the woman saw him - and his reticence to get involved - and takes it personally.
Did I mention she's a witch with a Sczarni-style revenge complex? :) Think 'Thinner' on steroids.
If even something like that doesn't elicit a response, and you've tried talking to him, then make his contribution to the game a simple "Do you keep drinking? Okay." until he gets tired of only being called upon once an hour. It's not an elegant final answer, but it usually does either motivate them to do -something-...or motivate them to leave the game. But like I note, that's a last resort.
Edit: Credit to Ion Raven, whose comment about a curse or demon prompted the idea but I forgot to quote because, frankly, I just woke up. :)