Small update - "new"ish DM - Question on dealing with a player

[NBDM]

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2t2hm?newish-DM-Question-on-dealing-with-a-play er

We gamed last night, there wasnt any combat. There was however RP. The game got off rather slow. When it was time for free play after a remind of what happened last time the problem player (OR) went to his phone to continue playing on his vault. There were other players not doing anything, one of them talking off subject, but he was the only one actively diverting his attention from the game.

The group went into a laboratory where some people were being experimented on. I had set it up so there were 9 tables, each with their own NPC being examined. One of those was another players mom who has been held prisoner for 15+ years. The group does the normal 3 people talking at once and I try to sort it out. DR (the player whose mom is held prisoner), spends time looking for a ladle to fish out stuff from the vat. When he goes near his mom who he hasnt seen in years, she starts screaming "demon, trickery" and getting agitated. None of the others NPCs did this. This character is half black half elf so he stands out. The player ignores the NPC. His spot check was low for the ladle he was looking for and moves on. OR goes around and stands next to 4 yellow markers and asks if he can cure these people. I tell him to roll individually and say.

4 Yellow: They are full of pussy lessions and seem psychotic, they are far to infected to kill.
2 red: Their eyes are red and blood shot, they are ravaged. Their muscle mass is greater then it should be
2 green: Their eyes are dripping with a green ichor, as is their nose and their ears, burning them. You feel like you cant save them.
1 blue: As you approach this one she shouts at you "Demon, trickery" She is not lucid and more psychotic then the the yellow ones.

So I gave him 2 clear "no you couldn't save them" and didnt answer on the other two. Later a 3rd player decided to put them out of their misery. I asked several times if he was sure, he said yes all 4 or 5 times. At that point i let the group know that he just killed DRs mom and OR got upset saying if he could have saved her, he would. I told him I never specifically said he couldn't save her, he made the call. "but with my 30 knowledge roll I would have known. Even if my characters done some evil stuff you dont get to decide what my character does, thats my job." (side note - when he was DMing he was deciding what PCs were doing.) He was actually upset, I could tell.

I stopped him with "I spent all day between tasks looking up the rules on how to handle advanced mental illnesses. Not all of them can be cured with heal or remove disease but I will go over it between now and next week. If I find something to change what happened, we can retcon it. For now this stays." And as I said that DR rolled a search check to see if he found another ladle or even a container to put some liquid in.

My thoughts on it were that even if he is a healer, he doesnt have knowledge for every type of illness or disease and how to treat them.

I talked with the groups more experienced DM and he said my only mistake was telling them what happened right away. No one was paying attention correctly, you gave them several chances to reconsider, and you gave clear answers about two of the colors which should have qued them in that maybe they could have saved the other two some how. You even made it a different color piece then every other one as well.

I talked to DR about it afterwards since it was his mom. He pointed out that people are there to have fun (true) and not a disappointing experience. He also said he never planned on his parents to be alive (backstory issue). We agreed that his mom would stay dead at that point.

Aside from that one incident everything else went well that night.

[CampinCarl9127]

It sounds like you're running a very fun, cool, and fair game. As your experienced friend said, your only mistake was immediately letting them know what they've done.

I say you carry on how you are GMing. Your game sounds fun, and it sounds like you are running the mechanics fairly.

[Ciaran Barnes]

"pussy lessions"?

[NBDM]

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

"pussy lessions"?

as in pus filled.

pussy2
[puhs-ee]
Spell Syllables
adjective, pussier, pussiest. Medicine/Medical
1.
puslike.
Origin Expand
1840-50; pus + -y1

pussy
adjective pus·sy \ˈpə-sē\
pus·si·erpus·si·est
Definition of PUSSY

: full of or resembling pus <a pussy wound>

The campaign is centered around a cult trying to bring back a mad demi god druid through the use of poisons and disease.

[Chemlak]

NBDM wrote:

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

"pussy lessions"?

as in pus filled.

pussy2
[puhs-ee]
Spell Syllables
adjective, pussier, pussiest. Medicine/Medical
1.
puslike.
Origin Expand
1840-50; pus + -y1

pussy
adjective pus·sy \ˈpə-sē\
pus·si·erpus·si·est
Definition of PUSSY

: full of or resembling pus <a pussy wound>

The campaign is centered around a cult trying to bring back a mad demi god druid through the use of poisons and disease.

You might want to stick to puss-filled when people can't tell your pronunciation - whilst pussy is absolutely a genuine term to use, it reads exactly the same as a colloquial term for female genitalia. You can't make that mistake when it's spoken, but when read it's easy to hit the (far more common) colloquial term before assuming alternative meanings.

[Entryhazard]

The madness rules say that greater restoration and heal can cure it

[Darksol the Painbringer]

I'll second the "watch your choice of words" sentiment. When I read it, not only did it make me feel 'slightly' uncomfortable (probably because I wouldn't see it anywhere else on these forums, it wouldn't bother me in an everyday environment), but also a sense of forbearance behind it.

Strange, isn't it?

Anyway, back to the task at hand...

In regards to the knowledge check, if he rolled a "30," in terms of determining the results of a beastiary creature (let's assume 5 HD), a result of 30 would give him ~4 clues and facts of import about the creature. From what I can tell, you gave him 2, so I'm presuming a DC 25 Knowledge Check, which isn't outlandish, in fact quite easy to reach if we're getting access to Heal spells.

A higher one would probably clarify that she is under the effects of Insanity, and only a Wish/Miracle spell could cure that (which makes sense, since you stated that she is psychotic and rambling). So, this means that although she can be saved, the PCs don't have the means to do so at this time.

[Entryhazard]

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

A higher one would probably clarify that she is under the effects of Insanity, and only a Wish/Miracle spell could cure that (which makes sense, since you stated that she is psychotic and rambling). So, this means that although she can be saved, the PCs don't have the means to do so at this time.

Greater restoration is just a 4th level spell :P

[Darksol the Painbringer]

And if the player who "min-maxed" was smart enough, he would have cast the spell and see if the risk was worth the potential reward.

[blackbloodtroll]

You mean lesions, and not lessons.

[Avaricious]

Sounds like a style conflict that you need to hash out with them -the mechanics are not what's bad on the table. Some people just don't get puzzles, nothing bad on the Sphinx giving riddles or the one running in the maze. My question would be: was there a reason they decided to euthanize these people?

Unless its their RP persona to pull the plug, sounda kinda Murder-Hobo...