Aedilred
2009-05-07, 10:07 AM
I recently started GMing a PbP game (the system is WFRP) - I've GMed before, but never WFRP and never PbP, so although I'm comfortable running a game I'm a little inexperienced when it comes to some of the specific problems that the game throws up.
I have seven players, who seem to have put a varying amount of effort into creating their characters and backgrounds. All of them have RPed before, but in different systems. My main problem is with a particular player who doesn't seem to have grasped the way that the game world, or for that matter, the game system, operates and seems to be trying to play as if it were a straightforward Monty Haul campaign, which it really isn't.
His character has relatively little depth- he's played pretty much the same character in every RP I've seen him in (a stereotypical proto-feminist warrior-woman). His perception of roleplaying seems to be to say nothing until another PC/NPC says something that could be conceivably twisted into something mysoginistic or otherwise insulting, and then threaten to/actually kick them in the balls. Given some of the other characters we have in the party, including a rather arrogant knight, this has obviously led to fun and frolics. Any suggestions from me that he might like to expand his character background a little, so that I could personalise the campaign a bit more, have been ignored.
In an attempt to get him to roleplay I introduced him to a NPC who tried to chat his character up, but he gave responses as short as possible to any questions and didn't ask anything himself, so it was pretty hard work. When I suggested moving the scenario on a bit but indicated that he (and other PCs in ongoing conversations) should feel free to keep chatting to NPCs his response was "oh, so he's got no more questions then". When the PCs came across a ruined carriage and a load of bodies he looted all of them, despite my stating that the other members of the caravan were glaring at him in disgust.
He's obviously designed a character which is fairly competent in combat (I suspect, given a couple of comments he made, that his stats were re-rolled a few times to get good scores in combat stats, although his scores in the more "soft" skills are the worst in the group) but he doesn't seem to have realised that combat should really be a last resort, not just in this campaign but in this whole system (the combat system is very unforgiving and plunging into fights all the time is an excellent way to die). He just seems oblivious to any hints I might drop. I've openly said that "the players" might want to consider actually talking to NPCs rather than hoping that they'll walk up and blurt out everything they know, but he doesn't seem to have picked up on it.
The most frustrating thing is that he's actually a pretty enthusiastic player, always the first to reply to my posts, and so on, so if I could just get him to get a bit more engaged in-character he could be quite a lot of fun. But I've tried everything I can think of, so does anyone else have any suggestions as to how I can get him more involved and RPing, or should I just give up?
I have seven players, who seem to have put a varying amount of effort into creating their characters and backgrounds. All of them have RPed before, but in different systems. My main problem is with a particular player who doesn't seem to have grasped the way that the game world, or for that matter, the game system, operates and seems to be trying to play as if it were a straightforward Monty Haul campaign, which it really isn't.
His character has relatively little depth- he's played pretty much the same character in every RP I've seen him in (a stereotypical proto-feminist warrior-woman). His perception of roleplaying seems to be to say nothing until another PC/NPC says something that could be conceivably twisted into something mysoginistic or otherwise insulting, and then threaten to/actually kick them in the balls. Given some of the other characters we have in the party, including a rather arrogant knight, this has obviously led to fun and frolics. Any suggestions from me that he might like to expand his character background a little, so that I could personalise the campaign a bit more, have been ignored.
In an attempt to get him to roleplay I introduced him to a NPC who tried to chat his character up, but he gave responses as short as possible to any questions and didn't ask anything himself, so it was pretty hard work. When I suggested moving the scenario on a bit but indicated that he (and other PCs in ongoing conversations) should feel free to keep chatting to NPCs his response was "oh, so he's got no more questions then". When the PCs came across a ruined carriage and a load of bodies he looted all of them, despite my stating that the other members of the caravan were glaring at him in disgust.
He's obviously designed a character which is fairly competent in combat (I suspect, given a couple of comments he made, that his stats were re-rolled a few times to get good scores in combat stats, although his scores in the more "soft" skills are the worst in the group) but he doesn't seem to have realised that combat should really be a last resort, not just in this campaign but in this whole system (the combat system is very unforgiving and plunging into fights all the time is an excellent way to die). He just seems oblivious to any hints I might drop. I've openly said that "the players" might want to consider actually talking to NPCs rather than hoping that they'll walk up and blurt out everything they know, but he doesn't seem to have picked up on it.
The most frustrating thing is that he's actually a pretty enthusiastic player, always the first to reply to my posts, and so on, so if I could just get him to get a bit more engaged in-character he could be quite a lot of fun. But I've tried everything I can think of, so does anyone else have any suggestions as to how I can get him more involved and RPing, or should I just give up?