Sajiri
2012-09-10, 10:28 PM
I mentioned this player briefly in a thread a few weeks back asking for some advice, but it's gone on so much more since then.
We're playing a game of pathfinder. The DM was planning this for a looong time and has put alot of thought and effort into it but there was a snag with members. Namely that we didnt have any. We started an online game, went through a few people saying they wanted in but then never being available, until we finally settled into a group of myself (little play experience but familiar with the rules), a close friend (barbarian, completely new but great at roleplay), another friend (cleric, plays plenty of rpgs and has RP experience but never played any kind of tabletop game) and a new friend of the DMs (rogue, apparently had experience in other tabletops but was new to PF. Seemed to play pretty well).
As you can see, we all had something to learn. The DM is a long time player but this is his first time DMing. The problems started before the game even did. The cleric player had initially not wanted to bother making his own character, and asked the DM to do it for him. He originally asked for an Inquisitor, so the DM went through it all for him, then the night before we were due to start, he changed his mind and asked for a cleric instead. So the game was put off for a week while the DM made a 2nd character for him. He asked his player to only do minimal things, such as looking at the list of class skills, then ticking off what cleric gets on his sheet. Several hours later, he still hadnt done that, claiming he was 'so confused and lost'. Finally he was asked only to come up with a personality and background, which he....never did. I havent seen this player's sheet, but from what I was told by the DM, he made the character pretty overpowered just for this player, and nobody else in the group got this kind of treatment.
When we finally had our first session, it went well, aside from the fact the cleric did absolutely nothing through the whole thing. The only thing he said/did throughout the whole session, was announcing there were undead somewhere near, after the dm told him he could sense them, then both he and I told the player to tell the group that. By the time the first encounter started, he'd asked the DM to play for him while he watched. This would have been fine, except none of the other players were aware of this, and he had specifically stated he wanted this character to be the HEALER. The DM wasn't going to do anything with this character, had it get knocked out first then spend the encounter crawling around being useless.
When the session ended with a total wipe, the DM at least used the cleric to keep us all from dying in our first game, but it was still rather disappointing.
That was a few weeks ago now. Since then, we've practically given up on the rogue who had alot suddenly come up and has been too busy to play, which is understandable. However the cleric has not been showing up either. Thing is he does not have an excuse, and he does not tell us before hand. He clearly does not seem like he wants to play, yet he refuses to drop out. He's a really nice guy, but he's also pretty emotional. When I've brought up to him he doesnt have to feel obligated to be there if he doesnt want to play, he gets weirdly upset like we're kicking him out unfairly (when we have never said that, just that he doesnt have to stay if he doesnt want to).
My patience has pretty much reached it's end with this guy now. After about 3 weeks of having to tell the barbarian 'sorry, cancelled this week, only you and I showed up', the cleric asked the DM for a solo adventure to 'learn'. At least he was taking a step, but it was still annoying as I had asked for the same thing when I started and was told no. So this past weekend, I had to again tell the barb it was cancelled as the DM was going to be running a solo game for the cleric, the cleric....never showed up. He was online in the morning, but right around the time the DM had told him to be ready, he disappeared. I finally caught him online this morning, asked him what was up, and he claimed his msn 'was dead' which I highly doubt, as he had many other forms of communicating online.
I reminded him that I would rather he not play at all and TELL us if he didnt want to, rather than assure us he would be there then never show. I asked him if he wanted to play, and got 'yes and no'. I asked him what he wanted to do this weekend for the session and was told 'I dunno~'. When I asked him what he was having problems with it was 'Im still so lost with it all and dont understand' which I had to point out, he never will understand if he never makes any attempt to aka reading books (at least a little) reading up what his character's skills do, ask the dm questions, LISTEN when the dm explains things. I got him to agree to go through his sheet with me later and I'd help him understand the basics a few hours later since I was about to go out, but of course when I got online later to help him he was not there.
It's really dragging it on for myself and the other player who are ready to play each week reliably and get told no because half our group is missing. We've had no luck finding other members, and the DM doesn't really want to run it with only 2 people.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this player involved?
We're playing a game of pathfinder. The DM was planning this for a looong time and has put alot of thought and effort into it but there was a snag with members. Namely that we didnt have any. We started an online game, went through a few people saying they wanted in but then never being available, until we finally settled into a group of myself (little play experience but familiar with the rules), a close friend (barbarian, completely new but great at roleplay), another friend (cleric, plays plenty of rpgs and has RP experience but never played any kind of tabletop game) and a new friend of the DMs (rogue, apparently had experience in other tabletops but was new to PF. Seemed to play pretty well).
As you can see, we all had something to learn. The DM is a long time player but this is his first time DMing. The problems started before the game even did. The cleric player had initially not wanted to bother making his own character, and asked the DM to do it for him. He originally asked for an Inquisitor, so the DM went through it all for him, then the night before we were due to start, he changed his mind and asked for a cleric instead. So the game was put off for a week while the DM made a 2nd character for him. He asked his player to only do minimal things, such as looking at the list of class skills, then ticking off what cleric gets on his sheet. Several hours later, he still hadnt done that, claiming he was 'so confused and lost'. Finally he was asked only to come up with a personality and background, which he....never did. I havent seen this player's sheet, but from what I was told by the DM, he made the character pretty overpowered just for this player, and nobody else in the group got this kind of treatment.
When we finally had our first session, it went well, aside from the fact the cleric did absolutely nothing through the whole thing. The only thing he said/did throughout the whole session, was announcing there were undead somewhere near, after the dm told him he could sense them, then both he and I told the player to tell the group that. By the time the first encounter started, he'd asked the DM to play for him while he watched. This would have been fine, except none of the other players were aware of this, and he had specifically stated he wanted this character to be the HEALER. The DM wasn't going to do anything with this character, had it get knocked out first then spend the encounter crawling around being useless.
When the session ended with a total wipe, the DM at least used the cleric to keep us all from dying in our first game, but it was still rather disappointing.
That was a few weeks ago now. Since then, we've practically given up on the rogue who had alot suddenly come up and has been too busy to play, which is understandable. However the cleric has not been showing up either. Thing is he does not have an excuse, and he does not tell us before hand. He clearly does not seem like he wants to play, yet he refuses to drop out. He's a really nice guy, but he's also pretty emotional. When I've brought up to him he doesnt have to feel obligated to be there if he doesnt want to play, he gets weirdly upset like we're kicking him out unfairly (when we have never said that, just that he doesnt have to stay if he doesnt want to).
My patience has pretty much reached it's end with this guy now. After about 3 weeks of having to tell the barbarian 'sorry, cancelled this week, only you and I showed up', the cleric asked the DM for a solo adventure to 'learn'. At least he was taking a step, but it was still annoying as I had asked for the same thing when I started and was told no. So this past weekend, I had to again tell the barb it was cancelled as the DM was going to be running a solo game for the cleric, the cleric....never showed up. He was online in the morning, but right around the time the DM had told him to be ready, he disappeared. I finally caught him online this morning, asked him what was up, and he claimed his msn 'was dead' which I highly doubt, as he had many other forms of communicating online.
I reminded him that I would rather he not play at all and TELL us if he didnt want to, rather than assure us he would be there then never show. I asked him if he wanted to play, and got 'yes and no'. I asked him what he wanted to do this weekend for the session and was told 'I dunno~'. When I asked him what he was having problems with it was 'Im still so lost with it all and dont understand' which I had to point out, he never will understand if he never makes any attempt to aka reading books (at least a little) reading up what his character's skills do, ask the dm questions, LISTEN when the dm explains things. I got him to agree to go through his sheet with me later and I'd help him understand the basics a few hours later since I was about to go out, but of course when I got online later to help him he was not there.
It's really dragging it on for myself and the other player who are ready to play each week reliably and get told no because half our group is missing. We've had no luck finding other members, and the DM doesn't really want to run it with only 2 people.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this player involved?