PDA

View Full Version : Dealing with a problematic player



Kalmageddon
2013-08-02, 06:09 PM
I've been DMing a Pathfinder campaign and I've run in a bit of trouble with one of the players.
I don't even know where to start actually, so let me just give a couple of exemples..

-He's always trying to circumvent or bend the rules in a passive-aggressive way, basically we are going to be in the middle of a fight and he'll describe his character's actions (usually something that only makes sense in his head, like "I drop down and roll" while in melee) and then asks me if that can give him some kind of bonus. He doesn't even specify which kind of bonus he's trying to gain, and he knows the rules and has read the manual, so it's not out of ignorance.
This forces me to outright ignore his actions and only consider rule-relevant actions (like attacks or movements) or having to ask him for further details on his intentions and explaining things in the middle of combat and even when I do he doesn't seem to get it and seems to think that I'm being unfair to him.

-He pays almost no attention to crucial details. He might discover that there are spies in the kingdom and literally the only thing that comes to his mind when asked by the other players about what he saw is "there were 3 dudes talking and one had red shoes", without any other context or clarification. Sometimes the other players have to pressure him OOC to give more details. This doesn't seem to be something he does on purpose, to the point where I think he might have some real life attention span issues.

-Conversly he gives enormous importance to all the irrelevant things. I might have the group in the middle of a pressing matter or quest and he'll part ways with the group to take interest in a random beggar that I described as basically living scenery. Now that wouldn't be too bad if he just gave him money or food or whatever and then went back to the group, but no, he goes on to try and teach him a profession and find him a job. Telling him that this would possibly require whole in-game days only seems to frustrate him, meanwhile the rest of the group will be getting frustrated as well because they want to move foward the important events.
The beggar is just an exemple by the way, he does this sort of convoluted stuff to irrelevant NPCs all the time, basically.

-Finally, as you might imagine most of his nonsensical actions come out of the blue and the effect is quite comedic, to the point where it's almost impossibile to listen to him while keeping a straight face. Some of the stuff he does is actually hilarious. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if he wasn't dead serious about it. In his mind the actions obviously make sense, not only that but he already decided the outcome. He seems to reject the idea that rolls are necessary or that things might not go the way he thinks they will.
Then he gets frustrated because the group laughs at his plans and because things didn't go the way he wanted.

Now after an apparently normal and fun game session, he decided not to continue playing. I don't know this guy very well, but he's not a bad person and I'm honestly sad to see him go. His motivation seems to be frustration at not being taken seriously and not being followed the way he would have wanted when he goes on into his lenghty and confusing initatives.
The situation is now uncertain, he seems to be undecided and the other players would like for him to stay.
I tried explaining him why things don't work out, I've tried telling him that I'm not in his mind and if he doesn't help me understand what he's trying to do with this character it's impossibile for me to properly implement the consenquences and I've tried explaining that he can't take an hour of play time for his own personal initiatives that don't involve the rest of the party.
Nothing seems to get through.

And what I described here is just a small fraction of the things he does. It's actually really hard to even properly describe his randomness and weirdness.
I'm pretty much lost, I have no clue on how to handle the situation and I would like to hear some ideas.

nedz
2013-08-02, 06:43 PM
I think he just has a different play-style to the rest of the group, very different.

I doubt that there is very much you could have done; I mean you could have lampshaded this by making some random NPC important in some way but you can only do that sort of thing once.

Mr Beer
2013-08-02, 06:52 PM
Now after an apparently normal and fun game session, he decided not to continue playing.

It sounds like the situation solved itself, hurray!

I know that sounds flippant but a) he doesn't like your game and b) isn't a good fit and c) talking to him about it hasn't fixed it. Him deciding to leave is great because it means you don't have to boot him out. I know you're saying 'I don't want him to leave' but really...you should be happy about this.

KillianHawkeye
2013-08-02, 07:36 PM
It sounds like the situation solved itself, hurray!

I know that sounds flippant but a) he doesn't like your game and b) isn't a good fit and c) talking to him about it hasn't fixed it. Him deciding to leave is great because it means you don't have to boot him out. I know you're saying 'I don't want him to leave' but really...you should be happy about this.

Damn, you beat me to it! :smallannoyed::smallamused:

I was pretty much going to say the same thing.

Jornophelanthas
2013-08-02, 08:00 PM
Him leaving the campaign of his own accord is probably the best possible outcome, given the things that have been tried already.

If the group (including you) still want to play with him in some way, consider inviting him for the first new campaign that will start in the future that does NOT have you as the DM (but instead someone else who may have a playstyle that suits him better).

It sounds like this player could be very fun and non-disruptive in a more silly campaign, rather than a serious, epic story.