Nevermore
2007-05-04, 05:22 AM
Hello everyone, I am not a DM very often, but in my little Table Top Roleplaying Club here at Christopher Newport University, I am chief Story Teller for all World of Darkness (old or new) games and a Game Master for two long running post Rebellion Star Wars d20 campaigns. However, what I have found to be a constant battle, no matter what role playing game you use, is keeping the mood in tact with certain groups. Thus, I will start with three specific types of problem players and when I am less exhausted from studying instead of sleeping for my last final today I will add to it.
1) The Joker: The Joker is that buddy of yours who always has an Out of Character joke for almost any situation, especially when you want a sombre mood to set in. When the coterie of young vampires is moving through the haunted asylum, trying to fix the current problem of escaped serial killers with odd powers, zombies, and ghosts that either infest the place or keep trying to escape, threatening the Masquerade, the feeling of panic in the room steadily rising, the sppokienes REALLY getting to everyone... this is the guy whom at the apex of the scene, that moment every ST, DM, GM whatever lives for... cracks a joke like "Looks like Mr. Ventrue needs a new case of Oops I Crapped My Pants." and totally destroys the mood of the scene.
2) Movie Man:This is the guy that in the above circumstances instead of cracking a joke either quotes some movie or says "Hey, this is like that scene in *insert name of movie here*" totally destroying what you as the DM etc have carefully and lovingly built.
3) The comedic relief: While refreshing at times, these characters can drag a proper horror scene or desperate ambience, drag it outside, kick it in the cahones till it drops to its knees, then put a bullet in its skull to finish it off, then a second shot to the dead mood's face for good measure. This is the guy who during a moment where the DM etc makes the game take a dark, or saddenning turn does something so completely rediculous it completely destroys what the DM etc was trying to accomplish.
There are fortunately several ways to deal with this...
3) This one is the simplest- make In Character consequences for the Comedic Relief. In my Sabbat game a Nosferatu asked a rat using Animalism "Seen anything strange lately?" to which the confused animal replied "Just you ugly." and scuttled off. Said Nosferatu proceeded to run around killing rats with his machete, dropping jokes left and right in the middle of enemy held sewers. The Local Sheriff (also a Nos) thus appears behind him and with one blow with a base ball bat to the back of the PC's head explodes the PC's shattered cabeza all over the wall as his body slumps to the floor and fell to ash. Problem was solved for several weeks.
2&1) Must be settled out of character. You should talk to the players, and hopefully that should work. If not, then what I normally do is penalize the person on Role Play xp for the day. If the offender refuses to let you weave a decent mood or feeling when the entire campaign is more or less reliant on it in a horror based setting... some times you gotta ask them to take a hiatus and think on fixing their habits.
1) The Joker: The Joker is that buddy of yours who always has an Out of Character joke for almost any situation, especially when you want a sombre mood to set in. When the coterie of young vampires is moving through the haunted asylum, trying to fix the current problem of escaped serial killers with odd powers, zombies, and ghosts that either infest the place or keep trying to escape, threatening the Masquerade, the feeling of panic in the room steadily rising, the sppokienes REALLY getting to everyone... this is the guy whom at the apex of the scene, that moment every ST, DM, GM whatever lives for... cracks a joke like "Looks like Mr. Ventrue needs a new case of Oops I Crapped My Pants." and totally destroys the mood of the scene.
2) Movie Man:This is the guy that in the above circumstances instead of cracking a joke either quotes some movie or says "Hey, this is like that scene in *insert name of movie here*" totally destroying what you as the DM etc have carefully and lovingly built.
3) The comedic relief: While refreshing at times, these characters can drag a proper horror scene or desperate ambience, drag it outside, kick it in the cahones till it drops to its knees, then put a bullet in its skull to finish it off, then a second shot to the dead mood's face for good measure. This is the guy who during a moment where the DM etc makes the game take a dark, or saddenning turn does something so completely rediculous it completely destroys what the DM etc was trying to accomplish.
There are fortunately several ways to deal with this...
3) This one is the simplest- make In Character consequences for the Comedic Relief. In my Sabbat game a Nosferatu asked a rat using Animalism "Seen anything strange lately?" to which the confused animal replied "Just you ugly." and scuttled off. Said Nosferatu proceeded to run around killing rats with his machete, dropping jokes left and right in the middle of enemy held sewers. The Local Sheriff (also a Nos) thus appears behind him and with one blow with a base ball bat to the back of the PC's head explodes the PC's shattered cabeza all over the wall as his body slumps to the floor and fell to ash. Problem was solved for several weeks.
2&1) Must be settled out of character. You should talk to the players, and hopefully that should work. If not, then what I normally do is penalize the person on Role Play xp for the day. If the offender refuses to let you weave a decent mood or feeling when the entire campaign is more or less reliant on it in a horror based setting... some times you gotta ask them to take a hiatus and think on fixing their habits.