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View Full Version : DM Help Emotional cracks in the group



Pinjata
2016-05-24, 07:50 AM
Sooo ... After a LONG time of nudging me toward it, player A convinced me to DM for a group of noobs + him(we ara now at session 8). It was supposed to be roleplay heavy "my first D&D experience" with a friends of his. I, personally had most second thoughts regarding him, since he is prone to outbursts of anger. Things erupted on a second session, but we have managed to make things right surprisingly good. However, new trends are emerging I'd like to talk about and perhaps get your opinion on it.

We have players A(D&D veteran), B(noob), C(noob) and D(noob) in the group. Player A is playing a very LG character (far from lawful stupid).

In a recent session party got into a fight. Also, gullible as they are, they took a shapeshifter with them. Fight was preaty easy, but there was personal (OOC) friction between A and C to a point that C just left the (IC) room. Rest of the party handled conflict well, but shapeshifter followed C and almost killed her. I plotarmored' the whole thing a bit (another accompayining NPC asked restrained players who were waiting for enemy spells to wear off what to do and second NPC saved the life of C). But ... I have about 10 years of D&D experience and I already see things turning sour.

B switched to LE mode: If we find someone, we push him in the front lines. A disagreed and emphasized that is an evil act (you may be forceing a stranded commoner to fase a basilisk), but B is leaning heavily that way. Eventually they hunted down and killed shapeshifter and C wants to "mutilate his body in horrific ways". Hmmm. Not to mention the fact C left the group in the middle of the fight and went exploring on her own. A seriously dislikes this.

D is playing dumb. In despite of all the suggestions and nudges from A, he is constantly standing in front line, (NOT a tank), is being hit, burned and acid'd by traps and all sort of baddies on first round - and his conclusion? "I need more AC and HP".

So ... things are not sour yet, but I see several conflicts developing within the group, that may eventually shatter it. I myself don't really care much about it, but A, B, C and D are friends. So ... yeah.

In a nutshell: A is LG, B wants to go full murderhobo, C does not get party cooperation and wants to desecrate bodies, D is a walking pinjata.

What do? :D

Geddy2112
2016-05-24, 09:58 AM
The thing is, PC's either die the hero or live long enough to become murderhobos. But I think most of this is from being newbies, as most players do at least one of these things in their early ttRPG days.

Between A and B is your easiest fix. A will have no problem with B killing everything in sight if you constantly fight undead, demons, devils, ghosts, and other inherently evil remorseless monsters. Murderhobos have a place in a fantasy setting because only they can and will go stop the threats to the world in return for the treasure. I don't think it is hard evil for B to push NPC's to the front unless its backed by a threat of lethal force. Easiest way to solve this is to keep NPC's away from the party, send the party to the remote corners of the earth void of any non hostile life(unlife). Let him get his murderhobo out of his system like any newbie and then once he wants more from the game, add in NPC's.

C is breaking the fundamental rule of the game by splitting the party IC and OOC. Next time they run off, no plot armor, let the dice fall as they will. Sure, this player might ragequit the group, but that is probably for the best if they are the hothead. It is supposted to be a fun game to get away from the stress of reality, you don't need that crap at your table and don't tolerate. Inform them in not so many words if they leave their attitude at the door, otherwise they can find another game. If they wanna work out some bad tension mutilating corpses, you might need to let that one slide, just tell them to do it away from player A. If good and evil are gonna play together, the good player has to agree not to be too policing of the evil player, and the evil player needs to excuse themselves from the room when they wanna feast on orphans and the like. Remind them and the entire group that the point of the game is to have fun, the DM is always right, and never split the party.

D is just making newbie mistakes, and might need to learn the hard way. You can point them towards guides for their class, system optimization, and give them some basics on tactics and the like. Eventually they will get more HP as they level, and better armor and AC boosting swag. Show them in class or feat options to help them do this if that is what they want. At the end of the day, losing a character is a hard lesson but they won't forget it. So long as they won't take it too personally when their character dies.

Airk
2016-05-26, 10:24 AM
Have YOU pointed out to player B that the actions he is proposing are Evil?
Have YOU pointed out to player C that cooperation is an implied part of your game?
Have YOU had a quiet chat with player D about the fact that he's probably going to die if he keeps acting like that?

Why is player A the one who is trying to fix all the problems with your game?