Players making DMing a chore and I don't want to continue. What should I Do?

[DukeGurren]

I'm running a small homebrew campaign in Eberron and to get some new experience, I looked for people I have never played with before in my area. After doing so I had two players who had played before and one guy who is completely new with a 4th having come in at the 4th session.

Two of the players have brought in their own twisted video game logic where ultimately they are doing whatever they want regardless of consequences. Story wise, I have bounty hunters after them but right now it seems that the campaign is going to end because the law is on it's way (multiple homicide in front of witnesses will do that).

Unfortunately, I can already tell that if their characters are put out of commission they will bring in characters that will act very similarly.

I hate to do this with a group of people I don't know to well, but I think I need to stop this campaign before it feels any more like me fighting the players and becomes just a bi-weekly chore. Heck, one of the guys comes from two towns over (about 40 miles), though he is the more problematic one.

The game has only been running for about 3 months (with the entirety of December being taken off so more like 2 months) but I'm already regretting starting the group. I intend to talk to my players this weekend but I'm very much not wanting to continue do to not enjoying the company of these players but I feel guilty letting them go after so few sessions as well as dropping the two new players but I'm doing this out of an obligation at this point rather than enjoyment.

Please help...I don't know what to do :smalleek:

[NerdHut]

Step 1 is, as always, talk to your players.

If they're mature enough, they will understand and adjust their behavior so that all of you can have fun.

Otherwise, it's okay to just stop. Not everyone is fun to play with. I have friends I don't play with anymore because our styles of play just do not mesh well.

[Florian]

Ok, start by asking yourself a simple question: You find yourself working against your players, not with them. Could you have more fun if you switched tracks and start gm´ing in a way that would support their needs? (As in, if they are just after a fun romp and believe that "actions have consequences" is no fun, throw verisimilitude into the waste bin and just go along with it.)

Second, you have a mouth, use it to talk. A GM is no service provider but more or less just a fellow player with the right to have fun at the table. If you don't have that, make it a topic.

[Crake]

I agree that talking to your players is important, but that's if there's a difference in playstyle preference of some sort. It sounds like you just met these people, and for the most part, regardless of the game or not, they don't sound like people you particularly want to be spending your time with, whether it be playing dnd, board games, or just hanging out with. If you don't enjoy spending time with these people, there's no reason to force yourself to keep seeing them. Let them know that this isn't quite working out how you'd hoped, maybe run a final session to give some closure if you're feeling up to it, maybe let the two troublemakers have a bonnie and clyde moment to give it a fun story at the very least, then call it quits.

Ultimately though, this is why session 0, or at the very least some sort of campaign guidelines should be laid out for players before you start. Let this be a teachable moment for you, when you start a new game, set out the expectations you have of your players in terms of playstyle, and ask the players if they have any expectations of you. If either party is unable or unwilling to meet any of the expectations, you end it there. If later on, someone violates those expectations in some way, you can gently remind them about what they agreed to, and if they continue, then you'll at least not have any qualms about stopping play with them.

[RoboEmperor]

You should stop DMing. DMing is by far the most amount of work and if you're doing all that work for 0 joy then that is wrong. Clearly these players are not a good fit so like any relationship that isn't working you need to end it and move on.

From my experience, "talking" won't really solve anything because if they play the way you want them to, they won't be enjoying the game and the game will be a chore for them. From what I gather they're not taking your game seriously and is just there to **** around killing things and getting cheap laughs out of it.

If you think they're the type to enjoy taking your game seriously then by all means give talking a try, but imo i'm afraid you need to part ways with the 2 strangers.

[Pronounceable]

Don't play with people you don't like.

[Florian]

From my experience, "talking" won't really solve anything because if they play the way you want them to, they won't be enjoying the game and the game will be a chore for them. From what I gather they're not taking your game seriously and is just there to **** around killing things and getting cheap laughs out of it.

There's an entirely different lesson there. First, the field of RPG is really broad and different folks come to a table with different expectations how all of it will work. This is one of the reasons we do a Session Zero and try to formulate these expectations as good as we can. Second is that it is often not the worst thing to challenge those expectations and also try out how others see and experience the hobby. This is true for both sides here, the GM as well as the players.

It´s not really a given that the two guys don't take the game seriously, I can also be that they play the game as they are used to playing the game, making that the default normal for them.

[Pelle]

Ok, start by asking yourself a simple question: You find yourself working against your players, not with them. Could you have more fun if you switched tracks and start gm´ing in a way that would support their needs? (As in, if they are just after a fun romp and believe that "actions have consequences" is no fun, throw verisimilitude into the waste bin and just go along with it.)


Yeah, if you know what they want out of the game, can you structure it so all of you get something out of it? It might not be what you prefer, but maybe try coming up with adventures where killing everything is expected and being a murderhobo doesn't matter. Like surviving a zombie apocalypse and so on.

[Torpin]

I'm running a small homebrew campaign in Eberron and to get some new experience, I looked for people I have never played with before in my area. After doing so I had two players who had played before and one guy who is completely new with a 4th having come in at the 4th session.

Two of the players have brought in their own twisted video game logic where ultimately they are doing whatever they want regardless of consequences. Story wise, I have bounty hunters after them but right now it seems that the campaign is going to end because the law is on it's way (multiple homicide in front of witnesses will do that).

Unfortunately, I can already tell that if their characters are put out of commission they will bring in characters that will act very similarly.

I hate to do this with a group of people I don't know to well, but I think I need to stop this campaign before it feels any more like me fighting the players and becomes just a bi-weekly chore. Heck, one of the guys comes from two towns over (about 40 miles), though he is the more problematic one.

The game has only been running for about 3 months (with the entirety of December being taken off so more like 2 months) but I'm already regretting starting the group. I intend to talk to my players this weekend but I'm very much not wanting to continue do to not enjoying the company of these players but I feel guilty letting them go after so few sessions as well as dropping the two new players but I'm doing this out of an obligation at this point rather than enjoyment.

Please help...I don't know what to do :smalleek:

talk to them is the best advice nearly everyone has given, and since they didnt seem to understand how D&D consequences work have them get captured by the bounty hunter. but not a death sentence of them sitting in jail, have them tried, found guilty and as a means to atone give them quests like the seven labors of hercules

[Dekion]

I also agree with talking to them. They may not be the right fit for the kind of game you are trying to run, and it would be better to discover that through conversation and part amicably, then to just cut things off. Also, they may not have realized what kind of game you wanted to run. Were there expectations set at the start of the game as Florian and Crake suggested?

Personally, I don't want to run a hack and slash, murderhobo style game, and even if you come to the consensus that this is what they want, then maybe you aren't the right DM for them if you are in the same place as a DM that I am. Just because you know what the players want, doesn't mean you will have fun running it, and that's okay too, but better to find that out for certain.

You may also find that it's a split among the players, and some may want to play the type of game you want to run, and the others can go on about their way, and you may still have a small, but viable group for your playstyle.

[JNAProductions]

Step 1 is, as always, talk to your players.

If they're mature enough, they will understand and adjust their behavior so that all of you can have fun.

Otherwise, it's okay to just stop. Not everyone is fun to play with. I have friends I don't play with anymore because our styles of play just do not mesh well.

This is solid advice.

Hopefully, you guys can work something out where everyone has fun.

If not, and your styles are just completely incompatible... Then you're under no obligation to DM for them. Be nice about it, but be firm.

[Particle_Man]

Talking good! That said, if talking fails . . .

Maybe try different games with them if rpgs don't work? Board games, for example?

Or a "world builder" rpg like Microscope, where everything is so different (no consistent characters, since you are jumping around time periods!) from what they have done before that they may click into a new way of doing things?

[Jay R]

"Guys, this game isn't doing anything for me. I'm willing to do the work of creating a world for you to pretend to be heroes in. I'm not willing to do the work to create a world for you to pretend to be villains in.

So would you rather start over and play heroes, or quit this game and go do something else we all enjoy (if we can find something)?"

Finding D&D players you don't know and getting frustrated by the way they play is incredibly common. It is always easier to turn your friends into D&D players than to turn random D&D players into friends you want to play with.

[Troacctid]

There's no need to have a conversation about the direction of the game unless you want the game to continue. You don't particularly enjoy spending time with these people and you aren't trying to preserve a relationship with them, so the usual advice of "Talk to your players and salvage the game" is misguided here. You don't owe them a game and you don't owe them a second chance. Just break up with them.

I recommend letting them down gently. Maybe tell them it's been fun, but your life is in a place where it's difficult for you to devote time to running a game.

[King of Nowhere]

Finding D&D players you don't know and getting frustrated by the way they play is incredibly common. It is always easier to turn your friends into D&D players than to turn random D&D players into friends you want to play with.
I turned my friends into D&D players, and found out that I don't want to play with them. that happens. When I finish the story, I'm not going to start a new campaign with them. they are still going to be my friends, we are just going to do something else.

that is to say that sometimes people have incompatible play styles. Different people want different things; a DM wanting a detailed world with a consistent adventure with players who want to go murderhoboing without thoughts is probably the most common incompatibility (because people who like to build complex worlds are generally drawn to become dungeon masters, while murderhobos are generally drawn away from it), but there are others.

So yeah, talk to them, but don't be afraid to end with "alas, we have different tastes regarding this game, so we cannot play together". and then maybe start a new campaign with those players that you got along with.