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“It’s not me, it’s you” and other conversations with problem players

Sometimes your group doesn’t work out. Maybe there’s a player in there who just isn’t having fun. Maybe the game you’re running isn’t the one they want to play. Maybe they’ve broken up with their partner and are taking out their anger in the game or perhaps their personality just doesn’t mesh at all with another member of the group. Or perhaps your game is planned for the end of their week and they’re sleep-deprived and cranky.

Whatever the reason, a situation like this means it’s time to have one of the the hardest conversations you can have as a GM. And while this shouldn’t only be the GM’s responsibility, often the task falls to the GM. And that’s what i’ll be discussing here today.

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Getting on with it!

I’ll admit, I was working on another post when the idea for this one hit me. And I’ll even admit that part of the seed for this one comes from frustration in my own games. That said, there’s some interesting things to discuss with regards to this topic, so let’s dive in!

For next year’s Christmas, I want another hour in my day.

As you may have guessed from the title and the above picture, this post is about those sessions where a lot happens and nothing ever gets done. It’s about sessions where you spend hours chasing down a clue that leads absolutely no-where and sessions where you spend your hard-earned resources to open a door that leads, you guessed it, no-where.

So without wasting any more of your precious time, let’s dig in and talk about how to avoid wasting everyone’s precious RPG time.

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Creativity at the table

Aka, How to think outside of the box and get away with it.

Consider the following. The house Reyne of Castamere royally pissed off the Lannisters. They end up fighting and the last of the Reyne retreat into their main fortress known for its subterranean systems, defenses and living areas. The fort is an absolute pain to take and could sustain them for a long time. A siege could prolong the war for far too long, being costly and an assault would likely end up with high casualties and loss for the Lannister Army.  Tywin Lannister knew this and ended up deciding on a third option. Close off any and all entries/exits to the fort, leaving only a small opening for the massive amounts of water from a nearby river, which he had diverted into the fort. Flooding and killing every Reyne inside, ending the war and suffering no extra loss in the process.

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Adult themes & You

Aka, Get a room, you two!

WARNING, this one may be NSFW!!

Let’s face a couple of facts before we get into this:

  • Humans are carbon based life forms, driven by a need to survive and procreate. (Sex makes the world go round.)
  • Both men and women agree that the female form is just all sorts of amazing.
    Especially in their prime. So much so that our society near worships the perfect female body.
  • And those not shy enough to admit, can say the same for the male physique as well. Again, primes more than others. Men strive to attain it, women strive to have the men that posses it.
  • Sexual attraction and urges heavily influence our society.

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Difficult players

Aka, OMG, why are you like this??!

Or, ‘How i stopped caring and learned to love the sauce’.

One of my biggest pet peeves at a table is difficult players. And i’m sad to say that this is still an ongoing struggle after 6+ years of being a GM.

Having a bad group or just any bad player(s) in your group can really demotivate you as a GM and personal experience has at times left a sour taste in my mouth. There can and likely will be points in time where you may question the reason for even showing up anymore.

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Pop culture in games

Aka, Being Geeky is cool now!

I think it’s safe to say that we’re all geeks here (in our own way).
Or at least, our society is now more accepting of all that is geeky.
With the rise of the internet and with people like Felicia Day, Will Wheaton, Adam Savage, Christopher Perkins or groups like ‘Penny Arcade’ appealing to a broad audience, ‘being Geek’ (or the term ‘Geek’) is now seen in a more positive light.
Hell, its become so mainstream now that people have tried distilling it into a television format (Looking at you, Big Bang Theory….). Even the typical hot girl on the internet would now openly cling to her identity as a geek. Something that the wizards and warlocks of old (70’s-90’s) could only dream of.
(I doubt Gary Gygax would have as many fan girls as George R.R. Martin.)

Geeks today…..You MAD bro? Martin beyond the wall. The real ‘Tyrion’.

So we’ve talked a bit about geeks in pop culture.
But what about pop culture for geeks?

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Racism in an RP setting: Part 1

The following post concerns a sensitive topic and may discuss unpleasant things in order to understand them better. This post is intended to analyse a trend in roleplaying games and provide some insights into what it may mean for the hobby.

Please keep it civil if you wish to comment.

Racism is still a much discussed topic these days.
In a time where terrorism and virtue signaling are rampant and the word ‘Nazi’ gets thrown about like its going out of style, it’s only natural for some people to get conflicted over the idea of excluding anyone and merely thinking about excluding someone (over prejudice) can get you branded as a social outcast.

So much so, that even with regards to fictional worlds, the idea is floating around that we must include our real life ideals into our games or risk being an outcast at the table.
Example given: In this vid (I normally find his advice to be top notch btw)

So how would that translate to fictional property and worlds?
Let’s break down what that would mean.

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Dealing with a GM: Part 1

We’ve all been there. Morbo the destroyer, the party’s Barbarian, is down. The Cleric is being strangled to death by an animated chain, unable to heal the rest. And there you are, in dire need of a good roll.
You roll a 19 and still you cannot make that critical check.
Meanwhile the GM is giving you the nastiest, shit eating grin you’ve ever seen.
And you start to wonder. ‘When and where did we fuck up so hard that we ended up in this situation in the first place?’

Well, let’s be honest. If you look back, there’s likely to be dozens of things you could have done to avoid all of this. You could have thought about asking your GM about some extra lore about the area. Maybe living chains are quite common here. Maybe you shouldn’t have jumped the gun and grab that floating ruby that was auspiciously left on a central pillar. At least, not without checking it out first. Maybe that group of Orcs just had no way in hell swimming after you in all that heavy armor a session ago.

All good options, surely. But how would you go about this?
Well, some players might simply tell you to ‘Git Gud, Scrub!’.

A good player will tell you that everything depends on your clever interaction with your party and above all, your GM.

So the question can be asked. “How can I, as a player, interact with my GM, in a way that is beneficial to the story and the game?’

It’s actually easier than you’d think.

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