Questions tagged [problem-players]
For questions about participants in an RPG who, for whatever reason, contribute to the difficulty of running the game. (See also: the [problem-gm] tag.)
460
questions
17
votes
4answers
6k views
A player loves the story and the combat but doesn't role-play
Together with my best friend Jon, I'm in a group of people who enjoy RPGs. I've been GMing for several years in this larger group. Other friends of that group also GM. I'm the most story-oriented GM, ...
9
votes
1answer
732 views
How do I deal with a fellow player who cheats, if the GM won't do anything about it? [closed]
I have played with this same group of friends for over 20 years. However due to COVID we have had to play virtually using Roll20.
This has had the surprising and revealing effect of letting us see ...
2
votes
2answers
160 views
To what extent is the DM responsible for resolving interpersonal conflict? [closed]
Interpersonal conflict can arise between any people.
If a player has an issue with another player within a gaming group for a game that has a DM/GM/Keeper, what responsibility does a DM have to help ...
1
vote
6answers
2k views
How do I handle players that don't care for the rules I put in place as the DM and question everything I do?
I am DMing a game of dnd 5e or close to it. It's a homebrew campaign. We are mostly new to D&D with the exception of 2 players that play with other groups.
I have 2 players that seem to question ...
17
votes
3answers
5k views
How do I deal with this very annoying teammate who engages in player versus player combat?
I am playing with some friends over Discord, and one of them makes characters with a bit of a light temper. Not that bad, right?
Wrong. If you do something or say something he doesn't like, he makes ...
10
votes
3answers
6k views
Can I keep playing a character who annoys other PCs?
Context
This question is about an online community campaign. We are around 20 players who play in a persistent universe where anyone can run a game as a GM. The system is Pathfinder 2e and players can ...
13
votes
7answers
6k views
How to deal with player who won't roleplay, insists character-friction is bad, and doesn't take the game seriously?
I've browsed most of problem-players and still felt we needed more info, or more allegorical advice from experienced gamers but am now seeing stuff in gm-techniques I had missed that is somewhat ...
8
votes
1answer
313 views
Lore Jockey players
I've been having problems with a player where he'll trying to get me to homebrew rules for him based on these lore points. Recently he wanted to get his blade serrated to do bleed damage. After ...
8
votes
4answers
3k views
I am a new player in a group. Another player's character has spent their childhood in a brothel and it is bothering me. What can I do?
I am a new player in a group. Another player's character supposedly spent their childhood in a brothel before being sold to pirates; they served on the ship's crew before eventually deciding to retire ...
38
votes
7answers
6k views
How to uninvite a friend from a campaign?
I'm am prepping to DM a campaign for some of my friends. Until that starts, I'm just playing in the campaign of one of those friends. A few months ago I had invited a few of them to join the campaign ...
11
votes
3answers
4k views
How do I as GM handle PCs with “My Guy Syndrome”?
In my campaign I have several players that fall really heavily into "My Guy Syndrome" which is to say that they will excuse character actions that sabotage themselves and their teammates ...
18
votes
6answers
4k views
How to prevent players from sabotaging themselves by engaging in long arguments about what to do next?
I feel like my players often self sabotage. Often we'll experience moments where the session will come to a complete pause as the player characters argue over what to do. At this point I've started to ...
16
votes
1answer
857 views
What do I do if my group isn't gelling?
It's my first time playing D&D with a bunch of other first-timers (using the starter kit). One of the players is steamrolling over other players and his character is insufferable. What do I do if ...
22
votes
4answers
2k views
How to manage players who stay in the gamemaster mindset when they are players, not GMs?
The situation takes place in an online Pathfinder 2 community. Here everybody has PCs and can play on any session with a level that more or less matches the level of one of his PCs. A handful of those ...
37
votes
5answers
7k views
How do I engage someone who is playing his character poorly?
I am DMing a game where one player has never quite seemed happy. He regularly questions rulings and gets quite hurt when he tries to do things with his character and they don't succeed.
He is playing ...
37
votes
8answers
6k views
How do we gently ask a frustrating player to leave our game?
I have been a part of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for almost a year now (I am not the DM) and we have a player (in his early 30s) who has, within the past few months, quickly become very ...
10
votes
3answers
760 views
I have a player who will not stop cheating [closed]
As the title says, I have one particular player that has a digital file version of Curse of Strahd and is hellbent on cheating. They have done just about everything from faking dice rolls, using ...
5
votes
2answers
468 views
What should I do about a player who isn't engaging?
Recently the party I DM for has had to move to playing online (due to covid and social distancing). It started off fine and everyone was having a good time but over the last two sessions one of the ...
53
votes
7answers
7k views
What to do if a player expected much more than DM gave?
I was not the DM in this session, it was my GF, but she does not speak English so I'm here to ask for all of us. We've faced an issue we can't seem to solve.
It was our 2nd game, no one of us ever ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
How can I handle a player who seems to utilize skills their characters don't have?
Well the tag is slightly misleading as these players do not cause problems. However I have encountered several players who exhibit skills their real life counterpart has without actually metagaming. ...
30
votes
4answers
5k views
Could I have handled this PC interaction better?
I started up a play by post game on roll20 for a group of friends. A co-worker, and friend of another player, had asked to join in. Let's call him P1, or Player 1. I said sure, we got the game going ...
16
votes
9answers
3k views
How should I deal with a player who wants to circumvent combat when the rest of the party wants to fight?
I'm a very new DM running a homebrew DnD 5e campaign for a couple of friends.
One of my players, who is by far the most experienced, plays a bard who is definitely optimised for roleplay, and that ...
24
votes
10answers
6k views
How do I deal with a player wanting to do an activity that takes weeks when the party doesn't want to?
I'm currently running a campaign with 5 players at level 3, one of which is a Wizard Dragonborn who's entire character is devoted to becoming a real dragon by the end of the campaign through some kind ...
39
votes
11answers
8k views
Consistency between “yes and” with “no, because I'm the DM”
Context: I enjoy running softer systems, with Numenera being my latest favorite. I discard rules left and right in favor of what feels right during the play. I love the "rule of cool" too, ...
1
vote
4answers
1k views
A player got upset because he made a wrong move and now I can't DM
Backstory
I'm a newer GM (I've only run 3 3.5e games and 1 5e game over the last 20 years of playing RPGs).
My group has a DM/player who is extremely experienced and knowledgeable about all things RPG....
3
votes
2answers
561 views
I'm tired of a friend's PC, how to cope with it?
The situation
At my table we are 3 players and one GM. All are close friends of mine. We are currently playing a game of pathfinder 1e with the Path of war supplement and are lvl 8 and all play path ...
15
votes
4answers
804 views
I don't like a fellow player, what should I do?
We're playing online.
I don't like the player, not the PC, the PC themselves is fine, which kinda makes this worse, if it was the PC, I could chalk it up to good RP.
This player also isn't unlikable/...
42
votes
7answers
9k views
How do I get a new player to stop rewriting my game to match his favorite fiction?
I have a D&D 5e game that I've been running for a year that is on pause because some players don't want to play online or go outside (stupid plague ruining my tabletop). So I offered my son and ...
25
votes
8answers
8k views
How should I work with a player that doesn't take it seriously at all?
I am a GM and I really need advice regarding one of my players.
I play with my group a campaign with FATE rules in a postapocalyptic dark and gritty homebrew world which is mainly horror based, ...
4
votes
2answers
481 views
How much should I as a GM adapt the rules of my world to suit my players?
I'm DMing a DnD 3.5e game with some combat but mainly focused on narrative and building towards interesting moral themes. I told my players this in session 0.
In the game for our last session the ...
4
votes
2answers
482 views
How do I tell my friends that I feel like some of the PCs are being left out?
I am playing in a D&D campaign and there's two main problems I have:
My character's personality is very bard-like, but I didn't know what bards were so now another PC is filling that role and I ...
5
votes
2answers
185 views
How to balance a stunt that substitutes rapport for deceive
In my fate core campaign, one of my players keeps trying to use rapport for situations where I call for deceive rolls. He's not saying "I want to roll a rapport check", but he words his actions in ...
12
votes
3answers
3k views
Should I talk to the DM about a murder hobo that's derailing the campaign?
I'm in high school and very new to dungeons and dragons so I have no experience with this. I joined a new group recently made up of 3 mildly experienced players and a relatively new DM.
Our DM ...
20
votes
9answers
8k views
Managing New Player “Murder Hobos”
I am running a LMoP game for a group of new players, and everyone is having a great time. We are all very new to it all though - it's my first time running a prewritten campaign as a DM, (only had a ...
11
votes
1answer
757 views
How can I tell a player to stop something without seeming like I'm restricting them too much?
I have been running VtM in the form of the players playing as ghouls however one of my recent players has made a charmer character. I am okay with characters wanting to get laid however he considers ...
52
votes
10answers
18k views
My own Party are ruining the game for me. What should I do?
In D&D I play a ranger who lost an eye in battle therefore having a disadvantage.
Me and my party of 6 friends went inside a tavern to rest just before we went on our main quest together. In the ...
26
votes
5answers
3k views
How to deal with different levels of initiative and propensity to overtalk in a large group?
I recently started playing with a large group of about 7-8 people. I noticed that, in our group, a couple of the people are very active: whenever there is a chance for the group to do things, it only ...
41
votes
8answers
13k views
How to deal with a player who says no all the time?
I am a fairly new DM. I am playing with a group I have tried to DM and have played with as a PC. There is one person in that group that plays as a PC that says no, AKA he is the opposite of a murder ...
17
votes
6answers
2k views
Conflict with a new player
So I started GMing in this huge sandbox world I've prepared over the last 6 months. At the beginning, everything was fine and I was able to start a campaign with 4 players whom I've known for a while. ...
1
vote
1answer
377 views
How do I deal with metagaming/power-playing as a player? [closed]
I'm in a D&D Homebrew campaign that allows pretty much anything as long as it is written online. We have one player in specific who is frustrating and decided at the end of the campaign, he would ...
39
votes
8answers
9k views
How to deal with DM favoritism toward a player who is able to silence other players in order to avoid being constantly overruled by the group?
I've been in a campaign for the past 4 months with a very controlling DM and a player who has been dubbed their favorite.
The DM in question is very flexible with anything in their game... as long as ...
24
votes
9answers
8k views
How can I handle players taking more than their fair share of loot?
In a couple of different groups that I've played with, there is one player who takes more than their fair share of loot. Is there a good way to deal with this?
Group 1 is a homebrew campaign that is ...
2
votes
1answer
581 views
Player is out of character and refuses to play her character correctly [closed]
A player in my campaign (I am the DM) is going way out of control-by not playing her character.
Whenever I point this out, she says that it is something her character would do, but a look at her ...
18
votes
3answers
2k views
How can I encourage a fellow player to develop a character a bit more?
As a player myself, I would like to encourage another player to add a little nuance to his dark and cringey character.
The player in question is young and quite enthusiastic, didn't derail anything in-...
51
votes
8answers
13k views
What should be done if I suspect a player is using weighted dice?
I have a player who I am pretty sure is using weighted dice. He has an entire dice set that almost always gets the best possible roll. He claims it's just insanely good luck but everyone agrees with ...
48
votes
2answers
11k views
Am I overreacting or seeing things where they don't exist?
I am a new D&D player and was having a blast playing with my friends. We are all new to this, including our GM, and it's been so much fun. When we do critical hits, he plays a Power Ranger-like ...
15
votes
1answer
738 views
How to deal with a player that prioritizes combat over roleplay in a roleplay heavy campaign?
How can I deal with a player that prioritizes combat over roleplay in a roleplay heavy campaign? They all knew what they were getting into and agreed during the session 0.
He tends to try and rush ...
12
votes
2answers
477 views
How to approach other players with opposing play styles?
Recently, I joined a game of 5e with some strangers I contacted over the internet. Everybody met up beforehand, got to know each other, and everything was coming along great. We have a character ...
3
votes
1answer
246 views
How can I help my players invest more in learning the mechanics of the game?
I have several players who enjoy playing the game. They seem to enjoy role-playing, exploring, and any form of social interaction.
However, it seems that some of my current players consistently ...
23
votes
3answers
3k views
I think one of my players wants to leave the campaign
I am a relatively new DM. I am running my first campaign, which started about a year ago, with some close friends from college. We have all played D&D before, but this is the first time I’m ...
