04-05-2010, 03:20 PM | #1 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Difficult Player Type
It's been awhile since I read Robin's Laws and I don't currently have a copy, so I'm not entirely sure if he covers this. At any rate, I could use whatever advice that the hive mind can give. I have a huge problem with "Looney" or "Wacky" players.
This is a type that I've had problems with in the past (and can reasonably consider it a taxonomic category as I've played with half a dozen individuals of this type over my gaming career). It's recently become a concern of mine again as some friends of a player are perhaps interested in joining my game, and have been described as matching this type. I'd rather not simply ban them from playing, as my inability to handle an entire type of player seems a weakness on my part, not on theirs. These players have the following traits:
Advice appreciated. |
04-05-2010, 03:25 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
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Re: Difficult Player Type
Any of the last three points are enough for me to not play with them (I can work with the first two). You can't fix it or work around it and will only annoy the other players if you let them join.
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04-05-2010, 03:42 PM | #3 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Difficult Player Type
Quote:
EDIT: Besides, I'd rather not tell someone, "I'm sorry you can't game with us, because your friend described you as 'kinda like [x]' where x is this person you've never met, but I can't game with". |
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04-05-2010, 03:49 PM | #4 | |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
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Re: Difficult Player Type
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As a frequent player of comic relief characters, I'm generally pro-whackiness, but it sounds like what you're dealing with goes beyond playing a whacky character and into bomb-throwing for the sake of destruction. Either don't play with them or play zap-style Paranoia, where actions are divorced from consequence (that is, everybody gets blown up anyway) and their bomb-throwing will hardly be noticed for all the bombs that the setting is throwing back at them.
__________________
I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs. Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit! |
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04-05-2010, 03:53 PM | #5 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Difficult Player Type
Is it not possible though that I'm a boring stick-in-the-mud and I turn perfectly good players into these kind of problem players, by not allowing them a constructive outlet for their preferred play style? I've seen this quite a few times in the last 20-some years, surely the common factor is myself. Do other people have this problem?
Last edited by sir_pudding; 04-05-2010 at 04:02 PM. |
04-05-2010, 04:00 PM | #6 |
Banned
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Difficult Player Type
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04-05-2010, 04:04 PM | #7 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Difficult Player Type
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04-05-2010, 04:10 PM | #8 | |
Banned
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Difficult Player Type
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So yeah...i'll be interested to hear what others have to say on the matter. |
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04-05-2010, 04:12 PM | #9 | |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
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Quote:
This is where you get all Stoddard on their ass: bind them to a social contract. Present them with as clear a picture as you can of what your game is about. If they're clearly interested and seem willing to go along with it (including not building a problematically weird character), bring them to a trial game or three. If they show signs of being disruptive, be prepared to say "this isn't going to work" and let them go.
__________________
I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs. Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit! Last edited by Andrew Hackard; 04-05-2010 at 10:52 PM. |
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04-05-2010, 04:16 PM | #10 | |||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Difficult Player Type
I'll help you dispose of the bodies.
Quote:
If you want to work on expending your range that's commendable, but consider the campaigns in which you do it practise pieces, and don't worry about it if they have defects. Practice pieces are not the place for perfectionism. Quote:
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As Turhan's Bey Company explains above, this amounts to offering a social contract to players. I am explicit and up-front about what style my game is, what I offer, and what I want in return. Players who are unhappy with that choose not to play, and those who go against an explicit agreement can be sacked without compunction. Last edited by Agemegos; 04-05-2010 at 04:39 PM. |
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Tags |
player types, prospectus, robin's laws, social contract |
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