So I am dming for the first time, and one of my players can be a little complicated ive posted on here before that his character just really loves money and loves to steal and ive dealt with that for the most part, but there are 3 othet players whose characters have reasons to go on the main quest. A pirate of a celestial bloodline bent on preventing the apocalypse. An experiment gone wrong seeking vengeance on the man responsible. A merfolk sent to the surface to study life atop the earth. And then theres the theif... He steals stuff. Ive been able to integrate all the PCs onto the same path. They've even helped out by being like "hey you help me do this and ill help you do that". But the theif has no reason to go with them. The character isnt religious and doesn't believe in the apocalypse and that life will collapse on its own. Part of me thinks the player is being difficult on purpose and honestly its a little irritating when i throw everything I can think of at him, and his character just shrugs it off. Any and all help will be appreciated.
You may need to be blunt with the player and tell him either his character goes along with the adventure or the players sits out the campaign as you are not interested in running a solo game. RPGs are a group activity, in order for that to work people need to make characters that work with the group.
I've dealt with this type of player on a number of occasions, they're a pain at first but can be brought into the fold with enough patience.
Talk to the player, let them know what they're doing is not the acts of a team player. Let them know that if they are not willing to be part of the party then he is choosing not to play. You've already started to figure out how to accommodate him in one area, it is only fair that he accommodate for the team play in return.
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I have a player, currently, who is all about showing how amazing they are as a player. He is a Min/Max-Power gamer all the way who loves to be the best. His current character is literally built to try to stop me, as DM, from being able to threaten him. His mindset is to "beat the DM" rather than enjoy the story/game that the table is participating in. His character was introduced into the game as a native of the land that the rest of the party had found themselves in. I did this to give him a role where he could help the party, however, he has taken it upon himself to simply want to "beat the biggest baddest creatures to show how powerful he is". When I asked him about why he's continuing to follow the party he said it was because his character was bored. I had an NPC ask him to be a liaison between the party's people and his people, he responded with "but my character doesn't do politics, I won't be much help".
So, as you can see, I have a combative player who isn't trying to be a team player. I could let him know that I see what's obvious, I could force him to be a team player, and I could request that he change his approach. The thing is he doesn't feel like he's doing anything wrong, even when I've approached him about his choice to not really be a team player. At this point in time I could ask him to step out if he's not going to change, but what would that show? I'd be a dictator saying "my way or the highway", mostly because the rest of the table hasn't expressed any problem with his approach. So, instead, I'm going to use the story to highlight his choices, let him drive how the world reacts to him.
If he's poor with politics, then he won't be asked to be the liaison again. If he chooses to strike out on his own while the party is trying to accomplish a different task, then he's going to be playing his own solo game. I'll give him his time to play, I can bounce between scenes fairly easily. I'll toss plot hooks his way so that there's reason to be with the party, if he doesn't take them, it's on him. As to his power gaming, I have all the tools necessary to still challenge him, so I don't care how hard he tries, the story will do the work. However, if the table starts to express a problem with him, I'll sit down with the whole group and let everyone air their issues. I try to accommodate everyone's play style as best I can and try to include them no matter how difficult they try to be. In the end, I have no problem with a player leaving my table, or asking a player to leave my table, because they are showing no interest in being a team player in a team game.
You could work it into the backstory where in a recent job the thief took something they didn't understand from a target they didn't understand, and now they're on the run from the main bad guy's minions who want thetheir mcguffin back. As a thief who just wants to steal stuff, they probably aren't too keen on giving things back, so they turn to the party and incidentally saving the world in order not to lose the potentially biggest payout of their criminal career.
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So I am dming for the first time, and one of my players can be a little complicated ive posted on here before that his character just really loves money and loves to steal and ive dealt with that for the most part, but there are 3 othet players whose characters have reasons to go on the main quest. A pirate of a celestial bloodline bent on preventing the apocalypse. An experiment gone wrong seeking vengeance on the man responsible. A merfolk sent to the surface to study life atop the earth. And then theres the theif... He steals stuff. Ive been able to integrate all the PCs onto the same path. They've even helped out by being like "hey you help me do this and ill help you do that". But the theif has no reason to go with them. The character isnt religious and doesn't believe in the apocalypse and that life will collapse on its own. Part of me thinks the player is being difficult on purpose and honestly its a little irritating when i throw everything I can think of at him, and his character just shrugs it off. Any and all help will be appreciated.
So...can the villain just have a large pile of treasure or some extremely valuable item in a vault to trigger your thief's need to acquire it?
You may need to be blunt with the player and tell him either his character goes along with the adventure or the players sits out the campaign as you are not interested in running a solo game. RPGs are a group activity, in order for that to work people need to make characters that work with the group.
I've dealt with this type of player on a number of occasions, they're a pain at first but can be brought into the fold with enough patience.
Talk to the player, let them know what they're doing is not the acts of a team player. Let them know that if they are not willing to be part of the party then he is choosing not to play. You've already started to figure out how to accommodate him in one area, it is only fair that he accommodate for the team play in return.
---
I have a player, currently, who is all about showing how amazing they are as a player. He is a Min/Max-Power gamer all the way who loves to be the best. His current character is literally built to try to stop me, as DM, from being able to threaten him. His mindset is to "beat the DM" rather than enjoy the story/game that the table is participating in. His character was introduced into the game as a native of the land that the rest of the party had found themselves in. I did this to give him a role where he could help the party, however, he has taken it upon himself to simply want to "beat the biggest baddest creatures to show how powerful he is". When I asked him about why he's continuing to follow the party he said it was because his character was bored. I had an NPC ask him to be a liaison between the party's people and his people, he responded with "but my character doesn't do politics, I won't be much help".
So, as you can see, I have a combative player who isn't trying to be a team player. I could let him know that I see what's obvious, I could force him to be a team player, and I could request that he change his approach. The thing is he doesn't feel like he's doing anything wrong, even when I've approached him about his choice to not really be a team player. At this point in time I could ask him to step out if he's not going to change, but what would that show? I'd be a dictator saying "my way or the highway", mostly because the rest of the table hasn't expressed any problem with his approach. So, instead, I'm going to use the story to highlight his choices, let him drive how the world reacts to him.
If he's poor with politics, then he won't be asked to be the liaison again. If he chooses to strike out on his own while the party is trying to accomplish a different task, then he's going to be playing his own solo game. I'll give him his time to play, I can bounce between scenes fairly easily. I'll toss plot hooks his way so that there's reason to be with the party, if he doesn't take them, it's on him. As to his power gaming, I have all the tools necessary to still challenge him, so I don't care how hard he tries, the story will do the work. However, if the table starts to express a problem with him, I'll sit down with the whole group and let everyone air their issues. I try to accommodate everyone's play style as best I can and try to include them no matter how difficult they try to be. In the end, I have no problem with a player leaving my table, or asking a player to leave my table, because they are showing no interest in being a team player in a team game.
You could work it into the backstory where in a recent job the thief took something they didn't understand from a target they didn't understand, and now they're on the run from the main bad guy's minions who want thetheir mcguffin back. As a thief who just wants to steal stuff, they probably aren't too keen on giving things back, so they turn to the party and incidentally saving the world in order not to lose the potentially biggest payout of their criminal career.