So I DM for a comic shop and dont really get to choose who comes into the game. We got a new player, a high schooler who is the daughter of another player. She tries really hard to meas with other players. Shes having tons of fun and I definetly dont want her to get discouraged but the other players are getting really frustrated. Ita getting out of hand and my core group wanta to brwak away from the shop and finish the campaign without her or her father. What do I do?
The best thing to do is to take her and her father aside after the next session and ask if she can be less antagonistic with the other players as it's not fun for them. Tell them some of the other players have complained.
Define "messing with the other players." It might help to know just what she's doing in order to give better advice.
The only other thing I would say before I knew more is maybe suggest that she ask the other players' permission before messing with other characters, thus letting them in on the joke so it's fun for both people and not just her having a joke at the others' expense.
The best thing to do is to take her and her father aside after the next session and ask if she can be less antagonistic with the other players as it's not fun for them. Tell them some of the other players have complained.
What Harbinger X wrote. Or maybe talk to the dad first. But do it privately.
I DM for a local Game Shoppe myself. I had a young guy that wanted to start fire to everything all the time. And he kept doing it because he got a lot of laughs. I tried simply saying, ok you set fire to it and go on like it didn't effect anyone or anything. I eventually threw him in the stocks for lighting a stack of hay on fire at a guild keep.
The best thing to do is to take her and her father aside after the next session and ask if she can be less antagonistic with the other players as it's not fun for them. Tell them some of the other players have complained.
Taking aside and talking private, yes. Telling the others at the table are complaining, no, even if true. This will start her looking around the table wondering who is bad-mouthing her to the DM. Fosters player vs player antagonism. Bad idea.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Does your game shop not have rules or an organizer you can talk to? I DM at my local store and they would have no problem booting a problem person if it were an issue with bullying.
+1 for talking to the dad first, but for the following reason:
It could be (not certain, but it's at least a possibility) that the girl is a bit "on the spectrum" (i.e. lightly autistic / Asperger's, etc.) and dad is trying to use the gaming sessions as a sort of social therapy / safe space. I'd talk to Dad first to see if that's the case - if so, the best way to handle it might be to privately let the other players know the situation so they can be supportive and try to help redirect the girl's enthusiasm.
If it's *not* the case, then Dad is still a good place to start by saying "look, we don't want to discourage her fun, but is there a way we can steer her toward having more collaborative fun with the group? I think everyone will enjoy this more if the group runs as a team rather than as competitors."
The best thing to do is to take her and her father aside after the next session and ask if she can be less antagonistic with the other players as it's not fun for them. Tell them some of the other players have complained.
Is she the mad-scientist player? The one trying to test the boundaries of the rules?
well she starts to do things like, covering the wizards eyes while he is flying the rest of the party to a destination as a roc, ignoring me when i tell her that the ancient white dragon probably wont agree to be her little lap dog, trying to tape the wizards moth shut for no reason, stuff like that.
Yeah, so that's just being disruptive to other players. That's an out-of-character talk with her and her dad about how to play nicely with people. Same if it was a chess club and she was making a habit of knocking over people's boards and pieces, and "had fun" doing that.
Talking out game is one solution, the other solution is to improve the sense of realism for such a player by changing the way you DM. The fact that she's doing these kind of things, probably means you're letting her......that sounds quite harsh and I don't know the complete situation but try to tie consequences to stupid behavior.
"she" tries to cover the eyes of the roc - roll acrobatics check contested - and succeeds, you are currently blinded by her hands covering your eyes, you have trouble seeing as you feel her arms wrap around the sides of your roc head, what do you do? (if that's not enough involve the rest of the group, the roc disoriented begins to tilt to a side, you struggle to hold on to the roc as you see "her" blinding it, what do you do?)
I think it would be quite logical for the other players to snap at her, at bird form, if it hits, make her roll to keep on the roc, or she plumets to her death. She tries to make a spell to save her, make her roll arcane to see if she can cast a spell while falling etc. Ancient white dragon as a lap dog? Sounds like a character that's bound to die from stupidity...
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So I DM for a comic shop and dont really get to choose who comes into the game. We got a new player, a high schooler who is the daughter of another player. She tries really hard to meas with other players. Shes having tons of fun and I definetly dont want her to get discouraged but the other players are getting really frustrated. Ita getting out of hand and my core group wanta to brwak away from the shop and finish the campaign without her or her father. What do I do?
The best thing to do is to take her and her father aside after the next session and ask if she can be less antagonistic with the other players as it's not fun for them. Tell them some of the other players have complained.
Define "messing with the other players." It might help to know just what she's doing in order to give better advice.
The only other thing I would say before I knew more is maybe suggest that she ask the other players' permission before messing with other characters, thus letting them in on the joke so it's fun for both people and not just her having a joke at the others' expense.
What Harbinger X wrote. Or maybe talk to the dad first. But do it privately.
I DM for a local Game Shoppe myself. I had a young guy that wanted to start fire to everything all the time. And he kept doing it because he got a lot of laughs. I tried simply saying, ok you set fire to it and go on like it didn't effect anyone or anything. I eventually threw him in the stocks for lighting a stack of hay on fire at a guild keep.
Taking aside and talking private, yes. Telling the others at the table are complaining, no, even if true. This will start her looking around the table wondering who is bad-mouthing her to the DM. Fosters player vs player antagonism. Bad idea.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It's kind of hard to give any advice if it's so unclear what the problem is.
Is she talking all the time? Is she disturbing the story? Do the other people don't like her character? Or herself?
Does your game shop not have rules or an organizer you can talk to? I DM at my local store and they would have no problem booting a problem person if it were an issue with bullying.
+1 for talking to the dad first, but for the following reason:
It could be (not certain, but it's at least a possibility) that the girl is a bit "on the spectrum" (i.e. lightly autistic / Asperger's, etc.) and dad is trying to use the gaming sessions as a sort of social therapy / safe space. I'd talk to Dad first to see if that's the case - if so, the best way to handle it might be to privately let the other players know the situation so they can be supportive and try to help redirect the girl's enthusiasm.
If it's *not* the case, then Dad is still a good place to start by saying "look, we don't want to discourage her fun, but is there a way we can steer her toward having more collaborative fun with the group? I think everyone will enjoy this more if the group runs as a team rather than as competitors."
I'd also encourage her to turn her attention to the NPCs rather than the PCs.
Is she the mad-scientist player? The one trying to test the boundaries of the rules?
Or is she just being disruptive to other players?
well she starts to do things like, covering the wizards eyes while he is flying the rest of the party to a destination as a roc, ignoring me when i tell her that the ancient white dragon probably wont agree to be her little lap dog, trying to tape the wizards moth shut for no reason, stuff like that.
Yeah, so that's just being disruptive to other players. That's an out-of-character talk with her and her dad about how to play nicely with people. Same if it was a chess club and she was making a habit of knocking over people's boards and pieces, and "had fun" doing that.
Talking out game is one solution, the other solution is to improve the sense of realism for such a player by changing the way you DM. The fact that she's doing these kind of things, probably means you're letting her......that sounds quite harsh and I don't know the complete situation but try to tie consequences to stupid behavior.
"she" tries to cover the eyes of the roc - roll acrobatics check contested - and succeeds, you are currently blinded by her hands covering your eyes, you have trouble seeing as you feel her arms wrap around the sides of your roc head, what do you do? (if that's not enough involve the rest of the group, the roc disoriented begins to tilt to a side, you struggle to hold on to the roc as you see "her" blinding it, what do you do?)
I think it would be quite logical for the other players to snap at her, at bird form, if it hits, make her roll to keep on the roc, or she plumets to her death. She tries to make a spell to save her, make her roll arcane to see if she can cast a spell while falling etc. Ancient white dragon as a lap dog? Sounds like a character that's bound to die from stupidity...