How Might I Know A Bad Player?

[Geoffrey Silt]

Now, as of lately I've come to find that there seems to be a player a bit unlike the rest. Of course, it's fine, having different characters is always great but, in this one case, it seems quite off.

Now I am in no way accusing anybody of being a bad player at all, I simply need GM help, so that if the time comes, I know what the problem is and how to deal with it.

Think for example, a character powergames, metagames, or is otherwise just seeming to be quite off track.. In faact, I'll make a situation for a few... Mainly cause I'm bored..

Like, say I make a trap for. The rpers alright? They're split up as of now, and I rp in a trap. The first person to respond, knowing oocly that said trap will affect them, their character suddenly knows of said trap, despite not having any reason to ICly, and goes from full speed rush to "alright time to be super duper sneaky beaky" how do I class this? What do I do in the OOC, etc.

The whole gang is in the middle of a big super duper ridiculously tense situation alright? Stuff is going DOWN, and it's BAD. I put in a few RPs from npcs or opposing parties, and it looks like things are going to turn sour, and then one character strolls in doing something that is just ridiculous for the scene. Think like whenever two armies are about to go to war, and one of the half naked dudes runs through tooting a horn and skipping with flowers in their hair. It throws a few RPs pretty off wack, and messes with the stuff you were trying to work on pretty bad. Now I understand an RP shouldn't be an on rails experience, MAY AS WELL WRITE A BOOK! But still, how would I work with this in OOC and other such things.

------------

In general just some tips on how to work with things like these, and they don't even have to be things like these, just ANY advice with dealing with people who are just screwing things here and there whether they know or don't know that they're doing it.. In fact, if you have personal experience, please, info dump it you want.

[Ellri]

Our favorite when we have doubts about a player and/or character?

Run their character through the Mary Sue Test. If it goes above 30 or so, its not good. Optimally, it should be well below that too.

[Jig]

Honestly, I feel like lots of players don't know what meta-gaming is. It's a more complex 'don't' rule than godmoding, because it's hard to know whether you're doing it or not; it's much easier to tell if you're controlling somebody's character than making sure you're working with the correct body of knowledge (your character's, rather than your own). Honestly, if somebody meta-games in your RP, make sure they understand what meta-gaming actually is, and then ask them to not do it. Sometimes they'll be fine with it; othertimes, they'll try to justify their bullshit.

I was once in a game on another forum with a player who, with no means of telling and no reason to suspect, instantly wheeled on my character, who was secretly withholding information from the group, to ask if there might be anything he wasn't sharing. This was based on my character's private thoughts from my post and no actual clues. When I pointed this out, I was told that their character was "very complex". There was nothing that I could really do, certainly not from a player's perspective, to stop their nonsense, so in the end I just made my excuses and invited somebody to kill my character off.

As a GM, my general rule is that I look for a minimum writing standard (spelling, grammar, originality) but a slightly higher 'attitude standard'. If I think somebody is going to be bullish, uncompromising, incorrigible or inactive, I don't accept them into my RP's. Obviously this is difficult to gage, but if you can do a bit of research on your players, you can see how they write and also how they respond to constructive criticism. Also stick 'no meta-gaming' in any 'rules' section your game might have, so that, if you see it, you can refer to the rules and not have to argue about whether it was right or wrong; it was wrong, because it says not to do it in the rules.

As for the second situation, there really isn't anything you can do about that other than vetting every idea your players come up with, and you won't get very far like that!

Our favorite when we have doubts about a player and/or character?

Run their character through the Mary Sue Test. If it goes above 30 or so, its not good. Optimally, it should be well below that too.

@Ellri

It doesn't help with assessing a player's writing ability; only whether their character is clichéd or not, surely?

[Ellri]

While not 100%, quality of character sheets and writing ability go hand in hand. Most who have high levels of writing ability tend to be good at making characters of similar quality. Thankfully, the majority of those who meta-game, godmod or the dozen other such things do it out of ignorance or lack of thinking rather than doing it intentionally and with foreknowledge that it is as bad as it is.

In the RP we're running, we have several levels of knowledge. Most of the players have some secrets known only by a few (typically the player + GMs), while the player characters also have lots of things in their sheets that the players may know but the characters probably don't know.

With those levels of knowledge in mind, the more serious levels of meta-gaming are avoided simply by most players not knowing others deepest secrets. But the best way to prevent it in our opinion is to have a good group that talks together and communicates. Breed the right attitude in the players, and you avoid it.

[Jig]

With those levels of knowledge in mind, the more serious levels of meta-gaming are avoided simply by most players not knowing others deepest secrets. But the best way to prevent it in our opinion is to have a good group that talks together and communicates. Breed the right attitude in the players, and you avoid it.

@Ellri

Basically the ultimate GM advice right there.

[Ruby]

If the player in question is a good writer: PM them, try to work it out.

(I'm a good writer. I can make even Mary-Sues work, and work well. Most other good writers can too...sometimes they just need direction. ^_^)

If the player in question is every other writer on the Guild: kick them from the game/thread.

Pretty simple.

[Azura]

I feel that it's hard nowadays to find good role players. I took a break from rps so many times, because others would either not write enough, which tells me that they aren't really into the story, or don't know how to get into character, or just plain out unrealistic, even for a fantasy rp. For example, I wrote a plot about you're real self being sent to an anime-like world. Normally I would think, one would panic in a situation that you so suddenly was taken way, or scared in someway, but nope. Even though they are in a new world, they just walk out the door and start enjoying their new lives, completely ignoring the problem at hand.