How to kill a role-playing game I've been an avid role-player for about three years now and have had the pleasure of playing both sides of the screen, either as a player or a game master. There are tons of people with more experience than me, but I
hope that my limited time can still add some sort of insight to others. This essay is based off of what I've observed in various gaming groups, tabletop and online, and how either the GM or the players can totally ruin a game.
Players Motivation:
My first experience with a player ruining a group game was with a local tabletop group I was in. We had several problems that should have been tweaked but instead just sort of boiled up and got worse. The first problem was a player who had absolutely no interest in the game and who just came because their romantic interest played and they wanted to feel social. There were times when we as characters needed this person to help us and they
tended to consistently let us down. It got to the point that we began referring to this person as a walking gun because all they'd do is shoot when we told them to. It's a real downer when your group is being intensely in character and then the unmotivated person drags everyone down or jolts them out of a really great IC moment. It can also be frustrating for a GM because its obvious the PC isn't paying attention which makes them
wonder why they should bother. There was one occasion when I was discussing the campaign I was running with a couple of my characters and mentioned a big bad guy who had featured extensively in the game. The unmotivated PC looked at me and asked "Who?". It felt about as nice as a slap in the face. Rule pestering: Another problem is someone who feels he need to constantly haggle over the rules and
what's fair or not. Usually someone has more engineering, anthropology, scientific, or whatever experiences over the GM and will argue the validity of the rules. Unfortunately the GM usually isn't an expert in all of these fields and often finds themselves forced to make a gut decision. There's a point when, yes, rules are stupid and should be bent to allow some common
sense in. But more often than not the person is just aiming to re-write things so they can get a better deal. Have you noticed that folks seldom argue the rules when they're wrong in their favor? Especially in a magical or sci-fi setting, the technical workings should at some point not be relevant. Obviously a lot of the technology is impossible or we'd have it now, and magic
doesn't really exist. Sometimes when you insist on peeking behind the curtain to see how things work you miss the whole point of the wonder. Troublemaker: When you play with a group you should have SOME consideration for that group. If you are constantly trying to get yourself and the other PCs killed, or going off on wild personal
tangents while the other PCs have to sit and wait for you. If your character is so utterly apathetic towards the group then they probably shouldn't be there to begin with and YOU should get a character that is more of a team player. It is because of the troublemaker player that I am hesitant to try new groups or one shot games, because I don't like it when someone thinks its fun to endanger me or try to get me
killed, or ruin any and all chance I have of success. I know I can't possibly be alone in this matter either. Lack of communication: I recently ran a plot where it was plainly obvious that my players were not talking to me but spent a LOT of time talking to one another somewhere else. Because of this whenever I'd start running something they'd start out with obviously pre-rehearsed dialogue and would
have the wildest hair-brained conclusions to information I'd given them. Quite often mountains were made out of molehills and I felt as though the PCs just wanted me to follow along with their script instead of running the world and the adventure like I had generated it. Another side effect is that other PCs not involved in this little secret side conversation are left wondering where the heck they're supposed to fit in or where the heck their teammates
came up with these conclusions. It wouldn't have been all that hard for the PCs to log their conversations or even write up a small snippets of stories that sum up their discussion and their conclusions. Wishful thinking. I noticed another habit the PCs had would be that they would loudly state how they expected things to be or how they wanted things to go. Like they might want the gold key
to open the door instead of the silver one even though on my notes I had pre-determined that the silver one would be the door unlocker. I do not believe in encouraging such behavior as it will eventually make the PC think that if they loudly state something is true or that they want something then that's what they'll get. I can't loudly make my house become a mansion no matter how many times I say that I live
in a mansion... and I feel that even though my worlds may be fantasy or sci-fi based they still have to follow some rules. If a game has no rules or nothing set in stone at all then why present a challenge at all? Spotlight hogging: I'm personally guilty of this, but my way of solving the problem is not to play in large gaming groups. Basically, if you want to be the center of attention then you should find
either someone willing to be your lackey or a side character and let you get most of the dramatic moments. In a larger group, there comes a point where you might not be doing something or it might be someone else's turn. When that time comes you need to sit and let the others have their chance. Such behavior can get downright inconsiderate when someone has patiently waited for their
turn and when it's their time to speak they get interrupted constantly by other PCs who are bored and want the spotlight to shine on them again. Less aggressive or experienced players might decide to curl up and let themselves get bullied, which can really discourage any future shots they might decide to take towards role-playing.
GMs Herding:
I remember once where the GM had a story they wanted to show me, but had pretty much dedicated themselves to shoving me along their intended path and not giving me much in the lines of leeway. Midway into the plot I wondered what I was there to do since my actions all seemed to fail despite my skill (because they would have disrupted the path of things) or the GM pretended I'd never said anything to begin with. Every plot should give a player a
certain amount of freedom, otherwise you might as well just write a story. Pet NPCs: There is also the danger of falling in love with an NPC so much that it gets more spotlight attention than the players do. If an NPC suddenly becomes cooler, smarter, and better than the PCs in everything they do then the whole game can get boring for the actual players. NPCs are tools and color, not stars. Lack of communication:
This is important on both sides. I have lots of issues and quirks I want to avoid in playing. If some horrible thing is going to happen I'd like to have an opportunity to stop it. I hate being made to feel helpless as a player and I hate even more being set up to look stupid when my character isn't. There also might be directions I don't want my characters to go
in. Maybe I want them to stay beggars, rogues, or whatever and never 'clean up'. The GM should be interested in what the player wants to do and, more importantly, what they don't want to do. It takes very little effort to simply ask "Is there anything you'd like to avoid in your plots?". A player might not always come up and TELL you these things. You may (and probably will) have to ask. But asking can save you from all sorts of
trouble. Mood change: A GM needs to watch the pace of their game and keep an eye on the mood. If NPCs run around like happy little gullible morons and everyone laughs as the PCs screw with them and tease them, then abruptly the mood shifts and all of the goofy happy people turn suddenly viscous and attack the PCs or punish them for what they've done.. well, it can
really throw things off. You need to establish a mood for your game and stick with it. Brief comedic interludes are fine, but they need to be watched and used in moderation. A mood is like a sledding down a hill… the farther you go the more momentum you build and the harder it is to stop or change. Suddenly wrenching the mood in an different direction is like putting a big tree right in the path of the sled. It will probably stop things, but the stop
will be messy and painful and you're going to have to spend a lot of time to get things on track again.
In general, the best thing you can do is make sure both sides talk to each other. What does the GM want to do or not want to do? What about the players? Take some time and ask.. maybe get your players to write journals or such. A lot of everything boils down
to communication, and both sides need to make efforts to keep the communication going. | 
