Hi !

This might seem like a non-issue, because when you have that kind of problem, that means your game is going pretty well. And it is. So here to my GM "first world problem":

I have a player who like comics very much. His character is literally Doctor Doom, the mad scientist, villain and mastermind Victor von Doom.

When my player originally came up with his concept, he provided with a very decent amount of reasons backing his choice, including the idea that Darth Vader was, among other things, inspired by Jack Kirby's Doctor Doom and other pulp villains like Darkseid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kirby, http://www.salon.com/2002/04/10/lucas_5/, http://ralphriver.blogspot.ca/2005/04/george-lucas-and-doctor-doom.html). I therefore agreed to let him play a very "doomesque" Star Wars adaptation of Doom, and he picked a Career and Specializations to match several aspects of the character, including Arkanian for species. We discussed at length several key aspects of what I would allow or not, and I tried to lower his expectations of "world domination". Using Force and Destiny's Sage and Niman Disciple, but also Scientist and Scholar (in which he invested most of his points). The end result is a very interesting, and not at all overpowered, character build. It's largely a fluff/concept character, not a powerhouse. Most of his XP went in Knowledge skills, Mechanics, Medicine and Computer (this last one at 5!). He has a power armor and lots of gadgets, but that's the easy part to manage.

The problem therefore is not mechanical, it's thematic.

I'm having a hard time reconciling both the mad scientist tropes of applied phlebotinum / handwavium pseudo-science (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AppliedPhlebotinum?from=Main.Handwavium), lightning fast "research", ridiculously fast invention crafting, gadgeteer genius tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GadgeteerGenius), mcgyvering everything out of thin air (or plot) (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGyvering) .... with Star Wars's relatively "Space Age Stasis" science (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceAgeStasis), fantasy outlook ( not hard Sci-Fi at all). I don't think it's all incompatible at all, it's just a matter of focus and PC vs. NPC thing. I mean look at the huge handwave material behind hyperdrives and lightsabers tech, over-the-top Rakatan Star Forge, science-defying sith alchemy, etc. It's just that in the comics these things can be constructed quickly, with no thought given to cost or impact on the world. It gets hard to balance the cost and time for players, and have the mad scientist do his thing, especially if contrary to comics, you known they are going to try to use these devices at every occasion (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReedRichardsIsUseless).

What do you do when a PC constantly discusses the science of Star Wars, asks the cost of Cloning Facilities, designs droid "A.I." that he somehow wants to keep in his datapads, wants to build "organ printers", researches alien genetics to create hybrids, wants to clone and genecraft Force-users, and have an army of Doombots? I see the myriad story opportunities, but imagine how this must be when 3-4 times per session you have to manage the new science project the player brings up, which of course is totally different from the previous one and absolutely expensive beyond measures...

I am also having difficulty managing the player's expectations of playing a "villain protagonist" (even if his villainy lies more in master plans and clever ploys than slaughter, destruction and mayhem). The player is the embodiment of the forever-GM-person. He rarely gets to play. He is used to being the guy designing the NPCs, and he has a hard time thinking of himself as a anti-heroic/anti-villain protagonist. He dislikes the reactivity of heroes, the fact they do not try to fix the problems before they crop up. He wants his character to change the status quo, with... Doom at the top. But this often gets in the way of the group going on, you know, adventures.

So far I've tried responding positively to this by being fair to him. He is (obviously) a Dark Side Force User, with morality in the low 20's. He purchased almost all the cool Talents that fuel his concept. Utility Belt for constant gadgets (Scientist), Stroke of Genius (Scientist & Scholar), Careful Planning (Scientist), Valuable Facts (Sage), etc. He is the biggest Destiny point user at the table, and he is very, very proactive in adding to the story, despite him thinking of his PC as a somewhat mad mastermind behind it.

Lastly, I am also having a lot of trouble pitting this UTTERLY FEARLESS character archetype against any NPC with attitude, since by definition (and the comics back that up wonderfully) Doctor Doom does not accept being inferior to anyone, and challenges anything. Including Galactus, the Beyonder (see Secret Wars, http://www.comicvine.com/beyonder/4005-10300/) and basically anyone. Core to Doom's personality, he has epic Willpower (reflected in the character's Discipline and Willpower scores), just read about Doom (http://whatculture.com/comics/5-reasons-why-doctor-doom-is-the-best-villain-ever.php/2) to see how that might might sometimes be a problem... including Doom's arrogance and stubbornness...

Last game, we started Beyond the Rim, the group went to The Wheel and the player tried to hack Master-Com once he got to his hotel chamber. I allowed him to try, and a very RED dice pool was thrown, and he failed with despair. One of Master-Com bodies visited him to discuss this, but the player refused to bow down and apologize to the master of the station and soon he began fearlessly walking down The Wheel in search of the Master Computer Server (for research!), disregarding his security, and after a longish firefight (non-lethal from start to finish) he was arrested. Since his character is fearless, he shows no sign of redemption, and Master-Com, who is being bribed into releasing him, has a hard time letting this madman rampage the session once more.

What can I do to turn this GM challenge into a fun experience for the player without cheapening the other PC's experience? Up to now they have been relatively OKish with the idea Doom would think of them as "minions" in his delusion, but the imprisonment "for science!" was kind of the cherry on the Sunday.

Help!

Um...

I wouldn't let a player be Doctor Doom even if it was a Marvel Superheroes roleplaying game. Doctor Doom is one of the most powerful, dangerous, brilliant and evil scientist/magicians/maniacs in the world.

Is he going to be flying around the Galaxy trying to get smuggling jobs from Hutts?

That's a dealbreaker, ladies.

Shut it down.

I have to say, it sounds like the problem began when you said "yes" to allowing Doctor Doom in the Star Wars universe. After that, it doesn't seem like there's much to be done. That may be my conservative nature though. One of my pet peeves is cross-genre characters in games, though I see it constantly in online games. My thought is that if you want to play Legolas, then play Lord of the Rings, but WE'RE playing Star Wars thank you.

I'm at a loss for advice, but as a major villain he sounds badass. Maybe he can play the villain to the rest of the group. It would take some finagling to make it work, but he sounds like he would be perfect for the task.

I have to say, it sounds like the problem began when you said "yes" to allowing Doctor Doom in the Star Wars universe. After that, it doesn't seem like there's much to be done. That may be my conservative nature though. One of my pet peeves is cross-genre characters in games, though I see it constantly in online games. My thought is that if you want to play Legolas, then play Lord of the Rings, but WE'RE playing Star Wars thank you.

He's not (yet) a full fledged Doctor Doom. When we discussed it, the idea was that his character would have a progression throughout the campaign, going from ex-ISB interrogator to evil mastermind. He's still far from his end goal.

Apart from the "don't allow named characters from other settings", the problem goes beyond whether the character is named "Doom" or "Darth Bob" or [wannabe Sith #987]. If he had made a Darth Plagueis-like character, we might be having similar problems at our table for the "villaneous" part. If he had made a truly "fearless" arrogant character, this would also be a problem, and any sufficiently genre-savvy "mad scientist" might become a setting problem. The fact that the sum of it all amounts to Doctor Doom is not the bottom of it: I allowed a dark side, sith-inspired, (mad) scientist of tremendous willpower and ambition, what do I do now?

So basically, I'm not bothered by the "sum" (Doom), but more by all three parts:

1) how to manage mad scientists or gadgeteer geniuses?

2) how to manage villain-inspired PCs?

3) how to manage fearless/stubborn characters/players?

Tell him to change his character's cape to black and his name to Darth Doom.

But on a more serious note:

1) let him be good with technology and fix/build/couble things together. But tell him these things take time to build (even if you're Dr. Doom.) Mad scientist doesn"t need to be a problem to fit in with star wars: stuff a md scientist might get up to in the setting: trying to find a biological reason why some people can use the force (medichlorians). Cloning force users (happend in SW EU)

building a droid army to take over the galaxy. Stitching various aliens together. Rancor sized droideca powered by sith lightning, etc...

2) Try to steer the player into the role of a Byronic hero or maybe an anti-hero. Maybe he's helping therest of the PC's for personal gain (moar powaaah!) or out of a sense of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. " I help you destroy the empire so i can rule the planet of Latveria". Personaly i never got victor von doom. He has the super science, he's the ruler of his own kingdom. All he wants is power, and to have Reed Richards admit that doom is better than him.

3) fearless isn't so bad since you're not playing call of cthulhu anyway. Or as a wise old jedimaster once said "you will be!" you can scare players. Take away their stuff! This should work very well against mr gadgeteer here:

The players are investigating the ruins of an abandoned sith temple. When they eneter an underground vault the find a strange black rectangular slab of glossy black stonelike material. Aaaaaaaaaaaaand at that exact moment all their technology stops working. (if any pc is a droid you might need to find a way to that pc from the rest of the party) Not only does nothing technological stop working, it stays that way. Now the pc must find a way to find out what happened and reverse it.

Of the three, I think #3 is your biggest problem. Managing #1 is fairly simple: cost of materials. Yes, they can certainly create project X, but it's going to cost them four times the cost of their ship in materials, and there might be some failures costing more materials along the way.

#2 can be an issue, especially if the campaign generally casts the players as the good guys. An Edge of the Empire campaign can easily be run with not-very-nice characters. Just keep in mind that there's always somebody bigger.

#3 is a big issue for me as well. I have a player who is willing (even eager it seems sometimes) to wreck the campaign just to get his way. He claims otherwise ("Hey, it's just the way I rolled, my character is just like that.") but obviously he chooses to play in that type of grandstanding destructive way.

At the heart of it the question is: I planned to play my campaign this way but a player built his character that way, what do I do?

Usually if you have 5 players there will be an overlap in what their goals are in playing the campaign and that may have been discussed way back in session zero. Perhaps. Regardless of what you spoke to and didn't for that matter you have a player that created a villain. Was it even remotely possible that you introduced the idea of playing a game based around heroic fiction and sold the players on the idea of playing the bad guys?

If not then the problem as I see it is that 4 players are being good guys and the other guy created something unexpected and not in a good way. If you change the way your campaign runs then 4 players are going to find they no longer have anything for their characters.

Best solution if to take the player aside and explain that you cannot change the scope of the campaign to play to his character concept and would he please re-roll.

1) Regardless of how smart they are, they still need to operate according to the nature of the world they are in, not the world they are based on. Anything he invents/uses/creates/etc. needs to be within the nature, limits and technology of the Star Wars universe - specifically the "Normal" bounds of the nature, limits and technology. These kinds of characters/players love to used the "mentioned once in one book that may or may not have been during the rebellion era" and the "was totally created to be a plot device but now it's in world right?" technologies and powers. Don't let them do this. There's no internet in Star Wars, and even if there was they wouldn't be sharing their discoveries.

The character needs to start from the same technological base as every other mad scientist (and the empire has several) and outlaw tech (the rebellion has many) does - the normalized base of Star Wars. Than they need funding and equipment. Unless your the plucky make-it-work rebellion outlaw tech, that means Empire levels of funding. Look at the Dark Trooper and Death Star projects. Star Wars has it's share of unobtainium, but it's always on one planet, rare, and in Imperial Hands.

2) Evil is far from monolithic, and there are a lot of people out there with a lot more power (personal and otherwise) than the players. Make sure your villains and heroes are working against him as much as they should be. Which is proportional to his projected influence. It's going to change the way the campaign runs though.

3) Nobody is fearless. If they insist on going into fear causing situations, make them roll fear. Even if the make it, or ignore the fact that they failed it, you need to have the world react appropriately. Being overly stubbern puts you in bad situations, and its not your job as a GM to save the players from their own bad decisions. (bad rolls, sure, but not bad decisions)

Thanks for all the replies!

As far as the other players are concerned, everybody knew from the start this would be a morally gray game with villainous themes. One of the players, the charismatic Twi'Lek, is actually Dr. Doom's hench(wo)man/apprentice. There is a rodian assassin/gadgeteer/heavy with a big gun and lots of stealth and an evil droid smuggler (quite literally "evil").

Things usually go well, but every one in a while the Doom character becomes stubborn and makes a fool of himself doing so. The Twi'Lek is slowly finding that she could do without a master, since that master fails at earning respect from others. One may talk about being the master, but one has to either be a good leader, be politically strategic or have enough power to cower others into submission; a good coercion score doesn't suffice.

Of the three, I think #3 is your biggest problem. (...)

#3 is a big issue for me as well. I have a player who is willing (even eager it seems sometimes) to wreck the campaign just to get his way. He claims otherwise ("Hey, it's just the way I rolled, my character is just like that.") but obviously he chooses to play in that type of grandstanding destructive way.

From the looks of it, it seems my player's/his character's stubbornness is the real issue. How do you deal with the "but it's my character concept!" argument when the game has gone on for 57+ hours of gameplay and the player has been consistent with his concept? How do you deal in such a way that makes everybody satisfied?

"Your character concept is starting to get in the way of the game, I'm sorry. Everyone having a fun game to which they contribute equally is more important than sticking to your original concept and making sessions revolve around your character."

In any case, if his character discovers that being utterly stubborn keeps causing him problems and doesn't change his behaviour then he's being a poor roleplayer. Characters can (and should) experience growth and change. A character who wants to think of themselves as a Big Fish but keeps finding themselves at the mercy of the authorities should realise that and start to grow resentful and scheming- if they don't, arrest is the only possible outcome.

I would set him up with a nemesis, possibly a rival Arkanian who can match him for arrogance and ability. Let that character chide him for trying to solve problems on the fly, and point out that it took years of dedicated research and work to accomplish some of the things the rival has done.

I would also use the limits of the technology to your advantage. If the player tries to hold a droid AI on a datapad, break the datapad (or have it melt). His arrogance can be an incredible story tool - if he assumes something will work a certain way, complicate his life by showing him how your Star Wars setting works.

Also, you can use some of the comic tropes to your advantage. Doom doesn't conjure things out of mid air; make your PC hunt down the rare and dangerous materials and information he wants in order to make some of these things a possibility. If his research turns up the fact that only the rare [unobtanium] from the lost planet of [somewhere weird] that hasn't been heard from since the Rakatan moved it 20,000 years ago, now he's got a goal worthy of Dr. Doom.

The stubbornness and willful (political) stupidity is definitely the biggest thing.

Perhaps its time for him to meet with the Emperor for a sit-down. Have someone ridiculously overpowered take note of his actions and behavior. They don't want to squash him like the bug he so obviously is because it's good to have other villains out there terrorizing the people and drawing their focus away from them. Plus, this guy has potential.

So completely emasculate him in a manner that he has only the barest inklings of understanding. Then have the UBBEG appear and say, quite amicably, let's talk.

He will then proceed to explain to him the value of appearing weak, veiled strength and misdirection. For effect, point out that minion #5249 is his personal pet and has been keeping an eye on him the entire time and only now has he reached the level of power that this 'secret' merits revelation.

Then let him go.

Obviously expect a revenge plot to be hatched immediately, but that could be a hook unto itself. If the character doesn't quickly get the idea, then you can drop the boot on him. If he does get the idea, you might find him learn subtlety for a while (with the occasional allowable megalomaniacal monologuing).

Obviously expect a revenge plot to be hatched immediately, but that could be a hook unto itself. If the character doesn't quickly get the idea, then you can drop the boot on him. If he does get the idea, you might find him learn subtlety for a while (with the occasional allowable megalomaniacal monologuing).

For Victor Von Doom? Not gonna happen.

The player needs to learn that there really are consequences, and some things happen that just don’t need a roll, no matter how insane his attributes, skills, talents, and personality are. Drop him out of an airlock in the middle of the biggest Cosmic Void in space, over a billion light years in diameter. He’s got nothing with him except his sealed space suit, and the fact that he’s never ever going to die. Nobody knows or cares where he is. Nobody comes to pick him up. No one is going to discover him for hundreds or thousands of years.

Meanwhile, the other players get on with their lives for a few games. Invite the problem guy to create a new temporary character that he can get attached to.

After a few games have gone by, maybe the Clone Emperor does actually discover Dr. Doom and decide that he’s going to put him to good use as an NPC replacement for Vader, and starts training him. After a few more games go by, Dr. Doom shows up again, this time he is ten times the pain-in-the-ass that he was as a PC — and he’s out for revenge.

From the looks of it, it seems my player's/his character's stubbornness is the real issue. How do you deal with the "but it's my character concept!" argument when the game has gone on for 57+ hours of gameplay and the player has been consistent with his concept? How do you deal in such a way that makes everybody satisfied?

Ugggh, I hate when I hear "but it's my character concept!" at the gaming table. It's invariably and excuse for doing something asinine. Your player isn't just playing a character he's playing you, and the rest of your group are collateral damage.

My advice is to forward this thread to him and have him read it. You seem to be reasonable and have been bending over backwards to accommodate him and he doesn't appreciate it and doesn't seem to be taking into account anyone else at the table. Have him read this and see that from the outside he's kinda acting like a jerk.

There's fearless, and then there's just dumb. You can be not afraid, but still respect that somebody has more power or authority then you. If he lips off and won't bow down to a crime lord, the dude is going to kill him. I'd warn the player, but if he doesn't take the hint, drop him into the rancor pit, or send him off to the spice mines.

I hate to sound like a ****, but if he puts himself in a situation where I can't think of any reason why a guard/thug/storm trooper wouldn't shoot him in the face and kill him, then it's time for him to roll up a new character.

Hi !

This might seem like a non-issue, because when you have that kind of problem, that means your game is going pretty well. And it is. So here to my GM "first world problem":

I have a player who like comics very much. His character is literally Doctor Doom, the mad scientist, villain and mastermind Victor von Doom.

When my player originally came up with his concept, he provided with a very decent amount of reasons backing his choice, including the idea that Darth Vader was, among other things, inspired by Jack Kirby's Doctor Doom and other pulp villains like Darkseid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kirby, http://www.salon.com/2002/04/10/lucas_5/, http://ralphriver.blogspot.ca/2005/04/george-lucas-and-doctor-doom.html). I therefore agreed to let him play a very "doomesque" Star Wars adaptation of Doom, and he picked a Career and Specializations to match several aspects of the character, including Arkanian for species. We discussed at length several key aspects of what I would allow or not, and I tried to lower his expectations of "world domination". Using Force and Destiny's Sage and Niman Disciple, but also Scientist and Scholar (in which he invested most of his points). The end result is a very interesting, and not at all overpowered, character build. It's largely a fluff/concept character, not a powerhouse. Most of his XP went in Knowledge skills, Mechanics, Medicine and Computer (this last one at 5!). He has a power armor and lots of gadgets, but that's the easy part to manage.

The problem therefore is not mechanical, it's thematic.

I'm having a hard time reconciling both the mad scientist tropes of applied phlebotinum / handwavium pseudo-science (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AppliedPhlebotinum?from=Main.Handwavium), lightning fast "research", ridiculously fast invention crafting, gadgeteer genius tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GadgeteerGenius), mcgyvering everything out of thin air (or plot) (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGyvering) .... with Star Wars's relatively "Space Age Stasis" science (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceAgeStasis), fantasy outlook ( not hard Sci-Fi at all). I don't think it's all incompatible at all, it's just a matter of focus and PC vs. NPC thing. I mean look at the huge handwave material behind hyperdrives and lightsabers tech, over-the-top Rakatan Star Forge, science-defying sith alchemy, etc. It's just that in the comics these things can be constructed quickly, with no thought given to cost or impact on the world. It gets hard to balance the cost and time for players, and have the mad scientist do his thing, especially if contrary to comics, you known they are going to try to use these devices at every occasion (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReedRichardsIsUseless).

What do you do when a PC constantly discusses the science of Star Wars, asks the cost of Cloning Facilities, designs droid "A.I." that he somehow wants to keep in his datapads, wants to build "organ printers", researches alien genetics to create hybrids, wants to clone and genecraft Force-users, and have an army of Doombots? I see the myriad story opportunities, but imagine how this must be when 3-4 times per session you have to manage the new science project the player brings up, which of course is totally different from the previous one and absolutely expensive beyond measures...

I am also having difficulty managing the player's expectations of playing a "villain protagonist" (even if his villainy lies more in master plans and clever ploys than slaughter, destruction and mayhem). The player is the embodiment of the forever-GM-person. He rarely gets to play. He is used to being the guy designing the NPCs, and he has a hard time thinking of himself as a anti-heroic/anti-villain protagonist. He dislikes the reactivity of heroes, the fact they do not try to fix the problems before they crop up. He wants his character to change the status quo, with... Doom at the top. But this often gets in the way of the group going on, you know, adventures.

So far I've tried responding positively to this by being fair to him. He is (obviously) a Dark Side Force User, with morality in the low 20's. He purchased almost all the cool Talents that fuel his concept. Utility Belt for constant gadgets (Scientist), Stroke of Genius (Scientist & Scholar), Careful Planning (Scientist), Valuable Facts (Sage), etc. He is the biggest Destiny point user at the table, and he is very, very proactive in adding to the story, despite him thinking of his PC as a somewhat mad mastermind behind it.

Lastly, I am also having a lot of trouble pitting this UTTERLY FEARLESS character archetype against any NPC with attitude, since by definition (and the comics back that up wonderfully) Doctor Doom does not accept being inferior to anyone, and challenges anything. Including Galactus, the Beyonder (see Secret Wars, http://www.comicvine.com/beyonder/4005-10300/) and basically anyone. Core to Doom's personality, he has epic Willpower (reflected in the character's Discipline and Willpower scores), just read about Doom (http://whatculture.com/comics/5-reasons-why-doctor-doom-is-the-best-villain-ever.php/2) to see how that might might sometimes be a problem... including Doom's arrogance and stubbornness...

Last game, we started Beyond the Rim, the group went to The Wheel and the player tried to hack Master-Com once he got to his hotel chamber. I allowed him to try, and a very RED dice pool was thrown, and he failed with despair. One of Master-Com bodies visited him to discuss this, but the player refused to bow down and apologize to the master of the station and soon he began fearlessly walking down The Wheel in search of the Master Computer Server (for research!), disregarding his security, and after a longish firefight (non-lethal from start to finish) he was arrested. Since his character is fearless, he shows no sign of redemption, and Master-Com, who is being bribed into releasing him, has a hard time letting this madman rampage the session once more.

What can I do to turn this GM challenge into a fun experience for the player without cheapening the other PC's experience? Up to now they have been relatively OKish with the idea Doom would think of them as "minions" in his delusion, but the imprisonment "for science!" was kind of the cherry on the Sunday.

Help!

Kill him. That is all.

Ouch - not sure how to handle this one in game. Actually, that's not true, but I'll get to that in a second.

The obvious thing to do would be talk to him - by himself, not at the table - and voice your concerns. Tell him you feel his character arc isn't inline with where you want to go with the story and what the other players want out of the game. See if he'd be willing to dial it down some. You'll still let him do cool things, but not quite so over the top. Try and compromise.

However - if that fails, the obvious thing to do? Let him win. Good job, Blofield - you killed Bond and took over this sector of space. You now rule with an iron fist all who oppose you. Time to retire and roll up someone new."

Thing is - let him go out with a bang! Give him a game to shake the heavens. That will let him get all his megalomania out of his system, make him feel good about capping off his character, and gives you back your game when he comes up with someone more mundane. And next time, you'll know to vett his characters more closely.

I think I'm going to need Patton Oswalt to explain to me how this is possible.

That is the best 8:42 that I've ever spent in my entire life.

@BarbeChenue

What's the campaign situation, and do you run any house rules or adjustments?

I ask because when I see complaints about a player character that requires somewhere around 385XP on mentioned talents alone coming from a GM running a canned low-to-mid level adventure like "Beyond the Rim" that's kinda a red flag to me.

If you did something like allow the players to start at +500XP then that may be your problem. Tossing that amount of XP at a player is a big responsibility, and not everyone is prepared to handle it. I see you've go the F&D Beta in there, so I'm guessing you probably allowed +500 XP because someone told you that the +150XP Knight level wasn't enough to create "Jedi." There's something to that, but it's a discussion for another time...

If you did give the players a big XP pool to start..then it's kinda your fault. Not only did you hand the player the tools to become Dr. Doom, and authorize that character for play, but you then failed the player by not running a campaign that supported that play level. That leaves only 2 options:

1)End the campaign, retire the characters, and start anew with characters at a lower level.

2)Put the campaign on hold and redesign everything to support the actual level of play your players are at.

That is the best 8:42 that I've ever spent in my entire life.

And so brilliantly on topic. That's why you don't allow mixed-genre characters.

And so brilliantly on topic. That's why you don't allow mixed-genre characters.

I will disagree - to a point. A complete mashup like we get in that "script" would be a disaster, but characters inspired from other sources can and do work. My very first SWRPG character was basically Indiana Jones if he was Han Solo. I've also done a Jedi that was a smartass snarker that was Peter Venkman - no paranormal eliminations, but very much the Used Car Salesman, Gameshow Host vibe that Dr Venkman had.

So it can work - just that you need the right expectations for the character and an effort to make it fit with the game.

Characters that are inspired by another genera is not the OP's issue here, it's a Player refusing to integrate their PC's character into the setting. Having a "Mad Scientist"/Force User is fine as long as you can do it and still be a Star Wars Hero and not a comic book super villain.

Characters that are inspired by another genera is not the OP's issue here, it's a Player refusing to integrate their PC's character into the setting. Having a "Mad Scientist"/Force User is fine as long as you can do it and still be a Star Wars Hero and not a comic book super villain.

I think the key phrase here is "inspired by." For most of us, that would be a character from another genre that has a particular trait or personality that we want to emulate or replicate and pull into the Star Wars universe. For others, it's taking their favorite character and simply transplanting it into Star Wars.

Then too, there is a player arch-type that might be applicable (I make no judgements on your player, but I've had someone very similar in past campaigns). Some people simply enjoy breaking the game/campaign. Not necessarily out of maliciousness, though that's possible, but simply because they enjoy defeating the game system.

Ego can be a big issue too, and in Edge of the Empire there aren't any obvious characters that are simply better than everyone else (Jedi, technically, but you can't actually play one). So the temptation to bring in superhero/villain like attributes, abusing the rules to make them fit and gain unfair advantage, is high.

Combine those two and you have a player that simply must be the center of attention, be able to bully and surpass any of the other player characters, and can derail any story the GM may present to the group to make it their story, and not a cooperative tale.

The best way to deal with such a player (assuming you want to keep them in your game) is to deny them the tools to abuse the system. Unfortunately that means saying "no" a lot more then is normally good for a game. Instead of saying "How can Doctor Doom fit in the Star Wars universe?" instead ask: "How would the Star Wars universe create someone like Doctor Doom and at what point in that development would it be appropriate for a player?"