Hey Everyone!

I would very much appreciate some help on my current conundrum.

I haven't been reading or posting on the forum for a while since I've been pretty frustrated with roleplaying as a whole as of late.

I'm very sorry for the textwall but I'd be very appreciative of any advice anyone could offer.

Let me give some background on what's going on:

We started playing EotE in January of this year. And by now I'd like to think I have a pretty firm grasp on most of the core rules.

• We started out with a group of six, including our GM "K" , he's basically been our GM forever, has great creativity and even greater improv skills, pulling entire campaigns out of his bum.
• "W" , who is basically your ideal player. He has fun just playing the game, complains rarely, and actually communicates if he wants something in particular.
• "S" ; I wouldn't call him a munchkin, but he is very much the rules-lawyer of the group, trying to get an advantage whereever possible, conveniently forgetting stuff that you told him just the week before only to get upset when you tell him that he can't do a certain thing. Also loooves to be the party leader and usually leverages his characters raw power to be that leader.
• "L" ; I never played much with him or rather the least with him, but he tends to do good RP and likes to play the powerful characters.
• "D" ; also on the rule-lawyer side, he tries to do new things but tends to slip into a need to control everything, from the direction of the plot to the action of the other PCs to a point where he likes to obtain "trump cards" to use in sudden and uncalled for pvp if he doesn't get his way. Not so much this time around though, I thought he was trying real hard, but discarded his scared pilot girl on the edge of space persona for the balls to the wall femme fatal just a few sessions in. *shrug*
• And myself, I'm basically the perfect roleplayer, always original and.. jk, I too am inclined to play the token mysterious character, with the tragic backstory and being kind of evil, but not actually, ending in eventual redemption. This time around I played an Astromech Droid. At this point I hadn't roleplayed in a couple years and wanted to try something new.

We all have been playing RPGs for ten years or more, and were not foreign to narrative games like EotE, hell, all we had back in the day was an old Fallout character sheet and no rules, we just made stuff up for whatever universe we wanted to play in.

The dice probably took the most getting used to.

Around two months in we were having great fun with the game, learning by doing, but K approached me and asked if I could GM the game since he was heaving trouble with his free time.

I agreed since I really wanted to try it longform as I previously only GM'd a couple of one-shots.

Taking over the campaign was really helpful in that regard since I had plenty of McGuffins and Red Strings to work with already.

K took a break at this point and so did S due to work schedules. We knew that D would move to another city soon, so the other two planned on joining back up once he was gone.

It worked out great in that regard. We did a little arc for D 's character that would close out his story and seperate him from the group.

K and S joined back up and we continued play as normal, with the two of them rolling up new characters.

At this point we were basically working on weaving the plot to join up all the characters. They were getting involved with a drug thing on Nar Shaddaa at this point. Everythings looking great.

Suddenly at the end of a session, without any previous communication on his part, L proclaims that he doesn't want to play anymore since the system wasn't really for him. Fair enough.

It was kinda obvious that he didn't take to the system as easily as the others, but I wish he had informed me beforehand on some level.

So at this point we down to three playing from originally five, and the group/character dynamic was kinda messed up.

Collectively we decided to scrap the game and start a new campaign.

This is were the trouble begins.

I'm still the GM and I'm trying to make a campaign from scratch for the first time.

We had a session 0 and settled on the overall theme and feel for the campaign:

Imperial high time, just ~ten years after the clone wars, no rebellion in sight. We also wanted to focus a bit more on the force this time around; relics, artifacts, lost temples, forgotten knowledge. Very exploration heavy.

S is the Archaeologist / Force Sensitive Exile - More or less the focus of the campaign, since he is the only sensitive one, although the other two are also followers/believers in the force.

W is the Hot Shot Ace for all their piloting needs since they figured they would be hopping from planet to planet a lot.

K is the Bounty Hunter Gadgeteer, he keeps the ship togheter and handles the heavy lifting.

I start them out in a Czerka Prison, where they're coerced to do a dig for them or they would be shipped of to the Empire under false allegations.

They're send to a remote planet, accompanied by two Czerka brutes, to mine a newly discovered rare gas. (one of my McGuffins).

Once they acquired the gas they offed the two Czerka pilots, stole on of their fighters, and took of.

They sold the fighter and went into hiding. They quickly discover that Czerka put a bounty on them after they bailed.

As a result the K basically runs to the next best imperial officer and issues a complain, leveraging his Hunter License and a very succesful charm roll, that the bounty was illegitimate and that Czerka held them as slaves, handing over the gas-sample as evidence in the process. So they get the bounty purged from official records and proceed on their jolly way.

So they severed their connection to Czerka, wich I had planned for a recurring theme/threat, and gave away the McGuffin without learing literally anything about it.

I was like, ok, that part can develop on it's own in the background.

While gathering information about their next objective they settle on Mygeeto since it's the biggest mining planet in the system.

They arrive and are surprised about several Star Destroyers in the orbit, but are granted permission to land.

Long story short, they go into one of the mines following a force vergence at the end of wich they're rewarded with a lightsaber crystal.

They come out of the mine several days later, learn the planet is on lockdown, and are confronted by Black List Czerka Bounty Hunters.

The Empire got also involved as well as a infant Rebel Cell. Failing social checks left and right to defuse the situation it all ends in a big shootout wich alsmost killed them.

The Rebel Cell thing was part of W 's obligation. So they help each other out, flee, break the blockade, and get patched up.

Due to the gas thing I basically had to feel my way to a new plot for now or try to lead them back to it.

So I leverage K 's obligation, wich was owed favors to a very successful Chiss Conman, to send them after a Czerka Scout on or around Tatooine.

They get involved with Jabba ,who also wants the Czerka out of his territory, to get more specified information on the scout.

They follow him to a remote planet, where they find another vergence (gotta keep that force theme going too) in the form of a labyrinth.

They know the Scout is probably inside already and S and W happily follow inside, not K though, because force stuff is spooky.

Splitting the party is always fun, said no one ever, and so he waits outside. That's where that session ended for the day.

The following session is where it really went south.

And it's kinda ironic that K , who is a looong time game master, is the greatest source of my frustration, when he (at least in my opinion) should be the most supporting.

He voiced his desire for more and bigger characters before and especially an active adversary of greater scope (an entire company apparently isnt enough adversary, and even though they pissed of the Empire with the blockade thing they've been decent at avoiding them from then on).

And I admit that everything has been pretty slow burn after they threw out my initial plot.

A GMs plan never survives first contact with the players. As they say.

So the other two proceed through the labyrinth and K decides to take of with the ship and wait in orbit. Now they previously killed some pirates on the surface who hijacked a small imperial outpost and attempted to use to comm-device only to hang up after the Empire (shock) picked up the phone. So he's in orbit, only his agility at his disposal, and a Imperial Gozanti with it's TIE fighters enter the system (due to the previous comm thing) and demand identification. Now despite having a modded transmitter he gives them his real ID with his hunting license and says he was hunting pirates wich was correct since he claimed the bounties via bio-scan. After a failed charm check he is told to stay put while they check out the scene.

Figuring he is about to get busted and not having a chance in space combat (why did he even take off in the first place, I will never know) with just his agility he jumps to another system and tells me he is going to wait it out in deep space.

At this point I am at a loss as to what to to with or for him and proceed to rush the other two through the labyrinth since K is bored from that point on.

The labyrinth still took two more hours even though I already cut it down to make it faster.

They find the Czerka Scout in the Center who found an unknown mineral (my second attempt at a McGuffin). They start an elaborate ruse, escape the labyrinth, ask for a ride, take over the ship, and take the Scout prisoner.

At some point during this K left the table, so I go to fetch him since the party can rejoin now.

He says he doesn't want to play that day anymore, obviously pissed off, wich in turn pisses me off, since I rushed the other part of the session just to get back to him.

So we call it a day and I drive home super salty.

The next session is spent with RP and Downtime.

Making good of their end of the bargain with Jabba.

Having another run in with the infant Rebel Cell.

And delivering the Czerka Scout to K 's employer.

End of session. K now too, says he doesn't want to play anymore, but doesn't explain himself any further.

I grow ever more frustrated and couple days later ask him why he actually doesn't want to play anymore.

He says he told me more than enough times what he wanted more of in the game, but it wouldn't matter since he is under the impression that I just get mad at criticism.

And he is also still angry that he was forced to sit out the previous session. Now I admit that I am a terrible improv person, but he was also acting like he didn't maneuver himself into the out during that session.

At the same time I feel like I am not left enough time to actually change anything. Especially with a rather new and narratively clumsy GM as myself, that just doesn't happen from one session to another.

So I convince him to play for another one or two sessions and to see if we can change something in a way that is more enjoyable to him.

This last session was 4 weeks ago now, due to scheduling issues, wich are also a major problem and source for my frustration.

And at this point I don't know if I should even bother anymore.

The guys are pretty fanatical about playing every week and it feels like I am blamed if I don't magically make another date that week work.

It's also my personal policy not to play if someone is missing, so that makes things harder, especially since, our schedules could not be more diverse wich makes basically only Friday or Saturday night possible play-days.

S got a new job, so Saturdays are probably of the table more often than not too.

This may sound cliché but I also suffer from depression and minor social anxiety issues, wich makes any conflict around this even worse, and I feel like **** when someones not happy with the game, or says how much it sucks not to play.

Poor health and regular migraines may also cause a sudden canelation, wich sucks for everybody. Doesn't help that I'm the only non-smoker sitting in a smoke filled room for six or more hours, but it's our only available location so I usually spend the next day just recovering. I basically sacrifice my entire weekend with pre/post-prep and trying to not feel like I've been drinking all night the next day, just to make the game work, and it feels so unappreciated.

I'm also prone to procrastination, wich leads to me not prepping as much as I would like, wich also piles on more stress.

All in all I enjoy acutally playing but I very much feel like the stress and frustration around the game are not worth it anymore and if I should call it quits.

Gather my thoughts, and maybe try another game next year.

Ending it so abruptly also leaves me with a bitter taste so I contemplated bringing the game to some sort of conclusion within the next few sessions.

Sorry, if the last few paragraphs come off as a little bit ranty...

I'm sure any input would help in some way, so thanks to anyone who's reading!

Sounds like it's time to take a break from the system. Maybe get together and play something different. We do Imperial Assault on some off nites. Maybe pick up another system and genre. There's no magic answer to people stomping off in a huff, I'm afraid civility and maturity are things PCs have to bring with them to the table, the game and GM don't provide them.

Wow. That's a lot to unpack, but I'd like to give my opinion on a few issues...

First of all, sounds like you've got a couple of toxic players there. "Sudden and uncalled for pvp" is almost never acceptable; the only exception being if everyone in the group is cool with it (which is rarely the case). Best course of action is to have a private talk with them outside of game. It might help to talk to the other players first and found out how the toxic player is impacting the game for them (you might discover that you're the only one with a problem with them), but don't bring in up in game or make the person feel ganged up on. If that doesn't help, booting them or putting up with them are usually your only remaining options.

It's all well and good to want to only run if everyone is there; but if you've got players with lives and inconsistent schedules, that's a recipe for a campaign that potentially only gets run once a blue moon (and might crater out completely). Most every campaign I run has some kind of narrative mechanism to get PC's in and out of the action when players are absent. And while I might plan an encounter or an entire arc with a particular PC in mind, I never plan anything that requires any particular PC to be there.

Finally; though I try very hard not to railroad, I have very little sympathy for players who have their characters go off and do their own thing while everyone else is on task and then have the audacity to complain that they're bored. Why did 'K' decide to park in orbit while everyone else was exploring? Sometimes there's a good reason for a PC to do something like this; and in those cases, I'll make at least a minimum effort to improv some kind of side-incident for them. But that's not always possible; and I'm certainly not going to devote as much time and attention to them as I am to the rest of the group.

I empathize with you, but it really sounds like you're not having much (read: any) fun. The game's supposed to be entertaining for you, too, you know. My group's suffering from DM burnout. I was the long-time GM, expressed a desire to play, and while another guy took over, he's not very good at it and really doesn't have the time to devote to preparation. Once we wrap our current campaign, we're going to switch to an episodic format, which may be a solution for you.

We'll have a session zero do develop the overall story arc, then everybody will make a small stable of (two or three) characters. A couple of us will be the predominant GMs, but everybody will take a turn behind the screen and the cast of characters can rotate in or out as the story demands. In this fashion we hope to capture the feel of the Clone Wars or Rebels cartoons, where it isn't the same characters every episode, but each one contributes to the overall story.

Or, as 2P51 suggested, it might be time to switch to something else entirely. Good luck!

• to a point where he likes to obtain "trump cards" to use in sudden and uncalled for pvp if he doesn't get his way.

Player D needs to knock that S off and knock it off right now. Non-consensual PVP has no place in this game. The next time he starts pulling that, your response is "Sorry, we don't PVP at this table. If you have issue we will talk them out away from the table, out of game - but trying to kill other players is unacceptable."

As for the rest 2P51 stole my thunder (not his fault - I had a meeting to attend!). It sounds like everyone needs a break from the game. As good as the engine is, we do need a change of pace from time to time - so go play Superheros or fantasy or whatever, but step away from Star Wars for 6 months or so. Wait until the new movie drops to get you all pumped up for the game again.

Wow. That's a lot to unpack, but I'd like to give my opinion on a few issues...

First of all, sounds like you've got a couple of toxic players there. "Sudden and uncalled for pvp" is almost never acceptable; the only exception being if everyone in the group is cool with it (which is rarely the case). Best course of action is to have a private talk with them outside of game. It might help to talk to the other players first and found out how the toxic player is impacting the game for them (you might discover that you're the only one with a problem with them), but don't bring in up in game or make the person feel ganged up on. If that doesn't help, booting them or putting up with them are usually your only remaining options.

Player D needs to knock that S off and knock it off right now. Non-consensual PVP has no place in this game. The next time he starts pulling that, your response is "Sorry, we don't PVP at this table. If you have issue we will talk them out away from the table, out of game - but trying to kill other players is unacceptable."

Well he's not actually in the current game, since he moved to another city. That PvP was off the table for this one was also clear and he didn't actually do it. We basically played only "free-form" games beforehand where that kinda thing was not nessecarily encouraged but more acceptable.

He actually got in big trouble with the guys in a previous One-Piece themed game that I didn't participate in.

Come to think of it I don't know why I brought him up at all, since he isn't part of my current lament. Just thought I'd go over everything that pertained to our time with FFG SW, including players.

It's all well and good to want to only run if everyone is there; but if you've got players with lives and inconsistent schedules, that's a recipe for a campaign that potentially only gets run once a blue moon (and might crater out completely). Most every campaign I run has some kind of narrative mechanism to get PC's in and out of the action when players are absent. And while I might plan an encounter or an entire arc with a particular PC in mind, I never plan anything that requires any particular PC to be there.

Yeah, I heard that one several times before. It's just kinda how I roll. I hate leaving people out or being left out. I'm fully aware that not every weekend will be played, but it's kinda viewed as the literal apocalypse among the others..

Maybe I will have to give it a go sometime.

Finally; though I try very hard not to railroad, I have very little sympathy for players who have their characters go off and do their own thing while everyone else is on task and then have the audacity to complain that they're bored. Why did 'K' decide to park in orbit while everyone else was exploring? Sometimes there's a good reason for a PC to do something like this; and in those cases, I'll make at least a minimum effort to improv some kind of side-incident for them. But that's not always possible; and I'm certainly not going to devote as much time and attention to them as I am to the rest of the group.

I try to avoid Railroads too, but man. Okay, K had a legitimate reason to not enter the labyrinth since he was not force sensitive and figured it would be a death trap for anyone who doesn't wield the force.

That is why I prepped the Imperial encounter just for him, wich he immediatly bailed on after NOT engaging in the previously prepped labyrinth.

After the fact he also complained I could have just thrown some deep space pirates at him. So he can flee those as well? I thought to myself. As I said, I was at a loss.

Sounds like it's time to take a break from the system. Maybe get together and play something different. We do Imperial Assault on some off nites. Maybe pick up another system and genre. There's no magic answer to people stomping off in a huff, I'm afraid civility and maturity are things PCs have to bring with them to the table, the game and GM don't provide them.

As for the rest 2P51 stole my thunder (not his fault - I had a meeting to attend!). It sounds like everyone needs a break from the game. As good as the engine is, we do need a change of pace from time to time - so go play Superheros or fantasy or whatever, but step away from Star Wars for 6 months or so. Wait until the new movie drops to get you all pumped up for the game again.

I don't think the Setting is the problem. We all love Star Wars. I'm watching Rebels S3 now and reading the new comics. etc.etc.

I also very much enjoy this system. It's kinda the first official one a lot of us have played. So the narrative nature wasn't that much of a deviation from what we've done before.

But with this accumulated stress it may be best to take a break from RPGs. again...

I think a lot of it has to do with differing expectations. Wich I thought we had gone over in session zero, but maybe taste in style is clashing too hard on this one.

Also

I would LOVE to get into Imperial Assault, but we already have so little time for group-activities and with them it's either Pen and Paper or bust. As I said before, kinda fanatical...

I would also love to play X-Wing, buuuut as of right now I've only bought the models to look good on my shelf.

Thanks to everybody so far! If nothing else, it at least feels good to get it of my chest.

I empathize with you, but it really sounds like you're not having much (read: any) fun. The game's supposed to be entertaining for you, too, you know. My group's suffering from DM burnout. I was the long-time GM, expressed a desire to play, and while another guy took over, he's not very good at it and really doesn't have the time to devote to preparation. Once we wrap our current campaign, we're going to switch to an episodic format, which may be a solution for you.

We'll have a session zero do develop the overall story arc, then everybody will make a small stable of (two or three) characters. A couple of us will be the predominant GMs, but everybody will take a turn behind the screen and the cast of characters can rotate in or out as the story demands. In this fashion we hope to capture the feel of the Clone Wars or Rebels cartoons, where it isn't the same characters every episode, but each one contributes to the overall story.

Or, as 2P51 suggested, it might be time to switch to something else entirely. Good luck!

Aww frick.

Totally forgot this one.

The actual act of playing is acutally very fun, except when that ground zero stuff happened..

It's just, the biggest issue is that the surrounding stress kinda outweighs my enjoyment at the moment.

Also

That episode idea is really cool. I'd definitly like to try that at some point.

But maybe a hiatus is in order first...

K is a jackass. He literally ran away from every opportunity you gave him, and then complained about it. "Oohh, there's Force stuff in there! It's spooky! I'm not only gonna wait in the Mystery Machine, I'm gonna drive it back home and completely abandon the group! Anything to avoid meeting a g-g-g-GHOST!"

• to a point where he likes to obtain "trump cards" to use in sudden and uncalled for pvp if he doesn't get his way.

Player D needs to knock that S off and knock it off right now. Non-consensual PVP has no place in this game. The next time he starts pulling that, your response is "Sorry, we don't PVP at this table. If you have issue we will talk them out away from the table, out of game - but trying to kill other players is unacceptable."

As for the rest 2P51 stole my thunder (not his fault - I had a meeting to attend!). It sounds like everyone needs a break from the game. As good as the engine is, we do need a change of pace from time to time - so go play Superheros or fantasy or whatever, but step away from Star Wars for 6 months or so. Wait until the new movie drops to get you all pumped up for the game again.

We've been doing a lot of 5E. My buddy wants to maybe use the Middle Earth OGL 5E rules that just dropped to start a campaign. The playtesting has been providing plenty of Star Wars fix for the last few months. I'm sure when Rogue 1 drops people will be feelin the need again.

IMO, “K” is clearly a problem. As stated above.

If you want to try to help him, for example you could talk to him on the side and reassure him that the Vergence doesn’t offer a threat to anyone who isn’t Force sensitive.

But yeah, if he’s going to run away from every opportunity you give him to be engaged, then maybe he either needs to be cut free or some other source of attitude adjustment.

For me, when my current Star Wars game breaks down, I go find other Star Wars communities that I can play in, even if that means they’re online and not in person.

But maybe other games would be more your style. Or maybe letting someone else GM something else. Or maybe just taking a total break. Dunno.