Problem player freaked out. "How can they cut into our ship so fast?" "This doesn't make any sense!"

At that point, I'd just mention "look how fast it took the stormtroopers to blow thought the door on the Blockade Runner". Fast is not an issue for breaching hulls.

I would play along with it: "yes, you have actually heard of these cutting tools before. They are manufactured specifically for the empire, worth a pretty penny too".

Resume...

1. Why would players fly to a heavily controlled Imperial location like Kessel in the first place with illegal goods on their ship. I mean you have to know that they ARE going to search your ship.

Maybe a GM warning to the players about entering imperial space and installations with contraband goods. Even Han Solo gets boarded sometimes.

2. Why would the imperials ever have need to cut into the hull of the ship?

They can quite simply impound the ship and imprison the crew until they (the imperials) are given access to the ship by the players. "This deal is getting worse all the time!" I mean we all know the horror stories about the Kessel Spice mines. C3P-0 feared them greatly.

So yeah. Cutting up the ship to gain entry really does not make much sense. Not to mention ships tend not to fly through space well with holes cut in them. Why would the imperials ruin a perfectly good ship?

Sounds to me like the perfect opportunity to have obligation to a corrupt imperial officer. "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

I got my brother to take me to his FLGS so I could observe an EotE game while he played Magic. He kept telling me that the guys in the EotE group were the kind that gave gamers a bad name. I figured he was exaggerating. The EotE players got into an argument and used language that they'd been warned not to use... and got banned from the store 10 minutes after I sat down!!!

It took over an hour to get there and I had to sit, with absolutely nothing to do, for almost 3 hours while my brother played his games and, I learned the hard way, if I dared to complain, all he would say was that he told me so... which continued during the hour drive back home, too.

My first trip ever to the FLGS was probably my last.

I got my brother to take me to his FLGS so I could observe an EotE game while he played Magic. He kept telling me that the guys in the EotE group were the kind that gave gamers a bad name. I figured he was exaggerating. The EotE players got into an argument and used language that they'd been warned not to use... and got banned from the store 10 minutes after I sat down!!!

It took over an hour to get there and I had to sit, with absolutely nothing to do, for almost 3 hours while my brother played his games and, I learned the hard way, if I dared to complain, all he would say was that he told me so... which continued during the hour drive back home, too.

My first trip ever to the FLGS was probably my last.

Man... I've never understood how recreation could turn into such infantilism and lunacy. But I guess it happens in any kind of 'game'. Luckily, as far as I know, us roleplayers don't riot and beat each other up like some of those soccer fans I've heard about!

Man... I've never understood how recreation could turn into such infantilism and lunacy. But I guess it happens in any kind of 'game'. Luckily, as far as I know, us roleplayers don't riot and beat each other up like some of those soccer fans I've heard about!

FWIW, their argument wasn't about something in the game. Something at the table triggered it, tough. Maybe the EotE dice have hypnotic power!!!!

My first trip ever to the FLGS was probably my last.

That's a shame. I know my FLGS isn't like that. There are usually lots of activities going at it (wargaming, rpgs, card games, etc...), so there is always something to look in on or even, possibly, join in. The owners work to make sure they learn about the people that come in, even the non-gamers, just to be friendly

I love my group and GM!

Problem player freaked out. "How can they cut into our ship so fast?" "This doesn't make any sense!"

At that point, I'd just mention "look how fast it took the stormtroopers to blow thought the door on the Blockade Runner". Fast is not an issue for breaching hulls.

I would play along with it: "yes, you have actually heard of these cutting tools before. They are manufactured specifically for the empire, worth a pretty penny too".

Resume...

1. Why would players fly to a heavily controlled Imperial location like Kessel in the first place with illegal goods on their ship. I mean you have to know that they ARE going to search your ship.

Maybe a GM warning to the players about entering imperial space and installations with contraband goods. Even Han Solo gets boarded sometimes.

2. Why would the imperials ever have need to cut into the hull of the ship?

They can quite simply impound the ship and imprison the crew until they (the imperials) are given access to the ship by the players. "This deal is getting worse all the time!" I mean we all know the horror stories about the Kessel Spice mines. C3P-0 feared them greatly.

So yeah. Cutting up the ship to gain entry really does not make much sense. Not to mention ships tend not to fly through space well with holes cut in them. Why would the imperials ruin a perfectly good ship?

Sounds to me like the perfect opportunity to have obligation to a corrupt imperial officer. "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

This is very sound advice and I appreciate it. Good example of my newness to GMing.

That's a shame. I know my FLGS isn't like that. There are usually lots of activities going at it (wargaming, rpgs, card games, etc...), so there is always something to look in on or even, possibly, join in. The owners work to make sure they learn about the people that come in, even the non-gamers, just to be friendly

I actually didn't mean it to sound like I wouldn't go into one again. That FLGS is the most local FLGS and it is still over an hour away. I only started playing rpg's 2 months ago so my experience is limited. I've played Pathfinder's beginner' box and EotE.... and card games and other board games really won't work for me. So, with the only EotE game at that store banned, I have no reason to go.

My dad runs my EotE game. I love it. I was just being greedy, anyway.

I was not the GM for this particular group, but was one of the campaign's first players: during the first few years of what turned into a seven year WEG Old Republic campaign (which is STILL ongoing, albeit as a sequel), it came to my attention that our only female RPer was being pestered by another player. From what I could understand, the male player had vaguely discussed having his (middle-aged) soldier form a relationship with the female player's (early twenties) mechanic. Not wanting to offend him, she did not outright decline, but neither did she agree.

The (play-by-post online) game progressed, and his soldier made his interest in the mechanic very clear. Understandably - and realistically - the mechanic was less-than-enthused by his flirtations: he began hitting on her after her very first life-or-death encounter; furthermore, this was the very first time either of them had met. The mechanic politely ignored his advances.

Immediately, the soldier began roleplaying as though she had been outright childish in her rejection of him - even went so far as to reference it as such. After a few of these posts, he tried again to flirt with the character; the player, not wanting to piss him off but having no interest in pursuing the IC relationship he was hinting after, rejected him again with the same politeness she had previously shown.

Though the soldier did not immediately begin hitting out, he started to fixate on the mechanic in every post. His character loved her, he claimed, and his every driving thought was seeing/hearing/speaking to her. Good RP? It would've been, had the player been able to leave his dramas at the keyboard - but apparently he was giving grief to the mechanic's player directly, due to her being difficult about the relationship that she had "already agreed to."

But it didn't end there. When another PC flirted with the mechanic IC, the soldier became immediately hostile to him. His "thought posts" mentioned, frequently, how much he'd like to punch, stab or scream at him; every opportunity he had to have his soldier be a **** to this other player, he took. An example: during an investigation by our Republic team into a mysterious ship that had appeared in the sector, we were boarded by a strange alien species which outnumbered us by a vast amount. Even with two Jedi aboard the ship, we looked set to have a do-or-die fight on out hands. Rather than pull his weight, the soldier slung accusations and threats at the PC who had flirted with the mechanic; he even went so far as to draw a weapon on the guy when the non-soldier went to open the armoury and hand out weapons to the unarmed members of the group. Apparently, the guy "couldn't be trusted." The soldier was penalised IC, and the player warned OOC. Still it continued.

The GM was brought in, as was I as a mediator, and this player issued a few threats and other remarks that were calmly refuted. The player was kicked from play, and his character was killed off (by my Jedi, who Fell during an epic storyline, and deflected the soldier's blaster bolts back into his chest). The player is forever known among my group as HWMNBN (He Who Must Not Be Named).

So, yeah... problem players. Ain't they a *****?

I've had a few problem player in my time. The majority of them weren't so much a problem with the players as much as we just had conflicting play preferences. That or they had the stereotypical gamer aversion to hygiene (I have come across some powerful stinky players in my time). Still, there were some that were challenging to deal with.

There was the one guy that basically played the same character over and over again, regardless of game or genre. They were always lying, cheating, murderous, thieving backstabbers but everyone was always supposed to regard them as brave, noble and forthright. No matter what he had his character do he had it in his head that he should not be called out for it or his character made to suffer the consquences. Ever! In Star Wars games, if he played a Force sensitive character, he'd attack first, kill helpless bad guys without care and abuse his ability to use of the Force (he loved Affect Mind) left and right. If given a Dark Side Point for any of it he'd vehemently disagree, claiming that the GM (often me) was railroading him and not letting him "play his character". He'd also insist on taking forever to hash out a course of action, which would usually result in good, effective plans, but then ruining the whole thing on his first action by not following it. Whenever I hear about "Leeroy Jenkins!", I think about this guy.

Another player, one that I had played with almost from the time I started getting into RPGs, had a bad habit of bringing out of game issues he had with others into the game. If someone in the group had peeved him off recently, no matter how minor, he'd take any opportunity to disrupt the game because of it. Usually I was the GM and had many a night where he'd do stuff like dispute my every call, do anything except what I had planned for the party (fortunately I'm pretty good at winging it, depending on the system) and just being a general pain all because I, say, forgot to call him earlier in the week when I said I would. I don't even want to get into the four or five months he had it in his head that I was trying to hook up with his girlfriend. And the three months after that he thought one of the other players was and the the three months after that he thought a third player was trying to. Strangely he never got upset with the one person in the group that actually and obviouly was trying to hook with her.

Then there were two other guys that I'm not really sure how they became part of the group but they seemed okay at first. Then I started noticing that their characters would suddenly have abilities that they probably shouldn't have yet. Nothing too outrageous but definietly enough to give them an edge over the other PCs and make encounters easier. Then they would just so happen to have equipment I know they without doubt shouldn't have. At about the same time, in real life, I and several others in the group began noticing that stuff would turn up missing from our houses after they visited. Fortunately it wasn't anything major or sentimental and could easily be replaced with little expense. I'll give some them credit beause they freely admitted to stealing from us when we asked about it but I have to take that credit away given that they acted like we were the a$$holes when we told them not come back. And for being thieving dipsh!ts in the first place.

There was the one guy that basically played the same character over and over again, regardless of game or genre. They were always lying, cheating, murderous, thieving backstabbers but everyone was always supposed to regard them as brave, noble and forthright. No matter what he had his character do he had it in his head that he should not be called out for it or his character made to suffer the consquences. Ever! In Star Wars games, if he played a Force sensitive character, he'd attack first, kill helpless bad guys without care and abuse his ability to use of the Force (he loved Affect Mind) left and right. If given a Dark Side Point for any of it he'd vehemently disagree, claiming that the GM (often me) was railroading him and not letting him "play his character". He'd also insist on taking forever to hash out a course of action, which would usually result in good, effective plans, but then ruining the whole thing on his first action by not following it. Whenever I hear about "Leeroy Jenkins!", I think about this guy.

I swear, this one is a constant trope.

Now that my group has made their characters for the one shot, I've been proven correct that the trope stands true.

This one guy at my gaming table has ALWAYS played a combatant that, supposedly, has social skills. Maybe one time in ten he goes with the full bruiser, but nine in ten, he's a dual-weilding killing machine who has a few social stunts up his sleeve.

For this Star Wars one-shot, he made a Dashade Marauder who dishes out an impressive amount of damage. In previous Star Wars games, he played a Force Sensitive Coynite with a vibro-axe (game crashed when we tried to bring him in), a Miraluka Jedi Padawan (Order 66 Survivor) who used two lightsabers, and Togruta Jedi Guardian (again, two lightsabers). In my Steampunk game (currently on hiatus), he's playing a military captain who prefers to use, wait for it, two swords hidden in a sword cane! In a Deadlands game that I ran for a short while, he was a two-fisted gunslinger with the gruff side of social skills. In a Final Fantasy game, he played a thief with a double weapon. In 7th Sea, he played a dual-scimatar Knight of the Rose and Cross.

To date, I think he's played three characters in my campaigns (not one-shots) that did NOT use double weapons; a Martial Artist, a magic-slinging superhero, and a supervillain who can create short-lived objects out of thin air. We've been gaming together with plenty of different groups (often 2-3 at a time) for over five years now. . .

This also doesn't include the guys in college who couldn't play anything outside of pilots, snipers, rogues, wizards, or whatever very narrow role they preferred to play. Type-casting is a real thing, and they do it to themselves. . .

I think most players have a type they prefer to play. I generally avoid pure combat types, preferring anything from (in a fantasy game) ranger to thief to wizard. It doesn't help that in my main gaming group the other players like to play fighters of some type, and they leave it to me to know the more complicated rules.

It's when players want to play a type, but then don't live up to it, that bugs me. I have one friend who always like to play the heroic fighter/knight/paladin type, but invariably avoids combat and treats in-game characters like dirt. I think his early gaming experience was with GMs who actively tried to kill the PCs (within the confines of the game) and he continues to carry this baggage. That said, he's good company and the games are fun...in general I'm blessed with a good group of people to game with.

It's when players want to play a type, but then don't live up to it, that bugs me.

Yeah, that was my main problem with that one player. To a certain degree he would play a wide range of different characters, it's just that they all had the same personality that I described above. I think some of it was just the mentality of the group he was in. For example, if we played D&D you could only play a fighter, wizard or ranger if you actually wanted to participate. If you played a cleric or paladin they would insist you stay back because they'd need to be healed after combat, which wouldn't happen if you got killed. If you played a thief you were constantly under a microscope*. If you wanted to play anything else they just laughed at you. Ultimately I think they viewed the game setting as they would a video game. They didn't care about the roleplaying aspect of it, I guess they just wanted to be the biggest, baddest, awesomest things around for a few hours a week.

Actually, the last I heard that group doesn't even play table-top any longer. Ever since Everquest became a thing they've stuck pretty strictly to MMO's and the like.

*The first time I played with them I played a thief. Our first combat encounter I did what thieves did: I took to the shadows and started looking for a baddie I could make a backstab against. The second I announced that action the player I mentioned earlier immediately told the wizard player to cast Light on me to make sure I wasn't about to rip everyone else off.

I'm going to take a moment to necro this topic because I have my best / worst story ever that I'd like to take a moment to share.

I play with fantastic groups, and aside from the odd player we pick up every so often, I really can't complain about my years and years of RP gaming. However, this story always stands out as a party story for me to tell as it is literally one of the best and worst moments of my RP career.

----

D&D 3.5:

I'm playing a Rogue character who was using the Trip Attack cheese (Trip Attack, Free Attack + SA Damage, Get up from prone attack and either trip them again or get free SA damage on them). No, I'm not a power gamer, but this DM I was playing under practically called for perfect characters or else death. Yes, he was the epitome of a bad DM.

. . . anyways . . .

So I'm playing this shadowy Rogue when another of our friends finds out we're playing D&D 3.5. He wants in with his Barbarian character who, in another campaign, had played with a player character in our current campaign. So he joins up, a burly, 20+ Str Barbarian with a huge sword. He meets up in character with our group at a campsite. The other two characters have a reunion moment as my Rogue just kind of watches. He goes around and meets the other characters and finally gets to me.

This guy playing the Barbarian is a FANTASTIC RP'er. As he approaches me, he begins to laugh at me. "Hah hah hah! Who are you? Look at you! So meek! So brittle! Who are you? What do YOU bring to this group!?" He continues to laugh at me.

So, I extend my hand with a smirk on my face. As we shake hands, I roll to pick his gold pouch off his belt.

Little did I know that apparently 3.5 Barbarians have amazing Spot checks. Regardless, he only BARELY beat me.

So as we're shaking hands, he notices me unclasp the gold pouch and snag the gold. Immediately he freaks out and throws a punch at me. In 3.5, making an Unarmed Attack provokes an Attack of Opportunity. >: )

Immediately I declare I'm doing a Trip Attack. Seeing as my character is beefed out for this, I easily succeed.

All in all, this burly Barbarian is laughing at my meek, weak little character and insulting me, then in a moments notice I floor the guy on his back. I toss his gold pouch in my hands and say "My name is Jasper . . . and that's what I do." and with a smirk I toss the gold pouch back to him on his chest.

Amazing moment? Amazing moment!

. . . oh . . . except that another player character saw the exchange, declared that stealing from people is a crime of a land, and then held me down while the Barbarian cut my characters hand off. . .

. . . I prefer to leave that last part out if I could . . . :|

Ruined an amazing RP and character bonding moment.

Sheesh, you're right, that could have been epic. Too bad the Barb player went along with the hand-cutting.

I had the worst game in ages the other night, it was classic antagonistic role-play all the way through. We're using a home-grown variation of Basic Roleplaying (BRP) and besides the %-math, which is irritating, combat is completely static, and the GM basically has a "No" response to using anything else, which is partly in response to the other player asking to do the ridiculous.

Other player: "Can I lead these horses through tangled woodlands through fallen logs and over boulders all while keeping quiet and sneak up on the cottage where the batty old hag who stole our relic is hiding?"

GM: "No."

OP: "Why not?"

GM: "It's too tangled."

Me: "Well, he's a ranger, can't he use his, I don't know, Nature Lore skill to pick a path, find a deer trail?"

GM: "No."

Me: "Well, let's just leave the horses then. We have to get the relic back, it's our sole mission."

OP: "No way, you know what happened last time."

GM: (grins)

Me: (thinking: if the GM wants to take our horses, he can do it any time...can we just get ON with the story?!)

I had to bite my tongue at several points to keep from saying something like "well, in Edge of the Empire we'd..." What's most odd is the GM has played EotE twice now and LOVES it. Everything else about his game is very cool (art, maps, etc), but I wish he'd take a lesson.

Conviction - I think the choice to cut into the ship was fine. I've been running games since the 70's, and I can tell you that if you worry over every little story detail/decision you make like that, you will hate GM'ing. There is something in nearly every movie script that doesn't make loads of sense... and they had months to write and re-write the story. You're making things up as you go, reacting and improv'ing to your players whims. It's totally okay, whatever decision you make. The players just need to roll with it and react IN PLAY.

In the end, GM'ing requires loads more work (in prep time, etc.) than being a player, and you really should have no time for players that don't appreciate that fact, or are too critical of how you run your game.

You stated that you just want everyone to have fun, and that should always be your goal. Having fun doesn't mean always "winning" as a player, it means having fun with the story and the predicaments that come from it. Han Solo certainly doesn't always "win."

We could all sit here and say "well, you should have done this, obviously." Hindsight is awesome. However, you made a decision and the players all should have gone with it, reacting accordingly in play.

One other thing I remind my players when they question an NPC's actions or a decision I make... Real life professionals make bad decisions all the time! Maybe it's not the wisest thing to do to ruin a spaceship to get inside, but who says that officer was good at his job?

Have fun GM'ing, and don't put up with A-Hole players. If they don't like your game, they are free to find another, but they really shouldn't be welcome to ruin everyone's fun.

You can do a lot of awesome campaigns with a two player group. That's ripe for espionage. Get them to play Bothans, or at least one of them, and SpyNet the hell out of it, or undercover ops working for a police unit building a case against a hutt cartel. It'd be The Wire: Star Wars edition, Donnie Brasco. Wow, the possibilities! Can't get away with those types of games in larger groups because you just can't give each player the attention it requires and you always have that one A-hole, who wants to blow everything/one up.

It's late, but I have a horror story I'll share tomorrow. I've developed a low tolerance for munchkining and/or power stating, so I tend to remove players that just can't get around it. I try to guide them first, but if they've been playing pathfinder or anything post 2nd edition, it's pretty much what they know. I can't fault them for that, but if I wanted to run games where the players were gods walking amongst mere mortals, I'd throw down some Scion.

What is it with Jedi PCs and their insistence to slice up everything they see?

I had a feeling that allowing this player to join the game was a mistake, but after a really successful stint with my current group, we voted to allow a friend of ours into the group. This is a guy we've known really well for 4 years and heard through another friend of ours how pissed off he was at us for not allowing him into the group to begin with. He's always been a little difficult to deal with during Pathfinder campaigns, a power gamer who constantly wanted to be the centre of attention in games by the GM's NPCs. The kind of guy who ruined MtG for my group because he spent £400 online for an insane deck that soured our experience with it.

We originally were going to have him in the group, but his insistence on being a badass Jedi in a game that doesn't focus on them caused us to originally deny him entry in the group, along with general annoyance in how he plays RPGs.

Sorry, I'm not really explaining this well enough, so onto the big night:

Having become familiar with the game system, we were able to do the first part of the Beyond the Rim campaign and met the Jedi character (having given him all the stats/rules for playing a Jedi as best as we knew) after they were spotted by Imperial Agents. In fact, my group were initially following up rumours of a Jedi at large at the Wheel and were ordered to investigate by their Imperial employer.

The first meeting with the Jedi character went badly as the player was very happy to cause a scene, his idea of laying low and stealing supplies in order to survive was a gigantic slaughter in the Alderaan cafe. Once the others detained the Jedi and explained his predicament, the group decided to let the Jedi fall under their protection, seeing the benefits of a Jedi helping them eventually escape their Imperial employer.

As soon as the players met with the Twil'lik employer, the Jedi suddenly brandishes his light sabre and threatens to chop his head off in order to loot the technology in the office, then claim the treasure ship for himself and the group. The group protested in game and out about such an act, especially from a Jedi, to the point where the Jedi player flipped a Destiny Point to basically kill the employer and injure everyone else in the sabre swing in order to get his way.

This was his way of trying to take charge of the group and campaign. Not wanting to see the adventure book derail so soon, I flipped a Dark Side Destiny point for the Jedi, considering the fact that it was a dark side action he was taking. So, the other players now had 5 light side destiny points to spend on roll checks and other deus ex machina in order to save the employer, destroy the Jedi light sabre before everything went to hell.

The player was immediately pissed off, really angry that anything could harm him in game, believing the lightsaber to be indestructible. He tried to use his force powers to manipulate the group, but the smugglers were having none of it, considering in game to hand him over to the Imperial Agents on the station for a reward.

From that point, the table descended into petty and heated bickering between everyone, it wasn't the best atmosphere to begin with as the Jedi PC simply wasn't in a great mood and a lot of bad blood between us was surfacing as a result of him being there (the first time we had gamed with him in about 3 months after it all started).

I gave up and called it a night since no one was in the mood to play the game, one person left early because he couldn't stand being in the same room as his former friend. The others felt bad about giving the Jedi PC the benefit of the doubt for the session.

The game was ruined, but after contacting everyone we agreed to try again next week without the Jedi character, just relax and try and have the same fun we were having as a group now that the other guy was once more out of the group. I'm now very nervous about allowing anyone else into the group as I've had some interest from other people I know (who I know wouldn't derail the game and cause so much drama) after hearing my friends talk about their experiences with the system.

I've been reassured multiple times that I'm a good GM for this game, it was just our friend being a jackass. I probably didn't explain any of that very well, but the experience almost soured me away from RPGs completely.

The game was ruined, but after contacting everyone we agreed to try again next week without the Jedi character, just relax and try and have the same fun we were having as a group now that the other guy was once more out of the group. I'm now very nervous about allowing anyone else into the group as I've had some interest from other people I know (who I know wouldn't derail the game and cause so much drama) after hearing my friends talk about their experiences with the system.

Sounds like a reboot of that session is your only way forward. The player completely derailed the entire session and flipping destiny points to automatically kill NPCs isn't really good game behavior.

I hope the reboot goes well and you guys can carry on with what sounds like Beyond the Rim. I'm looking to start my version of it in two weeks, luckily no bad players to screw it up.

What followed was 3 hours of the most intense arguing, rules lawyering and aggressive behavior I had ever seen out of any of these players. When the fight was over, people where storming out of the house, telling each other to F-off. The campaign never recovered and the group itself was never really the same after that. Things where said that went far and beyond simple role-playing, things that I took personally, they took personally etc..

Morale of the story is, be a good GM.. keep bad players out of your game.

... yes, but now I really want to know who won the fight?

Also, heads up spoilers for Beyond the Rim.

O.O

I am so happy I have the group I do. We have our share of conflicts, but the most heated argument we've had related to me forcing one of our players to spend his manuver to pick up his weapon (he did hav it on a sling, but a prior critical hit rolled droped weapon, so I ruled that for that one turn he'd have to resettle his weapon.) He was a bit disgruntled by it, by on the next round he scored the same result against some large battle droids, whose weapons were built in. So I ruled that the shot blew off the arm (the other one worked fine) as I didn't want to ignore the critical result. I referenced the earlier decision on the weapon sling and explained my reasons, everyone was happy with it.

Admitedly, this is the group that named their YT-1300 The Grundle

And convinced Imperial agents that there was a carnivorus Bantha who ate the repair shop owner.

Conviction - GM'ing can be a rewarding, if difficult experience. First try talking to him, and if that doesn't work consult the rest of the party. Explain your rationale and ask their opinions. If it seems reasonable to the rest of the party, then majority rules. If any given player is detracting from the experience, then do what is best for the group. It doesn't make you a bad person or them really, just that not every party of people come to the table for the same reasons.

My only real horror story comes from Gencon. I was helping a friend of mine run some new D&D 4E material for a setting he was producing. The Edition War was in high swing, and we had our share of trolls show up, and luck would have it that one in particular decided to show up at a table I was running. He seemed genial enough, but quickly devolved into complaining about how the system was "just like an MMO" and "wasn't real roleplaying". After the fourth or so instance of his obvious sniping, I stoped the game, and asked the table to write down two things on index cards and submit them. The first was if they wanted to continue, the second was if they wanted to continue without seat 5 playing. After counting the votes, in the open, the majority wanted to continue without him. So I kicked him out. He responded with "I paid to be here, you can't kick me out" So I contacted the Organizer who contacted local security. It turns out that he was wrong, and for being a fool got barred from the con.

What is it with Jedi PCs and their insistence to slice up everything they see?

I had a feeling that allowing this player to join the game was a mistake, but after a really successful stint with my current group, we voted to allow a friend of ours into the group. This is a guy we've known really well for 4 years and heard through another friend of ours how pissed off he was at us for not allowing him into the group to begin with. He's always been a little difficult to deal with during Pathfinder campaigns, a power gamer who constantly wanted to be the centre of attention in games by the GM's NPCs. The kind of guy who ruined MtG for my group because he spent £400 online for an insane deck that soured our experience with it.

We originally were going to have him in the group, but his insistence on being a badass Jedi in a game that doesn't focus on them caused us to originally deny him entry in the group, along with general annoyance in how he plays RPGs.

Sorry, I'm not really explaining this well enough, so onto the big night:

Having become familiar with the game system, we were able to do the first part of the Beyond the Rim campaign and met the Jedi character (having given him all the stats/rules for playing a Jedi as best as we knew) after they were spotted by Imperial Agents. In fact, my group were initially following up rumours of a Jedi at large at the Wheel and were ordered to investigate by their Imperial employer.

The first meeting with the Jedi character went badly as the player was very happy to cause a scene, his idea of laying low and stealing supplies in order to survive was a gigantic slaughter in the Alderaan cafe. Once the others detained the Jedi and explained his predicament, the group decided to let the Jedi fall under their protection, seeing the benefits of a Jedi helping them eventually escape their Imperial employer.

As soon as the players met with the Twil'lik employer, the Jedi suddenly brandishes his light sabre and threatens to chop his head off in order to loot the technology in the office, then claim the treasure ship for himself and the group. The group protested in game and out about such an act, especially from a Jedi, to the point where the Jedi player flipped a Destiny Point to basically kill the employer and injure everyone else in the sabre swing in order to get his way.

This was his way of trying to take charge of the group and campaign. Not wanting to see the adventure book derail so soon, I flipped a Dark Side Destiny point for the Jedi, considering the fact that it was a dark side action he was taking. So, the other players now had 5 light side destiny points to spend on roll checks and other deus ex machina in order to save the employer, destroy the Jedi light sabre before everything went to hell.

The player was immediately pissed off, really angry that anything could harm him in game, believing the lightsaber to be indestructible. He tried to use his force powers to manipulate the group, but the smugglers were having none of it, considering in game to hand him over to the Imperial Agents on the station for a reward.

From that point, the table descended into petty and heated bickering between everyone, it wasn't the best atmosphere to begin with as the Jedi PC simply wasn't in a great mood and a lot of bad blood between us was surfacing as a result of him being there (the first time we had gamed with him in about 3 months after it all started).

I gave up and called it a night since no one was in the mood to play the game, one person left early because he couldn't stand being in the same room as his former friend. The others felt bad about giving the Jedi PC the benefit of the doubt for the session.

The game was ruined, but after contacting everyone we agreed to try again next week without the Jedi character, just relax and try and have the same fun we were having as a group now that the other guy was once more out of the group. I'm now very nervous about allowing anyone else into the group as I've had some interest from other people I know (who I know wouldn't derail the game and cause so much drama) after hearing my friends talk about their experiences with the system.

I've been reassured multiple times that I'm a good GM for this game, it was just our friend being a jackass. I probably didn't explain any of that very well, but the experience almost soured me away from RPGs completely.

how old are you guys? Sounds like something a baby does when they don't get their way.

This thread and all the new stories fascinate me. I'm so new to this hobby and my experiences have been so positive that I really thought my one story of a bad experience was an isolated case. More and more, I keep hearing about people having bad experiences, and other people relating or adding with stories of their own that I am wondering if I just got lucky!

Until this year, I probably wouldn't have given games like EotE and Pathfinder much of a chance. But I am so glad I did and, after reading these horror stories, I am even happier that our regular group seems to be very cool (well... they are my dopey brother and his dopier friends but they manage to play these games in a non-dopey way). They're even cool about giving me the extra help I need like reading dice results, looking up rules and stuff.

Maybe its because my dad is the GM and no one acts like the problem players around him... but that's never seemed to stop my brother before.

Oh I think situations like this are the exception rather than the rule. I've been playing for over 30 years and never experienced anything like these stories. Most people play with good groups I would say.