Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 slurp50s Apr 26, 2015 13:44:43	I played my first D&D game with a very experienced DM. He put us in the world of One piece and it was extremely fun. That DM moved away and over time me and a friend picked up the old books and decided to DM. We had multiple failures (more than I can care to count) and it was tough learning everything from scratch by ourselves. Now, I’ve gotten significantly better as a DM, but now I have some very weird problems. First, I have extremely toxic players. I have one friend who I actually like, but he ruins the game for everyone. He always has to make the insane character who refuses to work with the team, tries to kill his teammates, and just makes life hard. If the team shuns the toxic player then it usually turns out decent. If the characters don’t shun him, then the toxic players influence will seep into everyone else, make the game just stupid and missions are a drag to complete. I do not have a problem with my characters giving the final boss a wegie, but everyone at the end of the game admits that acting toxic just makes the game stupid and unfun. When they succumb to the stupidity, then it’s just a giant laughing **** fest that we could do some other time. Usually the team will shun the toxic player and he will get sad that he once again made a stupid character and wants to make his character a bit more serious. Then I have other characters who will basically bully the other characters flaws and it will make them not want to be serious, so then we have a type 2 toxic player. Which causes the insane toxic player to not want to be serious. Or we will have a player who has to pick at all the flaws in the world he is in and refusing to role play and find out the answers through the game. Example, he will be mad that a dragon was attacking a city randomly, but he never bothered to ask questions around the town, so he assumes that it must have been a DM flaw, not his. One of the top problems in the game is Meta gaming. Or, I cannot get a character to ever talk and he will end up boring himself. I also have characters talking over each other. After all of this, no one will take the game seriously and we end up not even playing D&D, but a game of who can make the dumber remark. So, I have a lot of toxic players.   The most toxic player is me though. I admit that it is a horrible DM that allows this nonsense to happen in the game. I never put down rules and if I do, I do not stick to them. I am getting to a point where I just do not want to play D&D anymore, but I am the only one in my school/town that is willing to DM. The only hope though is that my players have recently admitted to multiple flaws we have all had and we all crave to play a good game of D&D. They are all willing to do something different, but it’s not very easy because I AM THE ONLY DM! What kind of rules need to go down? I really need some advice of how to really set ground rules. Should I get loud when everyone starts acting up? Should I lay down rules at the beginning of the game and restate them if necessary?   Lastly, having a crazy character run around, **** a man, then cut off his foot, put the foot in “extremely fertile dirt”, then place it in a glass pot, and then hope for it to regrow into your familure…. That’s what I have been dealing with. Very funny at first, but it gets just boring and annoying if it is the only thing that ever happens. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.
#2 Rhenny Apr 26, 2015 13:56:55	Communicate with each player.  Tell them how you think they can make the game more fun for everyone.  Award inspiration to them for cooperating with others.   I just started a new campaign with 3 gnome pcs who are roleplaying really well to be inquisitive and squeeky.  There were a lot of jokes about killing the gnomes, but to make sure that the jokes didn't poison the game, I told the pcs in the beginning that I wanted them to create a story to explain how they all met and why the are adventuring together.  Then, after the session, I emailed (well skype really) the Half Orc Fighter (whose player was one of the players making kill the gnome comments) and I told him how I appreciated how his PC put up with the gnomes and even showed that he might be accepting them in his group, warming up to them so to speak.  I told him that he could begin next session with inspiration because he controlled his PCs anger and became more tolerant.   If you reward them for good teamwork and positive behaviors, they'll change.   If they don't...you need to have another talk with them and tell them how much they are bumming out the rest of the group.   Good luck.
#3 Archon007 Apr 26, 2015 13:57:58	I think everyone needs to start over and have a session 0 if you don't know what that you can click the link in my signature. This is what happens when a group is a collection of separate people instead of a party. The player that seems to go out of his way to try and ruin things you either need to tell him that doesn't work anymore and he needs to knock it off or get rid of him.
#4 transcendantviewer Apr 26, 2015 14:48:26	When I was just starting out as a D&D player, my friend Vince was DMing. When we'd get sidetracked with conversation or get loud over a debate or something like that. He'd just retreat behind his screen and begin rolling dice. Quietly. He'd get a little smirk and just look between each of us, continuing to roll. We'd never know what he'd be rolling until something happened, but it was always obvious that he was rolling something because he has one of those wooden dice bowls. One of the flat ones with rounded sides. You could always hear it when the dice hit it. I think, most of the time, they were just rolls to get us to shut up and pay attention, but there were a few times when things happened, and when things happened due to the "Quiet Time Rolls", it was usually bad for us. That was his version of ground rules. He had the one rule of "I'm DM. I'm basically god here. If you want to do something, you run it by me. If it's possible, I'll let you roll. If it's guaranteed to succeed, you won't have to roll. If I decide it can't happen, it fails. But no matter what, I have final say."   Try an approach like that with your players, if you'd like.
#5 Breefolk Apr 26, 2015 15:51:26	Sometimes, players that cause trouble do so because they're bored or frustrated.  Ask your players who are causing trouble what the problem is, or if there's anything you can do differently to better accommodate them.   I once upon a time had a very lax DM who very often went along with anything certain players asked of him.  It could be fun at first, but he very clearly played favorites, giving some players more opportunities than others to do what they enjoyed doing.   I'm not even exaggerating when I say I think he had a crush on this one guy.  He legitimately behaved like he had a crush on him.  He let this player do literally anything he wanted, even going so far as to simply rule that his character is basically a shapeshifter that can turn into whatever he wants and abuse whatever rules he felt like, which, back in the 3.x days, could be done extremely easily if your DM wasn't a super genius who had memorized the entire PHB, and this particular DM was not exactly a rules wiz.   It finally got to the point that I literally stormed out of one session and never came back because I got so fed up with the favoritism.  If your players are starting to feel like they're not getting a chance to play their characters the way they want to play them, the players can get very bored very fast and will quickly start doing silly things just because they feel like it's the only way they can get any enjoyment out of the game.  Don't be afraid to say "no" to a player once in a while when you feel like they're starting to harm the enjoyment of the group overall, and if someone is starting to act like they're bored, ask them why and what you can do to make their experience better.
#6 CCS Apr 26, 2015 18:52:23	Yes, you should set the base rules of what's expected at the beginning. And stick to them. If you dont? Then you deserve whatever results your getting. ***** Decide what type of games you want to be running. This is VERY important. Because youre the guy running the game. And despite any advice you'll read about everybody at the table being equel? That's not really true since if the DM isn't having fun there's no game. That said, Talk to the players - both individually & as a group - about what type of game they want to play. Take your expectations + theirs and combine them in a reasonable mix. Then stick to it. WHEN (not if) your problem players start anew (& they will)? Stop the game and adress the issue. When they do it again? Their character vanishes, the discussion is repeated, and they make a new character. The third time? You tell the player to leave. There's the door, get out. And you don't invite them back. Nor do you discuss the game with them. You do this until your left with however many players remain who want to play the style of game that was agreed upon. Trust me, you can run awesome games with only 1 or 2 players + DM..... Next up is the problem of you being the only DM. Once you have a stable group, insist that DM duty rotate. Because if you know how to play a character & can make stuff up (or follow the script in an adventure module), then you essentially know how to DM. Yes, with practice you get better at DMing, but NOBODY started off perfect or even great. Nobody except liars anyways. I suggest rotating on an adventure by adventure basis starting at 1st lv. You run a 1st lv adventure. When it concludes with the party reaching 2nd lv, the next person runs a 1st lv adventure with all new characters. Then the next guy does the same. And so on until you've all DMd. When it rotates back to you? You run a 2nd lv adventure using the 1st batch of characters.....
#7 Rya.Reisender Apr 27, 2015 0:36:51	I have noticed that when characters point out other character's flaws like "Are you stupid? Why did you rush into that room? We could have surprised them!", then often the player behind the character feels like he was called "stupid" instead, which can cause some negative mood. If I notice something like that as DM, I usually try to explain the player that the criticism is towards his character and not towards him and he shouldn't take it to seriously.   I would usually prefer if everybody in the group works together and doesn't try to secretly get each other killed, though. I'd probably rule that anything else goes against the character's personality and isn't allowed. (I'm not a big fan of splitting the group up.)
#8 DemoMonkey Apr 27, 2015 10:45:12	Train the most problematic of the players to be the new DM. Then resign as DM, and be the best player you can be. Teach by example.
(Reply to #7) Breefolk	Rya.Reisender wrote:
#10 bawylie Apr 28, 2015 10:11:04	1st, you need to set reasonable expectations for your game. A series of behaviors or rules written down. Anyone who wants to play, is invited to do so provided they agree to abide by these expectations. Some of mine: A.) Respect. Everyone takes turns, everyone plays nicely, everyone plays their own character and no others.  B.) No evil adventurers. No lone wolves. No defective adventurers. If you are here, you are here to play. Therefore no adventurers are permitted who have to be convinced to go on adventures. You find your own reasons and motivations or you roll up a new character who Wil adventure. No griefing or PVP w/o mutual consent.  C.) Act; don't ask. I will be constantly asking "What do you do?" Respond with an in-game action. Even if you are unsure of details or want more information about the situation, tell me what your character is doing to obtain those details and get that information.    2.) You'll need to manage your table effectively. I use body language and eye contact, addressing myself to the adventurers using the adventurers' names. For instance, on your turn, I look directly at you, sum up the circumstances facing your character, and ask what they do. If anyone attempts to interrupt or whatever, I hold up my hand and tell them "It's Jason's turn, let me finish with Jason and get input from him first please." I do that without looking at anyone but Jason. So I'm using my attention to codify turns. It takes some discipline to not allow yourself to acknowledge distractions, but it pays out.  3.) Train your players. Reward and reinforce behaviors you wish to see more of. Do not reward (but don't punish) behaviors you don't want more of. Simply do not give unwanted behaviors much time. (The guy plants a foot, hoping to grow a familiar - you explain that the character knows that will never work, laugh, and move right on). Time and attention are forms of reward for some people.  4.) Get your narratives down to 3 sentences or less.  5.) Adjudicate actions consistently.    Good luck!
#11 Jenks Apr 28, 2015 10:57:50	I'll say that since I started using the "Yes, and..." style of DMing it has been more fun at my table for all of us. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a style of DMing that focuses on not quashing the players creativity and decisions. When a player makes a decision, instead of saying "No, because ____", say "Yes, and ____". Even if it fails, you let them make a decision and express their creativity.   More info on it here: http://dndadventurersleague.org/yes-and-how-improv-makes-you-a-better-dm/   As well, another thing I've picked up from these boards is not letting other players interrupt each other's turns, as bawylie mentioned. My players were not too keen on this at first, but after a while they got used to it and it helped out the game a lot. I had to do a lot of "It's not your turn" reminders for a while, kinda like bawylie mentioned, but they eventually got used to it. Players can add on to other player's turns, but they cannot tell straight prevent them from doing something. This doesn't mean they have to be completely silent, but they can't just say "No you don't do that" and whatnot. Let players do what they want.
#12 Danny_Montanny Apr 28, 2015 16:18:38	Make sure you have your session 0 and lay everything out. Have the players determine why they're adventuring together. Make sure the reason crates a bond between all of the characters. Have them come up with ground rules of how their party handles things. If they're all evil and want to backstabbing each other, fine, but make sure that's what everyone wants. Unanimously, and not just the majority. Having the players decide how aspects of the game will go will tell you what type of game they want to play. Compromises will be made, but it's all in the name of fun.
#13 Alduran Apr 30, 2015 8:48:34	slurp50s wrote:
#14 distal May 02, 2015 11:11:00	bawylie wrote: