Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Vitarri_Whitemane Sep 13, 2009 2:45:12	Here's the story I'm currently in a 4th ed D&D game. It's the best game I've been in since I started gaming 7 years ago. The DM is great but for one thing he can't say no. After playing for a few months a friend of ours who hasn't gamed since he left college joined as our 6th member capping the game. We were hesitant to let him in but since it was still within the safe range of 4-6 we thought we could manage but because of this another player who is rather large and angry as well as horibly  obnoxious has assumed he can invite himself. I want to yell at him so bad but the DM is too afraid or too nice, I don't know which, to say no to overloading the game and I fear for the games quality. What am I to do?
#2 Vitarri_Whitemane Sep 13, 2009 8:46:13	Thanks Shaz but crisis averted the GM is gonna tell him to go elsewhere thank god.
#3 morgrum Sep 13, 2009 9:05:03	Put it to a vote with the rest of the group. If they unanimously agree not to allow the obnoxious guy to join and to cap the group at 6 players, then bring this decision to the DM. If the decision is to oust the guy, let him know via phone call, text or e-mail. Not because he is large and angry, but because it's a common courtesy to let someone know of the change in plans before they make the trip out. OP I'm glad to hear your crisis is averted, but for the benefit of anyone else reading this I want to respond to the quote above. I agree its common courtesy to let someone know that they aren't welcome at the next game, but most people would consider it rather rude to do so via a text message, especially since the character limit doesn't give you much room for tactful wording. I'd say the order of preference for letting someone know something like this (or for any other important personal conversation really) is: 1. Face-to-face: always the best way of communicating, go for this unless you are genuinely afraid physical violence will result. 2. Phone: if a face-to-face meeting is impossible phone is the next best option. You can directly hear the other persons reaction and respond to that 3. Instant messaging: You lose all the information that's included in your voice (intonation, stress, etc.) but at least its a direct form of communication 4. Mail (snail or e-): Mail being an indirect form of communication has the disadvantage that you can't directly see the other persons reaction and so can't correct them if they misinterpret something or offer clarification. Just consider how often people reading internet fora fail to see that something is meant as sarcasm / a joke 5. Texting: The character limit generally doesn't give you room for anything more than 'don't bother coming to the next game' without any kind of further explanation which is a pretty unpleasant way of telling someone you don't want them to come. Also texting suffers from all the disadvantages of mail.
#4 Duke5150 Sep 13, 2009 21:32:55	On the point of player capacity for a game. 6 is the default, but is in no way the actual limit. I played a 9 man 4e game that was scaled up to balance. It rocked. Took longer but it was awesome. 4-6 is just the default suggestion. Any more or less and the DM has to actually do some changes to balance the adventure. But you CAN play with 1 dm and 1 player or 12 players or more. Anyone who says you can't, has never done it or has a DM who can't do it and since that DM cant do it, no one else can....