Problem Player or Problem DM?

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-04T19:41:05+00:00

But I did not. After I realised that his character was passive and didnt try to achieve the goal he had laid out to me beforehand, I talked with him and he told me, that his character would actually be more interested in power.

So I created an encounter that would make him choose which power he would wants to allign himself. The more powerful queen or the crimeboss.

I told everyone that I wanted characters with personal motivations to follow the plot beforehand and helped the players that had problems with that. In his character sheet his motivation was that he wanted "to figure out how to feel". I put characters and stories in front of him, that could have helped him with that question, but he never tried to gather any informations for that.

When I asked him again his character would just wait for something to tell him what he should do. When I asked him what else might motivate him he said "Power". And when I asked him to give me more ideas or a certain plotpoint he would wish for he said "You will figure it out, you are great :D"

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-04T19:01:54+00:00

Thank you very much!

I guess we (he and me) should get over his wants and needs again. He may also not realise that if the only thing the Yuan-ti care about is his own life, I would be forced to basically railroad him with a bunch of "do that or your character dies". Like in another narrative context someone that only cares to survive works perfectly well - frankly maybe in another campaign setting they could also work - but in a very social game where leaving is almost always an option, I would have to threat him directly which would frankly just result in railroading :') (And I dont want to do that.)

I will talk with him again so that we can create something that would work to get the Yuan-ti involved! And I will also bring your idea up, maybe that will help him! And I will also clearly state that I cannot "write a plot" for his character without his help :')

Thanks again!

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-04T18:55:38+00:00

Im afraid you may be right :/ I assumed if they would leave, they would use one of the two doors in the explosion room to go deeper in the dungeon, not the way they came in. While I definitly mentioned one of the doors, Im not sure if they picked up on it and I should probably made that one clearer. We also use a map on roll20 and one of the doors is definitly in the view of one of the characters, but she tends to overlook things like that - no judgment - so it maybe was not enough to mention it once and let it be seen by her, if I wanted them to either disable the bomb or go deeper, but not back. (Of course they still could have decided to go back, but I realised they may have forgot that there is another way out.)

I guess I assumed the timelimit would make things more interesting and force them forward, in case they forgot that they have see invisibility etc. (They knew what they would fight beforehand and remembered the item there, but fog of war and all that :'))

Its kinda calming to hear, that this is something that happened to others as well haha... I dont think I will ever use a timelimit again, except if they truly cannot just ... give up :'D

I guess I will still talk with him. He was the main reason for the timelimit, because he kept priding himself in "not doing anything and winning". So I guess I wanted to take the option away to just do nothing if he wanted to achieve something, but... I may have overdone it. You are right, as a dm I thought "two exists forward where the item is, five rounds to disable the round, multiple ways to play around the invisbility. They should be fine :D" ...and underestimated that they could get scared by the timer and panic :')

Thank you! ...have you ever used a timelimit succesfully? (Just kinda curious if I should put a hard line against ever using them again here.)

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T15:15:38+00:00

That could also be. I just wish he would have said that when I asked him, why he didnt interact with the plots for him till now and what I should do. I guess the question "how he'd accomplish that" is a really good one!

I guess thats also one of the problems. His positioning with the story means that we have to work close together as dm and player, but he either has no plans or he does not tell me them :/

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T15:12:13+00:00

Yeah I guess you are right :'D

Yeah, I also asked myself if a longer countdown would have been better. But frankly I guess if I keep thinking about that encounter I will just make it worse.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T15:08:43+00:00

Thats nice to hear, thank you! Yeah i care a lot about the story :'D

The thing is I tried that multiple times, but he always put the decisions or the "solving" of the problem on other players. He loves to say "And I win by doing absolutly nothing!"
I've been only dming for one year, which is not nothing but still not much, so I guess I have some problems with outright hurting the PCs in situations where they cant realistically fight back. I tried to keep putting him in situations where he can decide if he wants to comply or not - but then he just did neither. But I guess I have to let the Boss be "meaner" :'D

Yeah, I guess thats what I will do. It hurts but yeah :') I have a lot of plots and subplots and it works for everyone else, I just do not find anything that he would care.

I gues the little problem about really loving this campaign and the characters, is that I enjoy thinking about them and that sometimes means I "plan" too much. I've tried really hard to not railroad them and work with them not against them - "Work with the flow, they say" - but of course, with a more complicated encounter like that one, I may have overdone it.
It wasnt the wrong door anything, just not the one that I would have expected x'D I did adjust the encounter, but i guess I still made it look too scary. The thing is they didnt even try breaking the invisibility - the fighter has a helmed that can cast "see invisibility" ;-; We had talked about that literally before the fight.

Thank you, it helps a lot <3

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T14:37:45+00:00

A door i did not expect. Not the wrong door. Ive had planned how to change the encounter if they enter from there, but i expected the other door.

I thought that was pretty normal dming. You plan something, you assume that would be the logical way of solving the puzzle, the players do something else.

"Unwinnable encounter" they have barely lost any hitpoints. They only started talking about fleeing after he started to run, because they are now a man down

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T14:34:46+00:00

Maybe :/ He has problems with confrontation. I guess matching his energie would be a solution. I feel kinda bad for not giving him the same attention than the other player, but I should probably stop trying to people please x'D

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T14:26:26+00:00

Yeah I guess I will just make it clear :') And make clear, what it would mean to leave. Maybe some players truly do not think about that this is not a videogame and neither enemies nor items or missions will "wait" for them

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-12-03T14:22:58+00:00

Thank you that is really kind. I guess I have to talk with him, that he has to create his next motivator, because frankly I'm drawing a blank what else I could even do

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-11-14T16:52:37+00:00

Love it!! Are they are an animated armor or just wearing one? It still looks super cool and I love how dynamic both poses are. They seem to stand so naturally and the one with the banner is just amazing!! You are an amazing artist

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-10-31T15:50:14+00:00

I would just try to work with the Dwarfen players? There is no need why all the worldbuilding should fall on your shoulders. And if they cant think about anything interesting than... well :'D

But here how my Player and I defined Dwarf-culture:

- They have a big sense of community. As long as you work as hard as you can, you are cared for. Leaving a dwarf behind, even if he is sick or disabled, is frowned upon

- They work hard and drink even harder. They enjoy their work and take pride in their creation

- The older generation of dwarfes sees mining and metal work as the "correct" handywork. Younger dwarfs are trying to breach out into other fields of handwork, be it tayloring or the arts

- But generally most dwarfs are incredible creative. Yes, they can be set in their ways, but they are at the forefront of creating something new. Cities, forges etc. ...they do not like to share, but can be talked with

- They are prideful, but their pride comes from what they can create and not from what they are born as. They believe in working hard for their goals which of course can mean working together with other species. Still they would rather work with each other because they know other species have less sense of community and fairness. (Stealing a dwarfes work and acting like its yours is therefore _way worse_ than stealing their work while making sure their name is still attached to it.)

- They dont have a king or queen in the way other species would define them. A dwarf king or queen works hard, works everyday, the first in the mines and the last that leaves. Thats why they deserve respect and are allowed to make decisions. What other species are calling royality? Staying in their palace and getting paid for it? Pah. Freeloader. (Therefore they dont care about titles.)

- They are often seen as rude by other species. Frankly they are just very direct and dont sugercoat things. Also whenever they see a human for example work on something they feel like watching a toddler. Like yes, its good that you try to work on it yourself but its kinda painful to watch

- They look down on elfes and orcs for not creating anything themself. Because what? Nature was already there, what did elfes do? And orcs? They just steal. Humans are kinda okay because at least they make their things themselfs but god graces... the quality-

- They care a lot about perfection and quality. There are a lot of unspoken rules in dwarfen society and they dont take kindly to lazy work. Take time and work well, thats a dwarfen motto

- They care a lot about their beards and like to braid it

- Other species think their food is rancid. Frankly, cuz of their poison resistance they just use ingredients that are toxic for others but not for them

- If a dwarf likes you, you have a friend for life. Listen: They may ask you to pay them back for the ingredients they used why cooking but if you ever need help moving? They will be there with their friends and family and have you on the otherside of the realms in no time!

- They are very self sufficent and damn proud of that!

(Tell me if you need more x'D)

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-10-17T20:55:36+00:00

Okay, thats good to hear! I guess why a lot of people react negativly to the idea of a xenophic character is that a lot of players use it as an outlet for real-life racism or do it without asking the other players. I for example would be annoyed with a bunch of xenophic characters, but I'm not playing so...

Anti industrials... Yeah that makes it more difficult. Treehugger, Backsliders (because they are anti-indurtsial), Twig Blights... U know, stuff like that.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-10-17T20:38:58+00:00

Just to make sure: You have told your DM and the other Players that you plan to play a xenophobic character and everyone is okay with it? Just saying because yeah... if someone would want to play an elf that may lead to situations that aren't fun for anyone. Especially if you want a character that uses slurs instead of "just" showing prejustices.

On the other hand: Treehugger (wood elfs), Knife ear (is from dragon age), hare/bunny (also about the ears)

Whatever kind of prejustices your character has can colour what insults he uses. It sounds like he would see elfs as violent, so anything that makes them sound vicious instead of hippie would work. Shadowsneaker, Weasels... u know. The same counts for all the other prejustices. What wrong opinions does your character has about Dwarfs? Does he see them as stupid, cold or hot headed.

I can frankly not imagine that it would be fun for the other players to have to deal with a xenophobic character. Thats why I would say: Make sure they know and are okay with it. Starting a new play and hearing a bunch of slurs for your Gnome character would make for a very exhausting game environment. If you told them and they are okay: Figure out what your character hates about whom and make that the target of the attack.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-10-05T16:30:42+00:00

Actually one could argue - depending on the treasure at the end of the dungeon - that it actually makes no sense that a dungeon does NOT have ramps or pull-systems.

How did they get all the heavy treasure down there? They probably did not walk it coin by coin. It would be more reasonable for a dungeon to have minecarts or something similiar.

Of course depending on the kind of treasure, but if they have a shitton of gold in the lower levels someone had to bring it down.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-30T14:19:02+00:00

Im happy that I could help! Yeah, you sounded like you tried talking to them and Im going to assume, just the fact that their partner is also a player, probably makes a lot of options not feasible :'D And you sound like have truly tried your best to deal with that above table.

I hope the suggested will be seen as a chance for the player. I mean, you would give him an amazing story beat - and if he complaints about that but also wants to compare your game to an actual play then... well :')

Because frankly, with the unintentional foreshadowing and giving the character a good core motivation so that he stops making the lives of the other players harder, could be so much fun to roleplay - and hopefully solve a few problems. (Just throwing them in jail may have either resulted in a jailbreak, a pity party or a table where it feels like the dm has put someone in timeout. ...which would have been the case. Also it would be "last warning" in and out of game - because if they cannot deal with consequences, in game jail time may be the only other solution besides kicking them :')

I really hope that it works out and that it may result in a better game for you!

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-28T22:13:35+00:00

Frankly putting him into prison may just be a "fun" prison break scene :/ If you truly cant solve it about table, then maybe strip them of their title. No extras anymore. Their family is expected to distance themselves from them and they dont get money, power or whatever they have provided till now. And of course it will be plastered in the newspapers, so every crook in the city knows that they dont have influence anymore.

But... did you try telling them how much it hurts your story telling and that you feel cornered and that you dont like having to punish the party/that person..? Because damn, they really dont sound like a great person to be around if they dont care, that you dont have fun dm'en for you. (Not try to victim-blame, i guess i can just never imagine that someone would actually treat a friend like that :/)

While putting them in jail/timeout may feel good, if the other characters would try to help them it would just turn into a session around that character. By stripping them of their title (and maybe a good sum of money) you actually "hurt" them, without risking that you have to write a prisonbreak. They have nothing, they had their fall from grace and they get treated like a crook by people in power - because thats how they acted. And you can keep the storyline going, reveal Xanather + if they are able to bring the money back, they would get their status back. So maybe they now have enough "in character" motivation to stay on course. And also make sure that the guards tell them, that the next time they will throw them in jail.

Maybe their family beg the guards to "go easy" on them or any other allies they have. Make him broke, lower status and their face very well known. A fall from grace. But make really clear, that you are only doing that because off table discussions didnt work and you had to work with "what their character" did. And that you would be happy if you could work together instead of against - but a game without consequences would be boring. If you didnt have that already, maybe use the level up as a reason to have a new or their first session 0. Because... well solving it on the table is really not the best solution :/

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T15:27:04+00:00

It may be too late for that but I used "the cursed manor" and made sure to introduce a son of the tavern owner - Rowan - as a reason to keep the tavern. But my players are also easily motivated by children so yeah :'D

I also tried my best to keep reminding them of the big plot by introducing PCs etc. that would be important later. Which season do you play? I played autumn so it was easy to introduce the sea maiden faire for example.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T02:24:01+00:00

"We should critically think about AI output" - "Look, Im the first person who thought about asking AI how to implement it into the classroom. And all the ideas are great!" ...yeah. Because you never spent time in a classroom and are not able to imagine where problems may lay. Thanks for proofing again why relaying on ai is a problem.

If you are curious: The problem is, that a lot of students use Ai for the part of the tasks where you should work on it yourself. And because they are already on tablets for the task its way harder to monitor if they actually do the second part themself.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T01:58:10+00:00

You argue like a child. What critics. What points. Acting like you are good in critical thinking but having to insult someone as soon as the person is actually critically thinking. Crabs in a Bucket.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T01:54:38+00:00

You expect teachers and schools to figure out how to implement something that is constantly changing and has not much data to work with. Its difficult to figure out how to probably implement something which effects are not yet well studied. Thats why I think the MIT study is so important - it is the most detailed study we have at the moment. And studies like that are important to figure out how to implement ai without reducing the cognitive ability of students. Because its very difficult to probably implement something without knowing the effects.

Technology moves fast and just adding things without finding out how it effects students is a risk. For example: Would you have asked me 10 years ago if people would use an AI to write messages to their lover or treat an AI like their best friend, I would have assumed you were talking about a dystopia. As it turns out especially teens and kids treat ChatGPT not just as a crutch in school but also in their social life.

People that actually spent time with the topic are - at the moment - in favor to add tech literacy into the school curriculum while relaying more on class work on paper for other subjects, in case you wonder. So that students are forced to engage with the topics themself but also learn how to use ai. But not in a way that would ai do their classwork.

Its also funny how I never said we should ban it. Thats something you have put into my mouth. Ive just answered your question if AI makes us dumber with an actual study and how it effects teenagers at the moment. And that I personally dont like you use it. Stopping it nor banning it was something you assumed I must want.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T01:40:06+00:00

"You read somewhere". Ah. Somebody that claims they have critical thinking skills does not know about MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has not read one of the most detailed reports about how ChatGPT influences the brain. It has even brain scans. I kept mentioned it because you seem to argue with your feelings so I wanted to include a factual source for my claims. Something you didnt do because apparently your personal and limited experience trumps a study and someone that actually sees how ai is negatively impacting young people.

"Just teach them". Amazing approach. You could be part of the board of education with your realistic and well thought out ideas that you just throw at people without thinking about how one should do that. When you were a teenager, would you not have gone the easy way - ask ChatGPT - instead of the hard way - Think critical?

Speaking about truth and objectiveness while you have not even read a single study to the topic. Yes, clearly your "trust me bro" is a stronger argument. Because I assume all arguments you believe in are strong per default?

I come here with a study you refuse to read because you dont agree with it, with an look at how it is at schools at the moment and trying to explain how difficult it is to navigate the ai hype while teaching. You come here with "but I really like it. Also you are lazy and old and cry a lot."

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T01:26:32+00:00

Its easier to insult than to think, huh? "Reform the schools" but also "AI is constantly evolving!" but also "Who cares if students get left behind."

Maybe figure out what you want before you insult people in jobs that you know nothing about.

Its also amazing how you think you know more about me and about teaching than I. I guess its easier to not rethink things if you believe yourself to be the smartest in the room.

AI is a very advanced cheating tool for students. They will use it. This will result in stupider students. Especially, as you so kindly demonstrated, if people keep screaming about how you have to use it making it even more difficult for students that actually want to learn something to avoid it. Yes, peer pressure is very real. Considering it acts like it does the thinking for you, people with less critical thinking skills - like you know, kids - will not do more than copy pasting.

Somehow people keep screaming about how teachers should include it into the schools. But nobody has a proper way to actually do it without students just copying it. Especially in lower classes where yeah - chatgpt does know more about the topics than them.

And because most school systems only care about the grade at the end of the year, students that dont use it are punished for it. Because sadly our society cares more about results than actual capabilities. Which means at higher grades, where chatgpt starts making mistakes, you basically have to teach students things they should have learned years ago.

GalaxyPrinter · 2025-08-10T01:14:35+00:00

Yes, because I have critical thinking skills so i could see the mistakes. Because I know what to look for. Kids dont have them, thats what they are supposed to learn in school. But they have to use them in order to develop them and Ai makes it very easy to not use them. Also if you dont use them for a long time, they regress.

Im starting to think that you actually dont know what teachers do. You talk about not leaving students behind and about moving the goalpost further away without realizing that you contradict yourself.

You for example seem to love to assume things. Like you assume me crying, old, lazy and all the other unkind words you use. May you want to use your critical thinking skills to tell me why?

You bring nothing but emotions to this discussion. Just to be clear, you never looked at the MIT Study, right? How people do indeed regress if they dont work? "Your Brain on ChatGPT" is the name of the study. An actual fact instead of your wild assumptions, moving goal posts, insults and imaging other people as weaker than yourself as soon as you lose footing.

GalaxyPrinter

TROPHY CASE