RPPR Episode 06: The Bad Player
A round table discussion with Ross Payton, Tom Church, Cody Walker and Samantha Harrel.
Synopsis: Every gamer has been touched by a very special kind of player. The bad player wrecks campaigns, breaks up relationships and causes madness with their inept munchkinism, selfish attitude, and infuriating personal habits. Two guests, Sam and Cody, join us to discuss one such player, Jessica. Her paladin character refused to fight evil and her villainous character refused to be evil. Even her attempts at roleplaying wound up with her creating a Witchblade knockoff superhero with Indiana Jones as her father. Find out how the other members dealt with her. Learn from their mistakes so you can be prepared for the next bad player you meet.
Tom reads a letter to the average Call of Cthulhu player character and a few shoutouts. First, Jonathan Coulton is a great singer/songwriter who has made his music available under a creative commons license. We’ve included one of his songs, Skullcrusher Mountain, at the end. Give it a listen. Tom has a shout out for the one and only George Carlin. Finally, Cody thinks everyone needs to check out 8-bit theater, a great fantasy comedy web comic.
I was actually pretty interested in this, as I have in the past by certain STs labeled a “problem” player. Though I’ve played in other games where STs and other players love me, and enjoy being involved in things I come up with. So it just all depends. Someone can be a good RPer and still be labeled a “problem” player when they aren’t in a group that appreciates them.
In fact when I left a game one of the last things said to me was by the ST was : “You’re a brilliant roleplayer, to bad you’re a shitty person” and you know, that never bothered me. In fact i take a bit of pride in that, since by shitty person she meant someone that wasn’t going to be bullied around by an overbearing ST.
Comment by Jemie
December 13th, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
I was very interested in this topic. I wanted to hear if a “problem” player was going to sound like every other problem player. I must admit hearing the stories of Jessica makes me cringe at some of things that actually came out of her mouth and, why Cody put up with that long, I’ll never know. Actually, my stories of problem players, pale in comparison so, good job guys, I now know I don’t have it as bad as some people.
Comment by KeithMal
December 18th, 2007 @ 11:01 am
I think I need an MP3 of Sam saying “THE WITCHBLADE!!!” to be my Windows error sound.
Comment by Doctor X
July 23rd, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
I loved this segment. I myself have had to deal with a problem player. The player in question finally snapped, assaulted one player and stabbed to owner of the store with a pencil. We just happened to catch it, and here it is for your viewing pleasure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27e348oa6go
Comment by Jason Turner
August 6th, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
Where’s is this thread about the incident where a PC was privy to seeing a husband punch his wife? And the thread about the most horrible RPG experiences?
Comment by Richard
August 19th, 2008 @ 7:03 pm
It seems to be gone but here’s the sequel thread. http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=369229
Comment by Ross
August 19th, 2008 @ 11:29 pm