Obsession for Gamers, from Old R'lyeh

[Tadanori Oyama]

The last show brought it up and I know for sure I've had to deal with it in the past as a GM.

For some reason, players will sometimes latch onto something like a pissed off nurse shark on a scuba diver, refusing to let the problem die. Most of the ones I've had to sit through where between players rather than between myself and a player, generally concerning the flow of information around the table.

My usual solution is to tell people we aren't talking about it now and to continue running the game. On the rare occations when I've been stuck with it as a player I haven't really had much choice but to start reading a book while people argue.

Personally I like Caleb's approach best.

[clockworkjoe]

yeah I admit I'm not sure how to handle this other than to ask the players to move on. It doesn't happen much so I don't have much experience in dealing with this topic.

[beej]

When this comes up, I'll give a minute or two for them give me a well reasoned arguement.   If it doesn't utterly shatter what I've planned, I'm willing to alter whatever it is somewhat.  But sometimes I just say that we're moving on and I'll research whatever it is they're upset about.   Sometimes they can be a bit sulky but we move along and then after the session when we're packing up and what not we'll have a discussion on it. 

[Fizban]

I had a situation like this come to a real head in my D&D game last week.  My game has expanded to eight players, and almost each one of them had a direction that they wanted to pursue.  So rather than just come to a quick decision about which one was obviously the most urgent priority, they spent two and a half real hours arguing about what to do.  The thing was, everyone was pretty much in agreement about what to do, but just what order to do their actions in was the sticking point. 

So in punishment, I have labelled their group the "Sisterhood of the Stationary Pants" for their inability to do anything beyond sit around nattering like a bunch of ladies in a sewing circle.

[Mckma]

I had a situation like this come to a real head in my D&D game last week.  My game has expanded to eight players, and almost each one of them had a direction that they wanted to pursue.  So rather than just come to a quick decision about which one was obviously the most urgent priority, they spent two and a half real hours arguing about what to do.  The thing was, everyone was pretty much in agreement about what to do, but just what order to do their actions in was the sticking point. 

So in punishment, I have labelled their group the "Sisterhood of the Stationary Pants" for their inability to do anything beyond sit around nattering like a bunch of ladies in a sewing circle.

I think this has been a point of contention a few times in the group I run for.  Luckily I think people quickly realize that it is a game to have fun.  One way that this sort of thing gets resolved more often than not (i.e. what order or which of two things that will basically have the same outcome) is a simple die roll.  Everyone agrees what each number or range of numbers indicates, accepts that they may not get exactly what they want, and leave it up to chance to decide.  Then we move on.  It will be interesting to see how this resolves in my next campaign though, as I'm trying to get them more invested in their characters, so they may not be as willing to just give something up when it isn't essentially a "random video game character of the month"...

[Fizban]

Metagame-wise, I wouldn't have a problem with a die roll, but my game is one of those that you describe, where people are more invested in their characters, and doing things that would be against their character's desires (even in metagame, like assuming they come to a reasoned decision, but for the sake of expediency we roll a dice) are generally seen as second-best solution.  Players want to roleplay it out, players get to roleplay it out!

Having said that, in the session last night, they took my hint, and were much more well-ordered, and in my opinion, had a lot more fun acting like a team than like a troupe of mass-debaters.