Author Topic: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!  (Read 17924 times)

FrodoLlama

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Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« on: May 16, 2010, 02:41:01 PM »
This is my first post on a thread, and I'd like to do a combination anecdote/cry for help involving my current gaming campaign. It is very long, but I feel that writing down all of this is for the best.

Imagine a beautiful, hand-crafted couple of towns that serve as the starting point for a huge campaign world. A world named Eska. I created this world, with it's strange governments and illogical creation, from scratch. It seemed like the perfect place for a campaign.
Until my two players created their characters.
One of the players created a decent character- A member of a race of angels known as the Khan created by a mad god. He named himself @*& (pronounced "Amphora Asterisk Ampersand") and I wrote his backstory because he couldn't think of one. He's the good player, the one who rolls with the punches, etc.
Then, there's the one who will go unnamed, who will call the Impulsively Suicidal Elf. The ISE (ISE ISE baby...) created a character who was not only the son of a god, but came from a world that didn't exist in my normal world, was a race that wasn't in my races at all, was more powerful than anything I could throw at him, and who killed himself every time anyone did something he didn't like, or I told him that he couldn't do something. I also contributed to his broken-ness when I applied an unrestricted magic-creation system and basically never got around to creating hit points for anything.

That was a good fraction of a year or so. I divide my game into fifteen to thirty minute sessions known as "episodes", and organized the episodes into seasons of 21. Anyway, moving on from that, we're on Season 4, Episode 19 or so, now.

I could go on forever on all of the stupid decisions my players (mostly ISE) have made, but in short, the good guy has now been killed by his own son while tricking his son into being killed (so has ISE, but death isn't too big of a deal in my campaign), while ISE has become a bloodthirsty, insane rapist.

Here are the first four episodes: Coliseum P1-P4, detailing the beginning of their journey as I can best remember it.

1. Lawless
We begin in a man-ruled city known as Fuclana (fyu-lah-nah), where a drunken man stumbled up to @ and asked for ale. @ gave him holy water. As can be imagined, it burned a bit. A government official ran in and asked @ to hand over his holy water, as he had just assaulted a commoner. @ handed it over, and somehow the official ended up drinking it, and once again, it burned. At this point, ISE and @ were accused of more and more ridiculous things, ad were eventually taken to the Coliseum, to fight for their freedom. When they killed basically everyone but themselves when pitted against one another, they were sent to their cell, where they heard their foe enter the arena...

2. Enter The Lion
@ and ISE entered the arena and had to fight a talking lion. @ tried to reason with the lion to get it to join their side, at which point a warning shot was fired at them from the stands. @ managed to fake-kill it in order to secure its freedom, and a medic was sent in. ISE walked off because of something, to go speak to some people about something or other.

3. Negotiations
ISE spent an entire episode doing nothing other than stating how above human law he was, giving a backstory to his race that made them gods, and admitting to a dozen or so crimes after spinning a web of deceit.

4. Decisive Battle
ISE killed a government official with his "magical blade of power" or whatever.

So Yeah.
I need help.
I only plan on there being one more season, but I want to cut down ISE a lot of notches before the final battle.
Can anyone tell me how to deal with:
1. The idea that his race are all immortal creators of everything good. (I've put up with him claiming his species invented the computer while he's looking at a computer that serves as a huge plot point because he doesn’t understand it.)
2. His impossibly powerful spells and use of magic to do anything he wants?
3. His desire to be better than anything I make and his creation of backstories for him and his species simply to make them better and to screw with my plot. (I'm planning on simply having him cursed so that every time he makes something up, people try to kill him or he starts beeping really loudly.)
4. His suicidal impulses (which he retcons frequently).

Please help.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2010, 02:54:17 PM »
What the fuck? What game system are you using? There's no reason to try and untangle the Gordian Knot you and your players are hanging yourselves with: end this game right now. Start again and make chatacters who will actually play a game.

Bronnen

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2010, 02:55:57 PM »
Tell him "No!"

Seriously, if he does something you think it retarded and goes against the game, tell him No.

He created something that wasn't in your races at all, you should have told him he couldn't right then.

He's doing that because, you really aren't giving him any consequences to his actions, so he can get away with it.

Do something like "You open your eyes, to find out that you have been in a coma for the last ten years, and everything that happened was a dream, then you feel your heart burst open."

Maybe not that extreme, but you need to limit what he does.

FrodoLlama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2010, 03:25:57 PM »
1. Wow, that was fast.
2. Thank you for responding.
3. I'm not really playing in any system. It's loosely based off of DnD, but with only 15-30 minutes a day or so to play, I don't really use miniatures, dridfs, maps, rulebooks... I basically implementd some ground rules and started the game.
4. There's a couple problems with restarting it at this point. One is that I've worked on this (even with constant influence by ISE) for about 84 episodes, and don't want to redo everything. Another is that we're nearing the endgame already.
5. I'd make him wake up and die, etc. once again, if I wasn't approaching the end of the campaign. I would have done that originally, but I was more lenient than I should have been. However, if he tries that in the gnext game I do, I am DEFINITELY doing that, and the No seems like a plan that I may have overlooked...
6. My biggest goal isn't to destroy him or restart the game at this point- it's more to take his character down enough to make him strong enough to win the endgame and weak enough to knock off his constant killing of everything I make and his claims that his race invented the laser-sighted scope or that his god's sister-in-law invented the blueberry muffin, etc. Any suggestions on taking down his snobbery and power without killing him?

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2010, 03:56:18 PM »
Well advise #1 is to use a system because it has rules which prevent "impossibly powerful spells".

FrodoLlama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2010, 04:20:46 PM »
Well, yes, it would. But a system costs money, a system takes time, paper, dice, work, maps, scenarios (all of the preceding are good things to implement into an rpg, but, as I said, time constraints tend to mess with that)... I've considered Wushu, but that would only be more ridiculous, and the only system I've ever created is for horror games.
Care to suggest a system (preferably a Creative Commons'd or otherwise free one)?
Or give an example of a rule that stops ridiculously powerful magic?

clockworkjoe

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2010, 04:27:10 PM »
Risus is free and good http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm
FATE is free http://www.faterpg.com/
hell retroclone D&D games like OSRIC could work http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/

This sounds like a high school game. Is this a high school game?

Arje

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2010, 04:28:31 PM »
IS IT?
My new goal in life is to play D&D with Judi Dench

FrodoLlama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2010, 04:38:05 PM »
Yes, yes it is! It's also the first campaign I've ever run.
Thank you!
Any other suggestions/comments, o people I have attracted the attention of?
Now, I'm off to check out those systems...

Setherick

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2010, 05:23:49 PM »
Is this a high school game?

Jesus, just because you're a "pro" game designer doesn't mean everyone is.  :-*
"Something smart so that I can impress people I don't know." - Some Author I've Not Read

FrodoLlama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #10 on: May 16, 2010, 05:37:35 PM »
Risus sounds like the best option. Thanks again. And while game-design isn't my forte, I am an unpublished novelist.
Now that I've got a system, and possibly a means of destroying his deus ex machina powers, I just have to deal with his boasting and general game-mastering his character's past.
On a completely unrealated note,
Things I've Tried To Do To Mess With ISE:
1. Creating an ethereal scarab that was cursed to fall in love with him, which was invulnerable, didn't speak his language, and couldn't take a hint.
His Response: He eventually transported the curse and gave it to @.
2. Hving a board nailed to his leg by angels, which gave him a conscience. Something happened to the conscience. Not sure what, though...
His Response: He said that he would destroy the entire city, including the Blessed Ancient Tree that the board was made out of, with his team of mages and Hellfire Wyrm. (He never got either.)
3. Having him unleash a demented AI-gone-wrong children's toy from his genius acestors. ("I LEARNED A SONG. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR IT? A B C D E F G..."
His Response: This was recent, but hes' basically hurt himself trying to kill it. (It's made of Unobtanium and is the size of a fly.)

...What kind of penalty should he recieve?

Bronnen

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2010, 05:44:06 PM »
Um... death. Permanent death. Tell him to make a new character, and limit what he does with it.

FrodoLlama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2010, 05:55:30 PM »
...Once again, permanent death doesn't work. We're at the point of Two Heroes Vs. Mastermind With Extradimensional Warriors. I COULD implement a new character, but this late, it seems like a big stretch...
Although...
"I kill myself."
"Yes, you do. Roll a new character."
"Wait, what?"

"I use wind to lift myself out of the pit-"
"No you don't."
"Yes I do!"
"No, you don't. You don't have that spell. And you already surpassed *include value here*."
"What do you mean? My people created that spell! I wrote the tome when I was four-thousand years old! I-"
"You get shot in the head. Roll a new character."

It does have a nice ring to it...

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2010, 06:06:38 PM »
Things I've Tried To Do To Mess With ISE:
1. Creating an ethereal scarab that was cursed to fall in love with him, which was invulnerable, didn't speak his language, and couldn't take a hint.
His Response: He eventually transported the curse and gave it to @.
2. Hving a board nailed to his leg by angels, which gave him a conscience. Something happened to the conscience. Not sure what, though...
His Response: He said that he would destroy the entire city, including the Blessed Ancient Tree that the board was made out of, with his team of mages and Hellfire Wyrm. (He never got either.)
3. Having him unleash a demented AI-gone-wrong children's toy from his genius acestors. ("I LEARNED A SONG. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR IT? A B C D E F G..."
His Response: This was recent, but hes' basically hurt himself trying to kill it. (It's made of Unobtanium and is the size of a fly.)

...What kind of penalty should he recieve?

None of that makes any fucking sense! If you didn't have such bizzare situations you might not have a player making up equally bizzare solutions.

"I kill myself."

"What do you mean? My people created that spell! I wrote the tome when I was four-thousand years old! I-"

My advise to you is to stop playing with this individual.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Help! I've Got To Save My World From A Really Bad Player!
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2010, 06:13:30 PM »
Don't be too hard on him. High school games never make sense.

here is something else that makes no sense

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