I always see these “how do I ditch this annoying player I absolutely hate”.
I rarely see anyone consider why this person was in the group to begin with. Is this the younger sibling or always-around cousin of the DM / game host? The best friend of a person you don’t want to lose from the table? The next door neighbor you roped in specifically because you wanted more than two other people at the table? The kid at the comic book shop you invited in because they were giving you puppy-dog eyes for weeks prior? Someone you otherwise enjoy being friends with except when they’re playing this particular board game?
I mean, yeah. Its trivially easy to ostracize or freeze out a person from a social group. But there’s usually a reason this person was included. And friendly players / skilled DMs can often find a way to make the game fun for more people. Once your solution to a frustrating player is to invent an elaborate way to boot them (in my experience) the table doesn’t last very long afterwards.
The situation I got to witness was the player was upset with the DM for personal out-of-game reasons. To be petty and spiteful, they started to do many actions to derail as much as they could.
Eventually the DM pulled the player aside and they had a talk but the enthusiasm for the campaign was gone and everyone just kind of dropped out.
I mean, the first part seems to be the root of the problem. By the time you’re talking about booting this player, the game is already on life-support.
I’ve had games disintegrate because of out-of-game beef between players. But that signaled the collapse of the whole social group, not just the D&D table. So much of D&D is just an excuse to hang out with your friends. If your friends hate each other, there’s not a lot about hanging out that’s attractive.
In retrospect its obvious. At the time it happened, it just seemed like this player was just suddenly mid-campaign throwing a wrench in everything. No one knew about the personal beef, not even the DM it was directed at.
Everyone in private said they were enjoying the game but this one player kept ruining the fun. DM said he’ll talk with him (which is how he found out about the personal beef) but they couldn’t resolve it amicabily.
So hence the very awkward campaign-ending-but-actually-a-new-one starting without that specific player.
You are correct though, the ‘new’ campaign went on for awhile but then the social group eventually went their separate directions anyways and it ended for good.
Edit: Actually rereading my original post, I’m not trying to argue that this was a good solution. I’m going to edit this and the initial post to clarify that.
I always see these “how do I ditch this annoying player I absolutely hate”.
I rarely see anyone consider why this person was in the group to begin with. Is this the younger sibling or always-around cousin of the DM / game host? The best friend of a person you don’t want to lose from the table? The next door neighbor you roped in specifically because you wanted more than two other people at the table? The kid at the comic book shop you invited in because they were giving you puppy-dog eyes for weeks prior? Someone you otherwise enjoy being friends with except when they’re playing this particular board game?
I mean, yeah. Its trivially easy to ostracize or freeze out a person from a social group. But there’s usually a reason this person was included. And friendly players / skilled DMs can often find a way to make the game fun for more people. Once your solution to a frustrating player is to invent an elaborate way to boot them (in my experience) the table doesn’t last very long afterwards.
The situation I got to witness was the player was upset with the DM for personal out-of-game reasons. To be petty and spiteful, they started to do many actions to derail as much as they could.
Eventually the DM pulled the player aside and they had a talk but the enthusiasm for the campaign was gone and everyone just kind of dropped out.
I mean, the first part seems to be the root of the problem. By the time you’re talking about booting this player, the game is already on life-support.
I’ve had games disintegrate because of out-of-game beef between players. But that signaled the collapse of the whole social group, not just the D&D table. So much of D&D is just an excuse to hang out with your friends. If your friends hate each other, there’s not a lot about hanging out that’s attractive.
In retrospect its obvious. At the time it happened, it just seemed like this player was just suddenly mid-campaign throwing a wrench in everything. No one knew about the personal beef, not even the DM it was directed at.
Everyone in private said they were enjoying the game but this one player kept ruining the fun. DM said he’ll talk with him (which is how he found out about the personal beef) but they couldn’t resolve it amicabily.
So hence the very awkward campaign-ending-but-actually-a-new-one starting without that specific player.
You are correct though, the ‘new’ campaign went on for awhile but then the social group eventually went their separate directions anyways and it ended for good.
Edit: Actually rereading my original post, I’m not trying to argue that this was a good solution. I’m going to edit this and the initial post to clarify that.