Problematic GM Syndrome

I was crusing the forums and came across this comment:



"Has anyone else also noticed that this seems to be a distressingly common trend?

Great GM.

Great buddy.

Great imagination, excellent ability to create lots of interesting stuff.



And then, that person becomes a problematic player.

Insert frustrated scream.



Is it the fact that they get all the attention when they DM/GM, so when they are players, they aren't in focus and they feel like they have to compete to have some? Or what?Is there a corrective facility where I could put these cases?"



See, I’ve experienced this firsthand. The GM in our Raptor Squad game was a great guy- really creative, super with NPC’s and ran a fantastic game for years that we all enjoyed. Now, that’s not to say he didn’t have some faults (see the previous thread “Cheating Bastard!”) but hey, none of us are perfect.

So, when he was unable to run the RS game any longer, and had to hand over the reigns, I was happy to step in as GM. I was further thrilled that he was going to become a player. Finally, I thought he would have a chance to really shine as a player as he had as GM.

Yeah, that didn’t work out.

I don’t know if it’s the inability to know exactly what is going on at all times behind that GM screen, or the fact you have to work, you know, on a TEAM with other people or that as a player you have no more rights or privileges than the other players, but when, well call him “Linny”, became a player in my Boiling Point game things just went outright to hell....and not just for him as a player.

The first game was successful enough. He played an engaging former shockboxer and wrote up an extensive history and really put a lot of time and effort into character creation. I was totally impressed. He gave me tons to work with and really seemed to get into his character…in short he looked to be exactly the kind of player I expected him to be.

Then the problems started.

At first, the fact that he would only show up for half a game tended to throw everything into a bit of a flux. Having to ghost a character is fine, but when you are under the impression the player isn’t going to be there to begin with, it makes it difficult to just toss the PC in when they show up. But it’s cool…I rolled with it and made it work.

Then the problem began to arise between his brothers. See, Linny had two brothers who also gamed in our group..Black Cat (who has been mentioned before), and “Scout.” Now, I’m no family psychiatrist, but it didn’t take one to know that these three guys had some issues they needed to work out (and still do from what I know.)

And that’s cool.

But don’t do it AT THE FRIGGING GAMING TABLE.

See, Linny had a nasty habit of screwing his brothers over, like repeatedly. And on the occasions where they would call him on it, an argument would usually ensue that would leave one or both of them pissed and the rest of the group, well, uncomfortable (I'll give points to Scout that he tended to let it go- and I appreciate him for that). The fact that when most of these disagreements occurred was during the RS game usually ended with Linny basically dropping the GM hammer and saying “that’s that.” Fair enough- his game, his rules, his decisions- even when he was wrong.

On one occasion Black Cat had been working on creating a suit of Ubese Armor for like, weeks...when he finally got it ready to go and rolled up he presented it to Linny who then proceeded to tell him that he had no idea what he was talking about, never mentioned he was making a suit of armor to him before and that it would take ANOTHER few weeks to create it. We all sat around stunned because we'd seen Cat tell Linny in the last game session that he could make the armor. This kind of stuff happened, well, frequently between the two.

The problem occurred when he tried to pull that sh*t in MY game.

I was surprised the first time it happened. Basically Scout wanted his character to try something and Linny didn’t see the need for it. But instead of dealing with it in character, he told Scout (out of character ) NOT to do what Scout wanted to do.
So, as GM I stepped in and told Scout to go right ahead and do what he wanted. Linny apologized for speaking out of place and that was that. Still, it wasn’t the end of he and his brothers going at it…though Linny did try to keep it in character, that doesn’t mean that his actions were exactly “in character”. In fact, there were many times where some out of character knowledge tended to worm its way into his decision making processes. Still, I tried to let it slide for the sake of the game.

So, what initially started off well began to spiral.

I think the lowest point he reached was when he had an opportunity to help a fellow teammate who had just been seriously injured, had in fact, told the rest of the team he was going to help this injured team member, and when the time came, simply left him there to die. He even took the time to look at the wounded team member, and then simply walked right past him, leaving him there to bleed to death (or die of internal wounds, but who's keeping score?)

Oh, he tried to justify his decision, explain it away and pretend it wasn’t any big deal. Hell, I think he even went so far as to come off with some half-assed reasoning based on Eastern Philosophy or some nonsense- which might have worked if, you know, we weren't playing ON ANOTHER PLANET IN ANOTHER GALAXY. They were weak ass excuses and I called him on it and I know it pissed him off that I wasn't buying into his bullsh*t but I really didn't care. He decided to do something in game to screw someone over and now he had to man up and face the music with the rest of the group and didn't want to. Wah.

Bottom line was that the player who got f*cked over, Tank, sure as hell didn’t see it as anything but Linny being an ass that Tank was playing a character more powerful and more well liked in the group than Linny was. This was an opinion shared by others as well, and opinion that Linny's PC was going to have hell to pay for what he did- it wasn;t something that was just going to go away (as much as Linny hoped).

To be honest, this one event was the catalyst for Linny leaving the group. He disappeared for the next few game sessions citing various reasons for his absence, but continuously providing lip service to the effect that he was itching to get back in and game. He would stop in on the groups message board, post once every few weeks just to let us know he was still around but that was about it.

Well, September rolls around and we have what we had taken to calling our “Raptor Squad Hall of Fame Game”...a game Linny would run twice a year so we all could dust off our old PC’s and roll some dice. So, not surprisingly, a month before the RSHOF game was to take place (which my wife Elfgirl and I hosted at our house), Linny started sending me e-mails telling me he wanted to do some Play By E-mail with his Boiling Point character to “bring him up to speed” so that in October, after the RSHOF game when we jumped back in to my Boiling Point game he would be ready to play “in character”.
Yeah, that was cool I told him, though in the back on my mind, something didn’t feel “right.” I even went so far as to mention it to Elfgirl, saying something along the lines of “I wonder if he’s just doing this e-mail bit to smooth things over for the RSHOF game, so there’s no weirdness around the table.”

Well, the RSHOF game came and went with little fanfare (if you don't count Linny's wife showing up in the middle of the game, screaming and bitching him out at the top of her lungs and making everyone in the house feel awkward and uncomfortable- but thats another story) and of course, trying to be the good GM I began work on the mini e-mail adventure for Linny’s Boiling Point character, complete with artwork, maps...the whole nine yards. The plan was to get him started a few weeks before the actual game and then work him in. He was busy putting together the RSHOF game, so we decided to start afterwards with his e-mail scenario.

I worked hard on it, hoping to create an exciting challenge for his character that would segue into the game so he could step back in with as little adjustment as possible. So, yeah, I spent hours of my free time and energy creating a scenario that we could roleplay over e-mail, all at HIS request and to simply help HIM out. I was staying up late and specifically setting time aside to work on this at his request, all the while putting together adventures and work for the regular Boiling Point game. Finally, with a cool mini adventure designed to straigthen his PC out and get him back on the heroic track, I shot off the first e-mail in what I hoped would be something neat for both of us.

It lasted all of two e-mails.

Besides sitting on his hands, trying to decide what to do, his character basically did nothing. And while I tried to coax him in to some action, hell ANY action, he simply sat on his ass and did nothing. Fear, for whatever reason, had frozen his mind and instead of doing something, ANYTHING to further the game, he let his character stand in an empty hallway when his in-game ex-wife and son were potentially dying on the other side of the door.

Yeah, reeeeeeeaaaaaaaal heroic.

It would be one thing if he were playing some wimpy little coward who didn't have any backbone- but he was playing a former SHOCKBOXING CHAMPION. Someone who wasn;t a stranger to ass beatings and load of pain! But what the hell right? Better to let the bitch and the kid die than, God forbid, charge in like a man and rescue them if need be.

But I kept these thoughts to myself, and simply tried to goad him into doing something besides timdly knocking on the door for the fiftieth time.

Then, he simply stopped e-mailing me.

Or calling me. Or visiting the groups message board. Or having ANY contact with any of us, for, oh about three months. It's like the world opened up and swallowed him whole. he simply disappeared.

Yeah, I was pretty pissed.

I was pissed that after seven long years of friendship that he would basically turn his back on our group for no reason. I was pissed that after that after hosting HIS game for seven years, and always striving to be a good player, supporting whatever goofy decisions he made around the table that he would come into MY game and cause such havoc…a game I might add that only existed because his wife wouldn’t let him game any longer. And finally, I was pissed that after all of the money, time and energy I expended to create a game that we all could enjoy, my hard work was rewarded with simple indifference- basically his way of saying “I don’t even respect you enough to come around and tell you WHY I’m not gaming with you any more.”

Yeah, so I was pretty pissed about the whole affair.

He finally came dragging around three months later asking if he could be let back in to the groups message board so he could “hang out”. He outright said he wasn’t going to game (not that I was surprised.)

But you know what he never said? And it’s something a lot of these social retards never say because they either don’t have the balls or simply aren’t man enough to stand up and take responsibility when they f*ck up:

He never said "I’m sorry."

That’s it! Had he uttered those two magic freaking words, I would have forgiven him and allowed him to at least come back around and pal around with the group. I would have at least let him do that and let bygones be bygones, and hell, even let him run another RSHOF game if we wanted. But like another social retard known as Baltic J who got the boot from our group (and who, like Linny also came dragging back around after getting the boot three months earlier wanting to “hang out”- I think they must have been working from the same script) the ability to take some damn responsibility and APOLOGIZE for his actions was simply too much to ask.

So, I get an e-mail with some half-assed attempt to weasel back in to the group without having to face up and be a man about what happened.

What Linny and Baltic J never realized, is that the group was better off without them. That their actions and disregard for people’s feelings made them undesirable, and their inability to recognize that other people were involved with the gaming group, folks that had invested time, money and energy to create an enjoyable experience for the entire group- not jsut themsleves. They never realized it, and eventually, their actions led them to getting voted the hell off the island.

Or kicked off by one pissed off GM who doesn't suffer disrespect lightly.

It was pretty sad really, that it ended like it did. But, in the end a guy that I thought was a really solid GM turned out to be a lousy player, and in the long run, a lousy friend. But, that was years ago, we’ve all gotten older and moved on and my anger had been replaced by pity. Pity because I’ve put on some truly kickass games since, and I’ve got another I’m gearing up to run as we speak…and it’s going to be something special…damn special by the looks of it.

And it’s a pity that all he had to do was apologize and he could have been a part of it.