Running a LARP is a piece of cake. All you have to do is write up a brief storyline and then the players take over. Simple, right? Although this theory looks good on paper, running a LARP is much more difficult than it seems… especially when there is a problem gamer in your midst. One bad player can bring down the entire game and make other players wary of coming back. Over the past year our group, SEER Productions, has had three such players. In this article, I will tell you how we handled these three troublemakers and still kept the rest of our players happy and returning.
(Names have been changed to save me some grief)
The Apathetic Bad Guy
When we first started preparing the storyline for our Vampire: The Dark Ages chronicle, Gwain offered to play the bad guy, a villainous Tzimisce lord named L----. Since all of our events are run by the efforts of volunteers, we were more than happy to give him the role. For those that are not familiar with The Dark Ages games system, the Tzimisce are vampiric flesh crafters in the guise of high-class lords and ladies. In theory, their high positions in society gives them the power and prestige they need to work on their evil plans. Gwain had the wealthy lord part down. He would look down his nose at other characters and talk with an air that told others they were in the presence of someone they didn’t want to annoy. The downside to this wonderfully evil character was that Gwain avoided playing the evil part.
Imagine Darth Vader without the somber music and black armor, and that was Gwain’s character. It got to the point that the other characters weren’t even interested in killing him anymore. They just let him become prince without putting up an argument. Honestly, of all the problems a GM can have in game, indifference is the worst. I even had my character go up to him when his charrie became prince and outright insult him, believing that he would injure me and send my followers into a tizzy, giving the players a scene they would be interested in. Instead of retaliating, Gwain’s character just chuckled amiably and walked away. We decided then that something drastic had to be done to save this game.
Before the staff could decide what to do, Gwain had his character destroy a major port city two days before our next planned LARP. Needless to say that we were completely surprised, as was the gamer playing the prince of the port city. We believed, since Gwain was a storyteller, he had had a game plan, so we went with it. Silly us. He dropped the bomb (so to speak), and then left it up to us to pick up the pieces. That was it… Gwain had to go.
But how were we to do this without looking like the bad guys? Gwain had this annoying habit of acting like a good ol’ boy and, although he infuriated most of the staff and players, he had become friends with a small handful who would have probably left the game if we had just kicked him off staff. This is where tact had to come into play… and that is something we all had very little experience in.
The final conclusion was to use his own words against him. He was constantly complaining how his wife, his job, his girlfriend, and gaming were taking up way too much of his time, so we happily helped him by reducing his responsibilities at SEER to the point that he could only adjudicate during LARPs. He was no longer able to make up storylines and the players were informed that anything Gwain told them had to be verified through us. As we had hoped, he saw this as a major insult and dropped off of staff. There was no way anyone could blame us for his leaving. They had all heard him complain about his tight schedule and saw what we did as a favor to him… and to them.
The first game after he quit was one of our most exciting. We put his character into Torpor (a vampiric coma) and had the players go through a labyrinth to find and kill him. We are now at the beginning of a new chronicle, and the players are eager and exited both during and between games. Getting Gwain off of the staff was the best thing we could have done for the game, and the way we did it moved us up a few notches in the players eyes.
The Singing Toreador
“Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl…”
At least, that was what she believed her character was. Lola was playing a Toreador (the artsy vampiric clan) whose art form was swordplay. This was actually an intriguing character to us, because normally an inexperienced player would pick a Toreador character to stay out of the fight scenes, and choose an art form like dancing or singing. Lola’s character was a bodyguard whose charge had been killed under her watch, and she was supposed to be out for revenge.
The problems occurred during the games involving contests and competitions. Every time Lola’s character competed, she would sing. Not only was this not consistent with her character’s profile and background, but Lola would pick the longest, most boring songs ever made. Her voice was lovely, no doubt about that, but she bored the hell out of the rest of the players.
The first time she performed, we believed that she was just nervous, and was doing something that she was comfortable with until she got used to her character. But this excuse didn’t work after the second competition… or the third. We decided that the next time she chose singing instead of swordplay, we were going to have to do something drastic. The next competition occurred at the same LARP where Gwain’s charrie destroyed the port city. So, we had the competition’s location in a neutral territory as a celebration for those who survived. Lola was the third one to perform. She walked up on stage… and started to sing. You could almost hear the groan from the players.
After the first refrain, we had the neutral territory attacked by flesh crafted monsters, cutting the competition short. The players all rushed out of the room, eager to destroy and maim. Imagine our surprise when Lola griped to her friends and her friends complained to us after the game because she didn’t get to finish her song. We had to figure out what to do next. We couldn’t ask the other players if her songs bored them as well, because then we would be reducing ourselves to Lola’s high school tactics. So, trying to keep the peace, we had the competition run again at the next LARP. Lola got up and once again began to sing.
I made sure to stay out of any pictures taken while she sang - I didn’t want anyone to see the total lack of interest on my face. I shouldn’t have worried. The pictures of our players showed that same look of boredom. The morale of the story - if something is boring you, chances are it’s boring your players as well. Remember, although you are a GM, you are a player at heart and if you feel a storyline dragging, your players are feeling it as well. We finally told Lola that she had to start playing her character the way she was created… with a sword… or to make a new character. She hasn’t sung since then, and our players now look forward to upcoming competitions.
The Negative Staffer
We had met Selene at a gaming convention in Massachusetts, where she lives. When we invited her to our games, which are held in New York, we really didn’t expect her to show. Not only did she come, but also brought her friend Elvis, her boyfriend, and Elvis’ girlfriend along for the ride. She helped out with setup and takedown, offered suggestions for the storyline, and played a character that both entertained and involved the other players. Because of all this, we offered her a position on the staff, which she accepted. At the same time, we also offered Elvis a staff position. He had been helping out with storylines, characters, and setup as well, and played a character that eagerly tried to tick everyone off. He gave the players an enthusiastic target, and they loved it. He likewise agreed to join the staff. This is when the problems started.
Unbeknownst to us, Selene had become jealous over the fact that my husband and I had become good friends with Elvis and his girlfriend. She didn’t like that our schedules let the four of us get together outside of the LARPs and staff meetings, and took out her jealousy on SEER.
Any time we held a staff meeting, she would disagree with every suggestion a staffer gave, whether it dealt with the characters, storyline, or players. Not only did she contradict everything that was said but she didn’t give any reasons why. She would just say “No, that won’t work.” or “No, that’s not a good idea.” It got to the point at one meeting that Elvis had to get up and leave before he knocked her out. Needless to say we got no work done that day. This also extended to our meetings in cyberspace. She would accuse us of giving favor to those players that live in New York, repeated everything that was written by others with the thought that we didn’t understand what was being said, and then told us in a blanket statement that we were wrong. It was time to get rid of her.
This time we didn’t think about it. She was bringing the staff down, and thereby bringing all of SEER down. It was a choice between her and the game. We told her that it had nothing to do with our friendship; it was solely a LARP decision. She decided it was personal, and won’t come back to any games. The staff and the LARP have been running better than ever. The moral - if someone is lowing the morale of the staff, she is also doing it to the players and the game.
Whenever you have a problem player or staffer in your group, you have to make your decision following this belief - the choice comes down to the happiness and pleasure of the one or the many. The many should win out every time.
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