Help my Star Wars campaign

Cafe Society
1

I apologize if this is Cafe-Society-worthy, but It’s so Pittish I felt I ought to place it here

I’m running an (appropriately enough) Star Wars game (2nd edition). I face several problems.

Out of 6 party members, 5 built their characters as combat monsters. These guys ignore blasters. If I haul out light mounted weaponry, grenades, or mass area weapons like flamethrowers I can average about 1 wound level on one character in a long fight.

OK, so I make the games with a lot of combat, right? Wrong, because…
Players:
#1) One of the players thinks he is and probably is smarter than everyone else put together. He can rattle off any bit of history, literature, mathematics, or phsyics theory you can imagine and understand every bit of it. If you nail anything down for him he becomes a demigod in three sessions. I’m not kidding. Every character he ever plays is godlike. He finds every hole in every system (without trying; he just does it by accident!) and explores every aspect of the universe or magic system or whatever thoroughly.

He also crushes any plot I make by bypassing everything. I daren’t put them on board a huge battlestation/starship filled with enemies, because they’d win, take it as a prize, take it apart, improve it, etc. And because this is Star Wars, there are limits to what I can do with my bad guys. If one of his brilliant ideas doesn’t work and/or work immediately, he gets irritated at me. If NPC’s don’t go along with him immediately on some wild adventurer plan, he decides they’re idiots and bypasses them, which he’s smart enough to do. Note that he’s playing a creature 60 days old now, which has no social skills and no idea of how the universe works, except that it ate vast technical databases (stupid build-your-own species rules!) He bypasses any combat given a chance, or, failing that, plasters the enemy with four-five grenades. Yes, it might hurt the party, but they make sure never to face more than one group of enemies per day. He gets angry at me if I do anything involving a wild coincidence, which is pretty much neccessary since they won’t follow any plot line or suggestion I hand out. He also refuses to accept any such suggestion unless I thoroughly justify with mathematical principles like th3 number of potential informants versus a large city-planet population, the number of potential “leaks”, etc.

So I cannot make any plotline. He’s seen everything and will end it before I even finish making it. In fact, I literally cannot make up material as fast as they make it obsolete, and I wrote half the tricks for doing so!

He also wants me to define everything about the game world, but never asks me about anything in particular, as if I’m going to magically beam the info into his head. I wrote 10 pages (10-point times new Roman, which is a lot of words for this) just for this game, pretty much for his sole benefit.

#2) Another guy, not quite as bright as the other guy, but close. He builds his character as a Jedi with vast combat skills. He spends most of his time being angry at #3, who richly deserves it.

#3) He’s a wild man, constantly tearing into enemies real or perceived just because, usually using the wrong weapon. He causes more trouble than everyone else combined. I can’t deal with him, because every character he makes becomes this quickly. While he causes a lot of trouble, at least he’s involved. 1 and 2 really hate him monopolizing my time, but they never *do * anything. I mean, if they want to hang back and solve puzzles, fine, but it’s not going to take up much of the session. If they everything to avoid trouble, then they can hardly blame me fairly for not getting into any. Moreover, they don’t want him to take up more than his share of time, but they keep sending him off on his own or

#4) He could actually do something useful and kick start the game in the right direction, but he’s too busy playing everquest and making horrible jokes about the actions of other characters.

Other playerss are sometimes good, sometimes not, but they at least don’t cause me to want to die.

I can’t count on any one person except players 1 and 2 to show and/or take part in the game. They build combat characters, and they say it’s boring. They want maps, apparently, but only mentioned this once for one fight, and never afterward. They want puzzles and problems, but aren’t showing much interest in any. I figured that finding someone on a planet filled with countless millions would entice them with a challenge. Instead, they just get angry at me for not providing any real leads. Their sole “plausible” method was to look around on the internet for any Republic coded messages. I finally gave up hinting in any direction, since they just assumed that they couldn’t get any help from any quarter, anywhere, and just ha them run across their target randomly.

They could have gotten help, but #1 just assumed it was hopeless and never bothered to ask me about anything in any way, shape, or form…

Please help me. I can’t figure out what to do. I *can’t * make stories up that are going to please everyone. And I get anything inconsistent or make a mistake from one sentence a month ago, #1 is sure to bring it up and bother me with it. At least no one is lecturing me about canon.

I don’t want to hand it over to someone else. I *want * to GM, but everyone’s fighting me every step of the way. I have people insisting on absolute realism, absolute adherence to methematical law, absolute combat in everything, and absolute freedom. I *can’t * do that. And its not the first time this has happened. Whenever I GM, they tear things apart faster than I can make it. And if I have a slow day and can’t come up with something good on the spur of the moment, they get pissy, I leave, and someone else does a game. I wanto GM, I don’t expect it to be perfect, but I want people to work with me.

2

Switch games.

Introduce your characters to Paranoia (or, technically, Paranoia XP). Not only will your characters have the fun of plotting against each other, but you’ll also have the fun of making sure each of them gets their just desserts, without being hamstrung by any rules limitation – Paranoia GMs are encouraged to fold, spindle, and mutilate everything they can to ensure an appropriately satisfying experience. :smiley:

“GM Rule #1. You are IN CHARGE. You are ALWAYS RIGHT.”
–Paranoia XP rulebook

3

How does X work?
“There is no possible way for your character to know this, so there’s no reason for me to tell you.”

Ah, but if it’s Y, I could do Z and it’ll do S, P, Q, and R, plus I’m Y-resistant so it wouldn’t work anyway.
Lie. If he finds out, it was a special prototype X that didn’t Y.

To a Jedi, there is no such thing as coincidence. Deus Ex Droideka, baby.

4

Even entire bureaucracies?

5

Paranoia! Best RPG ever.

6

Especially bureaucracies.

“Random Bureaucracy Generation. These tables provide a general description of a bureaucratic office: room size, shape, security clearance and a brief description of the clerk in charge. To create an office, roll 1d20 once on each table. Of course, no tables can match your own twisted creativity. Take these examples as inspiration when you create a bureaucratic office of your own.”
–Paranoia XP, p.252-253 :smiley:

“PARANOIA IS FUN. OTHER GAMES ARE NOT FUN. BUY PARANOIA.”
–The Computer

7

I second rjung. :rolleyes:

Get 'em out of Star Wars and into Paranoia, and let the mayhem (and hi-larity) ensue. Pit #1 against a paranoid, psychotic super-computer, and watch his ass melt. Literally. Supercomputers armed with potent Sulphuric Acid or 1920’s Style Death Rays don’t tolerate UnHapPy CitiZens.

Drop hints to #'s 2 & 3 that #1 is a traitor, and if they don’t buy it, plant the evidence, and leave the evidentiary backtrail of the plant to #4.

BTW: you say you’re playing Star Wars, 2ed. Is the 2ed. d6? or d20 revised?

You can create arch nemesi based upon their own characters, but several levels higher, with unlimited resource access. The Corporate Sector, The Empire, you name it, they have all the great gear and gadgets and training facilities to crank out uber-villains by the score.

Your players like to throw grenades? Get six Boba Fetts armed with personal deflector shields and fully automatic grenade launchers attacking from Ambush.

Or maybe just start shopping for another game group; these twits sound like whiny know-it-alls and semi-interested slackers.

It sounds like #1 uses a lot of player-knowledge in-game; force him to play more in-charater. He’s a unique species? Did he create an entire backstory for his character’s species? Their world? Politics? His family?

No? Have fun with all the gaping holes in his background that he gives you. If he/his species is so uber-good (talented), have The Empire take a special interest in him and his people; The Empire always needs slaves for the Spice Mines, and an uppity non-human race (and player) is the perfect grist for that mill.

8

You might want to also check out some of the White Wolf literature on how to deal with “problem gamers.”

9

smiling bandit: if you haven’t been there already, you are invited here.

10

Another (cheerful, happy, lojal :smiley: ) vote for Paranoia!

An example on how to handle problem players from the rule book (quoted from memory):

There’s also a section on how technology in the game world works where the phrase “quasi-scientific gobbeldygook” figures prominently.

11

I think you should tell #1 to roleplay a little better. Explain to him that while he may know all about physics, history, etc. his character had most of his training elsewhere and wouldn’t have any clue about this (unless it is common knowledge). Make him spend resources to actually know some of this information and he won’t become a super character. Knowledge of something IRL shouldn’t equate to knowledge in a game. All of the players we had in our group could quote a second edition Monster Manual front to back, but that didn’t help when we ran into a goblin that happened to have psionic powers :wink:

12

Sorry to double post, but I had to put in a vote for Paranoia, as well. Any game that can get you killed because an elevator that is depressed about having to go up and down all day decides to to go sideways for once is ok in my book.

13

Another vote for paranoia. It was made to deal with gamers disrespecting the GM. Afterwards, you’ll probably have to find a new group or at least replace #1. He sounds like the type that would not enjoy being smacked around in game.

14

The next time #1 is walking through a corridor, have him accidently bang his head into a low-hanging strut. He’ll suffer organic brain injury, and for the rest of the game he’ll have to roleplay someone with an IQ in the mid 70’s.

15

Too late. He’s been there, done that, and has already set up the other players for not ever backstabbing him if we played. And if anyone did, they’d immediately get jumped. He set this up far in advance, and there’s only so many times I can have random crap happen to him.

Yeah, but he’s a technical genius at the outer edge of human potental already. I mean, this character is probably the close to being the best on any given planet.

He’s not a Jedi. He wants realism. Even when I gave a plausible explanation of why they came across (it was trigered by one half-conscious Jedi getting a Force-dream message and passing it on to the party Jedi) he just didn’t listen.

It’s d6 Star Wars, not d20, hwich we’re not fans of. I can create a more powerful character to taun them with, but he’s not happy with combat.

he apparently just made what he always does: a character that I can’t kill without pulling out weapons to obliterate everyon else, and who has vast technical powers to do anything he can think of.

I can’t have bounty hunters randomly showing up, because they’re primary tactic when going anywhere is to sweep the whole place for scanners, keep a passsive scane going, and make 12 extra hyperspace jumps in the wrong direction to fool pursuit. And I admit, it’s easy to lose pursuers when you’ve got nigh-infinite population to work with.

Oh he plays in-character. He’s basically a droid which technically isn’t. His character is a fragment of a theoretical planetary “consciousness” which exists on eleectrical curents flowing through the magma core. I can bring in similar things, but there’s no reason they’d attack him. His character got all that knowledge by having immense natiuve intellect and stuffing himself full of programs and technical data. He doesn’t even have a body - he just inhabits a big heavy mechanized war suit. :rolleyes:
What most annoys me about the whole affair is (a) he’s my business partner and (b) he’s relentlesly pasive aggressive. You can tell he’s read up on his Taoism. Oh, and ©, he really is that smart.

Should I just reboot the game, tell them to all go eff themselves, and forget the most meager explanations of a plot? let them run wild across the galaxy?

16

Ah yes, PS:

Last session, they argues. Loudly. At Length. About how they were going to get off the planet, which involved two of the less bright players knocking everyone involved who could have done it unconscious. Then they argued for another half hour. Finally, tired of the crap, I accepted one character (#3) driving them into the shipping base. Unfortunately for them, I got a 6 on my threat roll. Since said character had been on the base before, attacking it with lightsaber and sleep gas, and tey had reason to suspect a shapechanger (he is) the Sith were taking gene samples from everyone going in or out. Did anyone bother to ask about that beforehand? No. But #1 blames me. #2 blames (with some justification) #3.
I’m beginning to like #3 because I can’t figure out what anyone else wants to do. I give them huge puzzles which may take a month of playing to work through? Too hard. I give them combat? Too boring. Only one of them has any worthwhile skills in piloting, and he’s (4) Everquest guy, and he’s always late. So they never start any chase sequences or escape sequences.
Player #1 never breaks character, assuming he can consume information reallly fast (apparently, he can). He plays a child genius, basically, and one who’s not too bright except with technical specifications.

We went over some rules revisions before the game started, but then he went and added a bunch of things I didn’t want, and it was too late to chane it (everybody had their characters), so now I’m stuck with 1st edition rules I don’t want.
I’ve been thinking about just letting him run will for a few weeks. Maybe if he just makes every technical roll automatically he’ll get bored of it. He’ll probably design the Death Star, improve it, defeat all the Sith, and whatevere, bt it might be worth it. Of course, Since he’s an electricity life form, I’m going to have him start burnning through the suit (whatever he claims, it was not designed for this), but I don’t see where it goes after that.

17

Heh, I had a similar group once, though not quite as bad.

For #1, I have a word for you that you need to use liberally – “metagaming”. Just because he’s knowledgeable about everything doesn’t mean his character is. I completely re-wrote the experience system (they do get combat experience but only 10% of value; the rest is potential role-playing experience) and metagaming has a hefty penalty. It loses its fun to own everything and basically cheat if you get no benefit and all of a sudden the other players are two levels above you.

Also, don’t be afraid to Make Stuff Up. If the players come up with a game-breaking rule or opportunity, don’t be afraid to re-balance in mid-game. For example, if they’re fighting a battlestation and want to take it and rebuild it and use it as a base, create an adventure around it. Perhaps it’s infested with bizarre parasites. Perhaps it has a glimmer of intelligence and starts messing with them. Perhaps there’s a lien against it owned by the Hutts and they come to collect… I try to keep a few nasty encounters up my sleeve.

Let me give you an example. My characters exist in a state of paranoia and suspicion. This is exactly the way I want it. I want them to think, role-play, and problem-solve, not just blast through everything. For example, a lot of the treasure I put in game is either rewards or held by friendly but overpowered monsters. Want to put a helm of opposite alignment on a demon and convert him to the party? Sure. But don’t think this sort of behavior goes un-noticed by the demon lords who are now one vassal short.

Don’t ever show fear or stress. The more they try to screw you, the more that you should smile at them. You’re the GM; you make the rules. Don’t be afraid to house-rule things. You need to have a good time, too.

Don’t make adventures too intricate. Create networks and possibilities for role-playing. Learn to ad lib. I learned not to make complicated buildings and dungeons very often, because the players can and should often find a way around my plan. Hold them to their characters. If they start arguing excessively, interrupt with an encounter (your loud arguing has attracted a guard. Oh, that was outside the game? Too bad, there is no outside the game if you’re communicating with the other characters), or even end the session if necessary.

18

Heh. I stopped trying that a long time ago. In fact, since I know they’ll likely just annihilate anything I come up with I don’t bother with them in the slightest degree.

The adventure, as such, was this:

Step 1: Get off attacked ship. They accomplished this.

Step 2: Retrieve the Jedi from the planet if they could.

Step 3: Escape.

That’s it. I made them do virtually nothing they didn’t want to do aside from that. Their first step on the planet was the flee to the lowest, most hidden spot they could find, essentially hiding in the plantary machinery. Well, they succeeded at that. It al went downhill from there (rimshot).

If I change anything in the slightest way from what I said before, #1 goes all passive-aggressive and tunes me out. Sometimes literally. Since he had a problem with getting off the planet so easily, I had a vision of Sith Lord (former master of the former Sith Apprentice/Jedi who depises him) appear, using an illusion power. #1 cranked up vastly loud music and put a flashing light display going everywhere so I couldn’t even talk to the other players. :rolleyes: If he doesn’t get to do what he wants, nobody does.

These guys are constantly on the move, taking the most evasive routes and methods. They have no reason to fear discovery, because they move in ways that no one would expect. They’re like the best guerrilla soldiers. If something does go wrong in the slightest way, they flee back to the “wild” or whatever and strike again.

Their idea of light weaponry is blowing up a skyscraper with an improvised bomb. Then, when I mention that the massacre had the people on the street worried (from newcasts, since they never actually talk to any such person) his response was, “Oh well, on a planet this size it probably happens every day. Who cares.” And I couldn’t even give him a Dark Side point (I wouldn’t even mind them playing Dark Side if they’d just honestly do it) because someone else set it off and he had some ridiculous reason to think the building was evacuated. he was dead wrong and did no investigationg of said fact; he just assumed it.

Basically, they’re like the mot horrific guerrilla force you can imagine. Which would be fine, except that they apparently want me to make a plot for them.

That’s what I’m trying to say. His character does have the equivelant of an engineering degree in every branch of science and technology. Every character he plays has this or the magical equivelant. And he personally knows every engineering discipline to a far better degree than I.

19

You seriously need to stop playing with these people. It doesn’t sound like you or anyone else is having any fun whatsoever. The stuff you’ve described #1 doing would have gotten him kicked out of any game I’ve ever run long ago.

20

fluiddruid’s got some good avoice. In addition to “metagaming”, here’s another important word for every GM to know: “NO.”

“I made up this insanely broken race using the race-creation rules—”

“NO.”

“But it’s totally legal according to the rules—”

“NO.”

“But—”

“As the GM, I’m concerned that it’s going to unbalance the game, so NO.”

Evercrack-boy shows up late? Tell him, “Oh, sorry, we’ve started without you, and I threw your character down a plot black hole. See you next week!” Wave cheerily.

“But, I’m here—”

“Yeah, but you’re too late to play in this week’s session. We start at seven. Sorry! See you next week. At seven.”

“But, can’t my character just appear—”

“NO. See you next week at seven.”

“But can’t I just hang around in case—”

“NO. That will just be distracting to the other players. Your character isn’t here, he’s not seeing what’s going on, so it’s just as well that you’re not here. Buh-bye. See you next week. AT SEVEN.”

Change the rules when you damn well feel like it.

“I’ve decided that the way we’re resolving X isn’t realistic, so we’re going to do it a differnet way instead.”

“But, that means my character won’t have an unfair advantage!”

“Yes. Exactly.”

“You can’t just change the rules in the middle of the game.”

“I’m the GM. If I decide that’s what’s best for the game, you bet your sweet bippy I can.”

“But, can’t we keep playing the old way?”

“NO.”

“This is bogus.”

“Sucks to be you.”

Remember, GM stands for “God? Me.”

And being the GM means that you’re also spending about five times more time and energy on the game than the players are. If they don’t appreciate your hard work and just want to run roughshod over your world and act like dicks, then you’re better off without them.

Cripes, and just reading your latest post, kick #1 the hell out of the game! Put him on notice that that kind of bullshit is NOT going to be tolerated, and the next time he pulls that crap, tell him that’s it. Out of the pool. The end.

Tell him he can come back to the game after his tenth birthday or whenever shows a little maturity, whichever comes first. Sweet Jesus! You do NOT need players like this, and as the GM you have a responsibility to your other players to get rid of disruptive players who are disrespectful to everyone else.