Fourteen years of gaming, thirteen and half of which have been spent DMing various groups, and I've finally had the first unfortunate need to warn a player he's risking being kicked out of my group.
I stated well before the start of the campaign, set in the Realms, that it was going to be heroic (I was even frowning on neutral characters, although I did allow one or two because of good backgrounds). He missed the first week because he didn't feel like playing, and then got angry at the rest of us for still playing. "Your problem," I told him.
Last night, the party was tracking a cleric of Malar who had used a Jade Statue to cast a powerful spell, a magical plague the reverted victims to a very primal state, and by the end of the adventure it had affected a large number (in the thousands) of humans and a few other demi-humans, even one of the PCs had fallen victim to it. They discovered early on that they had to
shatter the Statue to end the spell, and that this was the only way to end it.
At one point, this player, playing a gold elven wizard/rogue, had his character send a letter to a nearby (well, the closest, it's actually two
weeks away by foot) elven community, citing that an army should come in to kill everyone so that the plague wouldn't spread (he had nothing but his own hypothesis about the spreading, but I can't fault him that).
When finally the characters were able to take down the cleric of Malar (which, I must admit, was one of the most interesting battles I've gotten to
run for any of my players in a long tme), the characters retrieved the Statue, and then debated destroying it or not. One of the PCs (half wild elven barbarian/ranger - the one was had been affected) needs to return it to his village so his exile will be ended, but most wanted to destroy it to end the spell's effects. Eventually, a wild elven druid arrives and says that the Statue should be destroyed. In short, I was expecting a debate, but not such a lengthy one, and I figured - this being a heroic campaign - that the players
would do the 'right' thing and end the evil spell.
The problem player's character has since said to me that he will attack anyone who tries to destroy the Statue, because he thinks it could be used as
a weapon against the enemies of elves - specifically, devolving humans and orcs to such a state that they'd kill themselves off.
I told him that such an action is not heroic, not even from an elven view point, and while possibly heavy-handed, I told him if he insists on running
his character in such a way, I'd be forced to kick him (well the character, but I'm sure the player would stop coming if I did such a thing to his
character) from the group.
You can take this as you will, since I know I may not be presenting his side of the story fairly. I'm not really asking for other opinions on this,
although they are welcome. Mainly, I just thought I'd vent my frustrations over a player not following my expectations for the campaign.
Thanks for reading...
I stated well before the start of the campaign, set in the Realms, that it was going to be heroic (I was even frowning on neutral characters, although I did allow one or two because of good backgrounds). He missed the first week because he didn't feel like playing, and then got angry at the rest of us for still playing. "Your problem," I told him.
Last night, the party was tracking a cleric of Malar who had used a Jade Statue to cast a powerful spell, a magical plague the reverted victims to a very primal state, and by the end of the adventure it had affected a large number (in the thousands) of humans and a few other demi-humans, even one of the PCs had fallen victim to it. They discovered early on that they had to
shatter the Statue to end the spell, and that this was the only way to end it.
At one point, this player, playing a gold elven wizard/rogue, had his character send a letter to a nearby (well, the closest, it's actually two
weeks away by foot) elven community, citing that an army should come in to kill everyone so that the plague wouldn't spread (he had nothing but his own hypothesis about the spreading, but I can't fault him that).
When finally the characters were able to take down the cleric of Malar (which, I must admit, was one of the most interesting battles I've gotten to
run for any of my players in a long tme), the characters retrieved the Statue, and then debated destroying it or not. One of the PCs (half wild elven barbarian/ranger - the one was had been affected) needs to return it to his village so his exile will be ended, but most wanted to destroy it to end the spell's effects. Eventually, a wild elven druid arrives and says that the Statue should be destroyed. In short, I was expecting a debate, but not such a lengthy one, and I figured - this being a heroic campaign - that the players
would do the 'right' thing and end the evil spell.
The problem player's character has since said to me that he will attack anyone who tries to destroy the Statue, because he thinks it could be used as
a weapon against the enemies of elves - specifically, devolving humans and orcs to such a state that they'd kill themselves off.
I told him that such an action is not heroic, not even from an elven view point, and while possibly heavy-handed, I told him if he insists on running
his character in such a way, I'd be forced to kick him (well the character, but I'm sure the player would stop coming if I did such a thing to his
character) from the group.
You can take this as you will, since I know I may not be presenting his side of the story fairly. I'm not really asking for other opinions on this,
although they are welcome. Mainly, I just thought I'd vent my frustrations over a player not following my expectations for the campaign.
Thanks for reading...
