Speaker 1: Wow, this is a really tough battle. Yeah, it's a real nail-biter. Indeed. It's a good thing this encounter is balanced for our level. And we are afforded the luxury of confronting this challenge as a group. Oh, yeah, what the wizard said.

Speaker 2: So it looks like you guys all got this battle well in hand. I'm going to sneak over to that door and see what I find. Wait, what? Why would you do that? No reason, just curious is all.

Speaker 1: Yeah, but there could be more enemies behind that door. And then we'll have to fight them on top of the ones we already have. What possible justification could you have for screwing us all over this badly? Yeah, why would you do this to us?

Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, guys, but it's what my character would do.

Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we don't like your character. OK, you open the door and spot an all-powerful lich. It locks eyes with you and sucks out your soul. Then it closes the door and ignores the rest of you. Wait, wait, what? Rogue, you are dead. Feel free to roll up a new character if you so desire.

Speaker 2: But why would you do that to my character? You know how much I love the stabby stabby.

Speaker 1: Because that's what the dungeon master would do. Yeah. Welcome to the DM Lair. I'm Luke Hart, and I've been a dungeon master since high school. On this channel, I give practical dungeon master advice that you can implement at your game table. Today in the Lair, we're going to be talking about how to deal with problem players in your Dungeons & Dragons games. And honestly, this is advice that probably applies to most RPG games, I feel. We're going to do two things in this video. First, I'm going to discuss general ways to deal with problem players. And then I'm going to do a deep dive into 17 specific types of problem players with specific suggestions for each. Wow, that's a lot of problem players. Types of problem players. But here's the thing. To keep this video from being an hour long, I'm going to split it into two parts. This week, we deep dive into just six of the specific problem player types. And then next week, we'll hit the other 11 problem player types. 11 plus 6, 17. I can do math. Now, before we jump in, I want to let you know that my Kickstarter, End of the Fey, is now accepting pre-orders. It's a level 1 to 5 adventure module featuring lots of cool new Fey creatures and magic items. There will be kicking artwork commissioned from professional artists and highly detailed maps to help DMs run the games at their tables. There is a link below if you'd like to pick up a copy and lock in a special pre-order price. Both PDF and physical copies are available. And there are also dice bags, tactile tokens, and t-shirts available as well. General advice for dealing with problem players. All right, the very first thing that I want to get out here is the simple fact that if you have a problem player, then you need to deal with the problem player. Don't just let it slide and just keep ignoring it and thinking that maybe miraculously it's going to go away. It probably won't. And your game will just get worse and worse as a result of it. The fact is that putting up with a problem player just slowly erodes the quality of your game, giving you a far crappier game. Don't put it off. Deal with it. And problem players can even cause your other players, your good players, to leave the game. And then you're stuck with the very players that you don't want in your game, the problem players. So deal with problem players before it's too late. Now, the formula for dealing with a problem player is mostly the same, regardless of the type of problem player that you may have. You have a conversation with the player wherein you talk about the issue and you try to resolve it. I typically like talking to players one-on-one, but I have done it at the game table with other players present too. When you have this conversation, use the situation, behavior, impact, request, or sibber method to frame the discussion. Situation. Set the context for the conversation. Recap what the situation was and what was going on in the game or in the group. You know, we were in the middle of a big battle against ghouls, and then you had your character go off, leave the battlefield, leave all the other characters in the battle, and you started opening other doors to wake up more monsters. Behavior. Explain the behavior that others at the table experienced. Yeah, other players and the dungeon master felt that you weren't helping them in their battle, you weren't playing as part of the group, and instead of that, you were going off and potentially waking up more enemies that would come join them in that battle, making things even harder. So they didn't really like that. Impact. Share the impact of that behavior on you and other players. Yeah, the players were pissed because you weren't helping them, and also because you found another group of enemies, like you knew you would, that you then drew back to the party who was already fighting the ghouls. Request. Request a behavior that you hope that person can do in place of the problem behavior. Play as part of the team. This is a group game. Don't do things that you know will bring negative consequences on the other characters in the game. Please. And I'm being all melodramatic as I'm reading off that example, but when you're actually talking to the player, you do wanna do it in a calm and understanding and friendly way. You don't wanna be like an overbearing jerkwad toward them, kind of like I am in that example. Oh, and can we just touch on a small little thing here? Never, never, never address a problem player by punishing the player's character in game. That is either an act of stupidity, cowardice, or ignorance, in my opinion. It will probably not solve the issue, and it could definitely serve to make the player an even bigger problem. I feel like some people are gonna be like, Luke, you just called me either stupid, coward, coward, cowardice, a coward, or ignorant. Uh, sorry? Just, just, just don't do it again, and we're good. And to be clear, in the skit for this video where the dungeon master kills the rogue's character for problem behavior, never do that. Okay, so you're like, okay, Luke, that's great. I talked to the player, and they keep on doing the exact same thing. Now what? Oh yeah, that's gonna happen. So talk to the player again, give them another chance. Hopefully, with a second talking to, it'll sink in, and maybe they'll correct that problem behavior. But if they don't, and if it keeps on continuing, possibly in different iterations of it, or different flavors of the problem behavior, then you need to ask yourself, is this a showstopper? If not, then you just put up with it. You keep the player in your group, and you keep on playing, because you know what? They're not gonna change, but it's not that grave of a thing to do the next thing I'm going to suggest, which is remove them from the group. Like, if you've talked to them, and it's a big problem, and they just refuse to stop, it's like, it's bye-bye time. Like, what are you gonna do? Gotta kick them out. Then when there's a problem player, you're not the only one that feels that that person is a problem player. Like, everybody else at the table is probably feeling that same thing. So if you ultimately have to remove them from the group, let me assure you, almost everybody is going to feel, along with you, a sigh of relief as that is dealt with, and they'll probably thank you afterwards. Like, not the person you kicked out, like the other players. Now, a common issue that gets raised here is, but Luke, the problem player is my friend, and I'm afraid that talking with them or removing them from the group will hurt the friendship. Yeah, that sucks. There is a good chance it will hurt their friendship. That's a risk you take. So you either suck it up and do it, talk with them, or possibly remove them because it's the right thing to do, or you just tolerate it and hope and pray the issue doesn't ruin the game for everyone. Me, I'd probably take the risk and do what needs doing, being diplomatic about it, of course. If the friend is still cool afterwards, great. And if not, well, then perhaps they aren't the sort of friend I needed in my life anyway. All right, that's enough of the general stuff. Let's get into some specific problem player types and solutions, like specific solutions, not this general talky-talky stuff. Talky-talky stuff is good though. Number one, the rules lawyer. All right, first, clarification here. The rules lawyer is not someone, is not a player who just points out the rules. A player who points out the rules, who helps clarify the rules, is not necessarily a problem player. Like I, as a dungeon master, can't always know every single rule in the book. So if I have a player who knows the rules a little bit better than me in a certain area and they bring it up when I'm uncertain, I consider that as them doing me a favor and helping me run the game a little bit because I can't know everything. And as a tangent, I do personally try to follow the rules. I feel that it gives the players a baseline of expectations for the game. It is an even playing field. Like we all follow the rules, mostly. The rules lawyer is the player who twists the wording of rules to get their way at a certain thing at the table. They ignore the spirit of the rules in order to accomplish a bigger goal for them, which is winning the argument, getting more power for their character, whatever it happens to be. I've also found in my experience that this player has a way of interpreting rules in a unique and creative way that do not align with the standard usage of the English language, which helps them in getting creative interpretations of the rules, I might add. The rules lawyer also tends to argue extensively with the dungeon master even after the DM has made a ruling. And this is one of my biggest pet peeves. I cannot stand that. The solution, explain to the player that discussion is fine. I have no problem at all with discussing a rule. Never have a problem with that. I listen to my player's side. I want them to feel listened to and understood when we're having this initial discussion about what a rule is and how it works. This is often referred to as active listening. However, once I have made a ruling on something, we need to move on. There is no more discussion needed. I also feel it's important to note that sometimes I do make temporary rulings for the sake of moving the game along and not being stuck in a particular place for too long. And I tell my players that after the game session is over, I'm gonna look more into that rule. I will make an official ruling and I will get back to them with our ongoing permanent ruling for that particular situation. Number two, Mr. Limelight. Okay, you know this player hogs the spotlight, talks over other players, doesn't wait their turn. Basically, this player isn't letting the other players play the game. And a moment of honesty and a little bit of a confession here, when I'm a player, this is something I struggle with. I have to intentionally force myself to shut my big mouth and let everyone else play the game. Imagine that. Luke likes attention. The solution. Okay, so for a player like this, my advice is that when you take them aside to talk to them, you say something along these lines. Hey, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it's kind of impeding the other players from playing the game. Could you try to give them opportunities to play as well? So basically, you're appealing to them to help you. See, they have this excitement and enthusiasm for the game. So enlist them to be on your side in encouraging others to participate as well. Ultimately though, they do need to give the other players the space to play the game. And I would make that clear as well. Number three, the cheater. All right, you guys. Okay, so typically when we think of cheating in D&D, we're talking about fudging dice rolls. But let me tell you, fudging dice rolls is the tip of the iceberg with the cheater. As a quick aside here, tips for people who would cheat at their dice rolls. When you create a sort of barrier around you by piling up books and soda cans, you create this sort of castle wall around your playing space. Nobody can see inside there and it allows you to roll the dice and claim they are whatever you want them to be. But fudging dice rolls aside, some of the worst cheating I have experienced is when a player misrepresents what an ability or spell can do or conveniently leaves out the fine print which limits what the thing can do. As an example, let's say that you have a monk who is trying to use shadow step to go to a place they can't see. And the player is arguing that he doesn't have to be able to see where he's going in order to use that ability. And of course, when the dungeon master looks up the rule because he's like, hmm, that doesn't sound like it works that way, he finds that it actually, that the monk actually does have to be able to see where he's shadow stepping to. It's like, I have found, I have found that there are some players where you just need to double check like everything they did. And when you slip into that, you know you probably got a, yeah, you probably got someone you gotta deal with. And I have found that this type of cheating is more nefarious and much harder to detect unless you, as the DM, learn the rules yourself, which you should as much as possible, or look up new things when they come up at the game table. Like new things that you've never used or encountered before. Now, I do wanna point out a little tiny thing here before people start freaking out on me. Players do make honest mistakes, of course. So sometimes when they misrepresent things or leave things out, they're not doing it intentionally, it's just a mistake. And the more you DM, and the more you get to know your players, you'll learn to tell the difference. There are some times when you know it's not an honest mistake because it happens multiple times a game. By the way, I did an entire video about dealing with cheaters in D&D, if you're interested, link below. The solution. Okay, so cheating is actually kind of a delicate thing, in my opinion, and some forms of cheating are worse than others. I feel like the first step here is to, before you even consider approaching somebody about cheating, make sure you have good enough evidence to support the accusation. Because if you don't, and all you have are like weak suspicions, it doesn't help you. And the second step is ask yourself, is the type of cheating they're doing really worth addressing? Is it affecting the game? Is it affecting the other players? That is, are they aware of it too? And are they getting pissed off about it? Anyway, once you have evidence and you have decided that it needs to be addressed, you go talk to the player. You present the evidence, you explain how it's affecting the game and the other players, including you, the dungeon master, and you very kindly and firmly ask them to stop. Now, some people are gonna freak out right about now and be like, Luke, any form of cheating is unacceptable and must be squashed at all costs. Okay, okay, I respect that vantage point, but this is also a social game with social consequences for everything we do, including confronting people, many times our friends, with accusations of cheating. Some battles are just not worth fighting, in my opinion. Number four, the instigator. All right, this is the player who wants to be a jerk for the fun of it. They steal stuff from other players. They constantly start up player versus player stuff and other shenanigans that they know are gonna screw the other players over. They might do something wainwrought-ish, like sabotaging something the other players have been working really hard on. Let's say that the group has convinced the guards to let them go by without fighting, and then that player just decides that, whee, let's start off a little fight just for kicks. And they often justify their jackwad behavior with the refrain of, you guessed it, that's what my character would do. I recently released a little rant about the that's what my character would do horse crap excuse, I'll link below, if you're interested in watching that later. Okay, so for the solution, this is an instance of a player intentionally, intentionally trying to ruin the other player's fun, and I come down very, very hard on this. You speak with the player, you warn them that this behavior is not cool and that they need to stop. And there's another solution here that you can implement as well if you feel so inclined. You see, I personally don't allow any player versus player stuff in my games for reasons such as this. It ruins other players' fun and can result, and often does, in players getting upset with each other outside of the game, out of character. So in my games, PvP is pretty much off limits. Number five, the min-maxer. This player wants to build an optimized, powerful character, often by splashing classes and choosing the perfect combination of feats. They crawl Reddit and other forums looking for the perfect builds. All right, so I personally have never had any issues with this play style as a dungeon master because the solution to me is rather simple. I increase the difficulty of encounters as needed to account for increased player power, or player character power. The classic response to this is, but Luke, that makes the game harder for other PCs who are not min-maxers. However, in all of my experience with fifth edition, for the last several years of running multiple games a week, I have never found this to be a problem, like ever. The group always adjusts and does just fine, and no one knows that the game became harder in response to min-maxing, except for me, the dungeon master, of course. However, here are three rules that might solve about 90% of all min-maxing issues. Number one, use the 27 point buy rules. Why? Because rolling dice statistically results in higher ability scores, which makes min-maxing a whole lot easier. Number two, don't allow multi-classing. And why, you might ask? Well, because multi-classing allows you to put some really crazy combos together, get some low-hanging fruit, and make a character who is much more powerful. Number three is only allow races and classes from Wizards of the Coast's official rule books, or even better, only from the player's handbook. And with a similar reasoning, when you allow Unearthed Arcana, third party, and homebrew stuff, your ability to put together an overpowered min-maxed build gets a lot, lot better. And I bet I'm gonna get lots of folks freaking out in the comments about these rules. It's okay, calm down. I mean, the chances of your dungeon master actually watching this video are, well, pretty good. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Sorry, sorry if they decide to use these rules and it ruins all of your min-maxing capabilities. Now, personally, I use only rules one and three above. And though I do have min-maxer player types, I have never really found them to be a problem for me. Maybe an annoyance from time to time, but not a genuine problem. Number six, the power gamer. This may be, by far, the worst type of problem player. Well, maybe not the worst, but I don't know. It's one that I don't like. Okay, so clarification here. There are similarities between a min-maxer and a power gamer, but for me, there is a big distinction. You see, the power gamer is almost always a min-maxer as well, but they get an added class feature. You see, manipulating the mechanics of the game to min-max isn't quite enough. They also try to eke out every advantage they can during the game. This might mean knowing the rules super, super well so they can be manipulated to be even more powerful, even though the spirit of the rules is broken. It can also mean trying to ignore the rules and arguing with the dungeon master over specific situations. Here's a great example for you. I had a player once, a classic power gamer, who once tried to argue over the definition of what five feet was in the game because it would benefit him in that specific instance. We had been playing for years, and then out of the blue, he's trying to say that what we've always accepted as 10 feet, measured from center of square to center of square, is actually only five feet if you measure it from the edge of the square to the edge of the other square, and why? Because it benefited him in that specific situation. He was wrong, of course, and I could have easily said, you know, buddy, we've been doing this game here for a couple years now, and this has never come up before. Why now? And despite being wrong and everybody at the table knowing he was wrong, it did manage to drag the game down for a good 15 minutes as he was arguing about that horse crap. And that's just one example. Ask me in a live stream. I can tell you stories. Oh, can I tell you stories? All right, solution. I have no tolerance for power gamers anymore. I went through that one, and now it's just the tolerance has been all burned out for me as it comes to power gamers. Frankly, they frustrate the crap out of me and piss me off to no end, usually because I know exactly what they're doing, and they end up arguing with me over stupid stuff like my definition of five feet I mentioned above. The definition of five feet. It's not my definition. It is the definition of five feet. Like, who would argue over the definition of how to measure something? Okay, so I would talk to them like you would any other problem player. I'm trying to calm down here. And ask them to stop, and if they don't, then probably remove them from the game. And for the power gamer that I had most recently, I cannot tell you how much better the game was after he left. In fact, I was far more tolerant of it than I should have been, and everyone would have been better off if I had handled the issue sooner. Like, I met with him so many times, trying to talk things through and resolve the issue, but it just wasn't working. That was like one issue among others, I suppose. Don't forget to follow me over on Twitch, where we hang out, talk D&D, and even sing and dance. I'm really good at that. Let me know in the comments about a problem player you've had in a game. Next week, I'll be finishing my deep dive into the different types of problem players, but until then, click right here to binge on my Dungeon Mastering 101 playlist. And until next time, let's play D&D.