Re: [DL] Reluctant Player Member

["Daniel Gwyn" <dgwyn@colba.net>]

Hi,
    I think the real problem lies in players being allowed to create
characters with "no reason (or inclination) to go along with the posse."  I
wasted far too much time in several D&D campaigns because the DM let players
create characters with "realistic" personalities who had no real inclination
to get things done or to get along with other people.  It was cute for a bit
to have PC role playing internal bickering, but there were several players
whose characters were either obnoxious s.o.b.'s or total loners.  After a
number of long and pointless sessions, I simply stopped playing with those
people.
    My point is that Marshals should insist players create characters who
will intergrate into the group with relative ease.  While it might be fun to
play an abrasive old miner who refuses to leave his mine near Deadwood, it
doesn't really serve the common good to introduce him into a campaign about
tracking down the James' Gang.  That doesn't mean the characters have to get
along with each other like old friends, merely that they accept to ride with
each other.  Think Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood in "The Good, The Bad, The
Ugly."
    As a possible solution to the current problem, give one of the other
PC's some means of coercion with regards to the Reluctant Player Member.
One example would be some legal authority to "draft" members of the public
into assisting a agent of the law.  I was once playing a town marshal who
forcibly deputized two men then ordered then to come with him.  In a later
game, one of my fellow players was an MiB who was given a mandate by his
superiors to make sure another (harrowed) player went with him to Denver.
    If giving power to other PC's doesn't work, bring out big sticks:  have
the Agency show up asking some really unpleasant questions to the Reluctant
Player Member (RPM), create a situation where the RPM has to leave town in a
hurry (a favourite tactic of Ross, BTW) or start throwing monsters at him.
            Daniel Gwyn

"Y si yo vuelvo a nacer, yo los vuelvo a matar.
Padre no arrepiento, ni me da miedo la eternidad,
Yo sé que allà en el cielo el ser supremo nos juuzgarà
Voy a seguir sus pasos, voy a buscarlos al mas allà."

From "El Preso Numero Nueve (The Ninth Prisoner)" author unknown