Fellow Game Masters.

[Melkor]

I have ran into an unfortunate situation on this day. Two of my Players, the Jedi Padawan and the Pilot/Owner of the freighter the party is based out of had to call out sick (They're a couple, one got sick the other is staying behind to take care of them). I was given plenty of notice and was ok with that, gives me more time to work on my plot and refine details. However another pair of my players, the Mechanic and the Droid were very unhappy about this. Which is understandable, but I've held to the rule that if we're missing 2 or more players we're not playing. I have moved the game around quite a lot to accommodate the Mechanic and the Droids work schedules.

Upon hearing the news that we were going to cancel out tonight due to half the part being sick, the Mechanic began a tantrum. Calling me out and claiming that I was a s*** tier GM because I can't handle a game with half the group gone and how awesome she was as a GM and after about an hour of texts gave me the ultimatum that Her and the Droid would leave if we weren't doing our Star Wars game tonight. I told them to bounce on out of my game. I am curious as to if I've done the right thing or not as I hate losing players...but at the same time listening to a 20 year old rant at me that they're vastly superior as a GM and threaten to leave if they don't get their way pisses me off more than words can express.

[MrNexx]

A lot goes into the conversation but, generally, I go with "It is not my job to teach social skills to adults." Now, being a bit older, I do not usually consider 20 year olds to be full adults, but... yeah. If they're gonna pop a pissing fit over a game cancellation, then I'm cool with them leaving.

BUT.

I'd also be cool with them saying "Sorry, it had been a s*** day and I'd been looking forward to the game. Can I come back?" Because we all have s*** days and get pissy from time to time.
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"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[Melkor]

Is pretty much my opinion on their behavior. I'm 30, so is everyone else in the group but those two. Stuff happens, people get sick, work schedules change. Life tends to happen regardless of gaming plans. If I get an apology before next game I'll let'em back in providing it's a half way decent one. But part of me would rather just be done with them, I grow weary of the constant 20 year old I know everything attitude. We all had it when we were younger for the most part, but at the same time save it for after game or during one of the smoke breaks. As a mild side tangent for anyone else that's a smoker, does it annoy the crap out of you that the non smokers come out and invade the smoking circle and complain about the cold and the smoke?

[D+1]

Life is too short to game with jerks. You acted correctly. Also agree that Life Happens and people have bad days. A second chance might be reasonable, although it's up to you to determine whether the player is worth a second chance. No game is better than a bad game - one poisoned for everyone at the table by a player with an unwarranted chip on their shoulder.

The point of getting together is for everyone to have fun, and a bad apple player tends to mean NOBODY has fun - and who goes to lengths to get together to NOT HAVE FUN?

[Kytross]

[garhkal]

I say you did right. If a player throws that much of a hissy, and you give in, generally i have found that later on the same player will throw another hissy at something else, just to push you into yet again giving in to him.

Here's hoping the other 2 when they get well, can bring someone else. BUT was the player of the mechanic also playing the droid (as a NPC) or was he (or she) in somewhat of a controlling position over the PLAYER of the droid pc (like the father etc)?? It would suck to lose Both of them over the one persons b**** session.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[thedemonapostle]

im 35, earlier this year i had a player, whose several years older than i, just go ballistic in one game about how i wasnt following the rules, about how i had done this or done that and more. he just went on a rant of excessive swearing and insults. luckily it was via roll20/skype and i just dropped from the game.
few examples from that game:
flying up to a core planet of the galactic empire and calling up the port authority in a non-serious tone, with a hint of laughter in your voice, and saying, "im a jedi come get me." and then getting pissed when all that happens is you get hung up on.
detonating a 500 megaton nuke 600 meters from their ship and getting mad at me, the gm, when they took damage. i was even exceedingly nice when they rolled near max damage and only let the bad guys die. but since no one bothered to be the medic, i left them with the urge to get rid of that radiation asap.
the one i liked most was how it was my fault that no one in the group made a character that could fly any ship of any kind. i even warned them about it before we started. which made everything much more difficult.

when all was said and done, i ended up losing two players over that one game. one of them refuses to play any game with me ever again regardless of whether im running it or just a player.

just dont worry too much about it. if ya have to just put up a post about looking for another player or two in your local area.

i was just reminded of my early days of AD&D back when i was a teenager. one of our DM's wife was a real B****. when we would find treasure, she would hoard the crap out of it, she wasnt a thief of any kind, she was a lawful good cleric exploiting a loophole. so the rest of the party would never have magical gear cause she would paralyze us or change out memory and take our magical gear and keep it for herself. and when she got angry cause she would get hurt in combat and would yell at us to protect her we would remind her that we were having issues of our own since we were all high level characters with no magical gear. she would do this to every character, until a psionicist was in our group and she didnt know what it was fully and she tried playing with his mind. he fought back and she ended up a puddle of goo on the ground and she then flipped over everything and ran from the room crying about how unfair we all were.

i can go on and on. after 21 years of gaming one tends to collect stories of players and their antics. not saying that ive never done anything stupid, but i have learned to not play or DM/GM a game while on pain medication. while things can get interesting, things can get very unfortunate too.
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d6holocron.com: Thedemonapostle

Thedemonapostle Star Wars Crossovers

[garhkal]

Fut the whuk?? He detonated a nuke, and even WITH you being managamous enough not to fry the entire party, he was peeved at you that YOU Didn't force one of the party to be a healer?
And then again later, they ignored YOUR Hints on a pilot, then b**** at YOU cause YOU didn't canx one of their pcs to force someone to be the pilot cause no one had ship skills?

GOOD on you for dumping that @$$h0le*.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Melkor]

[thedemonapostle]

[MrNexx]

That's part of why I tend to ask people to describe their characters in terms of the crew of Serenity. If you have too many Jaynes and no Simon, you're gonna have a bad time.

But, FFS, if you're that big of bad-asses, buy a medical droid.
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[garhkal]

[thedemonapostle]

[garhkal]

True it sucks having months of game play wiped out cause of a decision leading to death. BUT, is that not what a game IS... having ups and downs based on decisions and dice rolls?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Melkor]