Experienced GM's - Penalizing players.

[Aholibamah]

Also some players aren't really into more intense or serious gaming. I know more than one group that really see the game as a sort of social event like a board game--the GM brings a pre-done adventure, they announce actions and roll dice and most of the time let the GM cakewalk them through it will they digress and talk about stuff, eat munchies and hang out. It can be hard for a player from such a gaming group to go from that to suddenly having to be 'in character' a lot of the time.

I had a player like that and it was a big challenge for her. Part of being a good GM is noticing what kind of people your players are and what they seem to expect, and what you might have to help them with.

 

[argo]

well what I call a disruptive player is a few of the worst I've had over the years, a pair of them actively cheating during a campaign, another who, during a con no less actively threatened the players characters and harassed them more then the villains. What I do is a variation of the same theme. I give them large doses. The more outrageous offenders get the maximum on the first ocurrance, others first get a bad case of brown trousers, then a near undeath experience if they dont catch on. If they never get the point let them get roasted, their character that is. Thats exactly what I did with the obnoxoid twit at the con years ago.

What might be worth considering is something that pokes fun at the offending player, this takes some extra care to make teh point your actually trying to make.

When your offending player screws it up, as he inevitably will, YOU do not have to do anything to punish him. The rest of the group, on the other hand, will take care of discipline for you... hopefully he'll survive.

Now, stuff like this is the kind of "punishment" that I advise the OP to avoid at all costs. Passive-agressive morality plays done through backhanded mechanisms (like in-character penalties for out of character behavior) are most likely to just piss off the player in question without him figuring out what you are trying to "teach". Or if he does figure it out then he is likely to be pissed that you put him through a passive-agresive morality play instead of talking to him straight up.

I had a player like that and it was a big challenge for her. Part of being a good GM is noticing what kind of people your players are and what they seem to expect, and what you might have to help them with.

This OTOH is good advice. Talk to your players, they are supposed to be your friends, not a pack of dogs that you are trainning.

 

[Majestic7]

Also some players aren't really into more intense or serious gaming. I know more than one group that really see the game as a sort of social event like a board game--the GM brings a pre-done adventure, they announce actions and roll dice and most of the time let the GM cakewalk them through it will they digress and talk about stuff, eat munchies and hang out. It can be hard for a player from such a gaming group to go from that to suddenly having to be 'in character' a lot of the time.

I had a player like that and it was a big challenge for her. Part of being a good GM is noticing what kind of people your players are and what they seem to expect, and what you might have to help them with.

I just wanted to add that there is nothing wrong in treating RPG's like the group you are talking about - everyone plays as they wish and there is no one right way to do things. However, like already pointed out, the trouble starts when people from different, even opposing gaming cultures try to play together. Some players enjoy bullshitting and rollplaying, others want to get heavily in to their characters, while some enjoy the stories good adventurers offer. The hard part is to make a group consisting of many kind of players to fit together without unnecessary conflicts.

 

[Damien]

My group does use the 'punishment' method. Because we're sick individuals. But it's actually kind of funny as most of us are good pals.

Each player has a wooden ruler nearby. Yeah, that's right. If the player to your right isn't doing what he should be doing, you whack him on the knuckles. That'll get his attention. Of course, if you fail to perform this action while everyone else can clearly see that the person needs it, well.. .the player to -your- left will whack -you- until you get with the program.

Like I said, we're all pals so this works for us. New players are brought in knowingly -- told that we like to take our game seriously and try to stay into it for the duration. As another poster here said: We play for fun, if you want to do something else, do something else. But don't come to my table and make us wait on you.


Prior to the now-incredibly-funny ruler method (I, myself, have been rulered 2 times) I've handled this situation differently from different groups. The one I prefer is the gentle approach: If you aren't paying attention, you don't matter. By way of explanation:

We had a game once in a homebrew setting using a low-magic, somewhat Conan-like modification to the d20 rules. This was before there was an OGL Conan, of course. Throughout an entire combat session one player, we shall call him Bob, just refused to pay attention to what was going on. As the GM, I took note of this because it was hampering the fun everyone else was having.

When it came time to high-tail it, Bob was still not paying attention. He said nothing - was just doing his own thing. A few minutes later I was narrating the introduction to a new city the players were entering, letting them know where everything was. Bob finally looks up and says: "So we're in like a big city type place now?"

My response:

"No Bob. They are in a city-type place. You, however, weren't moving or speaking. The other characters assumed you were dead and left you behind. Considering they left you with the sand demons, I'm guessing you'll need to work up a new character. But we can run the 10 sand demons vs. Bob The Unattentive combat encounter first, if you like."


He got the message. He did roll up a new character. And strangely - become a better player. Honestly, I just think the character he made didn't turn out to his liking, which left him disinterested. He liked his new character, and made sure from them on to pipe in with "I'm going too!" whenever the party fled. It become quite the hilarious running joke that Bob wasn't getting left behind.