One of my players keeps dragging out arguments and causing other in-game problems with other players because he loses arguments and doesn't get his way. In one case he killed an NPC which caused a quest to be uncompletable.
How do I go about kicking him from the group in a "polite" manner so the group can have some more fun and a lot less wasted time from bickering and the group, as a whole, not being seen so negatively since they are trying to be heroes/ good guys?
Aren't the other players fed up with him too? If yes that should be very easy.
Have you pulled him aside and asked him to be less confrontational?
Give examples of the arguments, why he starts them, why he loses arguments so often and gets frustrated. You're giving is a shred of a story here.
kinda, but i havent asked them their opinions yet since we're only 5 sessions into the game
usually having to do with the logic of things. like say the ceiling is 15 ft high he will argue that they didnt travel far enough down for it to be that high, or he'll try to blame someone or me of metagaming and we arent and we have to just let him argue and ive had to tell him to shut up because he will just keep going at it and sometimes when he does finally shut up and we get back on with the game he will say "but X..." and bring it up again sometimes.
the main reason i come here instead of asking the other players is because the game is still relatively starting and i dont want there to be in-fighting and stuff like this happening so early into it.
Well, like I said, pull him aside and ask him to be less confrontational. Tell him you're all just there to have fun, and if something doesnt make sense it doesnt matter. See how he responds to that. If he's too attached to his dignity to let shit slide in a fucking imaginary scenario, then just kick him out.
>the game is still relatively starting and i dont want there to be in-fighting and stuff like this happening so early into it.
This is EXACTLY when you need to do away with this shit before it poisons the game. Talk to him privately. If he continues to do it, kick him out.
Don't worry about being polite, tell him to either ship up or get the fuck out.
I had a player who did shit like this.
He'd argue about politics (as a left-leaning liberal), he'd argue about religion (as an outspoken atheist), and he'd constantly bring up his problems during game, even when he shows up late, but never outside of game when any of us saw him on campus.
Eventually, we kicked him out due to a lot of issues boiling over, up to and including his presence causing other players at the table to opt out of showing up for game.
So believe me OP, people like this never get better, they just weigh you down until you either accept their bullshit (at the cost of the game) or you kick them out.
>In one case he killed an NPC which caused a quest to be uncompletable.
This isn't a fucking video game. If your "quest" requires the existence of a certain character to be "completable", you're a shit DM who designs his pnp games as if they were video games.
Your player sounds like a cunt, sho' 'nuff, but you don't sound like a prize, yourself.
This. If he's a problem that you can't fix, throw him away.
>If your "quest" requires the existence of a certain character to be "completable", you're a shit DM who designs his pnp games as if they were video games.
Well I mean, if the NPC was a guide to take you to the lost city of whateverthefuck or a diplomat who was supposed to your ticket into a city, how exactly would you go about fixing it?
>This isn't a fucking video game.
If it were a video game you'd be able to kill NPCs with no consequence. But it's not. You have freedom to kill a character, but sometimes the fallout from killing an important character makes the quest you were on fall apart.
I vote for killing his character off in the most bullshit way you can come up with at the end of next session to trigger a meltdown from him.
And then just ask him not to come back once everyone can't help but recognize what a sperg he is.
>If your "quest" requires the existence of a certain character to be "completable", you're a shit DM who designs his pnp games as if they were video games.
>Finally, at the end of your destination you can see him: the last surviving shaman, willing to give you the lost incantation that will save the world
>"lol I kill him xd"
>...And now the world will end. Bravo fucktard
>"WOOOOOOOOW SHIT GM! THESE RPG MECHANICS ARE BUGGED"
I don't know what you're playing, but I enforce alignment restrictions and plan around them, which would likely have helped you avoid the NPC killing problem. Though I've had a player lose the rewards of a quest for the whole party by swearing out the giver with serious sounding death threats. After that case he was able to grow just enough that I don't feel the need to remove him from the party.
If you really have to get rid of him, stop inviting him to session. If you made the mistake of creating a situation where people show up at your doorstep without being invited, you're going to have to man the fuck up and talk to him straight.
>How the retcon got invented
>How save states got invented
FTFY
>REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MUH VERISIMILITUDE REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
This, there's nothing worse than a pussy GM who won't drop shitty players
>they will never make another rpg this good
You mean Bethesda? Surely. In general? Shut the fuck up.
Talk to the player about it.
If he refuses to change, talk to the rest of the group (or at least the GM).
If they refuse to kick him, leave.
The 'quest' is still completed. The movements set forth by the actions of the players and the world have set a course of destiny.
Yes in general.
Fantasy RPGs peaked with Morrowind.
Yeah the general focus shifted from immersion and good writing to good gameplay and technical achievements.
Maybe this trend will reverse once there is nothing meaningful left to achieve in those regards.
But to bring it back to topic
As most other people said: Talk to the offending player in private and see if that fixes the problem. If it does, or he falls back into the old behavior quickly, privately talk with everyone else end see if they have a problem with him.
If yes, tell him that the rest of the group (and you) don't mesh well with his "play style" and that he better look for another group. Don't go into specifics at this point as it will only end in another argument. Simply dont invite him anymore
*it it doesn't