Resolving Problems

Maintaining the players' attention keeps a game moving and leads to memorable moments when everyone's in the same zone. Too many interruptions break the flow. This is fine in moderation. A game is a social gathering, so there's definitely a place for conversation that's not directly related to playing the game. These interruptions become a problem if they're too frequent, or if people are talking over others. If a player repeatedly interrupts you or other people or undercuts every crucial moment of the game with a joke, talk to them about limiting their comments to appropriate times. Often, all you need to do is hold up your hand or otherwise indicate that the player is talking out of turn to delay them until after you or another speaker finishes talking.

Phones and other mobile devices are another major source of distraction. Banning them entirely is often impractical— many players use apps to roll dice or manage their character sheets, or they need to answer texts from their partner, check in on a work project, or otherwise stay connected with people who rely on them. However, you can set ground rules against using a device for anything that's not time-sensitive or gamerelated, such as refreshing social media, checking the score of a hockey game, playing a mobile game, or answering a nonurgent text. You can relax these rules for players when their characters are “offstage.” If a player's character isn't in a scene, that might be a good time for the player to use a mobile device.

Most players who cause problems do so unintentionally— perhaps bringing out-of-game issues and stresses to the table. You shouldn't immediately jump on every instance of problematic play—everyone has a bad night on occasion. However, if someone disrupts the game on an ongoing basis, you owe it to all the players to deal with the problem. If you don't, bad feelings, grudges, and even ruined friendships could result.

Handling a problematic player requires tact: making demands in front of the rest of the group is rarely the best way to resolve the problem. Attempt to handle the problem privately away from the game, or call a break to have a private conversation if the situation is really urgent. As with all emotionally charged conversations, email, text messages, and the like can lose the subtlety of speech—it's better to meet the player face-to-face, if possible.

Here are some problematic behaviors that often come up and might require you to intervene.

• Obsessing over the letter of the rules.
• Constantly “helping” other players make the optimal choice on their turn.
• Making their character the center of attention without allowing space for other players.
• Repeatedly including other players' characters in the area of a harmful effect without their permission, such as an Area Fire or Auto-Fire weapon attack or a damaging spell.

Other behaviors are unacceptable and must be dealt with firmly and decisively. These can be severe enough to pause the game in progress. Such actions speak to a deeper problem and require more drastic action to solve.

• Repeatedly arguing with decisions made by other players or the GM.
• Ignoring other players' opinions.
• Deliberately derailing the adventure's plot.
• Purposefully disregarding or subverting the game's agreed upon content expectations and limitations.
• Being deliberately rude or cruel to other players— especially if it's on the basis of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, political or religious affiliation, the color of their skin, appearance, or the like.

You might end up with one PC who outshines everyone else. Perhaps the player is a rules expert with a powerful character, other players are less experienced or more focused on the story of their characters, or there's just a rules combination or item that's stronger than you expected. In any case, this imbalance might mean you have other players who feel ineffective, or the overpowered character's player becomes bored because they aren't challenged during gameplay.

Talk to the player between sessions, and make it clear that no one at the table is to blame in this situation. Most players have no problem making some concessions for the happiness of the group. If the problem results from rules options, offer an easy way to retrain. If the imbalance resulted from an item, come up with a way that item might need to be lost or sacrificed, but in a satisfying way that furthers the narrative—or consider a power up for the whole party! If you meet resistance from the player, listen to their counterpoints. If you're still convinced they need to change, you might need to be more firm.

It's worth stating that players might still have fun, or even enjoy an instance of power imbalance. You don't have to do anything to address it unless it limits fun at your table.