Problem Players And Death

[Requiem ex Inferni]

A friend of mine told me a story about a player whose character was wooing a princess, and decided that pissing on a shrine dedicated to the god of spite would be a good idea. The next day, a giant dragon flew overhead and dropped a massive turd that landed on the guy, crushing him. The princess's crown was sticking out of the s**t pile.

That's the kind of punishment I like to go for in my games. I'll allow a player to do an action (unless it'll dramatically ******** up the campaign, like killing a key NPC), and they'll have to deal with the in-game consequences at a later date. It could be being arrested by the city guard because you threatened a shopkeeper, it could be getting lashed to near-death by the ship's master-at-arms because you kept mouthing him off (this happened in my Skulls & Shackles campaign; six lashes with the whip for insubordination resulted in so many lashings with the higher-damage cat-o-nine-tails that the character was two negative hit points away from death and the wounds being salted with seawater for extra agony because the idiot decided insulting Master Scourge as he beat him was a good idea*), and it could be a Glabrezu dragging you to Hell because you wished it would go to Hell (also happened, to the same player, after he decided getting his Druid into melee with it while at half health was a good idea).

*This was done to get them to hate the NPC, and the PC who got the lashings was allowed his revenge by doing the same thing to him before keelhauling him once they mutinied.

[Zeddicuus]

Varinius

I've been meaning to dabble a little more in D&D, but any of times I have I liked bringing a little comic relief to the group.
It really just comes down to understanding your GM, and knowing where the line is.
My GM was willing to put up with my s**t to an extant, but I knew when back off.
Probably didn't help that I liked playing with builds that were psychotic fire throwers, but still, awesome times.
An example of screwing around, not by me, still relevant:

This has to be quoted and is definitely worth repeating elsewhere, because it is, quite simply, one of the greatest use of roleplay I have read in a long time. Crafting an entire character to sheer awesome concept that is quite off the wall. I love it.

[Unisiipi]

Brought back memories from years back...

Usually I was designated GM of our group and we had one "center" -type aboard. At the time our closer friend group = gaming group, so unless someone wanted to leave him- or herself out of the game, it was full six players + me.

Fun times when this particular player rolled lecherous, arrogant and full-of-himself -type character in each and every game we played. From Werewolf: the Apocalypse & RuneQuest to AD&D and Legend of the Five Rings. Then, as soon as he gained even little power, ultimate douchebaggery ensued. I guess I was too nice GM at first and let himself get away with it a couple of times. Eventually tried stuff like city guards catching his character (he had to be beat near-death since he refused to submit, no matter what) and then selling him off as slave. Well, didn't work. He just escaped (as planned) but then came back and too revenge on city guard who he thought responsible. At that point I had seen enough, and his character was sentenced to gallows, along with unfortunate other player who had been talked to revenge business with him. But damn ace escaped with god-like dice rolls. It was still end of that campaign because party had split enough and he didn't feel it was fun anymore, since repercussions were introduced.

Next comes Legend of the Five Rings. In short, he then proceeds to spit Bushido and everything it stands for to face by basically flipping a bird to daimyo and then killing a couple of his party members only because they were different clan. Finally met oni and did what it wanted, just because this particular oni had boobs and about female shape.

Of course, when it came to his turn to GM AD&D, he took vengeance on my character because I had been mean to him in my games.

[Requiem ex Inferni]

Honestly, I think most problems with players arise from said players feeling like their characters should have the freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with absolutely no consequences, and their DMs not cracking down on them hard enough (or at all). I've been in a Pathfinder campaign that was this way, with almost every player pulling that s**t; it wasn't fun, it took us an entire college semester (that's about sixteen weeks, playing once every week) to get through just the FIRST book (when I ran the same book with a different group, we completed it in three sessions), and the DM cancelled the campaign after the first book because he couldn't stand the group anymore.

If a player is being problematic, call them on it. Point out what they're doing that's disrupting the group, and tell them they need to fix it. If they don't, begin meting out in-game punishment for it, with the punishment being proportional to the offense. If that doesn't get the point across, then kill off the character, but do it in a way that makes sense (ex. the city executes them for their crimes against the populace, an irate shopkeeper hires an assassin to take them out for wrecking their store, a wizard they insulted conjures a demon to drag them to the Abyss, etc). At that point, explain to them that you're kicking them from the group and why you're doing it, in a polite but firm manner, and tell them they can come back if they learn to stop running their characters in such a disruptive manner.

Trust me, I don't like kicking people out of groups (I only do it if they're being disruptive as hell or habitually failing to show up or participate), but I will do it if they keep being a problem. The whole point of a game is for everyone to have fun, and one person is very much capable of ruining that fun; if they do, they shouldn't be in the game anymore.

Hopefully this makes sense.