> Every time I read of this kind of problem player I am struck by
surprise
> (I am continually naïve) and sorrow.
> If you were playing soccer and one of the player was deliberately
> sabotaging the game, would you ask him back?
The thing is that rpgs are usually run a bit differently to social sports clubs.
In sports, the team exists, and whoever's interested in that sport goes to join the team. The activity is chosen first, and the people are chosen second.
In rpg groups, first they form the team and _then_ they choose what to play. The people are chosen first, and the activity is chosen second.
This would be rather like getting half a dozen people together and saying, "let's form a sports team. What should we play?" If you'd settled on tennis and then six months later someone wanted to change to football, I say you'd lose a couple of members. Or possibly some would hang around, sabotage the football game in the hopes that everyone would give up on it and go back to tennis.
I've learned this distinction because I don't have a regular game group. I run short (6-18 session) closed-ended campaigns after which I offer a new one, open to any of a couple of dozen players I know. I choose the activity first, and the people second. More about that "game circle" way of doing things here - http://www.gamecircle.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=17
But most people have their regular game groups which they like to stick with. And so you get this back-and-forth and compromise, and sometimes you get someone hanging around sabotaging a game in the hopes of getting back to some other game. The most common variation is when there's one person who always GMs, and someone else GMs a session, the old GM may sabotage things...
This is unfortunate, but given the way we arrange our hobby - choose the people first, choose the activity second - combined with good old human nature, probably inevitable.
Cheers,
Kyle
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