Hi all,
My group and I are having some troubles with one of the players in my group, and I wondered if maybe some Narrators had had the same experience and could help...
We have played regularly for 4 years, adding new players each time a slot opened. Today, after some cast changes, three players from the original set remain.
And one of them is... going off-track. For a year now, he seems to focus primarily on his own roleplaying instead of the plot. RPGing is good, of course; but now he's kinda pulling lots of the story to himself, including some goofy action - apparently, just for fun.
He also tends to rush headlong into action, without thinking.
Example: last night, in and underground cave labyrinth, he went to scout the areas beyond. When he came back later to the others, instead of clearly showing himself, he made them think he was a guard - happily, phaser fire had been forbidden by the away team commander; the PC just got a good beating.
His pranks are almost never dangerous - just utterly annoying.
Now why does he do such jokes? We don't really know. We don't think he lost interest, he just has a "solo cowboy" attitude that is a problem to the good march of the group.
The superior officer of the group tried talking to him. To no avail. I, as a Narrator, tried bashing him on the head several times with the heavy consequences of his actions (girlfriend taken by Section 31, multiple court martials nearing the eviction of Starfleet...). To no avail.
Direct speaking as player-to-player is not an option since the guy has quite a personality.
What's sad is that the guy can be one of the most wonderful players I ever played with. 4 seasons (50 eps) went perfectly fine with him. But now, for some time, he seems sidetracked.
We're all out of ideas... I was wondering if any of you had had similar experiences, or if you had some comments or ideas... I'll take anything
Thanks a lot in advance.