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I DM a Savage Worlds game with six players. I'm coming on this problem where some of the characters tend to bully one of the other characters.

For context, the character getting picked on is played by "Bob." Bob's character is young, naive, silly, and his homebrewed power is unpredictable, he summons monsters based on a d20 roll.

Bob is able to get into character much better than any of the other players, taking on a voice and distinct personality. However, his character is somewhat annoying. He tends to mispronounce people's names, he always walks up to random NPCs and asks to be friends, and he can sometimes gets sassy with people. Of all six characters, he's my favorite because he plays his character so well. This character is also one of the most developed, he's gone through some serious trauma and he copes by making, and keeping friends. He doesn't want to lose anyone.

The others have all decided to be edgy, unfriendly characters. They tend to gang up on Bob's character, deliberately trying to cut him out of the story, going off and leaving him places, grabbing his things (sometimes physical items I made for Bob's character) and refusing to give them back, interrupting and talking over him. At one point I had to create an NPC to guide Bob's character back into the story because everyone else ditched him.

I could understand this better if Bob's character was useless, but he's not. He's intelligent, he's powerful, and he's generally friendly, and I feel he drives the story more than everyone else. Everyone else seems happy to spend the session buying armor and comparing prices.

How do I get them to work more like a team and stop picking on one character?

Bob is frustrated because he's created a deep character with a motivation, a backstory, and a personality to match, but he keeps getting left out. It really bugs me because honestly, Bob's character is my favorite. Any advice on how to deal with this?

JohnP
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Izzy K
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    Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already and see the [help] or ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance. Good Luck and Happy Gaming! – Someone_Evil Jan 30 '20 at 20:38
  • Just a small note, but in the event that Bob has a background in acting, the other players might be lashing out because he is upstaging them and/or you're showing favoritism. And that said doing a voice (or voices if the DM) isn't automatically good roleplaying. Part of the joy of RP is being able to do something that you can't IRL... And there's quite a few questions/answers on here about characters using RL skills to gain advantage in game. – aslum Jan 30 '20 at 20:41
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    I think the fact that Bob (and/or Bob's character) being your favorite is irrelevant. – goodguy5 Jan 30 '20 at 20:41
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    From the other five guys perspective: Bob keeps using silly voices and getting peoples names wrong. Instead of getting on with it, he keeps chatting up random strangers for no reason, hogging playtime and interfering with the fun. We tried getting rid of him, but DM created an NPC and had him teleport him back. In combat he is useless, some weird random summons that is only useful because the DM forces it to be. When we work on the next combat he goes off partying. How do we get Bob to cut the crap and start being a team player? – Odalrick Jan 31 '20 at 12:13
  • @goodguy5 It might be irrelevant, or it might not. I'm not excusing the behavior of the other players at all, but if (for example) Bob's character is annoying and is benefiting from favoritism from the DM in some way due to being the favorite it could be causing some bad dynamics at the table. The OP explicitly states that this bullying bothers them because Bob's character is their favorite. The favorite status Bob's character enjoys is also some valuable context to a situation about which we have very little information. – Upper_Case Jan 31 '20 at 16:32
  • @Odalrick If their choice is to try and get rid of a character rather than merely talk to the player, then they are still acting poorly, and that issue still needs to be discussed. If they have animosity with the DM, and take it out on them by trying to destroy the party, then that's also an issue that needs to be discussed. – trlkly Jan 31 '20 at 17:26
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    @trlkly Oh, definitely; they aren't helping the issue. Sounds to me like an inexperienced group fracturing because no one known how to communicate their issues. – Odalrick Feb 03 '20 at 09:29

2 Answers2

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Tell them to stop

The characters are not picking on Bob’s character: the players are picking on Bob.

That’s called “bullying” and it’s not acceptable in any social setting.

Blaming bad player behavior on the character is called my guy syndrome and it is also unacceptable.

If Bob is using his character (which doesn’t actually exist remember) to annoy the other players then this applies equally to Bob.

Dale M
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    I was going to write this whole diatribe with paragraphs and headings, but this does a better job in far fewer words. Thanks, Dale. – goodguy5 Jan 30 '20 at 20:41
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    The problem is that Bob's character has a very annoying perk: he deliberately mispronounces the names of other characters. Personally, I find this very annoying. For one thing, this is a trait of bullies. In real life, I don't associate with bullies like this. – NomadMaker Jan 31 '20 at 03:14
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    @NomadMaker addressed – Dale M Jan 31 '20 at 03:34
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    @NomadMaker He could also be mispronouncing names because of some legitimate in character reason. Instantly leaping to "he's a bully" is a bit much, he might just think it's a fun quirk and not realize it upsets people. – Theik Jan 31 '20 at 07:14
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    @Theik Bullies in real life sometime think what they do are fun quirks. From the information given, I believe Bob's player is the bully. Not all bullies use their fists. – NomadMaker Jan 31 '20 at 07:19
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    @NomadMaker Or the player is terrible at names. If the character tries to make a lot of friends, the player might be struggling to keep up with all the names they have to remember, and be using the wrong names for the wrong people. Mispronouncing doesn't automatically mean he's calling people by dumb names, it might be a legitimate mistake. Bit harsh to automatically jump to the conclusion that the guy being ganged up on by 5 players is the bully because of one single piece of incomplete information. – Theik Jan 31 '20 at 07:24
  • @Theik Maybe, but that's the evidence I've seen. I don't see the other players/characters doing anything wrong. If I were there, I might see things differently. – NomadMaker Jan 31 '20 at 07:28
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    @NomadMaker Hobsen’s Law applies - never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity – Dale M Jan 31 '20 at 08:06
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    @DaleM I think you mean Hanlon's razor ? – Pierre Cathé Jan 31 '20 at 08:37
  • @PierreCathé yes – Dale M Jan 31 '20 at 11:19
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    @Theik If it's annoying the other players, but Bob keeps doing it, then that's a sign of "My Guy Syndrome" on Bob's part. If all else fails, I'm sure the GM could homebrew an "Amulet of Getting People's Effing Names Right+10" for them to find – Chronocidal Jan 31 '20 at 11:58
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    @Chronocidal: An in-game resolution is unnecessary. Simply explain that the character always mispronounces the names, but for clarity during play the player will enunciate the correct version. Done. – Matthieu M. Jan 31 '20 at 13:15
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    @NomadMaker The other players are ganging up on one character's player and deliberately trying to exclude them. That is bullying behavior. Mispronouncing names would only be bullying behavior if they are doing it derogatorily. Or, yes, as the Answer says, deliberately doing it to be annoying. However, it has not been established that the mispronouncing of names is what set these guys off. The guy is doing many things that are possibly annoying. – trlkly Jan 31 '20 at 17:30
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    I think the problem with this answer is that "tell them to stop" may not actually solve any of the root issues causing the conflict between the players. If Bob and the other players want a different style of game, or there's some other fundamental issue causing this, simply stopping the unwanted behaviors doesn't really address that. Can you expand on this answer and describe how to determine or address the underlying issues? Or explain what to do if hey guys stop doing that doesn't work? – dwizum Jan 31 '20 at 21:09
  • @dwizum no. I’m not there. I don’t know the dynamics. I don’t know what specific conversation the “stop” needs to take. – Dale M Jan 31 '20 at 22:46
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    @Chronocidal: If Bob doesn't realize specifically which part of his behaviour (mispronouncing names for example) is responsible for annoying the other players because nobody told him, that's on the other players. This is why the group (including GM) needs to have a chat about how they play, potentially starting out with the GM laying out their perspective in a similar way to how they did in the question. Maybe the players and GM don't agree on what style of game they even want to be playing! – Peter Cordes Feb 01 '20 at 13:32
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The other comments and answers definitely add a lot, and as we have relatively little information I'm going to do some sum up/add my two cents.

You mention that Bob's character is your favorite. One possibility is that you are unintentionally giving more light/better rewards/etc. to Bob's character than the other 5 players. From their perspective they might be attempting to get some of the attention back on themselves (few people prefer to be the side kick).

It could be the other players feel like the good roleplaying on Bob's part is not fully roleplaying and Bob is just messing around and derailing the plot of the story with meaningless stuff (especially if they come from a hack-and-slash mindset). From their perspective they might think he is being intentionally annoying to get under their skin, and ditching is less overtly confrontational/alienating than deciding as a team to just kill Bob's character.

Dale M's answer is certainly correct if you wish to continue with this group as a whole, but I would add that your job is to determine the 'motivation' of the real life players. If they are just annoyed, it might be a case of limiting Bob's characters quirks/consciously giving the other PCs more light/putting your foot down on the bullying/whatever seems appropriate for the reasons. Just be prepared as, this could fail and/or discourage one or more of the players and break up the group.

I think it is also worth taking time to determine the player motivation for playing the game. From the limited information, it sounds like Bob is more of a role-player who enjoys the social and acting aspects of the game, while some or all of the other players do prefer the hack-and-slash style of play where they really just want to go from one encounter to the next racking up points and prestige (I say some or all, because it might be one or two guys like that and the others are more or less tagging along). Neither play style is inherently bad, and they can compliment each other, but in your specific case it seems that it is creating conflict that may be unreconcilable.

In the case you have a real people issue, you have to look at what you want and make some decisions. If you have time to run two separate campaigns, and enough other RP style players you could just run two sessions. Otherwise you are effectively going to have to 'pick sides' and run the campaign you prefer running, dropping the other group/players. You can approach this many ways, but again it depends on answers to the questions on motivation/personality and real world interpersonal details.

Emerson Propst
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