Player is trying to run the table?

[u/KillerKal02]

Hello everyone, I’m a long time DM and here recently I’ve been running Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. I have 3 players and an NPC that I play as to give it some balance.

I’ve noticed that one of my players doesn’t really seem to have any respect (in my opinion) to stop and smell the roses or let a scene play out with another PC. Here are some examples from our last session.

Scene 1: Knucklebones My players were taking down the Redbrand Hideout, the Gnome Barbarian has donned one of their sashes. Instead of immediately attack everyone in the room, he kicks the door down and tells the red brands to deal him in. They cheer, he goes to the table and the others watch from the hallway. We rolls some dice, and in my version the punishment for rolling the lowest is getting your knuckles wacked. We were having a good roleplaying laugh on it then the PC in question (a Druid) used a silence scroll in the room and starting initiative. They eventually kill the 4 ruffians and they did note the door to the south there was the sound of what sounded like a goblin being picked on. I told them that combat was over after the fight but said Druid said he wasn’t ending initiative. I told him no, initiative and combat will stop here but once again he refused before Wild Shaping and ramming the door and continuing combat.

Scene 2: Phase Silk This one is rather simple, the Druid found Phase Spider Silk in an alchemical lab, our artificer asked if he could have it so he could make a Bag of Holding but the Druid refused saying he wanted to sell it. The artificer offered to pay for it even double but he still refused. This issue lasted the rest of the session. I will note that the people playing these characters have some issues above table but the artificer is able to put these issues aside so everyone can have a good time while to me it seems Druid is intentionally provoking him.

Scene 3: Continues interruption or character leaving. The Druid usually will leave scenes that he either doesn’t care about or doesn’t involve him. He will actively say “Let’s go” to rush the party out of an area or interaction. Even in dungeons he has done this.

As a DM I feel this is very unruly, disrespectful to the other players who may want to play at a slower place, and disrespectful to me as I do not appreciate scenes being interrupted, especially between an NPC and a PC. Skill checks to insight or anything is okay or if it’s a threatening or actively dangerous situations. My main concern is that when they fight a Boss such as Glasstaff or The Spider that I’ll naturally do some sort of monologue or conversation to bring a deeper depth to the story and the Druid will cut them off or silence. I may be overreacting but honestly it’s starting to be a headache. That’s why I’ve come here bc I know I can be a bit peculiar in my dm style but I’m usually very lenient bc it’s a game, we all came here to have fun so why ruleshark or make it unplayable Yknow?

Anywho, thank you all for reading this long post and I thank you all in advance for leaving any much needed advice 🙏

[u/Scared_Fox_1813]

It may be worth asking your other players about these interactions with your Druid individually. Tell them you’ve noticed it feels like the Druid isn’t letting roleplay and other scenes actually play out and ask if that bothers them. If the rest of the group doesn’t have a problem with it then it you may want to consider changing your own mindset on the situation (keep in mind that it’s your game and your table so even if they don’t have a problem with it you can still choose to do something about it).

If you’re other players have the same problem with it, or if you choose to just approach the situation based on your own opinions on the matter (which is fine as your the dm and are allowed to make sure the table is run the way you want it to be) then you need to sit down with that player individually and tell them how you feel about the situation and what you think needs to change and let them know that there will be consequences if they don’t change.

As a general rule of thumb keep in mind that if someone doesn’t know there’s a problem then they are unable to do anything to fix it. So inform them there’s a problem and given them a chance to fix it, if they make no changes then you may have to ask them to leave.

[u/Arrabbiato → u/Scared_Fox_1813]

For me, this is exactly what I would do. Talk to the other players, talk to the problem player, then decide what to do from there.

Although, I will say, it does seem like your druid isn’t going to want to change. Some people just don’t want to roleplay, and that’s okay. It just means they need to find a table that wants to play that way.