Advice Needed: Players that seem to like to roleplay a bit too much

One of the problems I'm encountering are some of my players like to jump on during the week to roleplay in the chat logs about our once a week game.  This wouldn't be a bad thing if they just wanted to roleplay a little bit to establish some interaction between characters, but they seem to enjoy it to the point of making me read pages of back draft.  I wouldn't be reading it, but one day they tried to role play something out that made no sense to me, as they decided in the middle of the week, buried in some obscure conversation, that one of them could do things they just weren't capable of doing, even for a few more levels.  I understand that players may attempt to do things and the GM's discretion on whether or not to allow it, but when I said no, they said they did it before and it worked.  It had occurred during the week in one of their role playing stories and the player was furious that I had not told them earlier.  This is still continuing with different things as problems range from being able to heal after getting split in half, vertically, or the fact that one of them decided to have sex with a sentient rat.   Now I don't want to discourage the role playing, but they continually try to do things they don't have the ability to do, or they summon NPC's to do stupid things with, so I was wondering if someone could think of a way for me to tell them, because again, I like that they want to roleplay, but they are doing it in a way I just can't approve of.  They seem to think anything that happens in that role play above a 10 equals success, and even when I tell them about this problem, they continue to do it. TLDR; Players are doing stupid things in the chat logs and declaring them cannon, I tell them no, they insist upon doing it again later, how do I make it clear to them, I've already tried being blunt.

Umm drop them from the campaign?

Audry F. said: Umm drop them from the campaign? One of them has been part of the campaign since the beginning and I feel like dropping him because of this wouldn't be that great a solution

Go in when they are not there and do all types of things in chat like monster attack and rob them that way they say that is not fair, point out what they are doing and tell them that what is good for their characters is good for the npcs and monsters.  -- I know it is petty but they are acting that way also. If you do that each time they pull that stuff they will learn that it is not worth it. Once the GM says no, that should be it, no  argument. There are others in the world that feel players should be allowed to do anything but if that is the case why even bother running a game? Don't stress over what they are doing, just join in and don't even worry about anything. Just put it to the side and play with them. They get tired of the BS and ask about the game, just tell them that they ruined what you set up and it doesn't matter so lets have so and so have rat sex again. -- Again a very petty attitude but they bring it on themselves. As for the split in half vertically and heal from it, let a very nasty monster heal that way from now on. When they complain, point out that so and so did it so a monster can also. just my couple coppers on this.

Tell them while you appreciate all the great role-playing, your focus is on the preparing and executing a great game session. As such you simply do not have the time to comb through the chat log and any role-playing done in outside of approved times and channels has zero game effect. Don't be afraid to tell a player what they can and can not do. As a GM/Judged/Adjudicator you need to set some limits and rules. A great example I have had is a player saying they are a noble. They had a rich background and tons of role-playing fluff. I told him at the onset that it had zero game benefits. At some point it become a problem when he decided he had unlimited cash to draw on and he was immune to every realms laws. It was funny the first and second times he declared "diplomatic immunity", on the third and fourth I drew the line in the sand. On the fifth I kicked him. There are always other players looking for a great game and GM. If after addressing the issue with your players you find that they refuse to change just find different players.

Have I really upset you? If I have I won't get on except for the assigned time, also it is mostly two players that are giving him the most Grief I think. So I would also like to see a resolution

You have a direct, out-of-game conversation like adults and come to a consensus as to how the game will run. This is something that should happen before you ever play, but most GMs fail to do this to their game's peril. If you can't come to an agreement and get on the same page with regard to the expectations of each person in the game, then it's game over and you'll know what to do before next campaign.

oh please, David don't kick me I'll be good. I've been bored and we don't to much in Wes's campaign so I thought what the heck as long as you weren't there it wasn't cannan!

Metroknight said: Go in when they are not there and do all types of things in chat like monster attack and rob them that way they say that is not fair, point out what they are doing and tell them that what is good for their characters is good for the npcs and monsters.  -- I know it is petty but they are acting that way also. If you do that each time they pull that stuff they will learn that it is not worth it. Once the GM says no, that should be it, no  argument. There are others in the world that feel players should be allowed to do anything but if that is the case why even bother running a game? Don't stress over what they are doing, just join in and don't even worry about anything. Just put it to the side and play with them. They get tired of the BS and ask about the game, just tell them that they ruined what you set up and it doesn't matter so lets have so and so have rat sex again. -- Again a very petty attitude but they bring it on themselves. As for the split in half vertically and heal from it, let a very nasty monster heal that way from now on. When they complain, point out that so and so did it so a monster can also. just my couple coppers on this. I don't want to do the first part, because I don't want to quite stoop down there, but yes, I'll do the 'monster can do it too' attitude Michael of the Licktoad Tribe said: Tell them while you appreciate all the great role-playing, your focus is on the preparing and executing a great game session. As such you simply do not have the time to comb through the chat log and any role-playing done in outside of approved times and channels has zero game effect. Don't be afraid to tell a player what they can and can not do. As a GM/Judged/Adjudicator you need to set some limits and rules. A great example I have had is a player saying they are a noble. They had a rich background and tons of role-playing fluff. I told him at the onset that it had zero game benefits. At some point it become a problem when he decided he had unlimited cash to draw on and he was immune to every realms laws. It was funny the first and second times he declared "diplomatic immunity", on the third and fourth I drew the line in the sand. On the fifth I kicked him. There are always other players looking for a great game and GM. If after addressing the issue with your players you find that they refuse to change just find different players. Yes, but they like to quickly forget that The noblemen is a tad funny, but as opposed to kicking him, I would've had the guards have taken him away and punish him accordingly, and have that character live his life in jail, or death sentenced depending on what happened, establishing to the player that it doesn't work that way.  My solution to him wanting to have rat sex is me disgustingly explaining he can't summon npc's, especially just to have sex with them, but then they go do something else within the new guidelines and get annoyed when I have to explain it again.  At one point he started to ask me if I found a player who was playing hide and seek with him during one of the roleplay-fests, leading me to believe he A) Doesn't get it or B) is annoyed that he can't do whatever he wants.

I don't know how much time you have during the week, but my players do this as well and I encourage it. However, I make sure to start the thread and narrate it very much like I would narrate and control a situation if I were playing the game itself. This means that I usually check on the thread at least once each day to read what has been posted and respond whether it be from the perspective of an NPC or just a GM ruling on something that the players attempt to do. I cannot say how your players react or not, but my players are usually always asking me if taking certain actions in the situation is all right before they post, but that could just be my players. Another alternative is to just say, "Hey, you guys like to role-play and that's fine. But everything in the forum stays in the forum unless I have specifically approved it for use in the game itself."

Iserith said: You have a direct, out-of-game conversation like adults and come to a consensus as to how the game will run. This is something that should happen before you ever play, but most GMs fail to do this to their game's peril. If you can't come to an agreement and get on the same page with regard to the expectations of each person in the game, then it's game over and you'll know what to do before next campaign. It used to be "We play on saturdays, let's do stuff then", but since people want to role play otherwise, I'm all well and good for them talking in character to one another doing w/e daily activities they'd be doing as people, but then problems I've predescribed arise.  And Gary, it isn't necessarily you, and I'm trying to avoid kicking, but when players are trying to advance the plot by themselves and declare things cannon that otherwise isn't true, it's bothersome. 

Wesley B. said: I don't know how much time you have during the week, but my players do this as well and I encourage it. However, I make sure to start the thread and narrate it very much like I would narrate and control a situation if I were playing the game itself. This means that I usually check on the thread at least once each day to read what has been posted and respond whether it be from the perspective of an NPC or just a GM ruling on something that the players attempt to do. I cannot say how your players react or not, but my players are usually always asking me if taking certain actions in the situation is all right before they post, but that could just be my players. Another alternative is to just say, "Hey, you guys like to role-play and that's fine. But everything in the forum stays in the forum unless I have specifically approved it for use in the game itself." They just go into the game and do it, I kinda get that cuz it's faster to respond to people, but they don't particularly care to ask about whether or not some things can happen.  I understand some of their mistakes, but some are just too blunt and they're trying to GM the game themselves.

I'll step in here and say, I killed one of their characters (For a completely legitimate reason) Around 20 sessions ago in game, and he's been after me since. He's making the game hard for me to look forward to, and goes out of his way to put me in a bad light, even when I've done nothing wrong. Sometimes he'll run into battle (My character is quite slow) And then later yell at me for not helping him in the beginning. He'll talk over me, and flat out mute me when I try to say something.  I think the worst part is that he's been slowly making everyone else act like him. Not really in terms of attitude but certainly in terms of attempting to gamebreak with characters.

I think before this gets to far, the discussion appears to be between the GM and his players, he might want to take it to pm's or to his forums before the ever watchful mods give us a warning or something is said that requires them to step in here. Just a heads up about posting things in the heat of the moment.

Metroknight said: I think before this gets to far, the discussion appears to be between the GM and his players, he might want to take it to pm's or to his forums before the ever watchful mods give us a warning or something is said that requires them to step in here. Just a heads up about posting things in the heat of the moment. I've explained to them about this before, I'm just wanting some solution that isn't kicking them, as one of the players saw the suggestions to kick the players and reacted to that, as opposed to me saying "I don't want to kick anyone over this", but I do want them to stop doing completely out of the question things and declare them cannon.

can we maybe make another campaign just for us bs ing around and none of it carries over to the actual campaign session?

Gary R. said: can we maybe make another campaign just for us bs ing around and none of it carries over to the actual campaign session? I suppose that can be a solution, but I dread the fact that one of them is still going to want things to be cannon.

tentacle or "sex with rats"? or are you meaning me with my rp nosebleed when i see tentacle's power?

That is an option, make a mirror campaign that is held in an alternative universe. Everything that happens in the alter campaign stays in the campaign. This will let them go hog wild in it while your true campaign stays cannon. It increases your work load some but think of the possible crossovers that could happen. I was picturing something like in the mirror darkly (star trek reference) or some such.

Metroknight said: That is an option, make a mirror campaign that is held in an alternative universe. Everything that happens in the alter campaign stays in the campaign. This will let them go hog wild in it while your true campaign stays cannon. It increases your work load some but think of the possible crossovers that could happen. I was picturing something like in the mirror darkly (star trek reference) or some such. but he is already doing a lot for the first one the thing is is that we like to rp in the game chat

Gary R. said: tentacle or "sex with rats"? or are you meaning me with my rp nosebleed when i see tentacle's power? That's disturbing too, but one of the players wanted an NPC to appear out of no where, have it be a sentient raichu, and then proceeded to have sex with it, and impregnate it.  I don't really want you people to bring in your fetishes in like that, but what bothered me more was that he thought he could just spawn an npc like that.

Gary ask David on the campaign forums, not this one.