Dysfunction at the Magic Tourney [D&D 3.5]

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Aelwyn:
Right, he had a CHANCE to win... but he didn't. The scenario was deliberately set up to pit player against player, and it stipulated that there would be one winner, plus silver and bronze awards. Everyone else loses. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that--it actually sounds like a nice change of pace for an RPG. But it means somebody's going to be frustrated. This sounds like a guy who can't handle that kind of competition, who can't leave his failure on the arena. There wasn't anything wrong with the scenario, or the way you played it--with a different personality, it would have been, "Hey, man--nice one! You really got me with that bank of fog!"

And I've got to say, I feel a lot of empathy for the guy. I've been in a lot of RPGs where I felt like I didn't have any kind of success in the game. Either I didn't know the rules as well as the other players, or my character wasn't appropriate to the scenario, or the GM had the secret agenda "Aelwyn's a dork, I think I'll stick his character in my boring-as-hell, impossible-to-figure-out elevator for 45 minutes until he gets pissed off and goes home. Then everyone will think he's a wuss."

Another non-RPG example. When I did martial arts, there were people who were fun to spar with. If they kicked you in the head, they'd say, "Oooh. You okay?" And if you kicked them in the head, they'd say, "Damn! Nice shot!" Then there were the people with no self-control. If you kicked them in the head, they'd get pissed off and try to kick you in the balls. Or they'd just try to beat weaker members into the ground until somebody else in the class pulled them off. You sort of have two choices with those kind of people. You can spend four years sparring with them, provide them with free counseling, and cross your fingers that they change; or you can just say, "I don't feel like sparring today. You want to hit the bag instead?"

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