[DL] Reluctant Player Member

[matt ryan <mrr15@cornell.edu>]

Good Morning Everyone,

I've been playing Deadlands for five weeks now, loving every Guts 
check  and Scrutinize roll along the way. Lsst night I ran into a problem 
that I haven't seen since my D&D days back in the '80's. (It's true, I'm an 
'older gamer'.)

We've got a reluctant player in our group. Each time adventure awaits, he 
doesn't want to go. "My character would have no reason to go," he quips. 
Okay. I buy that, I guess. I wish I could ask him why he's playing. Last 
night we players spent nearly an hour trying to urge this player's 
character to come along with us.

Thinking I was helping the Marshall, I had my character make a Persuasion 
roll to persuade the reluctant cowboy to come along. The Marshall said this 
was okay. I spent a Fate Chip and with a good roll got a 22 for my 
Persuasion roll. I thought it was in the bag. Our Marshall directed the 
other player to make a Scrutinize roll. The Reluctant One rolled a measly 4 
on his Scrutinize roll. So, I thought it was settled.

As we headed out the other player still refused to go. Now the real dilemma 
began. The question: is the persuasion/scrutinize test sufficient to change 
a players mind or do we have to do this through role playing. One member 
argued that Persuasion ought only be used on NPC's and not other PC's. One 
player thought that I still had to verbally persuade old reluctant to come 
along. We spent an hour, seriously, debating this. We eventually settled 
with me NOT being able to Persuade another player character with a die 
roll. I got my Fate Chip back. Then, after all that, he decides to come 
along anyway.

How do other people handle this? How do other players handle this? What can 
I, as a player, do to move things along. When this player stays behind he 
isn't content to just sit there; he has to take the Marshall's time doing 
things. So, the Marshall ends up running a split story, guiding 5 of us on 
one path and then guiding reluctant along the same path, behind us. It's 
frustrating.

Matt