[DL] The old Powergamer question

[UriahGutsball@aol.com]

    Howdy, List. It's Ed's Brother, and I've got a familiar problem with my 
game. A Powergamer, and a lousy bastard of a character to boot- how do I run 
the game advantageously for everyone? I'll explain, entirely.

    This one character, Trent Barkley. In my current game, the character is 
revived from an older game of mine, where he burned down a town and killed a 
dozen or so people, and got away. Now, he's wandered for a year(the old game 
was back in '76.), and wound up in this new game. MY current game is centered 
around an up-and-coming boomtown in kansas, Colby. It just got a railline 
from hellstromme industries, and it's getting the dodge city treatment. The 
powergamer in question has recently aligned his character with the New Town 
marshal, another player, Miles Long. This other character recognized Barkley 
for the outlaw he was- but was also amoral, and has helped Barkley fake his 
own death, in order to collect the two thousand dollar. The Hellstromme 
Industry Security chief and Mercenary coordinater in town also knows who he 
is, but doesn't have any reason to do him harm. 

    Recently, (this most recent game session) The posse was investigating a 
mine shaft south of town where two loggers and two dozen miners had 
disappeared a day or two ago.  First, he started a large bit of player-player 
conflict, where he shot off Miles Long's fingers, and tried to beat him into 
unconsciousness. Eventually, he stopped. (he claimed that not killing the 
other character was his concession to Gameplay(the minimum one possible)- 
because he knows that if he were to kill another character, I'd drum him out 
of the Game in a second- I'm not running a 
Do-whatever-evil-thing-you-want-to-do game.) After that character had his 
fingers sowed back on, the posse returned to the mine, trying to investigate. 
Barkley refused to go into the mine. He was asked to go politely by one of 
the Good characters. He then began making sarcastic comments about, "I should 
go down the mineshaft and die or God will be mad at me." In hindsight it 
would've been better if he'd stayed outside.

    Inside the mine, there was to be a combat session. I had geared the 
combat so that it would be more challenging to him, and maybe provide more 
danger. He then began complaining about how I, the marshal, had a "Hard On" 
for his character. He is of the type that always rolls very well, and draws 
cards very well. I have caught him red-handed cheating before, and I suspect 
he does so without being caught fairly often. He has never missed a shot 
since I started the game. In fact, he becomes quite pissy whenever the dice 
don't work for him. (Ex.- Earlier, there had been a bar-fight(two teams of 
two dozen each-ranch hands versus loggers), and he decided that to resolve 
it, he should threaten to shoot one of the loggers in the head. he then 
rolled Overawe. In 4 attempts, the highest roll he got was a 9. He was so 
angry he beat the table he was rolling on. To him, it seemed perfectly 
logical that if he rolled high enough, the crowd of people that wasn't 
listening to him should stop fighting.)

This is the problem. He's evil. He's not at all a hero, and I don't think 
will work in the adventures I have planned. He will also inspire more 
player-player conflict. He's a powergamer- in combat, he cast Draw! and had 
11 action cards, and didn't miss a shot on one of them. He's a massive power 
gamer, and off-sets combat- a threat that could worry him could decimate the 
rest of the posse. And, he's pissy about the changes I have to make to 
challenge him. 

I already know some of the solutions that are going to be offered- tell him 
to Kiss off if he doesn't like the game I'm running, tell him to Kiss off if 
he doesn't want to be a hero like I had planned for the game, and some such- 
But I'd like to hear the List's views, because I've valued your viewpoint 
before. You've also got much more experience than me, and my three games of 
experience.

Morgan Hirsch.