Gunna tell ya about that time everything was going wrong in my life. Without getting into details, work and home life were kind of crappy, and roleplaying was the only thing I could take solace in. I wasn't old enough to drink, give me a break.

Oh and this happened about a decade or so ago on another forum.

Now I'm not going to say I was exactly fun to play with in that mental state, but it wasn't made any better by the fact that our GM was, for lack of a better word, a cunt. He liked to press buttons and get people riled up. He was unable to sense the mood and didn't really have the ability to tell when he had gone too far. Much to his surprise, this type of behavior made me angrier and less likely to post. I was also becoming extremely vocal about the shortcomings of both him and the other players. It could no longer be contained in our messenger and spilled out onto the forum. No player was safe from my wrath. Naturally, others tried to tell me that I was being too negative and I should lay off, even pointing out my own shortcomings as an attempt to fire back. It got so bad that one player eventually wrote a meme IC post that addressed me and how "bad" I was for point out his shitty grammar. At that point the GM closed the RP. 

Internet Drama: Not even once.

Looking back on it, I think the situation was handled poorly by everyone involved. I was probably the one most responsible for bringing the RP to its knees, but looking at it from the outside, there were things the GM and their players could have done better. This is a cautionary tale, because I now know how to deal with (and have dealt with) people who were in my position.

Firstly, if one of your players is acting a bit off, talk to them. In private is best, as no one likes to talk about personal stuff out in the open. Don't worry about trying to help them. Most of the time just listening is enough. A simple "That really sucks" lets them know you feel where they are coming from.

If they insist nothing is wrong, or continue to act out and bother people, then you might have to make the hard choice and let them go. One angry roleplayer can sink an RP, I've both been that roleplayer and had roleplayers like that in my RPs. Your other players will thank you for kicking the bully off the playground. 

[quote=@ERode]
I used to spend so much time just playing pointless "games" on Spam. Why did I do that? Fuck if I know, but I definitely missed out on some good RPs due to that weird fixation with numbers n shit.
[/quote]

I feel that hard bby.