I've been running a D&D 5e Campaign over Skype and Roll20 for over a year now. From the start, I was upfront about how it was a story-driven action/adventure game. I provided a rough outline of the setting and let everyone fill in the details with their characters backstories, then integrated the setting and NPC stuff they came up with into the main story. I was hoping that, by emphasizing what the kind of game it would be, I'd only get players interested in this particular style of game.



At first, it seemed to work. This player came up with this crazy viking culture that I've made great use of. The problem is that, in a party where everyone's got a big overarching emotional story with multiple subplots, his character was essentially a murderhobo. He's been playing a viking princess who hits first and asks questions later, while insisting she has no idea about anything magical or whatever.



It was only a few sessions in that I noticed that he seemed to be acting out. Actively resisting what was going on, trying to find ways to break the game, and loudly complaining everytime his character was even slightly inconvenienced. Anytime anyone criticized his character's actions, he'd defend with "she's got a low Intelligence." Thing is, she's got a high Wisdom, so she should know to stop and think before charging headlong into volatile situations, but no matter how many times we point that out, he ignores it.



I had a private conversation with him about it, and we agreed that his character would get some much needed development when she returned to her homeland. He actually seemed pretty excited about the prospect. Then, while the characters were planning a big trip to gather allies for a coming war, he went out of his way to ensure that his character's homeland would be the last stop on their trip. During big character moments for other characters, he routinely injected his character into the scene. I once again had a private conversation with him about that, and he apologized, but he still persisted in his behavior, often using Out of Character knowledge.



When we did finally get to his big viking thing, things started looking up. I actually got some decent roleplaying out of him as he interacted with his character's family. Then it all fell apart. The big villain of the arc revealed himself and everything he did and revealed were the sort of things that should make any sane person question themselves. He responded by having his character outright ignore it and rationalize things so she didn't have to behave any differently. Goodbye character development.



The thing, I wasn't the only one getting annoyed by him. Other players were coming up to me to complain about him. People were bending over backwards to have their characters be willing to work with his, while he just ran out killing things, destroying artifacts that were important to other characters' plans, and attacking villains who were about to explain what the fuck was going on, so I had to contrive more and more creative ways to tell the rest of the party what the fuck was going on, since they actually wanted to know.



He seemed almost allergic to his character changing in any way. When science fantasy elements got introduced, he was still trying to act like his character had no idea what spaceships and rayguns and computer consoles were when in-universe she'd spent weeks around the damn things. The other players had their characters adapt quickly, and were all too gleeful to play with the new toys the genre shift had given them. This guy seemed completely opposed to his character learning anything about these things, unless of course it was convenient to him (somehow the lady baffled by technology was able to rig rayguns into explosives).



I'd tried talking to him. I'd presented his character with numerous opportunities to learn. Finally, I decided it was time to force things. A recurring villain was, secretly, a doppelganger, and she started impersonating another antagonist. When the players charged in to stop this antagonist, they found him and killed him, and which point the recurring villain revealed herself. The other players were all "wait, what? What's going on?" Not this guy. He immediately attacked. Well, OK, maybe I was too subtle. I had her teleport to the opposite side of the room (it had established previously that she had a number of teleporting items. It was how I'd kept her a recurring villain.) and taunt him by pointed out that that exact behavior was the sort of thing that had literally just got the wrong person killed. I then started having her explain what the fuck was going on, but he interrupted me and attacked her again.



I finally snapped. He yelled at him to shut up and ended the call. I started it again a few minutes later when I'd calmed down. He didn't rejoin. The other players were understanding of my tantrum. They were all annoyed by his behavior as well, especially since this was a pivotal point in the campaign and they all wanted to know what this villain's angle was and whether or not they were too late to stop the evil plan and what they needed to do afterward. Not this guy apparently. I'm convinced now that he was never really interested in playing the genre of game I was running, which is why I'm so baffled by why he stayed in so long.



We decided that, if he did ever rejoin, we'd have to talk to him about his behavior. On one hand, I'm worried that he'll feel like we're ganging up on him, but on the other, I know from experience that he ignores me by myself, so maybe if the whole group tells him he's disrupting the game he'll get the message.



I don't know what else to do. The game doesn't look like it'll fall apart, thankfully, and honestly a part of me hopes that he'll leave the campaign. One of my players said he was surprised that it had taken this long for me to finally blow up at the guy. I'm surprised too, but I've been trying to tolerate him, especially since the campaign's almost over. I don't really want to lose a character who's been there at the start when we're almost done, but at the same time I feel like everyone will enjoy themselves a lot more without him.



It's like we're all playing Tales of or Mass Effect or something and are trying to create a cool crazy story, while he's playing Skyrim and just running around doing shit.