Help: Sniper Syndrome

[Dog Soldier]

Root would be good, Fear and Snare would work as well. The player can try to run away but he can only move slowly, so slow that the villain can easily keep up. Then he realizes that the villain actually wants him to try to run so that he can take free shots at the characters back. Put him in the position of having to make a test to turn around and fight.

[Kelvin]

Here's another possibility for encouraging the Sniper to get into the same game as the rest of the team:

How about a villian (or an environmental side-effect), that causes the heroes to exchange bodies at the outset of the combat?

Now everyone has to make do with their new skill set (GM: "You all feel a brief, but intense feeling of dizziness." Player "I fly up to the top of the building..." GM: "Your boot jets don't seem to be activating, and you feel bulkier than normal somehow..." (Hmm, perhaps he's got the body of the team brick?))

The hoped-for outcome is the sniper character will have a chance to see someone else have fun mixing it up with his character, maybe without resorting to firing from afar.... Plus, of course, maybe having fun mixing it up with someone elses PC, without being able to snipe.

This has the benefit of getting the sniper player out of sniping mode, without specially targeting the sniper character

This can provide a real break for the routine, and be blast for all involved. (It does depend on a certain amount of player-to-player trust, however.)

Needless to say, as GM you'd have to make sure no-one got killed under another PC's control, that would be unfair!

[Dog Soldier]

Of course you could set up a scenario that made his ranged attacks essential. From the comment about the team Martial Artist wading into a bunch of agaents I think you may be using a very limited number of scenarios with no real risk to the team. How about occasionally pitting the team against opposition that administers a beat down and it's up to Power Armor Guy to save the day? If he runs away from that then I'd say you have a problem, otherwise you're just tryng to stick slavishly to genre and really don't need anything but a bunch of Bricks to play.

[SDK]

The local press could show a snippet of him fleeing combat and stop before he engages from a distance, nicknaming him "The Incredible Chicken Man" and discussing in public whether he's the kind of "Hero" they want to defend their city.

How about "The Brave Sir Robin"

[st barbara]

Most of those answers sound pretty good. How about having a super speedster or someone with teleport chase him ? This might keep him far enough out of the action to be ineffective.

[st barbara]

Hmm "Kelvin" our G M tried to do the body swap thing to us on one occasion; but one of the players objected so vehemently that the idea was abandoned ! In some ways this is a pity as the thought of playing the teams brick who was 7ft tall and looked like a traditional gargoyle from a Gothic cathedral with LOTS of strength when I normally play a 5ft 2'' lightly built, beautiful girl with energy blast powers could have been FUN ! (At least as a one off)

[Haerandir]

I like the body-switching idea. It has the virtue of not feeding the sniper's paranoia, and creating more fun for the entire group. In addition to varying the tactical situation and designing counter-sniper opponents, you should look into more strategies for involving the whole team in the solution. See if you can't identify a tactical weakness in each team member, and design a threat to exploit each of them. If your sniper player sees the other players struggling to handle opponents designed to counteract their strengths, he's less likely to feel like he's being punished, and more likely to see the benefits of occasionally playing against type. Handled carefully, you should be able to pitch it as the old "these guys are too powerful/well-prepared for us to fight individually, we'll have to work together as a team!" trope.

I think that you should definitely be careful not to give the impression that you're singling the sniper player out for special punishment. If, as RDUNeil suggests, it's a GNS issue, then allowing the situation to devolve into a personal struggle between GM and player is not going to help. In any contest between a GM (who controls the environment) and a player (who controls only a single character), the single player is bound to lose, and that can only lead to hard feelings and a fragmented group. Also, time devoted solely to modifying the behavior of a single player leaves the rest of the group just as bored and out of the loop as time spent gratifying the ego of a single player.

[Weston]

I just read this thread now, so I have to admit that I've only skimmed a lot of the posts in it. I apologize if anything I write here is a repeat of a point already made by someone else. I'd like to make an observation about the player, then make a suggestion for dealing with his behavior.

First, it sounds like you've nailed the source of the player's behavior: insecurity in general, and fear of getting his character hurt. In addition to the "STUN and BODY must be preserved at all costs" attitude, another clue about this is that he jets so far away from the fight. I don't know if you map your fights, but if you do you must have noticed that there are some players who prefer to keep their characters off the map. Usually they do this by keeping their characters invisible or just plain ol' far away. Of the players who do this, the most innocent just seem to be hoping to keep their characters out of sight and out of mind. Others do this because it allows them to fudge their position a bit to respond to changes in battlefield conditions without burning actions to do it. Anyway, your player may be one of these "off the map" players.

I agree with many of the suggestions that people have made for working with the player. If you want to keep him in the game, then I also agree that it would be a mistake to do anything overtly (and, I'm sure the player would say, arbitrarily) punitive. In addition to some of the suggestions that others have made, here's an in-game tweak you could make (it's about as subtle as a punch in the nose, but it might work): if you don't already have an NPC in the group, you might want to introduce one. If you do, DO NOT have the NPC show up the sniper by constantly saving the day, out-sniping the sniper, or showing how easy HTH combat really is. Players rightfully hate it when GMs do that. But what if the NPC were to have a "aura" ability, some sort of Healing and Aid ability that would help the rest of the party, but only out to a relatively short range? The sniper might feel more secure in staying close to the action that way, or at least might feel as if he were missing out on something good if every other member of the team felt some aura goodness while he flew out of the area of effect.

Anyway, just a couple of suggestions among many better ones. Good luck!

-- Weston
"In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is
no match for genius." -- Walter Bagehot

[Vorsch]

I think some of the problem has to lie with the GM, you allowed a character with probabilly NRM, Psl attacks which must of looked like a sniper character. Did you ask the player at the time? did he say that was his modus operandi.

Dont try and embarrass or create vilains to his weakness, just tell him its a four color game and people are expected to be on the map, change your tactics or gen another character.

His player is playing his character to his strengths ( which you OK'd ), dont turn the universe on him.

[Kelvin]

Hmm "Kelvin" our G M tried to do the body swap thing to us on one occasion; but one of the players objected so vehemently that the idea was abandoned ! In some ways this is a pity as the thought of playing the teams brick who was 7ft tall and looked like a traditional gargoyle from a Gothic cathedral with LOTS of strength when I normally play a 5ft 2'' lightly built, beautiful girl with energy blast powers could have been FUN ! (At least as a one off)

Ahh, too bad it didn't work out in your group . It really depends on individual circumstances, and might require a lot of finesse on the GM's part as to who switches with who... Hard to pull off unless players will treat each others characters decently (and they all know that).

I'd agree a one-off scenario is best (preferably in a lighter vein). I'm laughing imagining the switch you described (it could work well both ways). A little bit of ham acting, and you have a game to remember for years ... sigh (wipes tear).

-- Scott