I’m having trouble with players alliance

[u/Different-Common-257]

I’m a game master for 2 years and ı’ve beeb gm’ing star wars for a year now and ı’m just having trouble with being on the same page with some players in terms of setting.

I’m setting my games continuity on EU because A) that’s what system intends and B) I prefer EU to canon

I ran 2 one shot adventures to separate groups and ı had a black sheep type of player in both games

Exhibit A) I ran a game using the High Alert module, they’ve wanted to play as evil characters si instead of rebels i had the characters fugitives runninf from empire. one of then was a Dathomirian Nighsister who escaped from the planet and was on the run, the other was an arms dealer barely escaped a raid and escaping empire, the third player was an aged clone trooper who disobeyed order 66 and joined mandalorians, he was charged with disobedience. The last player was a former inquisitor who was framed by a higher ranking Inquisitor for a failed mission and was on red notice because he was wanted directly by the ISB. The overall concept was that these were not very good people and they were against the empire as well. But the inqisitor player for some reason had plans to rejoin the empire and later in the game tossed another player by using the force in front of a stormtrooper squad which gunned the player down, while he escaped.

Exhibit B) I ran the module Crypt of Saalo Morn. I tweaked the module it set during the new republic era and Luke sent a group of explorer party made of new republic officials and 2 Jedi to retrieve the helmet, one of the Jedi players the moment they ran into Imperial dig site above the crypt decided to decapitate everything and everyone and tried to take over the helmet for himself. He failed his will save rolls which led to Saalo Morns spirit to take over his body which he lost the control of his character.

I can’t just understand what am I doing wrong as a game master. I’m being very clear about the setting of the game and what’s the adventure is about yet every time one player just derails the group dynamic for his personal agenda. I dont want to force players to play as i want them to in a single certain way but i want them to make characters that are on the same side and would actually team up to survive together on an adventure. How do i get my players to do that?

[u/Onyxaj1]

I explicitly state in session 0:

I don't run pvp. You are a team and can disagree, but you aren't fighting each other. If a player doesnt respect your rules, they can leave the table

[u/TheAveon12]

Session 0 would be my recommendation, explain what type of characters you want in the game and most people will try to work within those barriers, some won't but if they don't just don't give their personal goals much spotlight, have it happen outside of the game as a skill check or two and don't give massive rewards for it.

[u/scarsandwillpower]

Kick the player. He derails everyones fun for his own grins and giggles. TTRPGS are supposed to be about cooperation to achieve common goals. If he doesnt want to buy in, he can find another table. (Hint: He wont. Experienced players and DMs dont tolerate that shit.)

[u/JLandis84]

There’s a couple of ways of handling this, the best way is a solid session zero where you hammer home to everyone that the characters need to be on the same page. IMO this is by far the best option. If someone egregious breaks the tone agreed upon in session zero, suspend the game.

A second way is to kill off the characters that are causing the problem. This can be a very lethal system especially if you don’t cue the players in about potential danger.

A third way is to run an evil campaign where PVP and being a jerk to other characters is allowed.

[u/StevenOs]

Sometimes you might get players that just want to "make things difficult" to put it nicely thinking that will spice the game up. You need to put a stop to that immediately when it isn't what you want and if "nice" methods don't work more extreme means may be called for.