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[Cheddarius]

I tried to set up an RPG once to play with my friends. I couldn't get a good time for all my friends to play at once (most aren't that into such things), so it turned out being a one-on-one thing, me being the GM. Except the guys I tried it with seemed to be not obeying the spirit of the thing. For example, in one game, the player started out and I gave schlim* a list of places in the town. Schle immediately proceeded to the farm and attempted to steal produce. Later, schle was in a battle, and (I think) schle tried to kill someone. The second person I played with tried to kill someone from the very start. I humored schlim and eventually he started laying waste to entire towns with his godlike powers, but then it just got boring.
Am I railroading? How can I avoid this stuff (also things like lateral thinking where they bypass puzzles and such)?

(schle is a gender-neutral pronoun from this one thing)

[Kadzar]

(schle is a gender-neutral pronoun from this one thing)

I don't know this one thing, and your use of odd pronouns is distracting.

[sproingie]

That's an interesting pronoun.  You let the male pronoun slip in the end tho

Anyway... If you have unserious players who don't want to follow or help develop a story or otherwise RP in any way, there's not a lot you can do.  That said, it's supposed to be fun, so if they want a combat-fest, stick them in a dungeon, not a town.  If they still derail your game, all you can do is not invite them back.

As for puzzles, if they ninja through them that should be worth extra experience for them, and a learning experience for you

[Cheddarius]

Actually, I had a lot of combat and the first person wanted a lateral-thinking-fest.
There was this town and schle was supposed to do some stuff in it before schle left - you know, level up and such - but then schle tried to burn down the barricades to leave for greener pastures and such.

[sproingie]

Okay, your player's name is now Schle The Pronounless.  In the end, free will can really throw your best-laid plans out of kilter.  Frodo says "Take the damn ring there yourself", or Menelaus says "Keep the bitch", and that's it.

Basically if you want to do heavy RP, you have to get your players attached to their characters, give 'em depth, personality, motivation, a history.  They have to have a motivation for saving the village (or maybe joining up with the bad guys instead!) and not just a figurative yellow ? over the head of a quest-giver.  If they're not that kind of roleplaying gamer, then you need something more unstructured, with encounter tables and so forth, and just ad-lib and maybe a story grows out of that.  Vinyl hex maps and wet-erase markers (NOT dry-erase!) work wonderfully for that sort of thing.

[Pillow_Killer]

You're the DM, You got the power. You can do anything. Get a DM screen, roll behind it, railroad the guy into doom and despair. Dont let players control how story goes, YOu're the narrator.

[Kashyyk]

Be evil and give them a choice of three doors. Each door will lead to the same place, by a vaguely different route.

[sproingie]

I think the problem he's having is that the player isn't choosing any of the doors, but just deciding to head out of town to see what he can bash over the head in the surrounding countryside.  Sounds to me like he wants combat.  You have to tailor the game to the tastes of your players.

[Kashyyk]

lock him in.

Say that behind one of the three doors is the key to his escape. And make the door impossible to break down. (any attempts would just draw attention to schlim (awesome word btw) from the dungeon's inhabitants. Naturally they spawn and attack schlim.

[Cheddarius]

The first player wanted lateral-thinking puzzles, the second player wanted combat. Well, not even combat, just unrestricted destruction without the possibility of losing.

And if I railroad like that, they don't enjoy the game enough to keep playing.

[sproingie]

Your first player is great.  Your second player sucks.  Don't invite the second player back.

[Cheddarius]

What do I do with Player 1 then?

[sproingie]

Form a new group that likes puzzles, put Player 1 in it, and well, make lots of puzzles.  Hopefully they also enjoy a little RP to go with it so you're not constantly battling wits with them.  But overall, you should treasure players that keep you on your toes.

[Cheddarius]

But I don't like puzzles.

[sproingie]

Sounds like you'll need to find a style you both like or find another group.  There's lots of RPG styles, not everyone has them in common.  The guy trying to ninja out of your puzzles may not actually like puzzles either.  I myself don't like contrived puzzles, so I'll often try to find some clever way of short-circuiting them.

It's like relationships, you just have to ask what the other person likes.