So, we have a member! We shall this member Jane, or she/her! Fun stuff for the sake of anonymity.

Now, basis of the game: There is this place, created by this big demon fella. It is like a world, which he created, and the populated through various ways. He gets over thrown by this baddy, and is now on the run, but a lot of people want him back, and he's thinking, maybe he needs to save them.

So, for reasons, big demon fella is pretty wicked. Super, uber powerful character, though his power has been broken. But he is played by staff, and staff only, because we're fair, right? And we won't abuse the power.

Enter Jane! Jane takes up the baddy who overthrew the demon. A pretty powerful character, though the character has to be leveled up like all others (you get more stuff for posting), and his powers have restrictions because, well, she's member played, and you can't really trust her (maybe not her specifically, but new members you aren't used to yet, or know well).

Now, Jane didn't really see the baddy as we saw him, so he isn't the perfect canon/premade we were looking for, but Jane has done a good job with posting and such, and is a good poster, etc. She had a lot of questions, as we were still working out all the kinks in the game and stuff. The kind that can only be waded through after you get players and notice all the loop holes and places where you messed up and weren't quite clear, etc.

Jane asks for minor preferential treatment. Which means she would have gotten something different from what all the other members were getting. Bad sign.

Jane likes to "argue". Always has some excuse, or come back, or response of some sort to what you have to say as an admin, which leaves you feeling like you are beating your head against a brick wall. Now, I don't expected my members to agree with me 100% of the time. I'm willing to be flexible on some subjects, etc. But this is getting a little extreme. Jane will not bend. At all.

Jane just suddenly seemed to realize how powerful the big daddy demon was (really, this is noticeable if you read anything about the game - I don't think Jane ever read the bio for this character). And while Jane has stated that she has no problem being on a losing end of a battle, she is now suddenly freaking out and spewing verbal craziness all over me, since I had just walked in to this. Suddenly Jane is crying about not having a fighting chance, etc, and wants us to change all these things about the creator of the world. And how it is unfair. -- Jane has been told that no one, in staff, is out to kill Jane's canon/premade character. Death of that character does not have to be the outcome.

Jane is also found of talking to both admins about the same thing, as if she thinks she will get different answers. Hard to do when the other admin is currently giving me a rundown of all that went on.

Jane told the other admin she was just going to make her own powers for her character. Er, no. We have a list of premade abilities.

So, after Jane flips out, and even -yells- at me, Jane then apologizes, and has been kind of sucking up ever since.

Jane makes me crazy, and seriously confuses me. I don't want to deal with Jane anymore, and Jane makes me leery of getting on the internet at all for fear of seeing what she has done now, or having her pounce on me to freak out some more.

We are approachable admins, and after this all went down, I up a member happiness consensus. Asking them to PM with ANY issues. So far, nothing.

I do admin that there were some issues that were the fault of the admin. We did move a story arc along pretty fast, which cause all this. Though Jane says it was awesome and wants it reinstated. We did not have all the canon things wrapped up good and tight before start, but Jane did ask for clear limitations, which we gave (and then Jane complained about them).

Jane has a bad attitude. I don't enjoy Jane (who just made a frightening powerful character with a bunch of badbad stuff going on in it [sigh]). But Jane has a BIG role on our game, and is, really, a very good writer.

But Jane is making me very unhappy. Are we, as staff, being unfair with the powerfulness of the creator character (which isn't power played, etc, but does have the power to make the lands.. well, crumble or disappear, etc)? What should I do about Jane? I'm seriously floundering here, and my other admin just doesn't have time to help me deal with this.

I think your problem is that your main demon's powers are only described, whereas Jane's character's powers have been very specifically laid out. It looks like a double standard. If you set out the big demon's powers as specifically as you did for Jane's (ie, has the power of World Creation, etc) it would make her a lot less agitated.

The more nebulous you make a description, the more room for interpretation there is in it. So from the point of view of anyone just passing through, your demon is powerful just because you haven't given him a defined set of powers.

I have no problem with losing (in theory - in practice it takes me a bit but I do get over it) and playing with characters way more powerful than my own. If the admins want to have uber-powerful characters for the sake of plot movement that's great and I'll so play along with that.

If there are characters up for grabs with powers that are much stronger than my characters', that's sweet. Don't mind losing to them either. If they want to abuse those powers to say that because they are better IC they need to be treated better OOC - kick them out right now.

IC and OOC should not reflect each other. No matter what happens in IC, there must always be fairness, respect and contentment in OOC. If someone wants better things OOC because they are better IC, they are changing that. They're going to start causing more problems OOC until IC is too difficult, because that OOC rapport isn't there anymore.

In three words: send her away. Being a good writer does not excuse actions or allow extra privileges. She is already making your experience unhappy and you are the admin. Your game is, first and foremost, to make you happy. No one would notice if it suddenly didn't exist anymore (note: not go away, but never have existed) except you'd be thinking 'I wonder if I'd like to have my own game?' Good writing can be taught, yes? Can a good attitude? Probably, but I'm never going to try it with anyone but my own children.

Maaan that was a whole bunch of fluff. Ignore it all. I'll be more concise here, if possible. You can always help people become better writers, but you've gotta start with people who have the right attitude. Obviously Jane has not got the right attitude and she needs to be taken away from your board before she causes anymore problems.

Surely there were ample opportunities to read the necessary material, discuss the character and ask relevant questions prior to the application.

Surely be applying for the character you have to take it as an agreement to play that character as depicted and if they want to add in extras, then they should have included that at the bio stage so that it could be discussed there. Snagging an entry spot and then bitching about the character because they cannot play the character with some 'modifications' is immature. If there were any blurred lines, they should have been raised at the application stage by the player, not when they were in play.

Being a good writer, I have to agree with Emma here, is not an excuse for this behaviour. If it is a problem now and you say, 'okay, well, we'll do this this and this' and they're happy. You specify more details about the powers involved in the uber demon played by staff, you allow minor adjustments...Then what?

What happens when they turn around and do it again? What happens when something or someone comes along that they don't like and they kick off because they are inflexible? Will you still treat it in the same way? Placate them by doing what they want just to have a quiet life?

I would look very carefully at their characteristics. Is their presence going to make other people unhappy? Do they care that they are causing stress and unrest? Did you handle the situation in the way you should have handled it in the first place? Can you continue to handle these things in a calm manner without disrupting everyone else in order to accomodate their demands?

Check to make sure the talents/powers of the staff-played demon are specific, that nothing is left to be simply assumed. Once that's done, I'd point them in the direction of the application, give them a final once-over of why things are the way they are and warn them. Throwing a fit should not be acceptable by anyone's terms and that should be made crystal clear, as well as why you are unwilling to move on the addition of powers to their character. I would also raise concerns about how quick they were to disrupt the harmony on the board and alienate people--that isn't team playing and any guilt suffered as a result of pointing this out is just.

Thanks for the replies. I know that my post was horribly wrong -long- (proof reading i must learn to do!).

The staff character's abilities were listed, just not as concisely as those of the playable canons, since he doesn't have a sheet like they do, just a bio/application as all other characters have, since there are some things we'd like them not to know for plot purposes. We have, however, made these more understandable, and given him talents like all the other characters have (without giving him more power).

Jane still isn't happy, from what I hear. She hasn't bothered me yet, though, so I haven't heard it straight from her mouth. It does seem to be getting clearer and clearer that Jane didn't read anything but the top of the pile for game information, and doesn't read bios, especially important ones. And Jane also seems to lack a grasp of the game. But, that can all be learned...

But what Panda said stuck, because it's already been laid out on the table. Jane is making the game very... ugh, not fun, for at least three of us, both main admin and one player. Because Jane's attitude doesn't meld well with the rest of us and it seems she prone to argueing and fit throwing.

So we've implemented a 3 Strikes Rule. Jane is going to receive an official warning for her behavior. We have made things more cohesive, but no, we won't be changing the game to suit Jane, because it's ours, and we like it just the way it is, and so, it seems, does everyone else on there, except Jane.