So last year, I put together a D&D campaign for my local venue. It has a lot of casual and new players, so I got a lot of interest. I soon had five regulars, all new to the game.

The one thing I was really clear on with everybody was that the campaign was a long one - two years. I asked if everyone was happy with that, and stressed they could drop in and out at any time.

A few sessions in, a new player asked to join. Right off the bat I noted some behavioural issues with him; he'd say awkward and uncomfortable things, but I've a lot of experience in defusing this and handling less socially skilled players. When I told him that he was welcome to join, the venue organizer pulled me to one side and told me to keep an eye on him, as he'd had issues with previous groups before. I figured it was just the stuff I'd already mentioned.

So fast-forward to this year. Everyone was getting along really well. Problem Player was generally acting good, and the group had even put together a second campaign they were playing on another day. The second campaign was DM'd by one of Problem Player's friends, who's new to the game, and the two were very close. We were halfway through this big campaign and I was careful to make sure everyone knew how they were progressing.

But a few months ago, Problem Player started to act up more and more, making argumentative in-character comments to other PCs and generally acting as if he was bored with the campaign. I'd given him the same warnings at the start as everyone else - that it was a longer campaign and he could drop in and out as much as he wanted. So after one session where he really just sat on his phone throughout, I asked him if everything was okay and he said it was.

Anyway, a week later I get a message from him. He tells me that he feels the campaign isn't going anywhere and he's going to drop out. That's fine, I've no problem there - but then his message continues. He says that he's spoken to the GM of their other campaign, and are moving it to THE SAME DAY as mine. He goes on to say that he's invited all the other players to join it.

Now, because both campaigns included mostly the same players, this meant that pretty much all of them had to choose which campaign to play. Which really upset me. The players who had become good friends with Problem Player and the DM, naturally, went along with it, but this left 2 remaining players and myself.

I've honestly never seen someone do this in all the years I've been playing and really, it just felt so shitty, not just to me but to the other players as well. Frankly I'm still super angry about it. But I've learned in future to do SHORT campaigns for newer players, always!